Dont know if there's already a topic for this band, if so im sorry. But in any case i decided to create it because it's my 2nd favourite band and i would like to know your opinion about them.
John Petrucci is my favourite guitarrist i just love his style he can do everything from amazing melodies to sweeping and shreding and DT's songs are just so magical and meanful i guess I dream when i listen to them... Though they cant beat POTF in the way of what they mean to me, and all i've been through listening to their music...
But remember this topic is for talking abut Dream Theater and not POTF
So feel free to start a discussion of giving an opinion about them, cheers!

I think we had this "discussion" before. If I'm not mistaken, the thread died because no one wanted to post there
I really don't see the point in all these "specific band" threads, since we have more overall topics for that. Either people say "Never heard of them" or they say "I love/don't like that band". Just my 5 cents

I actually think I was the one who started a thread on DT. Finally someone I can share some DT talk with haha. Anyways great band love everything they've released (save for Falling Into Infinity too mainstream)

The musical technicality, length, power and meaning behind their songs makes DT no only one of the most powerful bands around, but the most talented.

By the way have you heard the leaks A Rite of Passage and A Nightmare to Remember from their new album Black Clouds & Silver Linings, really good stuff, a little heavy but still filled with that greatness Dream Theater puts in all of their music.

Still havent heard it but i will check on it, anyways looking forward for the next album it'll be my next buy

June 23rd baby, I heard a review from Metal Hammer, it said it's one of Dream Theater's best albums of the last decade, and with Portnoy's description about it being a cd with such tracks as Pull Me Under, The Glass Prison, and Octavarium on it it's going to be a great album.

If you want to check out the songs go to youtube or google it, they should have pages with downloads, even if the whole albums leaked I have to buy it, I'm a bit of a collector lolz.

on my birthday.. I don't like dream theater.. can't say I hate them but somehow I just want to avoid them at all costs. but a lot of my friends like em xD

Porcupine Tree is much much better? Riiight?

yes (l)

porcupine tree are waaay better


the first reason why I hated DT was because their songs were so long.... I love porcupine tree now.. they have REALLY long songs too so well.... I don't want to listen to DT because I'm afraid I might like em, after saying for SO long that I don't like em xD

same happened with rammstein I like them now xD

Well its true that not everyone likes dream theater exactly for that reason that the songs are too long and they have lots of instrumentals but the magic there is not being mainstream and few people can understand that. Well i love them and i dont always listen the songs to the end, but that doesnt make them bad for the countrary, well and i really think that if you tried to listen to their songs you would like it....but that's your choice we cant force anyone
Anyways they have great melodies and great lyrics, great solos they are a band close to perfection in performance.
You just look and you see, J. petrucci one of the best guitarrists of all time, portnoy is one of the most skilled drummers, mr jordan rudess is an excelent keybordist im stunned with his solos in live performances and john myung is not so known but he is also an amazing bassist, i really guess that james labrie is the less important in the band though they wouldnt live without him

Give them another chance, try listening to songs that aren't that long, get used to their style start out with an album like Images and Words or Awake, the songs are only around 5-8 minutes on those albums so they're not really as lengthy as ones on albums like Train of Thought or Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence.

How about discussing the new album? I think its great.... lots of feeling, one of the songs moved me "The Best of Times" which is in memory of Mike's father (Howard Potnoy), and then you have "the shattered fortress" which has various reprises of other DT's songs like the glass prison, the root of all evil, etc... "Wither" is also a great track, it talks about going through things without the capability to do something about it and then you just wither..... "a nightmare to remember" this one is curious because if you listen to the song you think that a BIG tragedy happend but if you pay attention to the lyrics, it was just a car crash in which no one died , then we have " a rite of passage" the name says it all, secret societies, rituals....etc... and finally "the count of tuscany" im still analysing that one, i still dont know much about it

Oh yeah great album, The Shattered Fortress is the final piece to Portnoy's AA or 12 steps suite that runs for almost an hour long. Best of Times was a great song and really powerful stands up well to Portnoy's other song A Chang of Seasons (which was dedicated to his mom) Wither was a great song by Petrucci and it's all about writers block and not being able to get anything out of yourself. Nightmare to Remember is a great heavy song, fits right up there with Dark Eternal Night, bad song to listen to if you like to drive like a maniac lolz. Then there's the epic Count of Tuscany, a beautiful song and possibly one of the greatest tracks by DT, the song is about Petrucci (while still young) on vacation, some man took him for a ride and on a tour of his place, Petrucci became frightened and thought the man was going to kill him, but the man had no intention of harming Petrucci he just wanted to tell him his story. The man called himself the Count of Tuscany.

In my opinion Black Clouds & Silver Linings is one of Dream Theater's best and stands head and shoulders with Images and Awake.

Hey DMCmaster since you seem to know so much about them.... Do you know who Petrucci was refering when he wrote the lyrics for "Solitary Shell"? Was it about himself?

One more thing, i have just been looking at the Ultimate-Guitar statements about Black Clouds & Silver Linnings and i guess that i dont agree with some of them some things that they say that make's it bad i think they are the things that make it good.... Here's the statement:

Dream Theater – Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Released: June 23
Genre: Progressive metal
Label: Roadrunner

By now, I suppose most of us are quite familiar with Dream Theater, their style and what their music is like. The short description could be that they're heavy, melodic, progressive and play technically challenging music.

“Black Clouds...” is certainly no exception to the above statement and I must say it comes pretty close to finding the perfect balance amongst the elements. Whereas the predecessor, “Systematic Chaos” leaned more towards the dark side of things, “Black Clouds...” incorporates more progressive rock elements, which certainly pleases this listener more than the pseudo-brutal excursions we've witnessed on recent releases. That we're getting more progressive rock doesn't mean that the metal-element is toned down much – it's still there and present in abundance, it's just that the balance is much better this time around.

Dream Theater's biggest problem is a pleasant one – their back catalogue is filled with excellent albums and life-changing music. That in turn has set the bar quite high and as most people can figure out, it's hard to set a new personal best every time you step up to the plate. I would argue that Dream Theater haven't lived up to their potential and delivered on all levels since 1999's “Scenes From A Memory”. Certainly all their albums since “Scenes...” have been at the very least good and had some killer moments and songs, but like I said – they've set the standard high for themselves and you want to see them maintain that high level.

Anyways, on to the matter at hand - “Black Clouds & Silver Linings”. I was, to be honest, not expecting much. I have learned over the years that low (or no) expectations are the best ones, and it helps with the reviewing as well. “Black Clouds...” opens up, as so many other albums by this band, with a long epic of around 15 minutes, containing just about everything you could expect to hear. Second, we have the single “A Rite of Passage”, and third a little breather in “Wither”, surely destined to be the second single. The opening track “A Nightmare To Remember” starts of a bit sluggishly, but when the softer, more gentle prog-rock section kicks in around the 4-minute mark, everything is redeemed. Even Mike Portnoy's pseudo-growls towards the 10-minute mark aren't as bothersome as one could think (though I wish he wouldn't attempt them because he frankly doesn't do them very well). Mike even managed to sneak in a section with blast beats towards the end, which is pleasing in that the band isn't afraid to incorporate new elements, but in the end they don't help nor hurt much. “A Rite of Passage” on the other hand is probably the best DT single I can remember since a little song by the name of “Pull Me Under” and in turn sports one of their best choruses ever.

One of the most discussed parts of DT lore in recent years is Mike Portnoy's AA Saga about his recovery from alcohol abuse. Four songs have, prior this album, been released and they had really set themselves up to bat it out of the park with the fifth one. Sadly, I have to say that “The Shattered Fortress” is a disappointing ending to an otherwise fine series of songs. Primarily, you have Mike Portnoy's grim vocals taking up too much space, and secondarily you have way too many repeated themes. In the older songs you always got a little repeated melody or section and that was cool, because it was just a little, little piece of the song at hand. But now the whole thing comes off rather as an overture with all the different sections taking centre stage rather than “The Shattered Fortress” being a song of its own. I counted the repeated sections awhile ago and I believe I landed on thirteen or somesuch. That's thirteen unique sections, not counting how many times they're repeated in “The Shattered Fortress”.

Fortunately, the best is yet to come and Dream Theater manage to close things out nicely with “The Best of Times”, which is Mike Portnoy's heartfelt tribute to his father. Musically it's quite Rush-esque and even though the lyrics might be a bit too much for some people, it's an upbeat song that celebrates rather than mourns, which is definitely pleasing. Finally, “The Count of Tuscany” closes things out and again they manage to balance the elements beautifully. Look out for the “Trial of Tears/Lines in the Sand”-esque section the precedes the closing five minutes and helps the song set itself up for the climax. In fact, the entire song musically wouldn't have sounded much out of place on “Falling Into Infinity”. The only dud is that lyrically I don't find it to be very accomplished, but I'd rather take solid music and mediocre lyrics than the other way around.

This fairly long review closes with the following statement: Dream Theater have delivered one of their best albums in many, many years. I would rank this as their best album since “Scenes From A Memory”, and most people would agree that that's a pretty darn good grade.


I expect your comment DMC Master

I can only say I really like one song by DT, and that would be 'These Walls'. But I'm not too fond of them. Mainly because their style is not very appealing to me, the voice tends to annoy me really fast; plus the fact that I really don't like epic 30 minutes long songs, that really bores the life out of me xD.

Although, I can admit they are great musicians, I just don't like the band as a whole. (Specially James LaBrie's voice) And I also can admit that they put a lot of passion to their songs, that's worthy of respect. I saw them live last year (I like to go see as many bands as possible, so I can know what I'm talking about when I say I love or detest them) and they sound really good.

I apreciate your sincerity, but not evry song of them are that long, in fact the longest one is 24 min long that is octavarium i think ... And maybe it's kinda truth that labries annoys a bit when he gets too sing to high on the more heavy songs... but hey i still love them... i think you should try to listen the whole album "Scenes From a Memory" its one of my favourites, and it has an amazing story, but its quite hard to understand it just be listening to the album, i had to see the concert "live scenes from NY" WITH THE BAND COMMENTARIES BEHIND to understand the story but it's very cool and i think its totally worth it..... (labrie's voice isnt that anoying on this one )
cheers

gabiruman: Actually I don't think Solitary Shell was about Petrucci, I'm not really sure who it's about all I know is it's about a guy who has autism. Since majority of the parts of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence all focus on people who have certain mental instabilities, shellshock (War inside my Head) depression (about to crash) etc.

Though the reviewer does a good job pointing out certain flaws he obviously isn't much of a listener or can't point out certain segments, Portnoy sneaks blast beats into many parts of Nightmare most notably the beggining of the song. And to say Count of Tuscany would belong on Dream Theaters worst album Falling into Infinity tells me this guy doesn't know much about DT. Though Scenes has been a great album and a really hard one for DT to match I think both Octavarium and Black Clouds have met and surpassed that album in many ways, especially Ovtavarium because it takes DT into a different sound and has a pretty even ammount of heavy and soft hitting songs. Oh and Shattered Fortress was the final piece of course their going to wrap all the other songs up in that one. Apparently they'll be releasing a cd soon with all the songs Glass Prison, This Dying Soul, Root of all Evil, Repentance, and Shattered Fortress on it. It'll be cool to hear how they mesh the songs together.

Tzofi!: Though your opinion is your own and I respect I must argue that DT doesn't have nothing but 30 minute epics, actually their longest songs are Count of Tuscany 19 minutes, Change of Seasons 23 minutes, Ovtavarium 24 minutes, In the Presence of Enemies pt1-2 26 minutes, and Six Degrees of Inner Tutbulence 42 minutes. Those are their longest songs and both ITPOE and SDOIT are seperated into different sections of the full song. Majority of their stuff reaches at least the 10 minute mark, but their earlier albums never really had huge songs I think the longest was around 8 or 9 minutes and that was on Images. Most people seem to hate Labrie's voice, I myself like it but to each their own. Nonetheless I respect your opinion, if you are interested in DT at all and don't want the epics I recommend listening to either Images and Words or Awake. If you want Dream Theater without the vocalist they have now you can listen to When Dream and Day Unite. Though that vocalist sounds a lot like Geddy Lee lolz.

I actually didn't like that vocalist very much i prefer labrie, but who knows, our voice changes during our life, and maybe the earlier vocalist could sing better than labrie now but that noone knows

I totally agree with that part it makes a lot of sense that they take all the previous songs to conclude the piece, i especially liked the reprise of the root of all evil....though there's something that's not fitting in my head..... in that part he says "Keep all of me, the desires that once burned me deep inside" i dont get it..... in root of all evil he wanted to take that desires and now he wants to keep them? Didn't he want to free himself from alcoholism? im confused... could you help me ?

Take all of me would probably be Portnoy talking to God or the people who's lives he changed because of what he did as an alcoholic, he's most likely asking them to take everything he was. With keep all of me my assumption is that he is asking for people to keep it everything he was. Or it could be that he wants to take it all away and free himself because at that point he still hadn't reached the maturity to keep all those old desires with himself and remember what he had done. He gained his freedom from the hell he put himself and others through but he wants to keep it as a memory, a way to tell himself how horrible it was given the off chance he tries it again.

Tzofi!: Though your opinion is your own and I respect I must argue that DT doesn't have nothing but 30 minute epics, actually their longest songs are Count of Tuscany 19 minutes, Change of Seasons 23 minutes, Ovtavarium 24 minutes, In the Presence of Enemies pt1-2 26 minutes, and Six Degrees of Inner Tutbulence 42 minutes. Those are their longest songs and both ITPOE and SDOIT are seperated into different sections of the full song. Majority of their stuff reaches at least the 10 minute mark, but their earlier albums never really had huge songs I think the longest was around 8 or 9 minutes and that was on Images. Most people seem to hate Labrie's voice, I myself like it but to each their own. Nonetheless I respect your opinion, if you are interested in DT at all and don't want the epics I recommend listening to either Images and Words or Awake. If you want Dream Theater without the vocalist they have now you can listen to When Dream and Day Unite. Though that vocalist sounds a lot like Geddy Lee lolz.[/quote]

I know they don't have only epic songs, I was just exagerating a little to get my point across .

And yes, I am also quite familar with their music; two of my closest friends have tried for years to introduce me into their 'fan base' (might I add, with no success ) . I have listened to most of their music, and as I mentiones before, I also went to see them live last year. I think they have a great sound live, it's very clean and I can't really say I didn't enjoiy myself.. But I still think they're not really for me.

Although, I'm sure my friends will keep trying xD.

I might keep trying to lolz jk.

Well like I said I respect your opinion, and you've beaten me in getting to see them live, something I need to do. Glad you enjoyed yourself at their concert though, that's something.

Oh i will see them on the 22nd october.... They are coming to my country and to a place near me its so cool ... i wish that POTF would do the same some day

Yeah DT should be coming to Colorado soon where I live, sometime in August, it's $300 for a meet and greet something I can't afford though I wish I could, I'll just have to get the normal concert tickets lolz.

I wish Poets would just come here sometime, I'd love to see them live

Pull Me Under is my favorite. But it's practically all I've heard by them, and you can thank Guitar Hero for that

Play Panic Attack on Rock Band harder track then Pull Me Under, no surprise though PMU was their greatest hit. I'd recommend Under a Glass Moon, Hollow Years, Solitary Shell, About to Crash, Octavarium, Count of Tuscany, Wither, Surrounded, Another Day, Beyond this Life, Finally Free, Space Dye-Vest (most poetic song by them) Lifting Shadows off a Dream, or 6:00. Personal favorite three are Space Dye- Vest, Count of Tuscany and Under a Glass Moon.

Space dye vest is a really nice song, but man those lyrics kinda depress me a bit they're very sad, you have a guy complaining himself he wants a girl that loves another guy that doesnt deserve her, well life's unfair isnt it?

What makes those lyrics more depressing and what makes them even better is when Kevin Moore got the idea to write the song in the first place. He said he had just gotten out of a really long relationship and he was lost and confused. He started to confide in other people, people he didn't even know, he would fall in love with women even if it was just a picture. One such thing occurred when he was flipping through a magazine and he saw a woman modeling for a thing called a Space Dye-Vest, he being oddly confused fell in love with the girl in the picture.

Hence the lyrics:

Falling through pages of martens on angels,
Feeling my heart pull west,
I saw the future dressed as a stranger,
Love in a space dye-vest.

Or the part:

Found a new girl I think we can make it,
As long as she stays on the page.

Just thought it would be nice to post the statement of John Petrucci to Ultimate-Guitar, he speaks about the new album, the songs he wrote, ths shows, the tour, and much more!
Here's the link:

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/intervie ... eater.html

thanks for the link cool little talk.