✦✦✧✧ The band is clearly done experimenting with brevity, as heard in their previous Distance Over Time. Too bad. Fun fact: James LaBrie has been in this band for thirty years. I still don’t like his voice very much, but this is some of his least offensive vocals, so there’s that. See the rest here
✦✦✦✧ This is just like Dream Theater, except better in virtually every way. That is to say, the cheese is the same, but the vocals and keyboards are a smidge more restrained. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ Props to DT for coming out with a grittier, tighter version of themselves on this album (somewhere in the musical ballpark of “Scenes From A Memory”). The shorter compositions lead not only to a sharper focus often missing in the past, but this feels in some ways like the best-yet fusion of DT’s twin penchants for heavy technicality and pseudo-emotive composition. See the rest here
I think there are actually two amazing things here:
1) “[Y]ou somehow have managed to avoid the calcification of musical tastes that is a basic biological fact of age. How did you do that?” I agree, this is truly exceptional. In case you want to know what the near opposite of what you have been able to achieve is, here is a list of the ten albums I have most recently purchased:
I just discovered a man on Reddit who’d done the 80s hard rock lead guitarist thing, without commercial success, and lost the drive for it. Gave up guitar playing, settled down, had some kids. About a year ago, he was somehow inspired to come out of retirement for fun, to see if he could play a fairly advanced classical guitar piece. See the rest here
✦✦✧✧ This feels like DT’s take on Pink Floyd – The Wall… but doesn’t work nearly as well. The band repeatedly make bad trades by subduing their collective virtuosity in exchange for limp and forgettable songwriting. Also, these songs have a bad habit of going from Shred to Meh’d and back again, undercutting any hope of momentum. See the rest here
I’ve gotta give Mike Portnoy props for doing this even remotely well, and for seeming to know a whole lot of other band’s tunes. Also, I’m totally into forcing bands who want to promote their new albums… into playing on preposterously shitty gear.
Thanks for answering my questions. It’s taken me some time to absorb. First, thanks for introducing me to the term “reunion-aged.” I feel that’s going to be very useful in a few years when all the NWOAHM bands that have just recently disbanded get back together. Second, I absolutely agree with your sentiments about Kreator and Overkill; age has neither lessened their aggression nor the impact of their live shows (and Mille is only 47–I was surprised by that). See the rest here
The Dolving material sounded great. Marco can pull it off with no trouble. I teared up a bit during The Dead Eye songs. Damn, was that a great album! As for DT, in fact, they played a headlining gig the next night, so I’m sure they took their time there. See the rest here
Thanks for your intrepid reporting, as always. Nice to hear that the Haunted and Kreator ripped it up as usual. I was surprised to see they played so much Dolving era stuff—how did those tunes sound? And as for DT, a 90 minute set is like a preshow warm up for them—they must have had to go to another venue to play another 3-4 hours after Loud Park to make it worth their while. See the rest here
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