Dream Theater

Wow, this thread has remained remarkably civil for a Dream Theater discussion... :OMG:

:lol:

As most would be aware, I am a self-confessed DT fanboi, and can find aspects from all of their albums that I love... However I'm not so blinded by their musicianship to admit their later stuff is nowhere near as inspiring as their earlier stuff...

WDADU is brilliant songs/music, but with very weak production... I dont find Charlie as bad as many think he is on that release, but he certainly didn't improve the sound...

IAW is obviously their crowning moment, and the album by which all else prog-metal is judged, 'nuff said.

Awake took me a while to get into, but is now one of my favourites, has so many killer riffs.

ACOS is probably my favourite DT individual song, its got everything good about DT from that early period (except perhaps Kevin Moore, but I enjoy Derek's playing), and I think best sums them up as a band at that point.

FII has its moments, namely Trial Of Tears and Hell's Kitchen / Lines In The Sand, but apart from that is pretty average imo.

SFAM is my all time favourite album, as it was my first introduction to Dream Theater, and to progressive music in general, just a masterpiece.

SDOIT has parts I really like and parts I don't, I like the majority, probably except The Great Debate and Disappear I like it.

TOT I've always really enjoyed, as a full-on metal, weedley-weedley shredding, technical album, and for that, it is great, but only in moderation...

Octavarium I've always found to be boring apart from the title-track which is excellent. Panic Attack is cool, but would better fit on TOT...

SC I really liked at first, but now is also a little boring, ITPOE is magnificent, and Dark Eternal Night and Ministry Of Lost Souls are both songs I enjoy, the rest is a little meh...

There ya go, hows that for a comment... :lol:
 
Ugh... I used to love Dream Theater. But then I came to my senses. Read on.

WHY DREAM THEATER IS HAZARDOUS TO YOUR HEALTH:

I've done quite a bit of scientific research, and I've discovered that listening to Dream Theater is in fact destructive to the listener's personality.

Within 48 hours, symptoms of listening to Dream Theater include:

01. Dizziness
02. Nausea
03. Vomiting
04. Over-analytical thoughts
05. Extreme love of a whiny, nasal vocal style
06. OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder)
07. Loss of feeling in all limbs
08. Arrogance regarding all non-prog/non-technical music
09. Loss of emotion
10. Fictional belief that John Petrucci is the best guitarist ever and can melt the sun with his solos
11. Loss of reality
12. Frustration (when your peers cannot understand or comprehend a 19/16 groove)
13. False belief that all bassists who play four-strings are inferior to Master Ninja John Myung
14. Expecting all musicians to play spider-like riffs
15. Watching a spider not crawl in time with The Dance of Eternity and promptly smashing it with your enraged fist
16. Extreme anger towards drummers whose kits do not have three bass drums, thirty-seven rack toms, sixteen octobans, and five full octaves of plastic blocks
17. Shouting demeaning comments at all non-Dream Theater musicians, regardless of said musicians' playing style
18. Constant "black-or-white" thinking
19. Near-orgasmic feeling when a random measure of 3/16 is thrown into a normal riff just for the sake of mind-fucking the common, lower-class listener

I do like Dream Theater's music. I used to love it, but I've since mended my self-destructive ways. I still occasionally enjoy a Dream Theater tune or two (Forsaken and The Ministry of Lost Souls from the new album are great songs full of feeling, and the older stuff is great), but I don't over-analyze the technical aspect of the music anymore. It gets you nowhere in life and makes you expect more out of everyday people than they can possibly deliver (resulting in devastating episodes of disappointment).

I still enjoy the technical side of progressive music, just not the technical side of Dream Theater's music. For example, bands like Symphony X and Circus Maximus occasionally have technical musical sections, sans the arrogance and tasteless wank-fests.

Sometimes I wish I had never discovered Dream Theater on that fateful day in early 2002 when I heard The Glass Prison for the first time. Speaking of The Glass Prison, being an alcoholic would probably be more productive than listening to Dream Theater. I'm going to the liquor store.

- Det. Beauregard
 
Also, I found the following "essays" on my computer written by EyeballKid. Enjoy.

AN OPEN LETTER TO DREAM THEATER:

Dear Dream Theater,

Your new album (while all-together better than the heap of scrap that we have come to know as Octavarium) is completely predictable and utterly devoid of emotion or proper care of songs.

I understand that there are some "rocking" crunch sections that allow you, Mr. Petrucci, to place your leg up on those completely necessary black boxes surrounding your pedals and bob your head like a seal, but I notice you playing nothing new on guitar. Except for Joe Satriani's War during the solo bridge of Constant Motion, which, although technically new when played by YOUR fingers, is exceedingly old for those of us who enjoy listening to a song the first time it is written (and by the original writer, no less).

I agree that alcoholism is a terrible addiction, Mr. Portnoy, and I fully support you in your strive to kick the habit and tell the world what it feels like to be under the control of a destructive substance. I only ask, however, that you acknowledge the fact that continuing your story of redemption on Dream Theater albums has also become a destructive substance. If I wanted to hear five minutes of talking (in which the words are too low in the mix to comprehend anyway) I would step in to an elevator.

Believe me, Mr. LaBrie; I know that you are in a quote/unquote "metal" band, and that the pressures of trying to sound aggressive are strong. However, the sound that comes out of your throat is already painful enough without you distorting it and trying to sound like the hybrid child of Dave Mustaine and James Hetfield. Please remember that your voice, although never to be considered pleasant, was at least tuneful once.

Mr. Myung and Mr. Rudess, all I can ask is that you please comprehend the "less is more" policy, and implement it as often as possible. We all know that you can play 763 notes in four seconds, but can you play 763 notes in 763 seconds? The world wants to know.

As for the lack of emotion, cookie-cutter, non-inspired sound of (to be honest) the entire album, I ask that you all collectively re-listen to your back catalog. For easy reference points, please see Lines in the Sand, Pull Me Under, and Take the Time. If possible, try and listen without repeating.

Pick up your instruments, take three years off, and actually write an album, rather than churning out another piece of your own (and often multiple other band’s) recycled music.

Sincerely,
- Your Non-Contented, Not-Really-Fan, EyeballKid

DREAM THEATER’S SYSTEMATIC CHAOS DOCUMENTARY:

Without having even seen the Systematic Chaos DVD, I'm fairly positive that it contains the following:

01. An introduction by Mike Portnoy
02. James LaBrie entering the studio in sunglasses
03. Some shots of Portnoy setting up his drums
04. Petrucci playing a solo that could melt the sun
05. Some shots of Portnoy playing drums
06. A shot of the sun melting
07. Portnoy drumming
08. Petrucci and Portnoy sitting in a room full of Muse, U2, Metallica, Megadeth, and Tool albums, taking notes
09. Portnoy rearranging his drum kit
10. Myung about to speak
11. Portnoy hitting a cymbal
12. LaBrie coughing in the vocal booth
13. Portnoy playing a ridiculous drum solo, on only his wood blocks
14. A two-second shot of Rudess
15. Portnoy doing a drum roll
16. Petrucci scanning a page of Joe Satriani's The Extremist tab book through a copy machine
17. Portnoy playing to a click track and then stopping to tell the engineer that the click track is "off"
18. Petrucci and Portnoy gleaming maniacally as they polish their cauldron of cash

If you feel this is worth your extra five dollars, by all means, go forth and purchase the special edition of Systematic Chaos!

- EyeballKid
 
That was pretty funny...

Their last 2 live concert dvd's have been good, Live At Budokan and Score, but yeah the rest of them are pretty average... LSFNY would be much better without all the extra video footage and hippy art cutting through all the actual live footage...
 
this is my first post here I just want to say Hello!

My favorite DT albums are I&W, awake, and, ACOS. I never listen to Octovarium, and I liked the new album at first, but I never listen to it now. I know alot of people don't prefer James' vocals and I would say I don't either, but I find that I like his voice when he sings the cover songs on ACOS (weird I know). I'm a bass player and Myung is one of my favorites, but I feel he just doesn't add to the songs like he used to. I feel he's just there to fill role of bass player and doesn't contribute anything special to the albums. Rudess fits into the band with his technique but I much prefer the parts Moore (sp?) contributed. I think Pornoy and Petrucci are awsome but they seem to be in a rut with their composing.
 
meh, i dunno i find dream theatre boring, i dont know why, i like train of thought, but on the whole, they lack something...
 
Dream Theater is boring, uninspiring and get old quickly because of how they repeat the same four measues over and over and over, song after song after song. It like they only wrote one song and have been playing that now for 20 years...................
 
i quite like opeth actually, their accoustic songs anyway, their metal stuff, old quickly, yeah i agree.

in fact ive been thinking about most newer bands that i listen to that havent got old quickly, the only one i can actually think of is symphony X. Alot of new bands to me seem to have something missing, alot of the times, its vocals, and the melodies, which is fantastic in X.
As a guitarist, i allways used to put the guitar melodies before the guitar counterparts, but listening to old Dio stuff, and the new symphony X stuff, just shows me how powerfull it is if you get it just right.
also with older bands they all sounded very different, you could tell your zeppelins from your sabbaths, and your sabbaths from your Rainbows, etc.

i sound like an old bastard after this, i do listen to alot of new material, but alot of the newer bands i listen to are new and have only a debut out prehaps.
 
ToastedOveries said:
i quite like opeth actually, their accoustic songs anyway, their metal stuff, old quickly, yeah i agree.

in fact ive been thinking about most newer bands that i listen to that havent got old quickly, the only one i can actually think of is symphony X. Alot of new bands to me seem to have something missing, alot of the times, its vocals, and the melodies, which is fantastic in X.
As a guitarist, i allways used to put the guitar melodies before the guitar counterparts, but listening to old Dio stuff, and the new symphony X stuff, just shows me how powerfull it is if you get it just right.
also with older bands they all sounded very different, you could tell your zeppelins from your sabbaths, and your sabbaths from your Rainbows, etc.

i sound like an old bastard after this, i do listen to alot of new material, but alot of the newer bands i listen to are new and have only a debut out prehaps.
Click to expand...

I'm a back in the day guy too...41...yikes! I agree the only newer bands I dig consistently are SymX and Evergrey...I like LOG too. I try a ton of new stuff and am far too often disappointed.

By the way...Rainbow Rising is an absolute classic! :headbang: Anyone not familiar with that album is missing out.
 
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