Dream Theater New Album - September

Mushy

New album is good, nothing groundbreaking. I'll give it 6/10 for now.

devildriver

Full stream available here:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.de/page/webwheel+DreamTheater

silent sage

I think it sounds good, I had been listening to more Dream Theater than I usually would leading up to the release and this new album doesn't seem to veer in any radically changing direction but it's what I'd come to expect from them at this stage. It strikes me as a solid 'does what it says on the tin' Dream Theater album. It's going well with a game of Texas Hold'em anyway .

Somnus

I got this over the weekend and I have to say I like it a lot more than I was expecting to. It's more interesting than Systematic Chaos on Black Clouds. A real melting pot of sounds.

Part of Build me up remind me of Rammstein - Mein Teil. And there's other parts that range from reminding me of earlier DT (6 Degrees for example) to Camel, to Final Fantasy style themes. Overall it's definitely a decent album. It does suffer from some generic choruses, which is something that plagues their later stuff, but there's enough good moments to outweigh the boring.

waltersobchak

So far i really like the album, but honesty im not too sure yet if im a fan of how the band has taken the structure's of songs from Images and Words and basically "Reimagined" them. Especially since I&W's is my favorite Dream Theater album..

On the Backs of Angels is basically Pull Me Under, Lost but not Forgotten is Under A Glass Moon (the solo is shockingly similar, which is especially usual since its Petrucci's most famous solo) Outcry is Metropolis. And Breaking All Illusions is Learning to live, which also are the only 2 songs on both albums with John Myung lyrics..

I dont think the similarities are coincidental either,obviously the band was dong something that long term fans would (hopefully) appreciate.. But im not sure what to make of it yet, its definitely not an instantly gratifying album at all, i just hope it wont take years to appreciate :pac:

padr81

Certainly there best imho since 6 degrees and possibly best since Sfam. Not a patch on the first 2 after 2 or Sfam after 3 listens but still its in there better output. The loss of Portnoys backing vocals is much appreciated though.

nix

Joe_Dull wrote: »

No it's not the fact that it's a clown, just the scene on a tightrope above the clouds with the plane below, and the colour of the sky... just sort of wistful or something, it really struck me. Plus I think it makes a nice change from the usual "menacing" covers metal albums have.

:

I like how the artwork from Black clouds leads into the artwork for this album, with the kid going through the door, with clouds on the other side

Currently giving it my first listen, typical DT so far, no songs standing out as usual, but DT albums always take a few listens for me, the recent ones anyway..

weisses

Love Bridges in the sky .... :eek:

Passenger

What immediately grabs me about the sound of the album is the apparant lack of that percussive backbone that permeated every album Mike Portnoy recorded.

I was enamoured with Mangini's appointment as I think his audition was superb and as a live performer his passion and power is immence behind the drumkit. But on A Dramatic Turn of Events the drums appear to be mixed merely as an afterthought. Even his overall sound is reletively damp. It lacks the passion that he manages to play with when he performs live.

If the band could replicate Mangini's live performances on the album I think it may have more oomph so to speak. I read that the drum parts for the album were written before Mangini came on board using Software that the band programmed themselves. So Maybe when Mangini arrived in the studio he had the drum templates already worked out for him and had little to contribute in the aftermath. Which is rediculous when you think about it.

The album just lacks a spark that lit up previous albums. Was that spark Portnoy? Looks like it.

Also I think employing outside talent to produce their work would bring another prespective to the bands sound. Petrucci produced this album and the overall sound seems, as I've been saying, damp or lacking power.

I'm still listening to it and giving it it's time to grow but so far I'm just not being grabbed so to speak.

Richy06

As far as the drum mixing goes I'd have to agree. It's pretty buried in the mix and the attack of the snare is nice but there's **** all resonance off it and the drums seem to peter out as soon as they get hit.

Musically it's good but it could do with some remixing fo' sho'!

GLaDOS

Passenger wrote: »

The album just lacks a spark that lit up previous albums. Was that spark Portnoy? Looks like it.

Personally I think the last DT album with "spark" was Train of Thought. New album sounds about the same as Octavarium or 6 degrees for me (Haven't listened to SC or Black clouds).

iroced

waltersobchak wrote: »

So far i really like the album, but honesty im not too sure yet if im a fan of how the band has taken the structure's of songs from Images and Words and basically "Reimagined" them. Especially since I&W's is my favorite Dream Theater album..

On the Backs of Angels is basically Pull Me Under, Lost but not Forgotten is Under A Glass Moon (the solo is shockingly similar, which is especially usual since its Petrucci's most famous solo) Outcry is Metropolis. And Breaking All Illusions is Learning to live, which also are the only 2 songs on both albums with John Myung lyrics..

I dont think the similarities are coincidental either,obviously the band was dong something that long term fans would (hopefully) appreciate.. But im not sure what to make of it yet, its definitely not an instantly gratifying album at all, i just hope it wont take years to appreciate :pac:

Don't know if you were referring to this article ( => https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150771825130184).

About the album, I'm not too impressed but that's not new. I feel, since 6DOIT, Dream Theater has entered some kind of routine 2 years cycle composition/album/touring/DVDs (almost like a "music factory") that never produced a crap album nor a great one. I'm quite often under the impression that if they had spent more time working and/or finalising some parts/transitions etc.. or just took bigger gaps in between albums to try and question themselves about the musical direction to adopt, we could have had a great album. Instead I always felt that they were applying a recipe they invented and they do well but nothing more. And I never liked their "inspiration corner" way of composing (that has been the source of countless debates about their influences/plagiarism...).

Well, to come back to this album, I quite like the start of the title track but not too much the vocal lines and I enjoy Lost Not Forgotten and Breaking All Illusions (despite the last minute that spoils a bit all the pretty good build up of the song, a bit like the cheesy ending of Octavarium that "ruins" for me the finale...). Also the 2 ballads at the end are... quite useless.

So very mixed feelings in the end...

waltersobchak

iroced wrote: »

Don't know if you were referring to this article ( => https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150771825130184).

No i didn't see that article. But im glad that i wasn't just taking B.S and that Dream Theater actually did reuse I&W's song structures

OakeyDokey

I'm quite happy with it, I thought for a while there was something lacking but this album as restored my faith. I need to have a check for the tour dates.

Joe_Dull

OakeyDokey wrote: »

I'm quite happy with it, I thought for a while there was something lacking but this album as restored my faith. I need to have a check for the tour dates.

My thoughts exactly. It's seriously growing on me.