Bands And Albums.

I've never heard a DT song I like.

I would make the assumption then that you haven't heard much from them then, NP.

Dream Theater is probably the most diverse band alive today. I would bet there's at least one song in their catalog that you would like.

I've heard at least 10 - 20 songs. I hate the production first. The chorus on the bass is nauseating. Voice is irritating. Songs are pretentious and forgettable.

Sorry, not trying to be yuck.

You dont like 'Take the time' or 'Pull me under' ?
I saw them live once, and was bored to tears, but the images and wods album was nice to listen to.
Espescialy at bedtime.

Listening to "take the time" again now. Here is a full critique.
From the start...
Hate the synth sound, the double bass, the guitar sound is ok until the first pinched harmonic ruins it. I hate low b strings on the bass and I can't stand the sterile feel to the bass players playing. I hate the glam sound. The voice is horrible in the style. All are talented. I just hate everything about their tastes. Everything for real. I hate the clean guitar sound. It's like all smooth jazz sounding. His voice sounds like Dave Mustaine on the verse. A wimpy clean voice with a forced buzzy distortion. I'm just :46 in. The background vocals are way cheesed. It's like they took all of the worst elements of '89 glam metal. Without any of the simple likable pop elements. On top of all of the tone and production issues I have with them their writing is so pretentious. At 4:00 I have found no redeeming qualities. The harmony leads aren't even melodious. It's just a bunch of notes. I don't like anything else yet by avenged sevenfold but for a harmony lead "bat country" has all of the technical prowess with gripping melody and is still metal. OK one redeeming quality is the lead at 5:11 - not bad. And the tone at 5:20 is great. I would never ever listen to that song again. It's gaudy in every department like a soap opera.

Gosh Paul tell us how you really feel LOL. Great critique. I was not familiar with any of their material when I saw them in concert. All I remember is the horrible vocals not fitting with the prog rock gymnastics. After a few songs I was more than done and left.

"Take the Time" is not a song I'd recommend for people who aren't fans of Dream Theater. Knowing Neanderpaul's music, I would have recommended something more along the lines of "Solitary Shell" or "Innocence Faded".

They've got a giant catalog and are incredibly diverse. But if you don't like it - hey - you don't like it.

As a vocalist, I have to say LaBrie is the man. Production though, often leaves alot to be desired. And for the love of God, Portnoy you are an AMAZING drummer, but your songs suck. His 'growling' lyric parts are like someone is taking good thrash or speed metal and wimping it down. It's like it's not 'hard enough' for metal but to ' I wanna be a badass metal guy' for something melodic. Petrucci's songs are much better. "Black Clouds and Silver Linings", hate every portnoy song, every Petrucci songs is damn good.

Another heads up along the lines of Lemur Voice, which is very good by the way, is Shadow Gallery. Their album "Tyranny" is a f***ing masterpiece. And the follow up to it "Room V" is pretty awesome to. Very much along the lines of DT, but they tend to not go off on some of the weirder tangents like DT does. For example, in Metropolis 1, when the keyboard solo ends and they start doing some sort of chromatic, crazed video game sounding thing over and over, just annoying. The part is about 30 seconds before the lyrics come back in "Before the leaves have fallen..." Yeah it's talented but for cryin' out loud the heavy metal jazz hour I can do w/o. I think DT is a amazing band but sometimes I think they try too hard. It's about thew music, NOT the technical brilliance.

WOW! "Take the Time" is a commercial song aimed at/for radio (God-forbid a metal band writes a song geared towards radio). Opinion is just that and nothing more, everyone has one...it's cool. But, never heard a Dream Theater song you liked, c'mon...You must be kidding! While they are not my favorite band, they're (in my opinion) one of the greatest progressive metal/hard rock bands ever, without a doubt. Right along side; Yes, Rush, Genesis, ELP, etc..."Scenes from a Memory" is my favorite release. Although, a great deal of they're material sounds very similar, but on the other hand, the range of styles is amazing, sometimes technical, sometimes melodic, progressive, heavy, etc...Portnoy (to me) is the new Neil Peart and absolutely incredible, and I must say (again, to me) in the top five drummers of all-time. Are they sometimes pretentious...Yes! But, lets face it, most progressive bands are...nuff said.

I sort of like this band. I used to be a gigantic fanboy but I stopped listening to them after Train of Thought. Except for "Images and Words", "Awake", Hell's Kitchen off of FIF, and "A Change of Seasons", I think their discog is absurdly pretentious and pretty "meh".

Expecting at least 1,000 comments about why my opinion is stupid.

I kind of agree with you on the differences between Jordan and Kevin. Both were great keyboard players though, and both brought something magical to the table.

In terms of the wrost DT album, I seriously would say probably Train Of Thought. Octavarium took a long time to grow on me too. Don't hate me...

The best? Toss up between Awake and Six Degrees....fo sho.

Listening to "take the time" again now. Here is a full critique.
From the start...
Hate the synth sound, the double bass, the guitar sound is ok until the first pinched harmonic ruins it. I hate low b strings on the bass and I can't stand the sterile feel to the bass players playing. I hate the glam sound. The voice is horrible in the style. All are talented. I just hate everything about their tastes. Everything for real. I hate the clean guitar sound. It's like all smooth jazz sounding. His voice sounds like Dave Mustaine on the verse. A wimpy clean voice with a forced buzzy distortion. I'm just :46 in. The background vocals are way cheesed. It's like they took all of the worst elements of '89 glam metal. Without any of the simple likable pop elements. On top of all of the tone and production issues I have with them their writing is so pretentious. At 4:00 I have found no redeeming qualities. The harmony leads aren't even melodious. It's just a bunch of notes. I don't like anything else yet by avenged sevenfold but for a harmony lead "bat country" has all of the technical prowess with gripping melody and is still metal. OK one redeeming quality is the lead at 5:11 - not bad. And the tone at 5:20 is great. I would never ever listen to that song again. It's gaudy in every department like a soap opera.

Not trying to put anyone down...but I usually find that the people who think Dream Theater songs are pretentious are usually not very good players and don't "get" the music. Anyone...?