Metal Reviews

I recently picked up Octavarium to digest, trying to get me into some DT. These Walls was very epic, one of the best choruses I've heard, but the other tracks were lacking the same progressive ferocity. Then I picked up Train of Thought. Again, a really great track like As I Am makes a promising opener, then blah, back to mediocre. I gave it one last try, and got Systematic Chaos. WTF? Then I thought, this cannot be same DT you all speak of.

There old stuff has to be far superior to recent. Now assure me, is it? And if it is where should I start again?

Yes, the old stuff is of course far superior. All though if you think As I Am is the best thing on Train of Thought then maybe you'll disagree.

Images & Words is the obvious (but correct) place to start as an introduction to the band.

But from the way you're talking it's like you want to hear the albums once and pick up all there is to know about them. DT are a band that you actually need to show a bit of patience with, and give yourself time to fully appreciate.

Wow, you got their three worst albums if you ask me. I got into DT through Scenes From a Memory. It has got everything that's great about them, and a lot of catchy songs.

I thought that Train of Thought and Systematic Chaos were pretty cool albums. Beside the awesome solo deal in As I Am I actually think its the worst song on ToT. Songs like In The Name of God and Endless Sacrifice just maim it.

The albums you should have gone for it seems would have been: Images & Words, Awake, or Scenes From A Memory. Personally I think Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is one of their best albums (Right up there with Images and Awake) but alot of people would disagree with me so you may not like it either.

When I saw them all but two songs of the set were from those albums, hehe. Though I think they're pretty good to be honest. Falling Into Infinity and Six Degrees are the weakest for me, though all their albums have some merit.

I know. Frustrating.

Did you catch 'em when they came through, then?

Yeah, at the Braehead Arena (the worst venue in Scotland). I enjoyed it plenty, but a bit more Images & Words/Awake/Metropolis 2 would have been nice.

And they played that godawful Dark Eternal Night crap. Yech. Oddly, the kids in the crowd loved that number.

Pick up Images&Words dammit. And Progress through the albums one by one. I've actually come to like them better and better, and I find it quite hard to separate them if I were to set up a list. When Dream and Day Unite, and Falling into infinity is by far the worst albums IMO.

If your looking for a few songs that will get your interest peaked on DT, I would recommend New Millenium (Awake) and Pull Me Under (Images and Words), as these are the songs that I kept coming back to at first. I agree that the last three albums are not on the same level as their earlier work, but still offer some great moments in their own right. Panic Attack (Octavarium) comes to mind. Also, if you can find Live at the Budakon (probably spelled wrong), this does a pretty decent job of spanning their material up through Train of Thought.

Just some images and words:

What did you think of Symphony X? I thought they were amazing, best support slot I've seen.

As for DT, it seemed as if there was less setlist variation on this tour. Same three Systematic Chaos songs every night, plus the extended version of Surrounded. I Walk Beside You and Endless Sacrifice seemed to get a lot of appearances on setlists too.

New millenium is from falling into infinity, not awake.


You should check out In the presence of enemies Part I and II. LOVELY!

Train of Thought is my 3rd fav DT album.
1- Scenes from a memory
2- Images and Words
3- Train of Thought

Same thing when I saw them here in Sweden. Probably the worst concert I've been to so far. It's a good thing they served beer.

Anyway, Six Degrees is amazing in my opinion. Misunderstood, The Great Debate and The Glass Prison are among their best songs. The second disk is pretty uneven but it has got some great moments.

Going to see them in Minnesota this May, along with Opeth and Between the Buried in Me at Prog Nation. I'm pretty pumped up about it.

They were very good (second time I've seen them) but the crowd gave them nothing and the sound was pretty poor. The sound guys seemed to have them turned down quieter than Dream Theater.

I like both old and new DT equally. But I will mention that older DT is considerably less heavy than newer DT. It's also usually a bit more proggy and theatrical (not to say newer DT isn't those things, but there was a bit more "prog" and less "metal" on the band's older albums).

The thing is I don't think Dream Theater are very good at being "heavy." A lot of the louder stuff on the new albums just sounds like guys in their 40s trying to be edgy and street. Who listens to Dream Theater for the heaviness anyway?