Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos

[Rich-n-Texas]

You know, I wasn't a fan of this band at all when I heard the first few albums, but then I started getting into them just a few years ago. If you like this album, then by all means, pick up their last few albums, all the way back to the Scenes From A Memory. Superb song writing and album structure. I love their crunching sound. There are some very good metal bands around in this same genre, but few have the same crunching, Sabbathesque sound that DT has...its Metallica with bass! Their amps definately go to 11.

That's a good way to describe it. My metal roots are in Black Sabbath, and although I think heavy metal purists have great disdain for Metallica, to me their stuff is much more polished and appealing than some of the gritty raspy stuff (The Death Metal flavor comes to mind).

As far as computerization is concerned, many bands use computers to make music these days. Some artists embrace new technology, some don't. DT is definately a band that embraces it. Have you seen any of DT's concert DVDs? I own Live At Budokan; they certainly do put on a show and the sound is stunning. The keyboard player's set up is a marvel, not just in technology, but in function as well. Talk about multi-tasking...I'm amazed that he can operate this thing and play music as well. Most musicians I've met just know their instrument and that's it...they may or may not know, where to plug them in.

No, haven't seen any, but I'm trying to build a live concert DVD collection so I'll check it out. Amazon's got the Live at Budokan disk; not sure if there are any sample tracks available and how much it costs, but I'm sure it's worth it. Thanks for the suggestion.

You know, you may be a candidate for Threshold...

I'm almost all ears (except for a little bit of high frequency hearing loss )! And I'll listen for any traces of Dokken Kex.

[Rich-n-Texas]

I have 2nd-row-center seats for the DT show in Chicago on August 10th.
Naturally I had to buy this CD to learn all the music because they will be promoting (at least some of) it on the new tour.

Rich..........
1) I also bought this along with S&A.........good job......and
2) Yes........Portnoy, Petrucci & Myung are all from Long Island and studied together at the Berklee school in Boston..........Rudess joined much later.

I'm wondering why I didn't pick up on the Long Island accent. I'm becoming intrigued with this band so I guess I was more interested in hearing what they were saying rather than how they said it.

And I'm curious though as to why John Myung didn't get any talk time in the documentary? (Already asked and answered?)

[ForeverAutumn]

You know, you may be a candidate for Threshold...

Speaking of Threshold...have you heard more than just their latest one? If I want to pick up another CD of theirs, can you make a recommendation as to which one?

[kexodusc]

Speaking of Threshold...have you heard more than just their latest one? If I want to pick up another CD of theirs, can you make a recommendation as to which one?

I asked this question myself last night when deciding what album to buy with Dead Reckoning...the general consensus I found almost everywhere was 2002's "Critical Mass".
Haven't ordered it yet, I'll wait and see what happens here...

Nobody around here stocks these guys.

[GMichael]

If you guys (and FA) keep this up, I'll have to run out and try this band. I tried PT and was very disappointed. Is this group better?

[kexodusc]

I tried PT and was very disappointed.

Pfffff....what do you know? j/k
Which Porcupine Tree CD did you try?

Is this group better?

Which band DT? Depends what you're looking for in music I guess, but IMO, definitely.
Threshold? Early signs suggest "not quite" to me, but they seem to be less on the whinny, artsy side of rock'n'roll than PT - which might make them more palatable to you?

[3-LockBox]

Speaking of Threshold...have you heard more than just their latest one? If I want to pick up another CD of theirs, can you make a recommendation as to which one?

I've not heard the new Threshold in total, I have Critical Mass and Hypothetical, which are 5 and 6 years old respectively. I have heard Subsurface, but wasn't bowled over. Their older stuff is proggier to my ears. Lots more keyboard as well (but not in a bad way ) I'd recommend Critical Mass. Parts of Hypothetical are great, parts are so-so, like early DT.

Kex's Dokken analogy is pretty close. Some of Threshold's shorter tunes verge on '80s cheese, but they shine on their longer compositions. They never delve too deeply into the relm of male/female relationship fodder of the '80s though (cock rock, it is not). Its prolly hard for this band and DT to escape comparisons to '80s metal simply because they play normal hard rock and have singers who sing in standard, non cartoonish voices.

[kexodusc]

Kex's Dokken analogy is pretty close. Some of Threshold's shorter tunes verge on '80s cheese, but they shine on their longer compositions.

Whaddya mean "80's cheese"??? Dokken rules!

[Rich-n-Texas]

I remember Dokken, Scorpions, Night Ranger and a few other bands who I think all fit into a *category*, but I don't think they were called "cheese" bands. Was it Glamm rock?

Did he say cock rock?

[3-LockBox]

I remember Dokken, Scorpions, Night Ranger and a few other bands who I think all fit into a *category*, but I don't think they were called "cheese" bands. Was it Glamm rock?

Did he say cock rock?

Amazing what you can, and can't, say on this forum. Don't even try to say Donald ***en though...

No...there's no genre named 'cheese rock' that I know of...glam rock or glam metal is the correct terms for cheese rock.

[GMichael]

I remember Dokken, Scorpions, Night Ranger and a few other bands who I think all fit into a *category*, but I don't think they were called "cheese" bands. Was it Glamm rock?

Did he say cock rock?

We always called them, "big hair bands."

[Rich-n-Texas]

That's what it was. I think it was artists like David Bowie (Ziggy Stardust) that were lumped into the Glamm rock category.

[PeruvianSkies]

Most Dream Theater fans will recall September 11th 2001 as not only the date that the World Trade Center was attacked, but also the date when their LIVE SCENES FROM A MEMORY was released, it was a Tuesday. I was in college at the time and woke up that morning headed for school and to ramp me up for the release of this CD, I decided to put in the song 'Trial of Tears' for some odd reason. Unbeknownst to me at the time, it was almost exactly at that same exact time that I was driving and listening to this song that the first and second attacks were taking place. Later on I made the connection and realized that the lyrics of the song reflect what was happening "it's raining on the streets of New York City...it's raining, raining deep in Heaven". How insane is that? Then, to my shock when I was picking up the CD a few hours later (post-attack) to find that album cover with the Dream Theater logo and the city of New York blazing on fire.



The album art was later recalled and I still have two copies of the CD with original artwork, one opening and one still sealed.

[ForeverAutumn]

Oooh. I got shivers reading your story.

I knew about the CD cover, but didn't get into DT until a year or so after 9/11. Otherwise, I would have had that cover too. I've bought every DT disk since Train of Thought on the release day.

[PeruvianSkies]

Oooh. I got shivers reading your story.

I knew about the CD cover, but didn't get into DT until a year or so after 9/11. Otherwise, I would have had that cover too. I've bought every DT disk since Train of Thought on the release day.

I've always wanted to give you shivers...now I can die happy.

[PeruvianSkies]

After some serious listening time I wanted to post my comments about the overall quality of the CD, just the CD, not the DVD. So here goes....

Dream Theater, as most are aware, have not had a great history of good recordings on CD with their material, which is a crying shame. Most of their recordings do not exhibit the bands potential and feel compressed, restricted, and not very lively.

Heavy Metal and Hard Rock are not the easiest types of music for a system to handle well, no matter what the recording. I always find myself wanting to crank the volume up, but then my face turns bitter when I hear the harshness of most recordings once you get them crankin'. For Dream Theater, the mixture of a progressive rock feel has always been crippled by CD and the mix has always been rather blah. Systematic Chaos is not the greatest recording i've ever heard, but it's probably the bands best to date. The mix is a bit more interesting and I can discern more notes and overall clarity in the background and foreground of the mix. The low-end is present, but never feels fully engaged like it should or could...especially with a bass player like Myung and the fact that he plays a 6 sting bass. The more orchestral moments of the mix are decent, but don't swell as much as I think they should and feel a bit constricted, although the guitar is layered in rather nice. Track 7 is a good example of this at the very beginning.

I found myself turning the volume up generally much more on this recording than most other CD's for some reason. The vocals are comfortably centered for the most part with some good clarity and the full range seems exposed, which is a highlight for sure. The one thing that can be said is that this recording sounds much more 3-D than any of Dream Theater's previous albums. It's a much more balanced album overall with the right blend of each instrument and at any volume level. It still sounds a bit compressed, but overall I am satisfied and can only hope that they continue on with not only great albums like this one, but also super recordings. I'd love to hear this band on SACD.