Dream Theater back in studio, again!

This is old news guys. Their tour is still going. Someone bumped a thread from last year.

Won't be getting this, and I'm not really excited at all...

I haven't enjoyed an album they released since Awake.

I hope the new DT album is good, I have high expectations for highly talented musicians.
Also, new album means new tour (hopefully). I might get to see DT live!!!

I'm hoping for the best but getting ready for the worst.

I am still seeing them live for sure and I hope they bring Protest The Hero on their Prog Nation tour. AND THEY BETTER COME TO TORONTO FOR THE PROG NATION TOUR THIS TIME.

fandango wrote: progmetalhead wrote: Have a look at my 2007 top 25 I posted on my blog today J.   Our tastes are even closer than you thought.     It's a very strong list, Steve... (btw, its God's Equation, not Creation...)   I do have to admit that the Myrath is still on my shopping list....   however we'll never be blood brothers until you start listening to some Therion...

Have a look at my 2007 top 25 I posted on my blog today J.

fandango wrote: HughesJB4 wrote: I barely listen to SC anymore either, I can think of so many 2007 releases that were so much more inventive, inspiring and left me wanting more.   each to their own, Hughes.... I would agree that 2007 was almost certainly the strongest year ever in terms of quality PM offerings with at least 20 highly respectible releases, but for me there was no one release I heard which stood out as being a total masterpiece.  That said, and for what its worth, I'll print you off my Top 20, just so you can see what I thought about the year...     Year Position Band Album Rating 2007 1 Dream Theater Systematic Chaos 9 2 Circus Maximus Isolate 9 3 Threshold Dead Reckoning 9 4 Spheric Universe Exper Anima 8.5 5 Symphony X Paradise Lost 8.5 6 Darkwater Calling The Earth To Witness 8.5 7 Amaran's Plight Voice In The Light 8.5 8 Mind's Eye A Gentleman's Hurricane 8.5 9 Therion Gothic Kabbalah 8 10 Redemption The Origins Of Ruin 8 11 Pathosray Pathosray 8 12 Dreamscape 5th Season 8 13 Epica Divine Conspiracy 8 14 Suspyre A Great Divide 8 15 Anubis Gate Andromeda Unchained 8 16 Deadsoul Tribe A Lullaby For The Devil 8 17 Riverside Rapid Eye Movement 7.5 18 Thought Chamber Angular Perceptions 7.5 19 Nightwish Dark Passion Play 7.5 20 Pagan's Mind God's Equation 7.5   I would just say that in addition to hearing SC copious amounts of times, I also caught them live twice... the shows were completely awesome....

Nice list
I didn't realize you were going to make a list of just "pure" prog metal. If I were to make a list, it would have included stuff from Tech/Extreme Prog Metal combined with Prog metal too.
Admittedly, nowadays I cannot stand listening to pure prog metal/power metal or any of the melodic metal genres non stop. I have to mix it up with more dissonant stuff (just more death metalish stuff really) with vocal styles other than clean vocals, otherwise I get bored.

I guess that's a reason why perhaps some of Dream Theater's latest outings weren't that inspiring.. they just seemed too willing to stick to melodicism and not see what they could do with dissonance and atonality, which would have really expanded their options.
I mean, sure enough Systematic Chaos had some pretty good songs, such as ITPOE PT 1 and 2,  TDEN, TMOLS, but the only song that was truly excellent and inspiring is Repentence because it didn't come off as rehashed sounding as the other songs. Constant Motion, Forksaken, PoW...blah, boring as hell quite frankly.
I see a lot of bands moving forward and changing their sound constantly without compromising on artistic integrity, but to be honest, Dream Theater haven't seemed to be moving forward for years now, too much of their recent output has sounded like "They have already covered this ground before" material.

Some people don't mind if a band doesn't really progress much.. that's fine. Other's like to see big changes in leaps and bounds.
Many people didn't like ToT... I loved it personally, because it showed great progression in the band's technical abilties, it had songs that sounded nothing like they did previously and it was also an album that would fit into Tech/Extreme Prog metal (Due to the thrash metal and groove metal sounds occuring in the album) as much as it does Prog Metal.
I didn't care that the album was "less progressive" than the previous albums. What it lacked in apparent "progressiveness" it made up for in showing the band could still improve on their skills and a band that was willing to try something daring and different and not care if it alienated previous fans.
The problem is, the progression in that album, to the non musician, is more subtle than the inherent "lack of progression", but it did show a band moving forward.
Unfortunately, IMO, that was the bands's last studio album that truly captured my imagination and truly inspired me.

And yes, I saw DT live in February this year.... amazing concert and was definitely worth saving up money for

King By-Tor wrote: I enjoy FII a fair amount. Less than many other DT releases, surely, but still a fair amount. It's Train of Thought that gets me a bit derailed sometimes. Enjoyable, but hardly memorable (IMO!!!). But DT certainly does have some killer albums . Personally, I hope the new album is in the SC style... although I hope they change it a little bit, because I know a lot of critics who will have their heads if they don't.

DT always change every time they put out an album. I&W is different from When Dream and Day Unite, Awake is different from I&W and so on. In fact, the most probable thing is the release of a completely different album.

Countdown is actually available for free download on Jamundo.  I've found a couple of decent albums on that website.  I suggested them for inclusion on PA and I'm pretty sure I have a link to the album in that thread, so you might want to do a search here in PA.

Edited by rushfan4 - October 10 2008 at 17:46

MikeEnRegalia wrote: ^ nice! I don't know Countdown or Blind Blossom ... seem to be a bit rare, can't find them on Amazon, CDBaby or eMusic. Sometimes those artists make it difficult for us listeners ...