Is Mike Portnoy ruining Dream Theater?

 If he isn't trolling, this guy certainly did say something pretty inflammatory. 

So DT and PT both 'objectively suck'.  I didn't realise someone had done a university study on what music is 'good' or 'bad'. 

Music is entirely subjective.  If you don't like DT or PT, okay, but there's no need to come into a thread and start bashing. Gee, if I didn't discover DT or PT, I probably wouldn't be on this site right now.  

There's plenty of bands I don't care for, but I don't feel compelled to go into threads and start saying they 'objectively suck' and that their fans are ignorant white supremacists.

I missed both these posts

Question is, who the hell is going to replace him in the meantime?

 

And you are assuming that James is the person that is making the whole thing mechanical, static and routine? His solo album did not sound all that routine for me at all! And was a lot more interesting than the recent material -- which I think has been way too controlled by a guitar and drums ... it was easy to see on the most recent tour ... you never heard Jordan and you rarely heard John ... and James made room on the stage for the musicianship ... and you gotta admire someone that puts aside his ego to let his mates play!

 

This is just plain wrong ...

 

boo boo wrote:   ... Yeah they know all about the odd time signatures and stuff but even with all the different chord and time changes their music still manages to come off as predictable and boring to me.

 

Ohhh ... you can blame that on the singer!

 

boo boo wrote:   ... Nothing seems to suit a purpose, it's just showing off and nothing more, contrary to popular belief that's not what prog is all about, a lot of good prog bands show off their skills but they still have a sense of melody and rhythm and group chemistry, there's a structure behind what they do and there's a desire to convey certain moods and "images" through their sounds.

 

I'm not sure it is showing off ... I do think that there is a massive disparity in the band in terms of musicianship that is not being addressed or allowed. I don't think that James is getting the chance these days that he had before, and I almost doubt that there has been any input in most of the musci from James at all ... how can you create words for something you don't feel?

 

 

boo boo wrote:   ... They're so formulaic and every album is the same thing, I wouldn't mind if it wasn't under the pretense of being "progressive" music.  ...

 

I think that they got comfortable with their success and sales ... and when they each had a million in the bank and now had 10 guitars to choose from -- you could see John's cabinet with 6 guitars in it on the stage! -- I think it was 6 -- the tendency is to not pay attention to the music anymore ... you finally have your dream guitars ... one last bit ... John's basses ... he used to play the Yamaha's I think, and now he is playing the Music Man specials ... and Yamaha Basses are not known for metal or have the low tones that the band is asking him to do on stage and studio ... and the MM basses perform that stuff way better. It's simply a better tone and taste for rock music on the heavy/loud side of things ... nothing else. He can fret up and down in any bass that he wants to ... so it becomes a game of upmanship with the "noise" and the "loudness" ... and personally, all it tells me is ... that John ... you're losing it! Or the band is not "together" any more.