Any love for Dream Theater?

[Nenso]

Their new album A Dramatic Turn of Events, with Mangini drumming, sounded real good to me. I feel that Andy Wallace did a good job mixing, because everything shines through the mix! Another favourite track of mine is The Count of Tuscany.Being an aspiring guitarist, it's always a pleasure to listen to Petrucci's fluid solos.

What are some of your favourite tracks?

[deepak]

Is there anything good about Dream Theater other than the highly technical nature of the musicians? Because IMO outside of that their music absolutely sucks.

[aardvark baguette]

i prefer understated musicians for all genres of music

[RudeWolf]

I think that I agree with deepak here. I'm all for prog, but more often than not it loses soul and becomes just a show of technique. I'm all in for a cool drum/guitar/etc. solo, but that is just the seasoning for me. It the soul that is meat and bones.

[Nenso]

I know that the first thing many people think of when they hear DT is "a bunch of highly skilled berklee profs jamming together" with considerably high technicality, but some of their tracks, not limited to the groundbreaking ones, have a magical quality to it. Maybe it's the combination of good instrumentation and composition, but like everything, YMMV. You guys got a good argument though; it definitely feels a little too technical/cold/soulless at times.

[RudeWolf]

Alright, I'd give it a shot...

Can you suggest some of those songs? Might pop a rum for this evening and give a listen.

Edited November 2, 2011 by RudeWolf

[ecclesand]

Some of their early stuff was pretty good. However, I'm not a fan of their newer offerings.

[Nenso]

Rudewolf: Alright! Sounds like it's going to be a relaxing evening for you. Dream Theater has many different genres so I don't know what to really recommend you, but the song that I first listened to was A Change of Seasons. Good memories, maybe give that a try! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgKHimdfNrY&feature=related

[NightWoundsTime]

I liked them for a minute when I started digging through the prog bargain bin. Metropolis Pt 2 was I guess the favorite, had some pretty decent jams and remains one of the more coherent concept albums I've heard. Quickly burned out on them though, I think Six Degrees was the last album I heard and I thought the music was awful.

[roadtonowhere08]

The only two albums I listen to with regularity are Images and Words and Awake. There are some great songs sparsely spread throughout afterward up to and including Octavarium. Not a fan at all of anything after that album.

The stance that they are all skill and no soul is for the most part true for everything post Kevin Moore. I have a very low tolerance for wankery, and a lot of their stuff is off the charts.

[The Expanding Man]

Dream Theatre have the odd moment of musical pleasure for me, but generally not enough to put up with the other 72 minutes on the CD.

They remind me of a metal-prog version of Toto.

[GPH]

The only two albums I listen to with regularity are Images and Words and Awake. There are some great songs sparsely spread throughout afterward up to and including Octavarium. Not a fan at all of anything after that album.

The stance that they are all skill and no soul is for the most part true for everything post Kevin Moore. I have a very low tolerance for wankery, and a lot of their stuff is off the charts.

I totally agree with this post. Even I&W and Awake have a bit of wankery, but at least it's done with good taste.

[robm321]

This thread is timely because one of my friends has been trying to shove DT down my throat lately (his favorite band). I agree with most of the posts here. To me it sounds like nothing but redundant scale runs that never end. There are some shining moments here and there, but overall it sounds like someone practicing etudes using the bass drum as a metronome. I'd much rather listen to Vai for technical mastery...even he can be a bit much, but he's much more interesting and varied.

Count of Tuscany is the exception. I love that song. Unfortunately, its the only song they have that rises to that level. I will say their music is good for background listening while working out or driving. But overall, inconsequential for any serious listening for me. And I did give them a fair shot with many listens.

Edited November 4, 2011 by robm321

[faust3d]

I like some tracks on some albums. They always seemed second grade to me, but I am not a fan of prog metal in general. Awake and Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory have some good moments. I like TD side projects like Liquid Tension Experiment and Liquid Trio Experiment, maybe it's because I like Bozzio, Levin & Stevens and number of other things Terry Bozzio and Tony Levin are involved with

[Iron_Dreamer]

I could give a fuck what the haters have to say. I've really enjoyed most of their material since getting into the band over ten years ago. The new album is a nice change from the (crappy) direction they've been heading down over the last four years or so (apparently mostly due to the domineering Portnoy).

[diebenkorn]

Some of their early stuff was pretty good. However, I'm not a fan of their newer offerings.

I thought the old stuff wasn't very good (but better than the new stuff) and I just recently heard a couple of songs that were older and somewhat heavier than usual (don't know what they were). The singer ruins all of there music for me anyways.

[deepak]

This thread is timely because one of my friends has been trying to shove DT down my throat lately (his favorite band). I agree with most of the posts here. To me it sounds like nothing but redundant scale runs that never end. There are some shining moments here and there, but overall it sounds like someone practicing etudes using the bass drum as a metronome. I'd much rather listen to Vai for technical mastery...even he can be a bit much, but he's much more interesting and varied.

Count of Tuscany is the exception. I love that song. Unfortunately, its the only song they have that rises to that level. I will say their music is good for background listening while working out or driving. But overall, inconsequential for any serious listening for me. And I did give them a fair shot with many listens.

You might like Buckethead Population Override. Good technical playing, but also musical and not just the same old wank wank wank, tempo change, wank wank wank.

[robm321]

^ Thanks for the rec. I will check it out. I did enjoy Monsters & Robots.

[Leonardo Drummond]

I used to love DT (I even have that official biography with my name on it), but I'm growing tired of heavy music... it's not that I don't like it, it's just that I can't listen to it for longer than 30 minutes, save for few exceptions. I still enjoy some DT whenever I listen to it, but I pretty much don't listen to it anymore. Still, they have some great stuff.

I find their side projects really interesting though, as they seem to show that they can have a lot of feeling when they want to. LTE, OSI and Transatlantic are some examples. There's another one with John Petrucci which sucks a lot, until he plays a 5 min improvised solo, it's jaw-dropping incredible.

Not to mention Kevin Moore, the guy's amazing. He's gone off to some electronic/ambient/chill-out stuff, and some Thai movie soundtracks. An example:

[Nenso]

Hi Leonardo, thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely go check out their individual works sometime soon.

Actually, robm321 I have been listening to The Count of Tuscany a lot these few days. I would reccomend people to listen to that more than A Change of Seasons. I can't put into words as to why I like the song, but it has really grown on me. It might have to do with the lyrics and how it seems to fit very well with the music.

[Leonardo Drummond]

Hi Leonardo, thanks for the suggestions. I will definitely go check out their individual works sometime soon.

Actually, robm321 I have been listening to The Count of Tuscany a lot these few days. I would reccomend people to listen to that more than A Change of Seasons. I can't put into words as to why I like the song, but it has really grown on me. It might have to do with the lyrics and how it seems to fit very well with the music.

Nenso, if you are into that sort of genre, give Kevin Moore a try, I'm sure you'll like it! He released many things under Chroma Key, the best albums IMO being You Go Now and Dead Air for Radios. And then there are those soundtracks which he released as just Kevin Moore, I think - such as Shine, an amazing piece of work.

I really like The Count of Tuscany as well! Maybe it's one of my favourites. I don't get to listen to it much (as anything else from them), but it's an incredible song nevertheless!

[Synchro Belt Drive]

I'll have to look up "The Count Of Tuscany" just out of curiosity.

I pretty much gave up on Dream Theater for the already mentioned reasons. I prefer music with emotion over technique thus Kingston Wall is playing right now. The band is technically amazing but I prefer the rawness of the older Progrock bands.

[catscratch]

Agree on DT going to hell once Kevin Moore left. He was the melodic talent behind the band and without him they've been empty and soulless. Images & Words and Awake were the only good things they ever did. I did however like the Liquid Tension Experiment disks.