Dream Theater: the most popular under rated band.

stonebeard wrote: If you like them, then fine. If you don't like them, then fine. Just don't make threads about them anymore. It's sad, but some fans/haters can't understand why people like/don't like them. You either do or don't.

Dream Theater is under-appreciated IMO at least I mean some people just dismiss them saying it's all flashiness and no flavor. I disagree with that assessment granted they aren't the best songwriters in the world but they are still a great band with some kick ass albums and are a cornerstone artist in prog-metal and modern prog alike weather you like it or not. Their skills as musicians are a large draw for them and is one of the reasons I started to like them.

'Underrated'? Hardly. I think they are a band that you either love or hate, though curiously I'm in the middle somewhere- not a die hard but I like them. But not for one moment are they 'better' than Zappa or Gentle Giant or whoever- it would seem like that because they are far flashier and flamboyant than any of those acts who knew the meaning of the word restraint (particularly GG) when it came to musicianship. DT tend to be ultra bombastic, and in that they excel but I think when it comes to adding some light and shade or subtlety, they fall flat on their faces. I find it hard to listen to an album all the way through at times because apart from some toe curling ballads like 'I Walk Beside You', 'Through Her Eyes' et al, it's all bombast. ELP are the 70s prog act I would have expected some comparisons with but imo, at least, ELP (at least for their first few years) toned it down with really rather elegant acoustic interludes like 'The Sage', 'From The Beginning', 'Still You Turn Me On' and 'Lucky Man', rather than bland AOR like DT do; from what I gather most fans of DT here would find it very hard to defend the ballads on 'Octavarium'.  I am a fan of DT's music but I feel their general lack of restraint turns people off them a bit, alongside some over zealous fans who sometimes sell the band as the greatest thing sinced sliced bread. That's my take on it, anyway.

Hey, I’ve got an anecdote for you! (Not to offend anybody.)

What do the Dream Theater fans do on a concert?

They stand motionless.

NaturalScience wrote: ^^^ I think apart from absolute fanboys most of us who enjoy DT will not defend Octavarium.  I am a little tired of this mediocre album held up as an exemplar for those offering criticism (sorry, there's no way I would characterize the majority of DT's catalog as "bland AOR", but I can see how exposure to some songs on Octavarium would lead one to that.) To address the topic thread, DT are certainly not underrated on this site.  Probably the opposite.  They are a fantastic band but I would not place them in the echelon of Yes, for example.

As much as I am a DT fan, I have a tendency to take their music song by song as opposed to an album as a whole. The song Octavarium I beleive is great but the album as a whole is not (Panic Attack is cool too). There are several tunes they have that I can do without (Another Day, Anna Lee) but all bands have that (Rush's Rivendell comes to mind). As such DT is definitely NOT underrated. There may be many in this forum that don't like them but that is personal preference and not a measure of being under/overrated. Yes has the edge on DT partly because they had almost 20 years of a head start on DT and were in thier prime during a time that was much more prog friendly.

NaturalScience wrote: ^^^ I think apart from absolute fanboys most of us who enjoy DT will not defend Octavarium.  I am a little tired of this mediocre album held up as an exemplar for those offering criticism (sorry, there's no way I would characterize the majority of DT's catalog as "bland AOR", but I can see how exposure to some songs on Octavarium would lead one to that.) To address the topic thread, DT are certainly not underrated on this site.  Probably the opposite.  They are a fantastic band but I would not place them in the echelon of Yes, for example.

AtLossForWords wrote:   Octavarium is not mediocre at all.  The title track is an absolute masterpiece surrounded by above average quality songs like Sacraficed Sons, Never Enough, The Root of All Evil, The Answer Lies Within, and Panic Attack.  I can understand that someone might not believe the album is a perfect masterpiece, but it's an above average album by any band's standards.

Well, let's agree to disagree here.  I do enjoy the title track and seeing some of these songs performed live recently raised my esteem for the album somewhat.  I just don't find this particular album to be among the best in the band's catalog (nor do I find it the worst).

Edited to fix the quote bug again.  Can someone please, please fix this?


Edited by NaturalScience - June 06 2006 at 16:40

Ghandi 2 wrote: Your English is ok; it's a lot more readable than some native English speakers I know. Weird chords, exotic scales, and complex bars do not a good band make. (For the non-Star Wars fans: Just because something and odd and complex doesn't mean it's good.) Personally, I don't care how good their music may be; at the end of the day the heavy distortion and technical w**king still hurts my ears.

do you have to use that word? Maybe you should consider how much work is involved with that "w**kery" ... and if you go to the opera or symphony orchestra and they're playing a highly complex piece of classical music, would you also bash these musicians for playing overly technical, with too little improvisation or emotion?

And finally: What did DT do to you? Somehow I get the feeling that DT bashers somehow feel like they've been betrayed or cheated ... nobody forces them to listen to the music. So please try to be nice and polite to the musicians ... you can say that you don't like something without hurting their feelings.




Edited by MikeEnRegalia - June 06 2006 at 16:49

stonebeard wrote: If you like them, then fine. If you don't like them, then fine. Just don't make threads about them anymore. It's sad, but some fans/haters can't understand why people like/don't like them. You either do or don't.

I'm not a fan-boy or a hate-boy concerning D.T. But as i have observed, they definitely are not under rated. And here in Turkey, they are very overrated. And this situation may produce some D.T. hateboys.