hype? hopeful hype...lol

Let's say I could be slightly, a tiny bit excited. I still think James should just play the Kazoo and stop singing. It would make the songs more listenable

Let's be honest, it's probs gonna suck. Band hasn't released anything good in ages.

Band blowz. m/

I want to doxx everyone who still likes new Dream Theater. State your name publicly, stand behind your wretched beliefs.

I didn't much care for Train of Thought, so I'm a bit worried. I guess we'll see though. That tour is going to be one to remember though.

Also lol those song names. Wtf is a barstool warrior?

it'll most likely suck but I really appreciate the shorter run time, hopefully that'll lead to less filler

probably won't though

Go to the comment section on DT's page on Facebook lol. There's plenty of people saying things like "It took multiple listens, but I ended up loving The Astonishing" just to defend this once great band. It's fucking hilarious.

Still remains my all time favorite band, but the last two outings where abysmal. I stand behind A Dramatic Turn of Events though, that album was actually pretty good and better than some older albums (Systematic Chaos, Black Clouds and Silver Linings, Falling Into Infinity). So Lucca, Here I am and I'm not running!

BC&SL and FII are pretty good actually.
The Astonishing has its moments, but the weak parts about it outnumber the good stuff

By picking the interesting songs from the Astonishing you can actually make a pretty decent 40 min. album, rest was utter shit though. Still a little bit excited (mixed with anxious) for this release. I never really got bothered by James' voice, it's the lyrics I can't stand these days.

The Astonishing should've been 40 minutes and should be mixed and mastered from scratch, meine liebe does it sound bad

Yea, the production on TA sucks

Their production has never been amazing though. The drum sound on Six Degrees is all I'm gonna say on that matter.

They haven't had good production since BC&SL... I honestly liked most of the production before that record though. I liked the drum sound from Falling into Infinity to Six Degrees...

Metropolis Part 2 was nice and warm, good production

might be a 3 idk

Still love these guys, but nothing has really wowed me since ADTOE. I did enjoy the last 2, however the self titled doesn't really offer anything 'new' and is pretty tame by DT standards and TA had some interesting, new ideas, but was a bit underdeveloped.

Hopefully the shorter length means they keep the pace/energy up. Intrigued.

Oh no, The Astonishing is anything but "underdeveloped." 3 hours of absolute crap.

even the good dream theater sucks

The good ideas on that overlong thing were

Still remains my all time favorite band

What these guys did in the 90s was awesome. Sadly there isn't much of that spark left

@Hawks So am I to be honest. Wanted them so badly to remain as good as they were. Got to know them when I was about 15 when Octavarium was just around the corner. It was the first time I heard anything that sparked my guitar interests so much that I just HAD to play that. Between my 15-20, it remained something I listened to and practiced almost daily and became close to an obsession for me. Haven't had that with any other band, hence the place it has for me.

Moar of that shredding shit feast

Zero musicianship

Their heavier music is what I prefer but I still find that when Labrie comes into a heavy song with his whiny vocals I'm like eh. It just ruins the song for me. Every time. It doesn't fit the heavy music. I can listen to this band's instrumentals and be into them then Labrie comes in and it's just like deflating a balloon.

MEN.

wow the positivity here is endless

Dreamen Theater

Labrie is just cringe. I'm sorry. I saw a live video of Labrie and he was punching the sky as he sings and he was like pretending hes pulling a rope from the sky. Can't make this shit up. If his voice were just a bit deeper It'd be great.

the fact that they shortened the songs' length might be a positive signal

LaBrie is godawful live anyway. He probably was quite decent 20 years ago but man he fucking sucks now

I swear they've already put out a song called "Pale Blue Dot" idk rings a bell

portnoy please come back ahhhhhhhhhhhhh

LaBrie needs to make a change to fix this dying duck. This DYING DUUUUHUUUUUCK!

Mangini is more of a problem than Labrie tbh, so boriiinnggggg.

The Astonishing and A Dramatic Turn of Events weren't written with Mangini, so it makes sense his drum parts were boring af on those two records. I thought they were quite nice on the self-titled, but they just sounded quite shitty

Portnoy is irreplaceable in all fairness but idk, just find Mangini very dull even though he is clearly very talented.

Don't trust them! They've stolen the idea of shortening the songs from Haken!

"Wtf is a barstool warrior?"

Uhhh... maybe something to do with Barstool Sports, I'd imagine?

Gonna try to keep an open mind, even if The Astonishing was ultimately a mess.

10 is a typo, it's listed as "Vaper King" on their facebook.

So is this bonus track the closer on the CD? I don't get it.

I have hope for this, the astonishing had some decent sections but they got butchered by the mediocre parts along the way.

Well, it's obviously a bonus track - not the official closer

I get that but doesn't being the last song on the album make it the official closer? I guess I just haven't seen or noticed anyone print a bonus song on a full release album and not the deluxe/extra/digital edition, is this common?

Not really, if a song is a bonus track it's not part of the official album. But you're right of course, it's the last song on the record and will be played after the closer. A good closer also works as a closer. It should bring the record to a satisfying end. Any track after that should feel like a hidden track or something like that. If DT sequence the record poor enough the bonus track could work as a better closer though. But I don't think that will happen.

"I guess I just haven't seen or noticed anyone print a bonus song on a full release album and not the deluxe/extra/digital edition, is this common?"
^Well, I've seen that quite some times in the past. Like many Rise Against records had bonus tracks depending on the country and it was no special edition. Doesn't seem too common nowdays, I agree

Bonus tracks are different than special edition tracks, specifically to get people in other countries to buy the locally made version of the album rather than importing the regular version for more money. It's why a ton of metal albums have Japanese bonus tracks.
But ya this having a bonus track on the normal edition is kinda weird.

This is guaranteed to be shite. I just wish that they would call it quits and focus on side projects instead of further destroying the brand of the band, given there they genuinely released some gems in the 90s.

More info on the album, and especially the track "Barstool Warrior":

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/dream-theater-john-petrucci-interview-distance-over-time-755486/?fbclid=IwAR0yU2mv31nmFzbvrykHjnyJmsi71NZsqdz0tDux20hSNa5kjAf-cNpUv50

Going to sound a little like Genesis/Yes/Pink Floyed

Mh. Cooouuuld be nice... maybe. A tiny bit. Until the vocals come in

Hawks coming in here like he didn’t listen to cradle of filth for years

Hawks sucks

Hawks rules wtf

nope sorry

O'Doyle rules!

Do think any of the members of this band could name every song they've written

Zero chance of this being good.

Cautious hype. I need to warm up to Labrie every record though. They're all really nice guys but I'm just not a fan of his sound, it's dated and cheesy.

I didn't much care for Men of Thought, but I still might give this one a try I guess... still have a sort of soft spot for this band.

"Mangini is more of a problem than Labrie tbh, so boriiinnggggg."

He's probably one of the most boring drummers around. Technically he's a beast, but even my grandma has more groove than him.

Mangina

It's not Labrie's awful vocals, it's not Mangini's poor imagination nor Portnoy's absence. It's the f...ing lame compositions of John Petrucci in all albums after Octavarium. This is the core of the problem. And the culmination of frustration was The Astonishing. What a waste of recording machines. We're talking about the guys who released Awake, aren't we?

Good buddy is the vocalist of Falset (Labries son is the drummer), lived with him for a bit, and I've been hearing a lot of how awesome, friendly he is. Gave me a new found interest in the band, so I'll be checking this out. Hopefully better than their last few releases.

I don't have any expectations but the good part right now is the album and song lengths. Maybe they focused on songwriting

If this actually sounds like ToT, it would be the ultimate catharsis after, well, 2016...

At least this one isn’t multiple hours long

Labrie has always been a weak vocalist. Now that the band are also treading water instrumentally, the crap vocals are even more evident.

Dayum people, are there no fans left at all on this site?! So much negativity...
I'm convinced this band can't win here.

I think they're still pretty damn consistent, given how many albums they have and how long they've been around. You can't expect them to put out another I&W/Awake/SFAM/Six Degrees (that's just not realistic given their career stage), however I'm sure this will be AT LEAST solid.

So, I'm cautiously optimistic. I don't expect this to be TOT-level heavy (though that would be awesome and a great idea at this point), but it's obviously gonna be more meaty than TA.

I just hope they get an outside producer and feature some people. The idea was good to have a legit score-artist do the orchestral stuff on TA but the material was too bad sadly. Some arrangements were well done because of it though

Agreed that Petrucci's compositions are becoming less inspired... I liked TA as a project but it wasn't great musically.
I'm cautiously optimistic. I love this band, so Im going to be excited for anything they do. Will listen with open ears and a smile on my face.

@dante: I still consider myself a big fan. An extremely hesitant fan after their last album, but a fan nonetheless. I've typically been one to defend them, and it hasn't been until recently that I found LaBrie to be unenjoyable, if that tells you anything (mostly during live shows). Even when they released a weak album, there was still the makings of something great and solid...their last album basically had none of that, or if it did, it squandered that potential with the horrendous execution. So, naturally, even a DT defender like myself is skeptical.

Well, apparently there's a new song out tomorrow, Untethered Angel, so we'll all get a first glimpse very soon!

I predict: It will be a wither-esque ballad, which means I will be ashamed to like it anyway lol

And, yes, I will concur that the Astonishing is deeply flawed. I think it has some great melodies, but the story I see like a good first draft that needed more depth. And the music itself is good, but not much of their signature prog or metal to latch onto - they spread themselves too thin, there was 'not enough meat on the bone'.

Considering this is less than half the length of that album, I am hoping for a much more consistent release.

They needed more bag pipes on TA. It could have been a sexy highlander story lol

Gonna listen to this, but I bet the lyrics continue to be embarrassing. How do you go from writing the lyrics to Innocence Faded to whatever the Astonishing was.

Boy oh boy. Dreams do come true!

band is zzzzzzzzzz

also the new song leaked

gay band petrucci rips tho

New song is on Spotify

Band blowz. m/ [4939483282586594939]

Yeah...DT has become incredibly dismal for me...even the DT I legitimately liked back when I was super into them (Images & Words through Octavarium) has sort of soured with me years removed. And if they have to tune down for the Scenes From A Memory set like they with I&W then count me out. I’ve watched videos of the latter and I didn’t think James could suck even more live until I saw that.

lol some of these comments

I thought this came out already and everyone just forgot