Album Rating: 4.0
Currently at Midnight Messiah (which, granted, I've already heard since it was a single), and I have to say, the album is quite good so far. Despite Portnoy returning to the band, I'm glad that those stupid faux-aggro impulses weren't tapped into here. The record still has a dark sound and theme, but without a lot of the macho posturing that marked the worst moments of ToT and Black Clouds. It feels more like a compromise between classic DT and their more aggressive stuff, and I'm liking the balance at play
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Album Rating: 3.5
definitely the strongest this band's been since...like 20 years ago when Octavarium dropped. Not bad at all. Midnight Messiah probably my least fav actual track because the faster parts do not jive well with the rest of the song IMO
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Album Rating: 4.0
Also, hot damn... Shadow Man Incident absolutely destroys the t/t of AVftTotW, as far as their recent epics go. Much more inspired and purposeful, and the instrumentals are just fantastic
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Album Rating: 3.4 | Sound Off
Glad to see some opinions coming through from people that actually listened to it ;)
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Album Rating: 3.5
3.5 is about as high as this band gets for me outside I&W and Metropolis, so this is a praise rating lol
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Album Rating: 4.0
4 is definitely where I'm at with this. I was fully expecting to give this a 3.5 based on a few of the singles, but the deep cuts carry the album quite a bit further. Bend the Clock and Shadow Man Incident alone are enough for me to bump it up to a 4
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Album Rating: 3.4 | Sound Off
I think The Shadow Man Incident was my biggest surprise. Their super-extended songs are usually too boring for me. Too much build and too much random wankery for me, but The Shadow Man Incident doesn't suffer from either of those problems.
@Venin: 3.5 is a solid rating even if you were actually a fan of the band, so that's saying something for sure.
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Album Rating: 3.5
yeah this band has never quite scratched the right feeling I like in my prog metal (i think Haken has a few albums better than this) but for what it is, it's fun
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Album Rating: 3.5
Yea, I am not the biggest Haken fan, but they're definetly better than modern DT
I will check this today. Call me mildly excited!
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The new Opeth album destroys this.
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Ngl pretty funny the album that sees Portnoy return to DT is called Parasomnia when the one that saw him leave was called Nightmare.
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Album Rating: 3.4 | Sound Off
I never made that connection. That is kind of funny. I honestly wonder if it was intentional.
@WhiteNoise: Actually listening to the new Opeth right now. First Opeth I've really liked since Ghost Reveries.
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Album Rating: 2.5
A lot of aspects about this really reminds me of Visions by Haken. Good stuff.
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Album Rating: 4.0
"A lot of aspects about this really reminds me of Visions by Haken. Good stuff"
Literally the worst Haken album by a mile, but cool I guess
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Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
I wholeheartedly agree with the comment about Rudess sounding very dated, it really sounds like the guy is just doing what he has done from Octavarium onwards without any changes. Especially him just using different patches than what was cool in the 00s would have elevated this record so much. LaBrie also drags this down, but that was to be expected. Petrucci and Portnoy always have their flair, eventhough they are also just doing the same as they have always been doing lol (not biased btw).
Overall though, not hating it thus far, was expected to be heavily dissapointed based on the singles but they age quite well I suppose?
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Album Rating: 3.5
I am on Midnight Messiah atm. The jam parts are just more fun with Portnoy! Also they somehow made James more bearable here. Maybe AI did help on the production side of things? Yes, I am fully aware I am very uncheritable
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Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
The production honestly helps a ton for LaBrie. They really tried to muffle him in effects on previous records, and here he sounds quite natural, probably with some auto tune but it is well hidden. Helps that they also wrote vocal lines that are more boring, but fit better in his current range.
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Album Rating: 3.5
Yea, the part about the vocal melodies helps a lot. It was very distracting in the past
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Album Rating: 3.5 | Sound Off
This might honestly just be the best mixing/mastering job the band has ever had. Everything is very clean but not overly processed. I'm still surprised they completely lost that aspect when Portnoy left, it's not like he did the mixing himself lmfao
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Album Rating: 3.4 | Sound Off
I re-listened to all five Mangini albums to prepare for this, and I was surprised at just how bad the productions/mixing were compared to what came before (and this one). Dramatic Turn of Events is so damn muddy, and they all have terrible drum sounds and weak guitar sounds.
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