THE ASTONISHING

Now Playing: Dream Theater - The Astonishing (2016) A couple of listens in now ( my, it's long ) and overall it's not a bad album, but IMO it's just too disjointed and there's no real flow from start to finish. At first it almost sounds as if DT were attempting to write their own version of "The Wall", but it never quite gets there. Lots of good melodies though, but why, o why does Mangini's kick drum have such an annoying "click, click, click" throughout ? I don't mind a bit of brightness on a bass drum, but for me it's overbearing and distracting on this record. I will listen to it again, but "Scenes From A Memory" this is not. One further note, why use character names like "Emperor Nefaryus" ? This isn't a Disney movie....unless DT are planning to start playing on a cruise ship and open a theme park. You can do better fellows.