Let's figure out Dream Theater.

I admit when I was getting into prog in my late teens I bout a DT album (I forget which one, maybe Metropolis?) that's quietly mouldering back in my parents's house. It was one of those times where you have a friend who's really into something and you buy into the hype... didn't last long. This is also why I have a couple of Porcupine Tree records, which, if anything, I regret more. From what I remember of this and hearing DT occasionally over the years is that the riffs/choruses etc. are just so perfunctory and obvious it feels like they're saying "don't worry kids, we have to get this pleb shit out the way so we can get to the REAL good stuff in a sec." I feel like good prog, jazz or whatever can use technicality to actually say something if they're any good. "Soulless"/"signifiers of emotion" really sums them up I think.

That said I'm not going to rag on anyone who likes them, people listen to music for all kinds of reasons, though I could only laugh if/when one of them tried to educate me on what "real music" is.

Anyway I thought up the phrase "virtuoso signalling" this morning which sums up this kind of empty musicianship nerd shit but I'm too tired and apathetic to fit it into a coherent joke

When I moved into my first student house we found a copy of Metropolis in one of the bedroom drawers, along with Countdown to Extinction by Megadeth and £3 in Marks and Spencer vouchers, I don't think we listened to either of them.

Countdown is a good album. One of Megadeth's best, IMO.

And definitely underscores why Dream Theater sucks. You could be technical and virtuoso and complicated and even tuneful and not suck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NF75xTzMuXw

i feel like this belongs on this thread

My head is exploding at the contrast between that guy's excellent footwork and his extremely sloppy snare fills. Also what is up with the weirdly clicky, high kick drum sound?

Also what is up with the weirdly clicky, high kick drum sound?

That's what modern metal kick drums sound like, so they can cut through the downtuned guitars and bass.

and they sound awful like typewriters from hell

Triggering.

Seen a bit in a magazine from Barney Greenway who is a fan and has collaborated with them. He said they were massively underrated as songwriters.

I still haven't tried them yet but that's a long way off yet. Too much classics to get to first.

"YOU NOODLE!"

just an absolute banger headline, thank you Ultimate Guitar pic.twitter.com/fItjWuK6Io

— domvan (@domvanford) December 13, 2021

lmao

from upthread

[Instrumental Bridge 5]

[Keyboard Solo 1]

[Guitar Solo 2]

[Chorus 1]

[Chorus 2]

[Instrumental Bridge 6]

[Hard theme alternate]

[Hard theme alternate variation]

2022 will go down as the year when Dream Theater released a song that I like unambiguously (even if it is a straight-up pastiche of Rush): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbzrxFRCyAk

Oh I guess it was released in 2021.

haha such a silly song

joyful

There's an even more Rush-alike song from their 2013 self-titled album. I worked for their label at the time and I remember laughing out loud the first time I heard it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Cf1CF6Avvc

The other day someone I follow on twitter responded to a Joe Bonamassa tweet that was in turn responding to a Guitar mag prompt asking for the best guitar album of the '90s. (I don't know anything about Bonamassa, never heard a note; iirc he picked an album by The Hellecasters.) Anyway, I made the mistake of scrolling down to see what others picked, and it was the usual 16th note sci-fi flurry shit: Steve Vai, Satch (iirc someone even picked "Surfing with the Alien," and stuck to their guns when reminded it was from the '80s). But, inevitably, someone picked Dream Theater, and I realized, you know, I've never really spent much more than a couple of minutes with them. Because this person also picked a specific track which (paraphrasing) had it all, I listened to that one, and woof - why would anyone want to listen to this? Why would anyone want to *play* this? The guitar was so precise, so technical and clinical, and so souless that it might as well have been an intricately programmed synth:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEKTNtmKZEw

First comment: "The solo is just perfect, I think it has almost every imaginable technique on guitar"
Second comment: "It's not a solo, it's a clinic on how to make shred guitar tasteful."
Third comment: "whatever"

This song is what happens when everyone in a band thinks they're the most talented member of the band, including the singer.

This song is what happens when everyone in a band thinks they're the most talented member of the band, including the singer.

If I’m not mistaken, I think every member of dream theater has been on the cover of a very bad magazine associated with their instrument (ie modern drummer) multiple times. Plus, they have tons of fans who say things like “you are the greatest guitar player of all time, man!” on a daily basis.

Their lives are incredibly messed up

I do like this style of drumming in other contexts (metal, Greg Fox projects).

Their lives are incredibly messed up

Offstage they're some of the nicest people in the world. John Petrucci is just a dad from Long Island who spends most of his day practicing guitar and doing bicep curls, keyboardist Jordan Rudess is a giant dork and gearhead/inventor, bassist John Myung is incredibly chilled-out and one of the least fame-oriented artists I've ever met, and drummer Mike Mangini is, like, giddy when you talk to him. The singer, James LaBrie, I've never had any interaction with, but he's Canadian, so how bad could he be?

Sounds like having "tons of fans who say things like 'you are the greatest guitar player of all time, man!' on a daily basis" is a sound recipe for mental health!

xp that doesn’t surprise me! I still tbey they must be completely messed up. There’s no way you play a 19-string bass and then do yard work

Somehow I always forget that portnoy left dream theater in 2010.

Also somehow I missed that portnoy was with avenged sevenfold for a minute?

Look let's just be thankful that the surviving members of Rush haven't formed a supergroup with the guy

Portnoy is so insanely busy, amazing this guy has time to sleep, considering how many long ass songs he plays on. I mean, just in the last five years he has recorded albums with:

Liquid Tension Experiment
Transatlantic
Neal Morse solo
Neal Morse Band (x2)
Flying Colors
John Petrucci solo
Sons of Apollo

not to mention associated touring with all of these acts

I think he is just always in a room playing a solo, and every once in a while somebody walks into the room and presses record for 8 minutes.

Hahaha

lol