Dream Theater "Systematic Chaos" Revealed

Equality 7-2521 wrote: johnobvious wrote: TheProgtologist wrote: Who cares about the cover,the music is all that matters!!!! I'm right with you Progtologist, but you and I both know by now that many people on this site are not content unless they can take people's creativity and express displeasure with it.  If someone creates something from nothing and dares to call it art, to many people that is only a way to open themselves up to being dismissed or worse, ridiculed.  It makes them feel important, as if their opinion is so refined and high-brow that if they haven't been appointed supreme critic of all, by gum, they should be.  To them, most people should not even try to create. This most often is not a conscience choice.  It is how society works anymore and many people are conditioned to have these types of reactions. In a world of political correctness where many people try and put a shiny veneer on all things, life is still about survival of the fittest.  If you are not the best, you lose.  There are so many meaningless threads on PA to back this up.  Which album/band/musician is better.  The constant need to determine "the best."   But you know what, in real life, I don't have to choose.  I can listen to Pink Floyd one minute and Yes the next and be totally content.  Maybe one is better than the other, but I can enjoy them both and not have to label one as "bad" and one as "good." Just live your life, take in what is around you and concentrate on things that are actually important.  The release of this album cover artwork should not determine whether your life just got better or worse.  Some person or people came up with the concept and created something that wasn't there yesterday.  I say good for them. I single no one out with these feelings.  It just seems fairly rampant around here on too many subjects.  If the music disappoints you, by all means pass that along in a constructive manner.  You paid for it (I hope) and are entitled.  But please temper your feelings about artwork or album titles or individuals in their attempt to 1)create something for you to enjoy and 2)make a living while doing it. (I now step off my soapbox) The artwork has alot to do witht he album. I core tenant of the progressive rock movement was linking all aspects of art together into a cohesive whole. The visual is an important aspect of the art and a high concern for it was shown both in the elaborate stage shows and album covers. The artists obviously put considerable effort into choosing and designing appropriate cover art. So shouldn't it be something that we dedicate a proportional level of scrutiny to? Obviously the art in no way effects the music on the album, but the album is comprised more of the music contained in it. "Just live your life, take in what is around you and concentrate on things that are actually important.  The release of this album cover artwork should not determine whether your life just got better or worse.  Some person or people came up with the concept and created something that wasn't there yesterday.  I say good for them." If you really believed that then why are you posting a rather lengthy response. Why are you even a member of this board if you think that the discussion here is a distraction from more important things?

I do LOVE the SE cover. I put it as my new computer screensaver right away. It seems that they are still working on it, though (the DT logo now appears on one or three- depends on versions- of the lights). Notice the nine ants to figure the band's ninth album, I guess.

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Tony, Close to the Edge did all right with just the band's name and the album title on it.  I'm not saying the artwork is not important.  It's just that everything that comes down the pipe is ridiculed by someone on here.  You don't do it, I don't do it.  But it depresses me when it is done.  If that's rubbish, so be it.  Every negative thread that gets started gets a post saying negative threads are bad.  Not so negative posts?