Dream Theater "Distance Over Time" (2019) album

Wish Moore had never left and he could have merged his new style with DT. Also wish Portnoy could have wrote more things like Change of Seasons.

So much good interesting emotional stuff up till Train of Thought then after that album their output is just so horribly boring.
Half their career has just been such a waste.

 

My top three DT albums (all masterpieces)

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Octavarium
Scenes from a Memory

Some good stuff on the earlier albums (minus Train of Thought) but these three are flawless

 

Right... the copycat of the copycat.

 

Paralyzed is sounding pretty good, I'm just happy that the band decided to make a straight up hard rock track and not let it get out of hand both instrumentally and in track length. Mike Mangini's drum sound is too artificially processed and his snare drum sounds like a wet noodle. I won't get into his technical skills as a drummer but the snare sound in particular is the one thing I miss about Mike Portnoy being in the group. I'll certainly give this album a shot and hope that they take the same mastering approach that they did with the S/T if released in HiRes.

 

Metropolis is amazing in that it manages to flow extremely well and sound very cohesive despite running through so many different parts and whatnot. Had they recorded that in the 2000's, it might have been a cluster, like some of the extended pieces they did record then, but in 1992, they nailed it.

I think the problem some, myself included, had with Portnoy was that the quality of music went down at the same time he seemingly exerted more control over the band. Things like the awful vocal melodies of Constant Motion, the pseudo-growling section of A Nightmare to Remember and the spoken word section of Prophets of War never would have passed the smell test with the rest of the band in the 90's and very 00's, but I think by the mid to late 00's, it had reached a point where Portnoy was going to get what he wanted and no one in the band was going to fight with him in the studio too much to get rid of the things he really wanted. On the flip side, he was always good at promoting the band and did some cool things behind the scenes like managing the Ytsejam releases, so it was a matter of taking the bad with the good at the time.

I like When Dream and Day Unite a lot, but I would never call old Charlie incredible. He was what I would call serviceable. They never would have made it had he remained the singer.

 

...and you really think that LaBrie sounds better...??? C'mon....Charlie was an amazing singer !!! I liked his range and the sadness in his voice....if they had continued that way after the debut, they could be a really great band today !!!

 

Highly doubtful. Charlie isn't half the singer that LaBrie (despite his live struggles) is.

 

Honestly I must say... James LaBrie is the better singer. Images and Words and Awake are great records, and DT peaked with Awake. They never reached this awesome level again. And Ytse Jam from the debut is better than every song after Falling Into Infinity!!!

 

I agree that Awake is their best. Scenes and Images are nearly as great, but there is just something about Awake that makes it a little better.

 

I agree with all of this. And it parallels what happened to so many other bands over time, where one member's influence grows to be too strong and dominates the proceedings.

I like it despite Charlie, not because of him. Not a huge LaBrie fan either, honestly, but I find him much more tolerable. Honestly, if James retired (I know he hasn't been the best vocally the last few years live, at least on the old stuff) and they replaced him with a more capable singer, I'm not sure very many DT fans would be that upset about it.

 

I am sure some would be happy, but I would be bummed to see it. When I first heard Dream Theater, the things that really grabbed me were Kevin Moore's keys and JLB's voice. I really miss that orchestral keyboard sound that Moore used a lot (Rudess uses it less and less as time goes on), but at least JLB still brings it in the studio, even if he struggles badly live now with certain songs.

 

Kevin Moore easily the soul of the band, he laid on a great atmosphere and created actual emotion with songs like space dye vest. Portnoy picked the reigns up a bit, Scenes from a memory was really good Change of Seasons was amazing and I liked Train of Thought a lot.

Losing both has just killed the emotional and melodic ability of the band.

Portnoy was right the band needed a break to re group and create something actually interesting. Instead DT is a corporate Machine spitting out paint by numbers Prog Metal so they have a continual flow of income.

And my god Rudess is just not good, he creates these circus solo sounds and has little idea of how to create atmosphere, layering or anything remotely ominous or emotional. I'll take Derek any day over Rudess.

 

Jordan Rudess is a very talented player, but in the wrong band. John Petrucci made the next big mistake, when he has chosen Magnini on drums. A drum computer would have been the better choice.

Nevertheless the new record is the best since 20 years.

 

Octovarium reminds me of Suppers Ready. I really like it myself, and the album is my favorite of Dream Theater, which is funny because when it first came out I hated every second of it.

 

Been playing Octovarium this morning; never tire of listening to the title track. Brilliant

 

I go back and forth on Rudess. He does a lot of great stuff, but his solos are so over the top sometimes that they make me wince, and the way he often overplays solos/parts originally played by both Moore and Sherinian makes me want to hurl. That said, when he gets it right, it is pretty special. A good example would be the first five minutes of Octavarium. Or the opening of Finally Free.

Regarding Mangini, I was a bit stunned when I watched him and Petrucci discussing Paralyzed (see link below); they didn't look comfortable talking and interacting with each other. It was like watching two guys who had just met a week ago, not guys who have now been in the same band for over eight years. Strange.

 

Right.... he is "not" a full member Just a session drummer in the band

 

Nah, I just think Mangini has been too passive to where he himself still doesn't feel totally comfortable as a member. He has talked about his frustration with not having much input on the songwriting on the first three albums he was a part of, as well as noting recently that the new album was the first where he really had a major say-so in how his drums were recorded, miked, produced, etc. I can see not wanting to rock the boat right away, hence hanging back a bit on the first album, but by the second you have to get in there and be a little more assertive. Considering how ecstatic he was to get the job, I see far too many examples of his little frustrations with this or that. To his credit, every time I see them live or see live footage, he looks very active and energetic, so it doesn't affect his performance.

 

QFT. Mangini can play anything that they throw at him but they don't get the most out of recording him. I think that the writing was on the wall when they picked him, because Petrucci & Rudess really think that they can count everything out without help from a rhythm section. (Myung was complicit in that decision.) All they wanted was someone who wouldn't make a mistake. But playing the music as written is the least of a great drummer's skills and they just didn't make the most of him during his early albums with the band.

 

I think they looked for an easy-care drummer

 

And it's not Mangini's fault either. They chose an submissive character who would duly play whatever was programmed by the band's main composers. If they had looked for a contributing equal they would have picked Virgil Donati, Marco Minnemann or Thomas Lang.

 

I didn't know anything about Lang until I saw the Sky Arts programme on The Art Of Drumming ... he would have been perfect for Dream Theater. I think that (however great he is) such is his temperament that Minnemann wouldn't have been able to keep a place in that band for more than a few months.

 

Good call on Thomas Lang; saw him with John Wetton and my jaw dropped!

 

Have you listened to any of his solo albums?

 

Love Charlie's performance on that record, but it wouldn't have worked long term (especially live.) Jame's vocal talents were a lot more adaptable to what they were going for.