Dushan S
Member
[rantmode]I am a fan since Images&Words came out, at that time it was really new and refreshing, and as some other people have already said, "Awake" is a pinnacle of their career for me too. What I feel is that they are going downhill musically for quite a some time. They are great musician, and if this new album was album of some new band I would listen to it with less expectation, and probably my thoughts would be "well, nice, this is ok". But for a bend that was pushing boundaries 10-15 years ago, this is not progressive. This is regressive.
Just to compare, opening keyboard riff of Awake is actually a bit changed phrase I have heard John McLaughlin plays on one live album with his Trio (Live in Tokyo I think) in prolonged improvisation. Now that is incorporating interesting influences into rock-metal music. Compared to that novadays I play DT and I can hear what? Muse, U2, Metallica, Pink Floyd... Not that I hate those bands, but DT are gradually changing from making something inventive, something you don't expect, something that is unusual into bend that is recycling itself with different ingredients from current (or not so current) mainstream pop rock music. Also songwriting gets more and more predictable, like, here we go: atmospheric intro first, than a lot of "unusual" time signature riffing, than verse with singing that sounds on border of irritating (I was never great fan of LaBrie's voice, but he was much better in the past, now he sounds like he is in the bad mood and un-energetic thru most of the album, and bad Hatfield imitations are embarrassing for a singer that should have his own identity after all those years) , then some muse sequencing, with Pink Floyd pad, then double pedal so everyone can hear we are METAL, , than chorus "Well, we still hope that radio stations may play this", than all this repeats one more time but with more syncopation and polyrhythmic ideas thrown in, and than "Liquid Tension" switch goes on and everything turns into few minutes of wanking.
Couldn't they just take few years break, stop wasting their energy on side projects and then came back with serious, well thought album? And yes, please, can someone call Kevin Moore and somehow convince him to come back and bring back some musicality with him? Rudess is a great, really great player, but more time passes I think that even Sherinian was better solution, he was also playing like he more cares what will work better for the song.
Well I was maybe a bit harsh, but it really disappoints me that band I was liking so much years ago is drowning in mediocrity - musical wise. It is not enough for me to keep showing technical aspects of playing leaving music to be pale mixture of Prog, Metallica, Muse, and Floyd. This is not bad album in itself, but for a band that has made Images and Awake, I feel this is lowest point.
[/rantmode]
Just to compare, opening keyboard riff of Awake is actually a bit changed phrase I have heard John McLaughlin plays on one live album with his Trio (Live in Tokyo I think) in prolonged improvisation. Now that is incorporating interesting influences into rock-metal music. Compared to that novadays I play DT and I can hear what? Muse, U2, Metallica, Pink Floyd... Not that I hate those bands, but DT are gradually changing from making something inventive, something you don't expect, something that is unusual into bend that is recycling itself with different ingredients from current (or not so current) mainstream pop rock music. Also songwriting gets more and more predictable, like, here we go: atmospheric intro first, than a lot of "unusual" time signature riffing, than verse with singing that sounds on border of irritating (I was never great fan of LaBrie's voice, but he was much better in the past, now he sounds like he is in the bad mood and un-energetic thru most of the album, and bad Hatfield imitations are embarrassing for a singer that should have his own identity after all those years) , then some muse sequencing, with Pink Floyd pad, then double pedal so everyone can hear we are METAL, , than chorus "Well, we still hope that radio stations may play this", than all this repeats one more time but with more syncopation and polyrhythmic ideas thrown in, and than "Liquid Tension" switch goes on and everything turns into few minutes of wanking.
Couldn't they just take few years break, stop wasting their energy on side projects and then came back with serious, well thought album? And yes, please, can someone call Kevin Moore and somehow convince him to come back and bring back some musicality with him? Rudess is a great, really great player, but more time passes I think that even Sherinian was better solution, he was also playing like he more cares what will work better for the song.
Well I was maybe a bit harsh, but it really disappoints me that band I was liking so much years ago is drowning in mediocrity - musical wise. It is not enough for me to keep showing technical aspects of playing leaving music to be pale mixture of Prog, Metallica, Muse, and Floyd. This is not bad album in itself, but for a band that has made Images and Awake, I feel this is lowest point.
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