Music Appreciation

seventhsojourn wrote:   On objectivity... why do reviews by collabs and reviewers have more weight than those by bog-standard members?

Good question.

Prog reviewers and collaborators voluntarily invest their time and energy into this site, either by writing quality reviews, working on a genre team, or serving in some other capacity (site monitors, etc).  Such members have been rewarded, as it were, with weightier reviews.

Also, such weighting helps to offset the work of crafty ratings-manipulators who churn out one and five star ratings.

You can read more about review weighting here.

rushfan4 wrote: After reading Pablo's review I had to give Black Clouds and Silver Linings another spin, and I am sorry to say that I still disagree 100% with his 1 star rating, but it is what it is.  I honestly don't understand why this album has been bashed for its lyrics.  For the most part, they are quite good.  I mentioned this once before, but I still see The Best of Times as being the best song on here.  It is an extremely sentimental song, in which you would either have to be a cold-hearted b*****d or Micky in order to dislike this song.  For those who don't know, Mike Portnoy wrote this song as a tribute to his father who passed away in 2009.  For anyone who says that this band doesn't play with any emotion, then you have really not heard or understood this song.  Absolutely beautiful memory of a man of his father.  Anyhow, for those of you who don't pay attention to lyrics you are certainly missing out.  This being said, I must agree with Pablo's assessment regarding the keyboards not really being a factor on this album, and in regards to Portnoy's drumming, he does often revert back to the same bag of tricks, but damn if it isn't mostly a good bag.    One last thought.  How much of an influence has Neal Morse had over Mike Portnoy?  When did DT become a Christian metal band?  I didn't realize until this listen how overtly Christian the lyrics to Shattered Fortress were.  I know that these are parts 10 through 12 of a series of songs.  I still need to sit down and listen to that series in order to get a better feel for that, but the ending has kind of intrigued me to do that.

As far as the Christian part is concerned, I recently read that three out of five DT members are practising Christians (LaBrie, Myung and Petrucci), while Portnoy and Rudess are Jewish. So, I would be surprised Portnoy was influenced by Morse, unless he's on the verge of becoming a born-again Christian as well, or the lyrics were penned by someone else.

For your information, Micky is a very soft-hearted person, and loves sentimental songs - though very probably not those written by DT.

rushfan4 wrote: After reading Pablo's review I had to give Black Clouds and Silver Linings another spin, and I am sorry to say that I still disagree 100% with his 1 star rating, but it is what it is.  I honestly don't understand why this album has been bashed for its lyrics.  For the most part, they are quite good.  I mentioned this once before, but I still see The Best of Times as being the best song on here.  It is an extremely sentimental song, in which you would either have to be a cold-hearted b*****d or Micky in order to dislike this song.  For those who don't know, Mike Portnoy wrote this song as a tribute to his father who passed away in 2009.  For anyone who says that this band doesn't play with any emotion, then you have really not heard or understood this song.  Absolutely beautiful memory of a man of his father.  Anyhow, for those of you who don't pay attention to lyrics you are certainly missing out.  This being said, I must agree with Pablo's assessment regarding the keyboards not really being a factor on this album, and in regards to Portnoy's drumming, he does often revert back to the same bag of tricks, but damn if it isn't mostly a good bag.

Minor lyrics moan: my complaint isn't the sentiment but rather the style... Dream Theater's members have, since the departure of Kevin Moore had no real grasp of how words work (not that beforehand they were Dylanesque... Awake's rather better lyrically than the rest of their albums, I think). Awkwardly incorporated grandiose phrases, little stylistic individuality, no real application of metre or sound effects and very little precision or direction... and so forth.

Epignosis wrote: seventhsojourn wrote:   On objectivity... why do reviews by collabs and reviewers have more weight than those by bog-standard members? Good question. Prog reviewers and collaborators voluntarily invest their time and energy into this site, either by writing quality reviews, working on a genre team, or serving in some other capacity (site monitors, etc).  Such members have been rewarded, as it were, with weightier reviews. Also, such weighting helps to offset the work of crafty ratings-manipulators who churn out one and five star ratings. You can read more about review weighting here.

Another to add is that taste's change.
I've largely gone off that more melodic, more soloing based stuff like Symphony X, Dream Theater etc and more into the groove metal oriented realm of metal now which is much riff based and far less focused on soloing virtuosity.
I also highly enjoy post metal, which has many musical characteristics that are completely at odds with Dream Theater's approach. I just find it easier to listen to chilled out post metal than Dream Theater's hectic in your face constantly changing riffs and super lengthy soloing.
I still really dig Awake, but a lot of Dream Theater is really too much for me to take in these days.
Honestly if I want high tech soloing I'll put on something like Cacophony instead (I don't listen to it often, but every now and then)
Yes, cheesy as f**k lyrics, but I get a humorous kick out of it, and Jason Becker and Marty Friedman are easily more interesting melodically than John Petrucci anyway.
I also don't have to listen to annoying keyboard solos either.
The fact that Jason Becker was also more technically advanced by the age of 16 than Petrucci was even now after all these years was no easy feat. Petrucci's sweep picking technique is absolute dog sh*t compared to that of Jason Becker as a 16 year old's technique..

^Shawn Lane was pretty much the most technically advanced electric guitarist ever , at least in terms of lead guitar anyway.
There hasn't been a guitarist since he died that has proved to be able to do legato and picking techniques as fast as him while being as accurate. Some guys have come close, but none have quite matched Lane.

Petrovsk - I've never heard Shawn Lane - I will look out for him. He must be something if he's better than Petrucci who even Malmsteen rated as brilliant.

And to add further to what I said about Mariah, she would demolish Sharon or Tarja easily...technically, that is.

Edited by rogerthat - March 01 2010 at 06:36

Mariah - demolish Tarja or Sharon? - You are confusing me  No chance I'm afraid. We'll ask her to sing Dead Boy's Poem - I doubt she would even reach the notes.