Knowing how to play your instrument is an essential basis for good music. Anti-technical bias I agree is just as bad as the wank-worshippers. However, knowing how to play your instrument and cutting to commercial break to PROVE it every song are not the same thing. It's tasteless and I would argue is in fact detracting from "knowing how to play your instrument". Professionals know restraint, when to play and when not to play.
Virtuosity is neither good nor bad songwriting. If you're a virtuoso, you should have a huge advantage. However, some players just don't "get it" and have to annihilate you with just how good they are. When someone is trying to tell me how awesome they are all the time, I find a way to tune them out and ignore them. I prefer people who show me their awesome ability without bashing you in the face with it - show me with an expertly written song, not a scale exercise.
While an "expertly written" song is highly subjective, I tend to agree with you. I used to love DT's "I'm a better musician than you are" interludes, but ever since I've discovered Symphony X (as well as many other bands) DT have become almost a thing of the past. I enjoy a song or two from each new album they release, but they just don't strike the same chord with me as they used to. These songs that I enjoy are typically the ones with the most "feeling" and the least wanking (excluding the ballads, because, let's face it, LaBrie's voice isn't strong enough to carry a gnat).
I personally think JP is not a wanker. His solos are very melodic, simple, and memorable when he wants them to be (See These walls,ITPOEpt1, Lines in the Sand, Another Day, Surrounded).
I think Petrucci is far less of a "wanker" than Rudess or even Portnoy. If you ask me, DT has been on a downward spiral ever since Jordan joined. You're right - so many of Petrucci's solos have a lot of feeling to them (Lines in the Sand is probably the finest example). Not
one solo I've ever heard Rudess play has moved me any farther than "hey, that sounds like an alien fucking a monkey in the infinite expanse of space."
Of course, Myung is the only member of the band that I consider almost 100% anti-wanker. But that's a topic for another thread.
What i like about DT is that their instrumental sections arent always just Keyboard and Guitar solos trading off all the fucking time.
You're right, but to be honest, Symphony X does this all the time and it has
rarely bothered me. This is due to the fact that the song doesn't seem to revolve around the solo section, with it merely being an
extension of the song. DT's recent instrumental sections remind me of exactly how I described Jordan's solos above.
The problem with DT now is that they seem to write songs based on instrumental sections and not instrumental sections based on songs.
I couldn't agree more. When they do this, it seems as if the vocal lines are merely filler for the wankfest that undoubtedly follows.
I think it has gotten to the point where I find the guitar and keyboard solos to be the most boring parts in songs. Guitar and Keyboard trade-off shred fests (SX included) are getting old.
Symphony X is truly the only band where the back-and-forth guitar/keyboard solo fests never really bothered me all that much (Iconoclast included). There are a few songs where it gets a bit out of hand (mostly stuff from the Twilight album), but it never stands out as a sore spot in the song as it does in many DT songs. Maybe it's because MJR and P play so well off of each other, or because the rhythm behind the solos is more interesting, or because the solo sections are quite concise, or perhaps it's because it never drags on for what seems like an eternity. I'm honestly not sure.
