Hating Dream Theater

Just like you find it hard to understand how someone can hate DT,I find it equally hard to understand how someone can like them! For one thing,they completely lack any kind of subtlety,they were brought up on a steady diet of the worst type of American stadium bands like Boston or (shudder!) Journey and their music is dripping with the same kind of syrupy,cloying sentimentality that always plagued those bands. I have always imagined that if Walt Disney had formed a progressive metal band it would have sounded like Dream Theater. The problem is probably that they are American. American bands,probably because of the AOR connection,have never managed this type of thing very well,they always wind up sounding far too banal. If you want the progressive metal thing done properly,you have to look to Europe. As usual.

Pixel Pirate wrote: /edit: If you want the progressive metal thing done properly,you have to look to Europe. As usual.

What, you mean like "The Final Countdown"?

 I'm not going to say DT is the best band of all time (it's not), but I would like to know how many DT-haters out there are Arena or IQ fans. I think there are many such people here. Why am I asking this question? Because the latter two bands keep recroding the same old album all over again. DT do not. Say what you like about them, no two DT albums sound the same. And some of you even admit that Dark Matter is the same old IQ music, but it's a good album and IQ are a good band, anyway. How can a band that didn't develop or at least change within the last 15 or so years be good? It's your subjective opinion, realise that, and admit that some bands that don't change AT ALL are sometimes described as amazing and DT are always downtrodden (or overpraised for that matter), no matter whatever they record. Always trying something new is the basis for an artist's being worthy of notice in my book, and settling into a comfortable niche after a one-off success means early death. DT definitely belong to the first category. So have some degree of objectivity, please, when you praise or critisise something and be very careful when assigning extremes of merit or flaw to anything, you just might be missing something important.   

DT getting too much airtime. Wow, I'd love to have access to a radio station where DT got at least a quarter of the airtime you're implying they get. 

A band full of Malmsteens? No, thanks. A band full of Satrianis? Yes, please. Don't compare people like Satriani, Vai or Petrucci to people like Malmsteen or call them 'shredders' it just shows that you've never heard anything by any of these guitarists.

Flashy technique? I can only think of DT instrumentals as somewhat "flashy", but highly musical nevertheless. Virtuosity is present in most of their songs, but it's almost always disciplined and serves the music, not the other way around 

All in all, I will stand by my opinion that DT is a good but flawed band that deserves respect for the sheer wealth of interesting riffs, motives, time signatures etc., but, since it became a little more popular over the years, it just had to become everyone's god/devil.  

So many people hate on Dream Theater because they really don't represent prog music very well.  Even though they are not prog music proper, they are probably the most well known prog band to emerge in the past 20 years.  So, at least for myself, the idea of DT representing progressive music upsets me more than their music. 

So many bands and artists today do not want to be labled progressive today because of what the label now represents to them.  The general public sees prog as adavanced metal, ie DT.  I remember reading so many articles that members have posted on this site where a reviewer would mention prog and shredding in the same sentence.

I really think that people just don't like DT for what they do to the genre of prog.  I have spoken to so many people that think I am into shred metal when I tell them I like progressive music.  For some reason DT's art, prog metal, has come to represent the entire genre of prog.  How this happened, I don't know but I believe a lot of people look to this point and see bands like DT and Savatage as causing the genre more bad than good. The fact is that to the general public progresive rock represents a stale and contrived music and DT is the whipping boy for many fans of the genre.

Lets get this straight - I love Yes/IQ/Genesis/Camel/The Enid/Glass Hammer/Spocks Beard/Transatlantic - These are all melodic prog - Then I heard Dream Theater and they gave me a NEW buzz - I like it - and every bit I've listed to since has hit the spot ! - Compare that with King Crimson - I listened and was I disappointed - Whats the fuss I thought - this has nowt in it special AT ALL !

 I KNOW WHAT I LIKE - And DREAM THEATER - SIX DEGREES TRACK is a MILLION times better than anything on ITCOTCK and that Poseidon jobby - You just cannot compare the two in terms of me liking them - but thats personal taste for you - Some people would love a track where a piece of knicker-elastic is twanged with an echo-effect with the sound of a clock/metronome in the background ala FLOYD or some other weird psychedelic 60's band !

Thats taste....

This is a Strange one this is because I was born in 1965, I first heard Genesis as a kid of 9 when my Brother (10 years my senior) was playing Selling England , whilst I was playing with my lego.

I first got into Genesis in 1977 - Seconds out - what an Album and I went to see Genesis in 1977 and was hooked - I bought all the back catalogue in Dec 1977 - and some of it I didn't like at first. Then a friend introduced me to Sabbath/Deep Purple/Hawkwind and I was hooked again and went to see lots of Heavy rock gigs - then I got into Motorhead/Venom/Diamond head / Iron maiden, AC/DC and all that.

In 1985 I got into the new-romantic scene (mainly for the sex with very sexily clad young ladies who were into the new-romantic scene by their thousands) and I loved Ultravox and Numan - I also got into Yes at this time and a bit of Floyd, then Marillion / Twelfth Night / Pendragon and IQ.

About 12 months ago (I was 38) I started collecting prog-again - thats when I listened to KC - Too late I would imagine because I have heard too much other music etc.....

Genesis were my first Love, and then Heavy Metal then New romantic / Yes/Camel and the 80's prog bands then it was catch up in the year 2004.......

Strange eh ?

Spartacus wrote: So many people hate on Dream Theater because they really don't represent prog music very well.  Even though they are not prog music proper, they are probably the most well known prog band to emerge in the past 20 years.  So, at least for myself, the idea of DT representing progressive music upsets me more than their music.  So many bands and artists today do not want to be labled progressive today because of what the label now represents to them.  The general public sees prog as adavanced metal, ie DT.  I remember reading so many articles that members have posted on this site where a reviewer would mention prog and shredding in the same sentence. I really think that people just don't like DT for what they do to the genre of prog.  I have spoken to so many people that think I am into shred metal when I tell them I like progressive music.  For some reason DT's art, prog metal, has come to represent the entire genre of prog.  How this happened, I don't know but I believe a lot of people look to this point and see bands like DT and Savatage as causing the genre more bad than good. The fact is that to the general public progresive rock represents a stale and contrived music and DT is the whipping boy for many fans of the genre.

Sparticus probably the only reason that they think that you are into shred metal when you say that is because they got the wrong end of the stick and probably if you told them some bands or even spoke about other bands then they might not make that mistake.