"Fall" of the great prog-metal bands?

TheLamb wrote: Scenes from a Memory is the only truly great DT album. The albums before it all have great moments - but that's not enough to make a great album. After Scenes came 6DOIT, which is very "Interesting" but I wouldn't say it's a good album. Train of Thought has Stream of Consciousness which is mind-blowing and In the Name of God which is fairly OK but not outstanding, the rest of Train of Thought is bad. Dream Theater have never sounded more like Metallica ... Their not very good at being "angry" either! Octavarium is bad too, except for the title track which is very good.   I'd definitely say they are on their way down.

Stream of Consciousness is my 2nd least favorite song from ToT ... only Honor Thy Father is worse. But they're both solid 3s in terms of the prog archives rating system ...

Bob Greece wrote: Space Dimentia wrote: I do agree that most progmetallers should look out side the big names to bands like Opeth, Threshold, Symphony X, Planet X, Pagan's Mind, Secret Spere, Shadow Gallery, Kamelot, Orphaned land The trouble is that there doesn't seem to be enough time. Say you cover 10 major players and you get 3 albums from each (which isn't a lot) and you buy 1 CD a week (which is quite a lot), it would take you well over a half a year just to cover that. And if you are spending time looking into other genres outside prog metal then it takes even longer. Life's too short - not to mention the finances!

Look for online services that allow you to listen to samples or even full songs/albums. Check my database at www.mikeenregalia.com ... more than 500 full songs for you to listen to. If you listen to one song for each band it doesn't take too long to check out the "major minor" bands.

And try using online music services which stream you songs based on recommendations ... Yahoo Music or www.last.fm . Trust me, it works!

Space Dimentia wrote: I do agree that most progmetallers should look out side the big names to bands like Opeth, Threshold, Symphony X, Planet X, Pagan's Mind, Secret Spere, Shadow Gallery, Kamelot, Orphaned land

The trouble is that there doesn't seem to be enough time. Say you cover 10 major players and you get 3 albums from each (which isn't a lot) and you buy 1 CD a week (which is quite a lot), it would take you well over a half a year just to cover that. And if you are spending time looking into other genres outside prog metal then it takes even longer. Life's too short - not to mention the finances!

Not  familiar with Fates Warning, but the little Queensryche I've heard  is neither good nor prog.

Don't worry about DT though, if they do another album, it'll  certainly be an improvement - you can't possiby make anything worse than Octavarium.

Octavarium is not a bad album, but I think it's really not nearly as creative as any of the previous ones. Production is top, riffs are top, drumming is top ... but for some reason it won't "connect" with me. I noticed the same effect in other top albums of various genres: Aerosmith - Get a Grip, RHCP - One Hot Minute, The Prodigy - Fat of the Land. These albums are all very good, and I love individual songs, but somehow the albums seem over-produced and "forced".

Back to the original topic: Most bands have a creative "peak" that lasts a few years. After that they either disband, change direction completely (= the become another band) or just become mediocre. That happened for example to Queensryche. They were brilliant on Operation: Mindcrime, Empire and Promised Land. But other than dinosaurs, the music of such bands prevails even if the band fades away.

Not  familiar with Fates Warning, but the little Queensryche I've heard  is neither good nor prog.

Don't worry about DT though, if they do another album, it'll  certainly be an improvement - you can't possiby make anything worse than Octavarium.