Michael Corvin

There are two soundclips at Dream Theater - Official Website that sound promising, but expectations are extremely tempered after the Astonishing.

I'm digging the album art.

cdollaz

The Astonishing was it for me. Not only was it horrible, it made me reconsider their entire catalog and I realized that I just do not care for them anymore. It doesn't help that everything they do sounds alike and it just seems that they are repeating themselves over and over.

stvn1974

The Astonishing is the single worst album I have ever heard. I am still scraping cheese out of my speakers from when I first played it. Not sure if I will bother with this one.

Michael Corvin

I agree it was mind-numbingly terrible but amazingly enough it has a 3.5 star rating on Amazon with nearly 700 reviews. So confused on that one.

Jason

The Astonishing tour was enough to turn me off of this band for good. When I saw it they had a loudmouthed security guard yelling at people taking picture of the stage before the show even started, as if it was something of great value. He even got into a few (verbal) fights with people. A great way to greet people who just dropped real money to see this shit. The presentation was full of amateurish, repetitive CGI. Hell, when they broke for intermission I wasn't even sure if they show was over or not. And to top it off, they didn't even bother to do a basic encore. Yeah, I get it, they thought they had something special with this drivel, but throw people a bone and at least come back out for Pull Me Under. After hearing they were trying to shop this as a Broadway musical, all I could do was shake my head.

bunkaroo

I skipped the Astonishing tour but the 25th IAW tour wasn't too great either. LaBrie sounded like shit and that was apparently the case at most of the shows. I'm giving them one more chance and will see them at the SFAM show next month.

First spin of this isn't knocking my socks off. Certainly better than the Astonishing, but not sure if it's better than the other post-Portnoy records. Sound quality seems good so that's a plus. Biggest minus of course is Rudess' AWFUL sound choices. Ugh. They just stick out like a sore thumb these days. Get away from the digital sounds and try some more analog modelers!

ETA: I can see why "Viper King" is a bonus track. Oof.

Spiderbite

I have never understood the appeal or cult following of Dream Theater. Their stuff always sounded like pretentious crap to me. I have given them many listens over the years wondering what I am missing that so many seem to appreciate and I can't find it. And this is coming from someone that loves over-production in the studio.

stvn1974

I went ahead and ordered the new album a few days ago. I then noticed that when I sold The Astonishing I forgot to delete the album from my iTunes so I gave it a partial listen and then canceled the new album order.

JZ1276

Pull Me Under & Another Day. Only 2 Dream Theater songs I ever liked or listen to.

Michael Corvin

Should we update the thread title to *not dead*

I've listened to it 2-3 times and it's easily their best since Portnoy left. Of course they really couldn't get any worse than the last album...only way to go was up. The big caveat is that there isn't really a stand out track either. So the Dream Theater sound is finally back but they aren't breaking any new ground either, but after the Astonishing, maybe that's a good thing.

Untethered Angel and Paralyzed might be the two standouts thus far for me. Then there's one that Myung kicks off with some killer bass work that's pretty solid (can't recall the name off the top of my head).

I guess my only other issue is what I personally want, which is another heavy album in the vein of Train of Thought or Systematic Chaos. I think it's clear now that Portnoy brought the heavy metal side of the band to the table.

bunkaroo

I'm not sure I'd rank this better than ADTOE but it's close. I do think this is better than the S/T just because I feel like that was a half and half record - the first 4 songs were great and then it kind of petered out.

After a couple listens this one is actually the opposite for me. I think the first three songs are the least impressive and most cliche of the record. S2N and At Wit's End are really enjoyable.

Viper King still sucks.

Gunde

There's a Dream Theater cult following?
Come on now, I think plenty of their older stuff rocks, but there are far crappier bands out there with waaay bigger fanbases.

stvn1974

Dream Theater was nice enough to stream the album on their website so I gave it a listen and liked it enough to get the CD today. After the shit sandwich that is The Astonishing I had reservations but I really dig the new album. Glad I got the bonus track because it is really weird.