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Topic ClosedDream Theater: Prog innovators or merely imitators
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Dean View Drop Down
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Points: 37575 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 20 2015 at 12:49
Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

Originally posted by Dean Dean wrote:

Ermm Labrie isn't the main lyricist for DT, Petrucci is, so that's all pretty academic (Portnoy wrote twice as many lyrics as Labrie)

 
I believe this is a mis-interpretation of what i said!
I believe it was a perfectly valid interpretation of what you said. That of course may not necessarily have been what you meant, but how are we to tell?

Originally posted by moshkito moshkito wrote:

 
Labrie lives in Toronto, not NJ. Again, it would mean that by the time he got there to sing the words, the music would be much more defined, than they would be with him in person from the start, and that would help the music be more suited to the instrumentation, than it would to the work with a singer ... unless Mike and others would be kinda singing along during the development of these pieces, and I find that hard to digest and is not mentioned in the book at all!
I doubt that LeRoquefort commutes from Toronto every day during writing, recording or rehearsal sessions so your point is pure speculation. 

I'm not aware whether the current Mike is a singer or not, the old Mike was/is not the best of singers so any assistance his singing would have given to the development process would be debatable.




I do understand what you are trying to say, you just haven't expressed it that clearly yet. Tongue
What?
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Points: 20468 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 20 2015 at 13:20
Originally posted by ExittheLemming ExittheLemming wrote:

It's no secret I'm not a Dream Theater enthusiast and although I can admire their technical proficiency, I do so with the same lukewarm regard I reserve for the sterile professionalism embodied by my Dentist. However, I've never really bought into the idea that DT provide a portal to the wider compass of Prog for initiates. Apart from the versions of so-called classic Prog tracks on Jordan Rudess solo albums and those covered by DT, I can't see any evidence for anyone sprinting down to a record store to buy all the Genesis, ELP, Yes, Crimson or Gentle Giant that they can afford after hearing a DT album. OK, it might turn a plain vanilla metal-head onto the likes of Rush, Opeth, Tool, Pain of Salvation etc but to my ears, DT is that tattooed chick in the leather pants who works in the library, has a share portfolio but considers gambling abhorrent and deems complete derangement of the senses might be delivered via a double skinny macchiato with croutons.
 
LOL
Very funny.
 
Not being a DT fan I had ignored this thread but I finally decided to read it and basically feel the same way about DT as Lemming.
I have tried to 'get into' their music for years but it always seems 'unmemorable' (is that the right word..?)  to me.
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Points: 20497 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 20 2015 at 16:14
^'Unmemorable" is the description that I've been looking for years to describe this band, Doc.
 
I can really get into some of their better stuff when I'm listening to it at the moment, but it never sticks in my head!
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Points: 109 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2015 at 14:50
Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

Originally posted by paragraph7 paragraph7 wrote:

I guess my reply is a tad late when it comes to the OP post. But since I don't consider DT to be prog at all; hence my answer would be "mere imitators".

LOL
come on, make my day, what are they playing then?

Metal obviously. What else?
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Cristi View Drop Down
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Points: 41327 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2015 at 14:52
Originally posted by TradeMark0 TradeMark0 wrote:

Originally posted by Cristi Cristi wrote:

Originally posted by paragraph7 paragraph7 wrote:

I guess my reply is a tad late when it comes to the OP post. But since I don't consider DT to be prog at all; hence my answer would be "mere imitators".

LOL
come on, make my day, what are they playing then?

Metal obviously. What else?


LOL
what kind because this metal you're talking about is quite diverse Wink
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bloodnarfer View Drop Down
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Points: 2162 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: February 23 2015 at 15:40
Originally posted by ExittheLemming ExittheLemming wrote:

It's no secret I'm not a Dream Theater enthusiast and although I can admire their technical proficiency, I do so with the same lukewarm regard I reserve for the sterile professionalism embodied by my Dentist. However, I've never really bought into the idea that DT provide a portal to the wider compass of Prog for initiates. Apart from the versions of so-called classic Prog tracks on Jordan Rudess solo albums and those covered by DT, I can't see any evidence for anyone sprinting down to a record store to buy all the Genesis, ELP, Yes, Crimson or Gentle Giant that they can afford after hearing a DT album. OK, it might turn a plain vanilla metal-head onto the likes of Rush, Opeth, Tool, Pain of Salvation etc but to my ears, DT is that tattooed chick in the leather pants who works in the library, has a share portfolio but considers gambling abhorrent and deems complete derangement of the senses might be delivered via a double skinny macchiato with croutons.

I'm not sure how it even happened, but some how Dream Theater gave 15 year old me a push in the right direction to get here.  Of course, their music is tailored to a young and nerdy (usually unwashed) demographic.  I was mostly into 2000's metal bands and classic rock when I discovered them, and they at least pointed me in the direction of Beardfish and some other bands via touring partners and social media.  I realized for the first time that progressive rock is an actual genre and I should probably go listen to the album with the screaming red face on the shirt that Mike Portnoy always wore. 

Now on the question of whether they are imitators, I would argue that they have been imitating themselves year after year for a long time now.  And many songs are thinly disguised classic prog pieces cut up with 'dream theater scales' stuck in between and the singer wailing over the top of it.

So yeah, I don't really understand the appeal of DT eight or however many years later.  But I won't downplay that they put me in the right direction, or at least got me thinking about music differently.  
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