mesavox
Well-known member
First my thoughts...
I'll have to think about how this compares to Octavarium for me, but the title track of that album alone puts this one ahead of it I think. 8V is just too long and repetative to me. Other than that 8V is one of my fave DT albums. Love the catchy hooks mixed with the heavy prog tunes.
BCASL is much better than SC to my ears. My reaction from start to finish is... this is more like it. Having said that, there were several songs I really liked on SC, but too many throw away tracks and this one doesn't have those I don't THINK. I'm not sure how I feel about Best of Times.
I love Whither. I wonder what filter people put on when they listen to a DT album... can't a song just be good and nice to listen to... does it ALWAYS have to be compared to some "great" song and have to be some groudbreaking thing? I mean, face it... even IAW isn't really groundbreaking. Take Kansas and mix it with Metallica and Rush and viola... The fact is, it's just a great album and groundbreaking doesn't mean squat anyway... I can think of a lot of groundbreaking albums that are crap to my ears.
There is A LOT of Rush vibes going on in this album... that along with the VERY Megadeth vibes at time to time is almost too much at times. It could have been a little more obscured... but...
So, now that my little rant about categorization and ridiculous expectations is over...
Mike shut up his singing? I don't know what you hear, and the cookie monster stuff not withstanding, but Mike has a better overall voice than James. Listen to the way he sings the chorus to Lines In The Sand on the Chaos in Motion dvd... I'm sorry, but THAT is why people dog him. Or how about the constistantly sharp and tone deaf crap he does on Only A Matter of Time or whatever he's doing on Hollow Years on Budokon? As for Geoff Tate... I'm seeing a lot of dogging on him as of late with his out of tune singing and the damage he's doing by smoking like a frieght train.... In fact... that's the general consensus I'm seeing amonst musicians in all circles I come across.
James sounds GREAT on this album for the most part. I don't like the WOAHS at the end of a couple of the tracks... don't add the whoa Hoah Hoah Hs there James...
But that's been his problem... he sounds amazing on records... and VERY hit and miss live. Everyone I have showed Motion to just cringes... Years ago, even after his throat problem, he was not only more in tune (except the scratched high notes), but he didn't do that grating vibrato to cover up the fact that he must not be able to hear a darn thing in those in ear monitors.
I've sat with the vocal teacher at my college and we both agree... he oversings live. He tries to make things more aggressive and dig in and instead of it working... it just sound strained, out of tune, and that wide crappy vibrato... I mean.. why doesn't he just sing like he does on the record? I mean.. mimic it for crying out loud... Sheesh.
I'm not bashing him per se... like I said... I think he sounds awesome on all the records, including this one. Thin? Where? The production leaves him up front with the mids enough that he doesn't sit in the track and sounds thin... but his voice isn't thin on this album. Sorry. It isn't.
However... the falsetto on the Queen track (and Queen is my favorite band period so they were either going to piss me off with this, or make me smile from ear to ear... the latter happened unitl the falsetto.) There's that vibrato again... trying to be emotional and dramatic and instead... he sounds like a grandpa trying to sing. He was too clean on the Funster track... Roger is all rasp and the clean didn't quite work, but at least it was in tune and sounded good for what it was. The falsetto... James has done much better falsetto than that on record and live.
50 year old guys? Woah... don't put me in my 40s yet. LOL Only Jordan is over 50. The rest are under 45. Whew. lol Not sure what you're talking about though with old guys singing about that stuff... what stuff? Count of Tuscany? Whither? It would be weird if they were singing about partying and getting laid every weekend... but that would have been weird when they were in their 20s. lol Dio was singing about more fantasy type things than anything on this album well into his 50s. LOL The Rush thing... that alone very much contradicts what I read when people talk about it being modern and traditional genre etc. This album is much more classic and prog than SC, which was very modern and... whoever said something about this being a typical italian metal band album... No, that was a lot of SC. Not this one. LOL Although, Lacuna Coil I'm hearing NOT on either of these.
As for IAW... again... why does everything have to be written a certain way? Just because this album doesn't have melodies like the opening vox in Metropolis over those rhythms doesn't mean it's less mature. If anything, this sounds more mature in terms of being less risky musically.
Back to just general comments.. the production is also MUCH MORE LIKE IT. SC just sucked. I didn't think so until I heard this. No, not production... mastering, and mixing. SC just sounds flat and overcompressed. Now, the cymbals are back to life, and those great guitar tones aren't being wasted sitting in a terrible mix. MP in particular was just robbed by SC's mix. I can't imagine he was happy about it.
The guitars seem less doubled this time. More of a couple of mics on one speaker sound, rather than doubling parts sound. Both happen on all records, but SC seemed to be leaning very heavily in the doubled direction. This one sounds a little more diverse rhythm guitar wise.
Oddly enough as I type all of this I keep thinking... these are just the little thoughts I have as a musician and gear head... most of them mean absolutely nothing to the quality of this album. The songs are good and I enjoyed listening to it. Is it my favorite? No, but when you're talking about DT, their worst is better than my favorite album of a lot of bands so... I guess the nitpicking to the degree I see it all over the internet just gets old. It can't be just fun stuff to talk about... it has to turn into "This is crap because I say so" with arguments that don't even fly technically. In reality, the reason its crap to so and so is simply because they don't like it and saying that a song that may even be more compositionally daring than an earlier song referenced is not as prog, or whatever it may be isn't really why.
I would say it seems very American to overanalyze this stuff... but its everywhere. I think we just have too much access to too much stuff and we're spoiled.
