Dream Theater - The Enemy Inside

[JHA]

Album does nothing for me. I wish Rudess would give up on those Disney sounding patches.

I can see the product already "Native Instruments Jordan Rudess Disney Patches"

The other band members should buy him a real B3 and a Leslie cab then bring Ken Hensley to give him some tips how to get good rock sound.

 

[Virgil.]

Picked up the album yesterday - all I can say is that it's SO hard to enjoy the album with that over-gated snare. The sound of the snare doesn't bother me per-se, but the gating of it just doesn't sound natural. Makes it sound like a cheap cheesy snare sample you'd find from an old 80's casio $100 keyboard from radioshack.

EDIT: figured it out... the snare reminds me of the drum samples used in Rick Astley's "never gonna give you up". hah!

 

[guitarguru777]

Other then select songs here and there I havent really been into them since Awake. When Kevin left they lost their fire for me. Images and Words by FAR my favorite......

That being said I am going to give this one a chance and see if it hearkens back to the old days as most are saying. As long as Petrucci has the feel back in his solos and they arent all WEEEEEEDDDLLLLLYYYYY WEEEEDDLLLLLYYY SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP WEEEEDLLLY WOOOO WOOOOO like on the last 6 releases I may be able to tolerate it .....lol

 

[DanLights]

Other then select songs here and there I havent really been into them since Awake. When Kevin left they lost their fire for me. Images and Words by FAR my favorite......

That being said I am going to give this one a chance and see if it hearkens back to the old days as most are saying. As long as Petrucci has the feel back in his solos and they arent all WEEEEEEDDDLLLLLYYYYY WEEEEDDLLLLLYYY SWEEP SWEEP SWEEP WEEEEDLLLY WOOOO WOOOOO like on the last 6 releases I may be able to tolerate it .....lol

I wouldn't get my hopes too high about that, just saying. But give it a chance, I'll give it another one to see if I get it, but for now it seems like a random collection of generic songs, it's really missing that album continuity, that fluency between songs that they've always been so good at.

 

[Russtopher]

It's not a 22 minutes long song, it's some 8 minute + 3 minute + 8 minutes and specially the last 3 minutes-long ending (a big WTF).

The more I listen to that song, the more it feels like they said "hey let's make a song that mashes up 'Close To The Edge' era Yes and 'Hemispheres' era Rush, but none of the sections are going to fit together!"

The rest of the album I *really* like, but Illumination Theory just feels like they wanted a big long song and grabbed unfinished snippets and stuck them all together.

 

[aramism]

it's like ever since octavarium they are just getting worse and worse with no hope in sight. at least they abandoned the midlife crisis harley tough guy heavy sound... but now what's missing is mike portnoy. i just can't get used to mike mangini's "precision" pocket. the MP feel was so big to DT.

and the songs just aren't... good.

 

[Keregioz]

it's like ever since octavarium they are just getting worse and worse with no hope in sight. at least they abandoned the midlife crisis harley tough guy heavy sound... but now what's missing is mike portnoy. i just can't get used to mike mangini's "precision" pocket. the MP feel was so big to DT.

and the songs just aren't... good.

+1, I've stopped getting excited about new DT albums quite a while ago.

I honestly can't understand how so much people think that they're still really good and even compare their recent albums with their earlier stuff....
I mean, it's not complete shit, with the kind of talent they have is almost impossible to write bad quality music, but it's really generic and forgettable progressive metal (with very few exceptions) which I don't really enjoy listening more than once or twice.

And even more confusing is people thinking that Portnoy leaving the band was a good thing.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

I must say that I tried, I really tried to hear the album when it was on streaming, but I got bored after 3 songs, very bored.

 

[DanLights]

Honestly, I had high hopes cause I really really enjoy all their albums, the recent ones have some of the best songs they've done IMO, and I loved ADToE, so I figured this one would be awesome, but I'm not seeing it so far, I haven't even felt like listening to it again, which is already a bad sign, I've just been listening to other progressive bands trying to avoid this album haha

 

[guitarguru777]

This band is dead .... jesus. Something about them trying to be heavy really doesnt work for LaBrie, thats the issue right there! Rudess is too busy all the time, is that a guitar? Is that a Keyboard? There is no separation anymore. Images and Words is by far their most diverse and PERFECT material. I miss Moore so much

THIS is Dream Theater!


Great Vocals, Great Solo, You can HEAR the Bass, The Keys arent overly busy souding like a cartoon, and Petrucci played with feel and passion! LaBrie was just perfect on this!

 

[indecizo]

If production wasn't shit, this album would be great.

 

[Nuno Filipe]

Labrie in my opinion was never a good singer. Well he was better in images&words era but he is weaker element of the band without any doubt, and he fails miserably when he tries to sing high notes.

Rudess it´s a monster of player, he can play almost any style but I agree that his choice of sounds it´s quite bad.

Anyway I dont think the new albuns and this one sounds very different than old Dream theater. The prog elements are all there, more in some, less in others, I think that the problem it´s the songs itself, they dont write much memorable songs as before.

 

[Virgil.]

I much prefer James Labrie's last two solo efforts to the new DT. Their new album isn't "bad" (it could definitely be worse!), but it's not old-DT quality either.

I too wish Moore was in the band.

 

[Clockwork]

Man I used to be all about Dream Theater but I just can't get into them anymore. I just end up defaulting to Labrie's new stuff because it feels much more accessible.

In regards to keyboard players I like Rudess aside from the afore mentioned Disney keyboard patches...

 

[Vicioushead]

Rudess is a great player, no doubt. His sounds are mostly awful though and he just can't keep his fucking hands still for a second. It gets incredibly annoying at times.

 

[colonel_claypoo]

ok, so after having listened to the album twice, here are a couple of pro's & con's I'd like to .

pro's:

- playing / musicianship is top notch, as expected
- guitars sound fine, not petrucci's best tones though
- actually like most of rudess' sounds. many of them remind me of the music from super nintendo games and that brings back good memories
- very geddy'esque bass tone. I like that mid-grind, quite uncommon these days.
- second half of Illumination Theroy is the highlight of the album

con's:

- don't like the snare, way too much thud and too dry
- one of the weaker DT mixes overall
- hardly any awesome guitar solos
- songs are neither catchy nor memorable, not even in Dream Theater terms
- prefer labrie's singing on his solo albums

final statement: starting with Octavarium Dream Theater has been on a decline for me and this album is sadly the weakest of them all.
I'm going back to watching Live Scenes from New York asap.

 

[TheWinterSnow]

Whats up with all the Octavarium and James Labrie hate?

Anyway, since they signed to Roadrunner they have been on a decline. Dull, uninspired and forgetful songs with a gem here and there. Production has gone to shit as well and seems to get worse and worse. To top it all off Rudess's Disney sounds are fucking annoying and he can almost never play tastefully anymore. As for James not sounding on par I think is more of a sign that they are writing music out of his element, there really isn't much for him to do vocally.

With that in mind, outside the production, I do think that the new album is a step in the right direction, its not amazing, but is the most enjoyable thing they have released since Octavarium. I think when their mid life crises are over which sounds like it is they will return to normalcy, as it were.

So we have something relatively more enjoyable then their previous attempts and it sounds like the next album should be an improvement. I just wish they would get Doug Oberkircher back on engineering and mixing and maybe can Rudess and get Sherinian back as under no sort of realism would they ever get Moore back.

 

[crillemannen]

Whats up with all the Octavarium and James Labrie hate?

As for James not sounding on par I think is more of a sign that they are writing music out of his element, there really isn't much for him to do vocally.

With that in mind, outside the production, I do think that the new album is a step in the right direction, its not amazing, but is the most enjoyable thing they have released since Octavarium. I think when their mid life crises are over which sounds like it is they will return to normalcy, as it were.
.

Im a huge fan of old labrie up to sixdegrees. But since octavariun It feels like they adapt the vocal melodies to his diminshed range. And i think that food poison episode maybe pushed him over the edge but toxbe honest he have always been cracking up and beencall over the place live with just a few exceptional rwcordings. But i don't understand why he can't sound a bit like the meteopolis pt2 era whereche still soundedcsuperb on albums atleast

 

[Vicioushead]

I've listened a few more times and it's growing on me.

 

[aramism]

good call thewintersnow... rather than constantly just say post 8vm, i'm just going to say the roadrunner years....


so now: roadrunner era DT really sucks w/ a few exceptions here and there and a cool riff here or there... the only good song in the entire era as a whole complete song is a nightmare to remember. it could have easily been on 6DOIT.