Dream theater nomacs reddit full#

What does this mean? Well, the story being in focus means that the album is very much vocal driven. It’s very clear that the story existed first, before the music was written. In my opinion, this allows the focus be on the story.Īfter all, this is a story, first and foremost. For the people looking for long epics with extended sections of soloing and back and forth between instrumental dueling instruments, there is very little of that here. This also means that the music is much more constrained. Every song of the 34 songs is its own work, with a beginning and an end – with the notable exception of one track which flows into the next seamlessly. First of all, it consists of all very short and concise songs. The Astonishing is a much more accessible album than Dream Theater has become known for the past decade or so. That being said, this is a review will not be totally spoiler free, so if you want to experience the album without knowing too much, please stop reading here.

Dream theater nomacs reddit full#

I will not go through a full track by track (because doing so would also possibly give away too much of the story – and I won’t be spoiling much of the story here). Well, this is my opinion of the new album. Some were put off by the sci-fi fantasy style. And we had a trailer showing off a lot of the artwork. Then we had the release of the first preview of the album “The Gift of Music”.

We had e-mails and twitter messages from the leaders of these factions, presenting their side of the story. We got to sign up to two different “factions” The Great Northern Empire of the Americas, and the Ravenskill Rebel Militia. We got a webpage which slowly uncovered character portraits and a map of the world. Then, as time passed, slowly more and more information was revealed. The tour, presenting the full album from start to finish promised us a “momentous event”, which would see Dream Theater play with a full set of visual and stage dressing to match the album. The first confirmation about what the album would be came when the announcement of the tour came in mid November. Instead of the usual press release containing most information about the album, the process has been covered in a veil of secrecy. The marketing for the album has also been markedly different. The result is a very organic and acoustic sound, a particularly restrained album.

He and Jordan Rudess composed most of the music behind Rudess’ piano. John Petrucci wrote the story over a period of two years. This is a Dream Theater album very clearly like no other. The songs are focused, melodic and with a lot of attention given to acoustic instruments and piano. But, the average length of each song is just around 4 minutes, with the longest song on the album being 7 minutes and 41 seconds. It has the most tracks of any of their releases, with 34 separate songs.

But it’s the longest album in their catalog, clocking in at 2 hours and 10 minutes. It’s their second double CD album, the first since Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence. It’s their second concept album with a story as the centerpiece, the first since Metropolis part 2: Scenes From A Memory. In creating the new album they’ve done it by breaking all conventions they’ve established through their 12 previous albums. This is the Dream Theater album I didn’t know I was missing, but I sure am glad this is what we got. And best of all It contains so much fresh and interesting stuff. They’ve created a rock opera, complete with characters, places in a dystopian future gone retro-feudal society…Īnd: It’s a great, melodic album that clocks in at over 2 hours and 10 minutes, and it manages to be interesting all the way through. For their 13th studio album, they’ve chosen to make a very bold move. It’s a remarkable feat that Dream Theater have accomplished in “The Astonishing”.