Quote Originally Posted by Kaboom
The other day i mentioned Spock's beard in class and only ONE guy out of 20 knew them. i wasnt too surprised by that though. it cant exactly be considered "mainstream" music. He told me
"if you like new prog, you should give dream theatre a try" so here i am, dloading away to see if the 20 € they'll rip me for the CD are worth it. so anyone can give me a little intro to dream theatre? you like, you hate? what makes them special? any specially cool albums?
thanx!
You'll find varying opinions about DT around here. But I think that we would all agree that you'll be hard pressed to find a better group of musicians from a technical standpoint. Where our opinions differ is when it comes to the singer (James LaBrie) and how stand-offish the musicianship can be.

Personally, I like LaBrie's voice, but I'm in the minority. A classically trained singer, he can be a little croonish at times and others will argue that his voice is not suited to this type of music. You only need to see him live once, to understand that his stage presence and lack of ego (leaving the stage completely during the instrumentals) make him the perfect match for this very talented group of musicians. There's a synergy there that I don't think would be possible with other singers.

Another criticism often spoken around here is that the music is complicated for the sake of being complicated to show off the talent, rather than because it adds any value to the songs. I'll agree that may be true at times, but I am still always amazed at the proficiency of the talent. And John Petrucci has to be one of the fastest and most talented guitar players of our time.

From a musical standpoint, if you like Prog-Metal, you'll like this. I don't know a lot of Spock's Beard's material. I only have Snow and Day For Night, myself. But I can certainly see how, if you are a fan of Spock's Beard, you would enjoy DT.

From an album standpoint, if you're looking for a place to start...there are three CDs that I can highly recommend. Scenes From A Memory is their signature release. It's a concept CD and is (IMHO) their best. Falling Into Infinity is their most commercially accessible CD. Released in 1997, I think that it has a bit of a hairband sound to it. Many songs on this CD would adapt to FM classic-rock-type stations really well. Lastly, I really liked their last release, Train of Thought. Very well constructed and well played.

The best way to experience and appreciate DT is live. If you don't have the opportunity to take in a live concert, there are several excellent DVDs available.

I'm sure that others here will pipe up with their own opinions. But mine is that, your friend is right, if you're a fan of Spock's Beard, Dream Theater will be right up your alley.