Dream Theater's BC&SL Discussion

So the album came out today and it was a release that I know many on this site were anticipating.  I want to reserve judgment until I give it more listens, but my first impression was that it was an obvious improvement from SC (which I thought was terrible) and despite my not being a huge fan of their heavier direction, I though a lot of the album was very solid.

I was surprised after hearing so much about the count of tuscany, my favorite song initially is the best of times

My first listen went really badly, but I haven't gotten all the way through the album yet.  I guess it's better than Systematic...but that's all I can say about it.  I think at this point it's a "it's not you DT, it's me" problem as well.

I'm on my second listen at the moment, and my first impression is that it's pretty good.

LaBrie's voice sounds surprisingly good though the lyrics are a little weak at times.  The music as some great moments.  I actually got that tingly feeling at two different points on the album.  The 'beautiful agony' part of "A Nightmare to Remember" and "The Count of Tuscany". 

So far, I'd put this in the league of "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence" and "Scenes from a Memory", not quite as good as the Kevin Moore era but at the top of the Rudess era.

Unrelated, "Falling Into Infinity" is really growing on me.  So much so that I picked up Molecular Heinosity on e-music and wow, it's really good.

I swore to myself after Systematic Chaos that I'll never again buy another DT album before hearing it first. Well, I listened it once from Spotify on monday and on tuesday I ran to the store to buy the 3CD version. I've listened to it about five or six times now (once instrumentally) and I'll say that it's their best since Six Degrees hands down. May end up being the best Rudess era album when given more time.

My verdict after three listens: Much light, but also much "shade". There are some really nice parts which I thoroughly enjoy listening to, but also some parts that are IMO near "cringeworthy". There are two things which annoy me the most:

1. Portnoy's "growling". It almost never makes sense musically/dramatically, and it's poorly implemented. I think that growling takes a lot of practice in order to do it convincingly, and most of the time his vocals just seem like some annoyed visitor in the studio was yelling something into the mic.

2. Most of the great moments are actually re-hashes of stuff they did before. Ok, in The Shattered Fortress that's the point of the piece (and it's actually my favorite track of the album), but it's happening in many of the other tracks, too. Of course it has to happen to a certain degree as long as they stay true to their overall style, but on this album it's happening much to frequently and "bluntly".

Roland113 wrote: The Quiet One wrote: Roland113 wrote: Unrelated, "Falling Into Infinity" is really growing on me.  So much so that I picked up Molecular Heinosity on e-music and wow, it's really good. Falling into Infinity is one hell of a album, my fave by them, though I admit I'm not really a DT fan. It's much lighter than your average DT album, yet it's awesome. Would like to talk it about more, but I'm changing the topic of this thread, so... Thanks Pablo, if you liked Falling Into Infinity, I'd give something by Derek a try.  As I mentioned earlier, Molecular Heinosity is really good, I'm going to pick up a few more of his CD's when my e-music subscription renews next month.

Yeah I'm really planning to get something rom Planet X or Platypus which seem to have better ratings.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: 1. Portnoy's "growling". It almost never makes sense musically/dramatically, and it's poorly implemented. I think that growling takes a lot of practice in order to do it convincingly, and most of the time his vocals just seem like some annoyed visitor in the studio was yelling something into the mic.

  It's actually Kevin Moore, the problem is that no one actually recognized him at first...he was like bald and overweight or something like that.

Mr ProgFreak wrote: My verdict after three listens: Much light, but also much "shade". There are some really nice parts which I thoroughly enjoy listening to, but also some parts that are IMO near "cringeworthy". There are two things which annoy me the most: 1. Portnoy's "growling". It almost never makes sense musically/dramatically, and it's poorly implemented. I think that growling takes a lot of practice in order to do it convincingly, and most of the time his vocals just seem like some annoyed visitor in the studio was yelling something into the mic. 2. Most of the great moments are actually re-hashes of stuff they did before. Ok, in The Shattered Fortress that's the point of the piece (and it's actually my favorite track of the album), but it's happening in many of the other tracks, too. Of course it has to happen to a certain degree as long as they stay true to their overall style, but on this album it's happening much to frequently and "bluntly".

Agree 100% with both of these.  The Shattered Fortress is too much of a rehash IMO.  There's "referencing" earlier parts of AA suite, and then there's just recycling.  I think the latter is occurring, and I was as annoyed as you, probably more.

I like it so far. Not an Octavarium or SDoIT, but much better than SC. There are 3 unnecessarily fast solos and some weak compositional skills. (+ the first verse of ARoP...), but apart from these problems there is nothing to bash.

Moatilliatta wrote: Well, admittedly I went into it with low expectations, but I'm going to have to say this is the worst DT album. Here are my thoughts:   A Nightmare to Remember has hilariously bad sound samples of a car crash. The heavy parts are pretty average and the transitions aren't smooth and fluent like they always have been. The clean section is pretty alright. LaBrie's vocals don't really go with a lot of stuff in this track, though, and Portnoy's vocals are really poor. I got another laugh during that part at the end when he "growls" that "Day after day" part. And then a blast beat? That didn't sound great, just came off as a lame attempt at expanding their palette and getting with the music of today.   A Rite of Passage has some OK stuff, a couple good riffs/solos but overall nothing really great. I had a really tough time getting through this one despite not being very long just because it was so average.   Wither was not too bad, maybe a tad better than "The Answer Lies Within" as far as a shorter ballad goes, but I'm not a big fan of their ballads anyhow so I wasn't into it.   The Best of Times started out promising with that nice guitar melody and such, but then it quickly turned into Dream Theater reinvents Spirit of the Radio and then went into the next laughable moment on the album: the chorus. It just sounded sooo...bad. I mean, I can appreciate what they're trying to do, as Mike wrote this for his dad, but still, musically it fails much like "Take Away My Pain" did. The guitar solo at the end, however, was fantastic   The Shattered Fortress opens with a boring metal riff and then proceeds to rehash all kinds of riffs from the old AA suite pieces and has possibly the worst ending the suite could have. The idea might not have been awful, but the execution certainly was. This piece might work if listened to with the rest of the suite, but holds no weight as a stand-alone.   The Count of Tuscany has some really good instrumental stuff going on there. The ambient mid-section was pretty good, but it definitely has nothing on "Trial of Tears."   And ultimately, that's one of this albums biggest problems. They're trying to do things they've already done, and they're not hitting anywhere near the heights of those old days. The lyrics may be an improvement over Systematic Chaos' but that still says nothing. It sounds like the band is losing inspiration. These songs just don't sound genuine and impassioned. Sure, they are competantly written and performed, but they are missing the soul of the older albums. It's approaching vacuousness.   I'll end my rant there.

Important caveat:  I have yet to even finish the album, and I'll try to listen to it a couple more times.  But this post encapsulates my feelings about the album right now, and does so pretty much perfectly, especially in the conclusion; I think I found myself thinking almost the same words this morning thinking about the album.