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Y2J posted:So what do people think of the new Dream Theater album The Astonishing? I've listened to it twice and I'm not sure if I want to listen to it a third time or not. It's corny as all hell and if Petrucci said he idea for it came to him through a message from God I would not be entirely surprised. I haven't got a loving clue what's going on in the story, who any of the characters are, or why anything is happening. The first released track is the only real strong point on the album, imo. Oh, and LaBrie seriously lays on the ham when he's playing Nefaryus. I feel like he knows how stupid the whole thing is. Petrucci's having visions of post-singularity dystopias from YHWH, Rudess is content with making more music, Mangini is happy not to be teaching rich kids at Berklee, John Myung doesn't give a gently caress, and LaBrie is just milking the poo poo out of the people who still buy Dream Theater albums and is going to ride that bullet train to hell with a poo poo-eating grin on his face.
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Feb 7, 2016 11:13
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| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 03:33 |
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Raise the Knife is a genuinely good track and as much as I actually kinda like Falling into Infinity, I think Raise the Knife would have been a much better opener than New Millennium is. Train of Thought is basically Mike Portnoy's teenage angst album and is not good except for Stream of Consciousness and the track that James LaBrie wrote about his daughter nearly dying. Octavarium is good and so is Distance over Time, as well as some of Systematic Chaos and bits of Black Clouds and Silver Linings. The Astonishing is John Petrucci having a quantum leap into the born-again body of Dave Mustaine and coming back with some wacky ideas about Jesus and trying to make a sci-fi prog epic about it. Dream Theater was my second major foray into prog when I was in high school and for better or worse a lot of my musical tastes branched out from there. tote up a bags posted:Thoughts on the new Haken? I feel like between vector and virus there's one album of solid content IMO it's "more Haken" and that's about all there is for me. I prefer Vector as a whole cover-to-cover album but there's some really good bits in there. The callback to Cockroach King was funny, but in a good way. e: completely unrelated I realized today that Neil Peart has been gone for less than a year and that's still kinda weird to me and hard to get through in a way
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Jul 31, 2020 11:24
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Yeah, These Walls is clearly them looking at other bands and JP going "well, I can go one further" and tuning down to drop-omega and hoping like hell that the Mark V will take a guitar tuned that low. It's a fun song but the obsession around that time that he had with going a full step lower every album was so far beyond having jumped the shark at that point that it was a few seasons of Happy Days later. Even some of the newest stuff would honestly be better served if it wasn't played on seven strings. The bonus track on Distance over Time owns even with the drop-brown-note tuning but IMO it would be better off in standard with just adding the lower fifth where needed for extra harmonics and chugging. The six-string version of the intro to The Mirror played before Take the Time on the Images and Words tour is a good example of that being used. e: Threw on A Change of Seasons and man this EP is good, Derek Sherinian is an *awesome* keyboardist Kazinsal fucked around with this message at 12:23 on Jul 31, 2020 |
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Jul 31, 2020 12:06
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"Rio" is definitely excellent for learning how to play bass fast and accurately without jumping headfirst into some insane prog bassery like YYZ. I just put Images and Words on on my turntable and it amazes me how Dream Theater managed to find a vocalist who is absolutely phenomenal in the studio but has honestly never been that great live. I don't know if they just spent a mile of tape per verse in the 90s or what, but even "this is the best DT live bootleg EVER" recommendations from the Images and Words tour make me wonder why they chose James LaBrie. DT was my first foray into prog metal and I still love them but holy Moses JLB is a studio man only. And it sucks because he's always had so much energy live and is a great frontman from that perspective but can't actually stay in tune.
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Oct 13, 2020 08:32
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Paladinus posted:He can be good live. The problem is with consistency, I would say. Even on Live at Budokan, he had some gently caress-ups, and he also can't handle them gracefully. Not everyone can be like Devin Townsend and completely crush live performances. And that's fine, considering for a huge chunk of the audience, studio albums are the only way to enjoy their music. Yeah, that seems to be a bit part of it -- when he can't hit something, he doubles down on it and goes for the octave-too-high scream. I haven't seen them live since the self-titled tour but he seemed to be alright then. Much better than A Dramatic Tour of Events. Freakie posted:bass suggestions I'd also throw in Rush - 2112, Part I. Overture as well. And if prog-pop is your poo poo, Genesis - Land of Confusion. Most of the bass in it is programmed but it's a good track to learn on electric bass and the bridge is a really nice melodic electric bass part on the original recording.
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Oct 14, 2020 08:49
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Pretty good posted:I saw DT a few years ago on the tour where they were playing all of Images and Words and I was expecting Labrie to sound like poo poo live but he was honestly A+++, I couldn't quite believe it That's good to hear. I just want them to come back to Vancouver. I think the last time they were here was the last time I saw them, which, according to the shirt I'm wearing, was in 2014. Maybe next year 
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Oct 15, 2020 09:29
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MasqueradeOverture posted:I've only seen DT once in 2014 at Hammerstein Ballroom. They were... fine? That sounds like an average live James performance! I wish I were kidding. He's never been *great* live but he just doesn't know his limits these days and it shows  I want to see them one last time before James' live performances become unlistenable. Last time I saw them was the self-titled tour.
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Oct 23, 2020 09:45
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Vulture Culture posted:Almost every vowel sound that James LaBrie sings post-Scenes from a Memory is slurred both above and below the note, and it's grating in the same way as listening to a third grader play with a theremin He's the only singer I can think of that is capable of making every word start with WOAAAGH BigFactory posted:I’d like dream theater a ton more if they had a different singer. And guitar player. And toned down the keyboard acrobatics. Or got a different keyboard player all together. Myung is inoffensive. Bring back Sherinian and take away all of Petrucci's seven strings.
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Oct 26, 2020 03:43
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Dream Theater's newest live album is out. Even studio overdubs can't save James in 2020. Disappointing, yet impressive that he can manage to start any word with the syllable WWWWAAAAAUUUUUUGHHHH and the word still comes out mostly recognizable. e: christ James stop deep throating the mic and causing it to clip when you're speaking to the audience in between songs Kazinsal fucked around with this message at 14:44 on Nov 29, 2020 |
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Nov 29, 2020 14:24
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWP4JLUxiqY New Liquid Tension Experiment is pretty sick
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Jan 23, 2021 11:48
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deadwing posted:Distance Over Time and A Dramatic Turn of Events are both pretty good. The s/t isn't great and The Astonishing is just bad Yeah, my thoughts as well. Basically when you give Petrucci full creative control you end up with something that's at best kinda mediocre and at worst unlistenable garbage. I've listened to The Astonishing twice and I can't remember any of it other than wondering when it was going to be over and looking at the track list to see I still had over an hour to go.
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Jan 24, 2021 04:07
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Claudio Sanchez from Coheed and Cambria is releasing a new electrofolk album next month.
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Mar 12, 2021 06:24
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That Jeep has me spinning Moving Pictures again and drat, this album has some of the tastiest sounds ever committed to tape on it. Geddy's ever so slightly slightly fuzzy Rickenbacker on Red Barchetta is unparalleled.
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Mar 22, 2021 09:58
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Time to go for a walk, get baked, and blast the bassline from Sledgehammer straight into my skull for an hour. Happy birthday Mr. Levin!
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Jun 7, 2021 02:03
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Styx, much like Genesis, is a progressive pop band. Nothing wrong with that.
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Jun 24, 2021 22:52
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BigFactory posted:https://www.iheart.com/content/2021-06-28-rushs-alex-lifeson-confirms-new-band-teases-new-album/ With members from an 80s Canadian rock band that James LaBrie was in for about twenty minutes. This is hitting all the confusing yet slightly right notes that it needs to.
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Jul 1, 2021 00:25
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Vulture Culture posted:Almost 50 years out, Machine Head has the nastiest organ tone ever put to record Absolutely. It also has one of the most awesome intros to an album ever. Imagine being baked as hell in 1972 and dropping the needle on the record for the first time and just getting blasted with Highway Star. Time to put that album on now, god drat.
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Jul 6, 2021 08:04
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Pretty good posted:Winter Rose unironically slaps god I love the Canadian music scene, it's like there's only a thousand people and they're all friends
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Jul 6, 2021 17:37
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I love that you can tell they're all high as balls in that photo.
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Jul 8, 2021 21:05
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BigFactory posted:Just a normal day for big Al. I really want to hang out with the dude. I feel like smoking with Snoop would be just downright intimidating but Alex would probably just want to jam for a few hours then go absolutely feral on some snacks and a bottle of semi fancy wine.
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Jul 9, 2021 01:41
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god dammit no loving vancouver show
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Jul 30, 2021 01:21
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Can't believe I'm seriously considering taking vacation in November to fly to Toronto for a weekend to see a Dream Theater concert...
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Jul 30, 2021 22:52
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tote up a bags posted:New Dream Theater single has two things going for it - Myung’s bass is real juicy in the mix, and the drumming is tight as gently caress, definitely Mangini’s best showing so far. It's making me remember just how glad I am that JP got his own IIC+-based signature Boogie. The first couple post-Portnoy albums his tone was starting to feel horribly fat. Since he's gotten the JP-2C it's really tightened up and sounds more like the Six Degrees/Train of Thought/Octavarium tone.
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Aug 13, 2021 06:04
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Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson are doing a craft beer.
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Aug 19, 2021 07:14
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Phil era Genesis is honestly pretty good all the way through. Even Invisible Touch and We Can’t Dance have some long complex songs on them.
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Sep 21, 2021 02:40
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Guitar solo's neat. Mix seems like it drowns James out a bit, which presumably is because they've realized that James really isn't that great of a singer but they can't fire him without breaking the band up.
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Sep 23, 2021 02:34
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Paladinus posted:I'm a LaBrie truther. He was replaced by an imperfect body double in 1994. The real JLB is in a rotating series of indie bands with a handful of out of work Canadian glam metal musicians.
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Sep 23, 2021 15:52
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Rust Martialis posted:Guesting on the next GY!BE album It's still instrumental, just autotuning WUUEEAAAAAAGGGHHHHHHs as needed
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Sep 24, 2021 00:06
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Jesus Christ, John I know he's your loving friend but fire James already. If Queensryche can find a dude who can do a 95% bang-on Geoff Tate impression who isn't an absolute rear end in a top hat, you can find a replacement for JLB.
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Oct 22, 2021 08:00
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SgtScruffy posted:Man, as a DT superfan, the last three albums have been so god damned boring and unremarkable, it's frustrating. The only two tracks I've felt the need to listen to more than once are ones that explicitly sound like B-Sides from ADTOE. Portnoy was an rear end in a top hat but he really was the person who knew how to make new ideas happen Letting JP near an 8-string guitar while having him also be the principal songwriter was a mistake.
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Oct 25, 2021 21:17
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Blink twice if John Petrucci is holding you hostage (and also tell him I’m a huge fan and bought a mark v because of him) Jokes aside I should probably put the album on again and see if something clicks.
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Oct 28, 2021 03:43
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New Coheed track, slightly poppier verse and chorus with a great prog breakdown in the middle. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BFqmKtLj1s I'm really looking forward to the new album. I think they're really one of the few prog bands that hasn't ever actually disappointed me.
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Nov 11, 2021 10:10
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Yeah, the span of Silent Earth 3 through NWFT is probably my favourite and the easiest to get into. Good Apollo Vol 1 is probably some of the darkest music the band has done so if you like that more angry rock sound as well then it's a good starting point.
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Nov 12, 2021 07:08
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Been getting back into Porcupine Tree. Stupid Dream is still an excellent album.
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Jan 19, 2022 07:22
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Jedit posted:And is also less likely to be read as "IT COCK". On The Cock Of The Crimson King 
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Feb 22, 2022 09:58
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Doubleposting because new Coheed track. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnQf6PNx0DE More of a power pop vibe like The Color Before The Sun than some of their more progressive stuff but there's also a couple lines of classic early Claudio screaming in there too! I'm looking forward to Vaxis Act II's release.
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Feb 22, 2022 10:21
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no vancouver show, thanks steve
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Mar 9, 2022 23:37
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BigFactory posted:Let’s face it, they’re all good Except Tai Shan. That song stinks.
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Mar 26, 2022 03:52
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fartknocker posted:They’ve admitted it was a bad mistake in a few interviews over the years and IIRC Geddy or Alex called it their worst song. The worst part about it is that despite it not even being a good song, it still gets stuck in your head.
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Mar 26, 2022 04:01
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| # ¿ Apr 19, 2024 03:33 |
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oh no what have I done I think the Rush album I listen to the least is Presto. Once in a while Superconductor comes on the radio and I'm like, oh yeah, that album exists. Signals is probably my favourite though. I feel blessed to have been able to see them play Losing It when they came to Vancouver for the R40 tour. Their last ever Canadian show and only the fourth of five times they every played that song live.
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Mar 26, 2022 21:43
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