Dream Theater

Respecting others thoughts or beliefs is hard but important, we cannot be blindly biased and thats it. I respect others thoughts and keep whats mine for me .. DT are good and will always be.. Like them or not will not change a thing..

@lak89: I agree completely!

I don't see how you can say that the melodies in this album got lame and irritating for you, they are just so amazing so strong and powerfull, I just cant stop listening to it, its a brilliant work I would say its my favourite album ever, the melodies are beatifull with meaningfull lyrics, and balanced with some really cool heavy stuff, and you said you liked the orchestration of DT well this album has amazing orchestration...

@Diogo_:

Well, since you brought up the meaningful lyrics, let’s take a closer look at what John Petrucci has been writing to his audience, shall we? He leads with this:

“Riding out the wave
Content to feed off the machine
Bleeding us to death
The new American dream

You're blinded by your hunger
Beware your days are numbered”

He goes on to say this:

“Obsession at all cost
You'll be the death of me
Broken and torn apart
Why can't you let me be?”

Next:

“I have faced the demons of our most desperate moments
I have been the one to defend our pride
I have worn the banner of my abandoned brothers
I will be the first one to give my live”

The album continues in much the same way until finally concluding with this:

“Until one day I stopped caring
And began to forget why I longed to be so close”

Sure, one can argue about the subject matter of these individual songs, but when I look “beneath the surface” and read into these lyrics with my heart, I think I can see the real John Petrucci emerge (not the guitar god, but the simple man) and I understand what he’s trying to tell me. The very title of the album “A Dramatic Turn of Events” has been widely conjectured to mean the departure of Mike Portnoy, though I am of the opinion that it is a commentary on the band’s attitude toward stardom and its demands. The cover depicts a tiny man on a unicycle (his back turned to his audience) riding into the distance on a thin rope while below the tail of a giant jet bearing the Dream Theater logo flies in the opposite direction obscured by clouds. Events are dramatically turning.

The guys in Dream Theater have been giving it everything they’ve got for over 25 years. That's a very long time. At this point, they can do whatever makes them most happy and be glad with the things they've accomplished. I can honestly say that their music became the soundtrack to my days twice in my lifetime. I am thankful to them for that. They don’t owe me anything more.

I can see about six different meanings in the cover, and I can read five or six different meanings/viewpoints with the lyrics. Harkening back to various Beatle and Pink Floyd and Queen and so on....what fun for a change!!!

And so much of the lyrics and music ARE positive.

Remember this, folks. There were (are) so many Beatle fans who hated most of what followed after the 'Help' LP, and did
not like 'Hey Jude' or any of the solo offerings.

Sad.

Different strokes........

I

@DragonAttack:

Just for the record, I never used the word "hate" anywhere in this thread. Disappointment is quite different than hate.

to PS.
I know you did not say hate. Please take another look at my post again. I was making a reference about a set of fans of another band. Those slightly talented individuals made changes that some fans just didn't accept for one reason or another.

I agree with so much of what you've posted. I know exactly where you're coming from, because I've had the same feelings regarding some past favorite bands.

@Sabian:

“Dream Theater will only be Dream Theater with Portnoy.”

I’d like to weigh in on the whole “Mangini vs. Portnoy” issue, but please keep in mind that, while I’ve been a musician for my entire life, I’m not a drummer. The extent of my drumming expertise comes when I go on a hike with my djembe, sit on a rock near a stream, and fill the woodsy, afternoon air with the few ethnic rhythms that I know how to play. This gives me great pleasure, but it hardly qualifies me as an authority on the subject of percussion. The opinions that I’m about to express come purely from a listener’s standpoint and not from someone with any level of education about advanced drumming techniques.

Anyway, as you know, Dream Theater is very big on odd-time signatures and frequent meter changes. With Mike Portnoy on the drums, those changes always sounded natural, fluid, and even effortless to my ear. On ADTOE, I am very much aware of meter changes, which at times feel kind of abrupt and interrupting, almost like musical hiccups. While I’m not certain that this is due to Mangini (it has been said that he wasn’t given any creative input on the album), the inclusion of a different drummer seems a likely cause.

There have been many arguments brought up claiming that Mangini possesses much more technical prowess than Portnoy, but that tidbit of information isn’t important to me. The best way that I can describe what I feel is to draw an analogy to literature. When I’m reading a great work, I forget that I am looking at words typed on a page and I’m transported in my mind to a world of the writer’s creation. I become completely absorbed in the plot; nothing else around me exists. That is when writing is a success. All too often, I read the words of amateur writers, who are more than willing to derail the flow of their storylines to showcase their literary technique and vocabulary, and I’m not moved. This practice drags me right back from the ether and reminds me that I am sitting in a chair with a book in my lap. Not a success.

It’s the same with music. If I’m constantly jarred back to awareness by meter changes, I can’t possibly be fully absorbed by the sound, can I? For me, knowledge and technique count for much less in the arts than imagination and style. A person with a diploma in Comp Lit may never compose a single sentence that inspires me, yet a third grader might find the perfect blend of words and write a poem that makes my soul skyrocket. That’s just the way it goes. Portnoy had a way of composing drum parts that were highly-challenging, yet easily palatable. Even the most intense of meter changes sounded perfectly smooth. With MP on the drums, Dream Theater was able at times to raise me up to that higher realm. That is special. I certainly respect Mangini for his learnedness. He may or may not be the more technically-skilled drummer, but I still see Portnoy as the person who was born to play this kind of music.

“Dream Theater will only be Dream Theater with Portnoy.”

Agreed.

@Phrygian Sunshine:

Nicely worded and I can appreciate where you're coming from, I just can't say I agree with any of it. It sounds to me like you're a big MP fan, which is OK because I used to feel exactrly the same way but I just gave MM an unprejudiced chance, and to me he's better in every facet that is important to me in both drumming and DT's music.

@johncal:

After reading his recently-posted interview, I've gained a huge amount of appreciation for Mike Mangini. "A Dramatic Turn of Events" isn't a favorite album of mine, but Dream Theater is still right on!