’Train Of Thought’ Reviews

I may be missing somehting here, but why oh why have there been 4 different reviews of Dream Theater's 'Train Of Thought' posted within the last few hours?  Surely this is a little over-exuberant, guys?  I think that DT are one of those bands where pretty well everyone on this site has made up their minds about them one way or another by now. Train of Thought is nearly two years old, and I think that everyone who is likely to go out and buy this album has already done so, which makes the exercise a bit pointless. 

Sure, everyone has the right to write an album review, but I can't help feeling that 'Yet Another' on Close To The Edge, or Lamb Lies Down for instance is a bit futile, because there is hardly anyone on this site who hasn't heard them and made up their own minds.

A while ago, Max created a thread of a list of albums which have to date, been left unreviewed... and believe me, its quite a comprehensive list!  Is it possible that fellow preggers could put their energies into checking these out, and building up the sites catalogue, rather than arguing endlessly about the merits or otherwise of DT?  Or am I totally missing the point?

Just to put the above into perspective, there are currently 153 reviews on file of ToT (isn't that the number of Fish Peter had in his net, Maani?), 6 posted in the last 24 hours... who on earth is going to read them?  It's also interesting to see the sheer number of reviewers who have given it either 1 star or 5 stars... they surely do polarise the audience... but hey guys, isn't this overkill?  Isn't there a stage when they cease to be useful?

I shall get off my soapbox now, sit in the corner of a darkened room and put a damp cloth over my head....

I posted because I haven't reviewd many albums on this site yet.  If I see one go by that I have heard then I try and post. 

By the way DT isn't really polarizing.  You have 15->25 year olds giving every metal-prog album 5 stars and you have everyone else actually listening and comparing it to the other 100000 albums they have heard and giving a rational opinon, not just OMGZ DT IS THE GRATEST BAND EVER!!!

I think this DT bashing has gone over the top. Like I said in a previous post, I have a love/ hate relationship with this band. I do think TOT is an awefull album and in interviews they always come up with the same old cliche 'it's an album we just had to make blah blah blah'. On reading the said interviews I got the feeling that maybe even the band regret making it. I shall be reading any forthcoming reviews very carefully & if I read one reference of it sounding like TOT I won't be wasting my money!

On the other hand, if references are made to the great albums I know they can make, i'll be the first in line to buy it!

FloydWright wrote: As someone who falls into this age category, I can say that I have not given every prog-metal album 5 stars. True, I do like the genre very much, but I DO try to be levelheaded, even with bands where it's a real effort to make myself be objective (or as close as I can get to it).

If you choose to be rational in the assessments then my statement doesn't apply to you.  But look at it from another perspective.  My all time favorite progressive band is Yes.  I think they have one, possibly two 5 star albums.  I think they between 3 maybe 4 max 4 star albums.  All of those albums were from a specific time frame when they were at their best.

I think Genesis has one maybe two five star albums.  Again this is a band that I LOVE.  I can go down the list of great prog bands and the most five star albums they have is one or two.  Everything else is derived from themselves or too heavily influenced by outside forces to do everthing necessary to make a truly great record(CD these days hehehe dating myself). 

Now, you will find for each of those "historical" bands a cache of die hards who will give almost every album high marks.  But the metal crowd take that concept to a stupid level.  There is a massive difference between "I really really love this album" and A qualified masterpiece.  So, if a boat load of you guys swear by Scenes From a Memory as a five star and then makes the other ratings relative I could even live with that.  But come on, every freakin DT album is not a five star.  Hell, most of them aren't even 4 star in comparison to Scenes (and I think Scenes is a 3 because it is completely a rehash of stuff they did before).   But I digress.

Let me give you a semi-pop example.  For whatever reason one of my favorite all time records is Hermit of Mink Hollow by Todd Rundgren.  I have no idea why other than maybe it was playing at a good time in my life or something like that. I couldn't tell you.  But I can listen to that album over and over and over ................But never in a million years would I give it five stars.  I possibly wouldn't even give it four stars and it is one of my ALL TIME FAVORITE RECORDS.  Because it doesn't even approach the musical originality of something like Karn Evil 9 or South Side of the Sky or 20th Century schitzoid or some early Mahavishnu or......the list is long.  Comparing the compositional skills of DT to Yes or or ELP is like comparing John Williams to Mozart.

Maybe I'm of the loop, and I may loose a lot of goodwill over this, but.

I rated the first four Marillion albums, and the first five Arena albums five stars, for IMO, they are worth it. And I won't back down on this, they are among the best twentie albums I've ever heard in my life. And i doubt ever in my life to come across something near that.

Of course being a fan clouds your vision a little, but in the end quallity will submerge.

JMCecil wrote: tuxon wrote: Maybe I'm of the loop, and I may loose a lot of goodwill over this, but. I rated the first four Marillion albums, and the first five Arena albums five stars, for IMO, they are worth it. And I won't back down on this, they are among the best twentie albums I've ever heard in my life. And i doubt ever in my life to come across something near that. Of course being a fan clouds your vision a little, but in the end quallity will submerge. No loss of goodwill on my part.  The ratings don't make people good or bad.  But, inflated ratings do make the rating system itself of no value.  When you are looking for a new band and you look at the rating list and every single rating is a 5, then you go get it and it sounds like sh*t and its in a genre you like don't you think something is amiss?  Or even worse you are trying to decide which album you might want to try from a specific band and instead of intelligent description of the different albums with a scaled set of ratings you see nothing but 5 stars and "This is the bestest band of all time"  The use of the tool is lost at this point.  I totally ignore the stars now and probably won't rate anymore because it has no value in this structure. But, just having this huge list of bands is awesome.  I've already discovered Devil Doll and found out that tonedeaf people rate albums on this site.  I know this because people were giving Devin Townsend five stars for his sonic crimes.

Ignore the vast amout of text before this.

That's the reason i would like to see, a possibility to rate bands on this site, so I can say, YES, MARILLION, PENDRAGON and some other bands are IMO 5 star bands, so when you know my reviews of certain bands, and you agree on those reviews, you can search on further for bands that the reviewer likes. to follow the reviewer instead of a logical genre defined path.

M@X take the possibilities that are there. I always follow certain reviewers, the ones that I have found to be trustworthy (for each person, that wil probably be someone else), have proved themselves over time. There are more ways, than just via the progcollaborators section.

Damn, I can't seem to make a logical sentence, anyway, I think there is a possibility to make the site better, by incorporating a band-review as an extra to the bands biography. Add a rating sytem to it and people can easily follow those people who rated the bands to other bands.

For more information about how i would like it, donate 100€ to a local charity, and ask me to clarify