>Did these people every listen to the actual album?

many times... apparently your opinion is invalid if you've only heard it once... sounds like stockholm syndrome to me

Reddit is an echo chamber roflmao

Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off

I mean, this has a LOT of issues, sure, but it is overhated :/

Album Rating: 1.5

"Did these people ever listen to the actual album? Do they realise there might be something to dislike about it? Lol"



pls dont get me started on post-portnoy dt

Album Rating: 2.0

Actually, I'd like to hear your take!

Album Rating: 1.5

Mangini is by actual technical standards, a god on the drums, there is no getting around that. The problem (being a common complaint among detractors I feel) is that there is no "passion" behind Mangini's playing. It's mechanical, sterile, there's no humanity at the seat. I will give him credit where due of course because he is astoundingly proficient, and to be clear I'm not saying he can't differentiate between forte and pianissimo. But he lacks enthusiasm on the releases. Whereas Portnoy for all his faults (former alcohol addictions, yelling at crew to get him Whoppers from Burger King in the studio, being a self-absorbed megalomaniac, and most of all dyeing his beard blue) would push the band to integrate new concepts and influences. It had, dare I say a sense of soul, even if it was still Dream Theater we are talking about. As a producer for their albums from Metropolis Pt.2 all the way up until BC&SL, Portnoy had a knack for reminding the band where their production ran thin or didn't give enough "umpf", where the life in the song needed to be brought out, and he knew when to absolutely wail on the drums and when to back off and experiment with neat sounding beats. He wrote his drum parts in a way that they would stand out but allow the music to mold to them, not so much just playing up to the ceiling allowed and just trying to be complex in the time signature alloted as Mangini does. Portnoy would fight to raise the ceiling with his drums, and even if the result wasn't always great, it still gave an honest sense they were trying to make great music.



The second reason Mangini is a bad fit is that he can't keep Petrucci in line from overdoing himself and he isn't doing the production and spit shine work into each album that Portnoy did. Those are big shoes to fill, and their mixing has generally been overglossed noodling (aside from self titled and distance over time (sorta)) since Petrucci has been sole prog-enitor of the band's direction and sound.



So yeah. Had to load a whiskey glass for that one.

Album Rating: 2.0

Thank you, I really appreciate your opinion. Dream Theater definetly lost something with Portnoy. I wonder if they gained something as well. But it's true, at least they tried some new things with him in the band.

Album Rating: 2.3

To be honest, the only post-Portnoy album I’ve been impressed with so far is A Dramatic Turn of Events. And even, I suspect it was exploiting that sweet Images and Words nostalgia, but it still had quite a few good songs regardless. Distance Over Time was ok I guess, but everything else has just felt too mechanical or perfunctory at this point

Album Rating: 1.5

@kalk

Np, I finished my whiskey so alls good. Yeah I'm glad I got to see them literally right before Portnoy left. He had the audacity and skill to chug water bottles in the middle of songs and spit-spray it into the air above the audience while also chucking drum sticks to the crowd. It was like he had a bandolier on his back of sticks. He definately had the biggest balls in the band with the shit he did, lol.



@Divergent

I can understand favoring that one. It truly did feel like a callback to I&W. That sweet Myung addition will forever be such a sick track.

Album Rating: 2.0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PgwSL6reWE



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDUqt9g44p0



Mangini doesn’t lack passion in general, he unfortunately just lacks passion with DT, even with Annihilator he was a beast behind the kit…

Album Rating: 2.0

Interesting clips! I wonder why he didn't let loose like that in DT so far. That he sounds mechanical in studio could be a production thing. Maybe his style just doesn't fit into the band and he is more like playing a role, to fill in Portnoy shoes, instead of just playing what he wants to play? Idk, it's weird. Instill dig DoT though

Album Rating: 1.5

@Davil

Man that is just depressing to hear. I mean, he's great there, it's just such a distinct change in his expression. Maybe he is really turned off by Petrucci's songwriting, lol. Or like Kalk said, it's a "filling in someone's shoes" thing and he fears it would change their sound too much to do his own thing?

Album Rating: 1.5

torturous

Album Rating: 2.3

Quite bad indeed

Very good album. Unless you actually listen to it.

Btw, blaming Mangini for DT's decline is like blaming Richter scale for a big earthquake.

Album Rating: 2.5

I don't know that I'll ever feel like listening to this album. That runtime deters me every time I think about doing so.

Album Rating: 1.0

I hate this album because it made every criticism against Dream Theater true.



Pretentious. Wanky. Self-Indulgent.

Album Rating: 2.5

I liked the part where LaBrie said "It's astonishin time" and astonished all those robots, truly one of the prog metal albums of all time.

Album Rating: 3.0

An astonishingly mid album.