Enjoy, I addressed my take on the proficiency debate 5 posts previous

What I really like is Portnoy's drums.

I feel that all of Dream Theater's musicians could be great in a different context, surrounded by people with vision who could guide that technique to serve the music. Instead we have that rare case of reverse symbiosis - where the whole is much less than the sum of its parts. And it gets worse as DT's members travel the world doing demonstrations and clinics in front people who applaud every display of incredible technique, like some sort of freak show circus.

That's one way of looking at it. Ironically, they all went to music school unlike most musicians of their genre. I think the takeaway message is that almost anyone who's fairly coordinated can be an expert music player, but it takes a true artist to compose.

Still, I greatly enjoy some of Dream Theater's playing. The lack of artistic talent when you have multiple amazing progressive players makes the music sound unorganized, yet they counteract that with a more radio-friendly sound. The point of progressive music is to experiment, so occasionally the music is intentionally clunky, and benificially so. Dream Theater's just clunky, but they clean it up with a radio-friendly sound so they still get an audience.

I don't want to trounce on them too much, however. Metropolis Pt. 2 was perfect.

Dream Theater are a really polarizing band, honestly. Some people are going to like them, and some are just not. As many know, I happen to like Dream Theater quite a bit, so here's my two cents:

The Astonishing reminds me a lot of the Metropolis/Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence era, but definitely not completely. To me, their combination of opera and prog is pretty damn cool, and this is a prime example of that. I certainly like this better than their brief period of experimentation with death metal. Yeah, sure, The Astonishing overstays its welcome a bit, but it's their best material on average since Octavarium (the song) IMO. I don't really give a **** about the story, frankly, I prefer just listening to the music. Metropolis was the only good Dream Theater concept album. Either way, it's decent. Not their worst, but not their absolute best either.

EDIT- At least they're still actually trying...

*cough*rolling stones*cough*

Of all the negative things people have to say about Drek Theater, I'm positive that 'clunky' is not one of those. If anything, their music is too polished.

Oh, and also, I think to truly appreciate Dream Theater you have to be able to appreciate the fact that they can actually write music. You don't even write music, you pathetic...

Oh, **** it.

And Stephanie Meyer wrote Twilight. She's the best, right? Much better than that whack John Milton free verse at the very least.

Wait wut? I actually want to hear this. :laughing: