I was wondering if anyone who listens to prog-rockers Dream Theater has heard there latest album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and what they think of it.
I’ve recently got it, and am still forming an opinion. I am inclined to think that it is not as good as there previous album Scenes From a Memory, which incidentally is one of my all-time favorite albums, but haven’t formed an opinion as to how it compares with there other stuff yet (well, it’s better than Falling Into Infinity, but just about everything else they did is better than that).
And is it just me, or does track one on disc two (the overture of the title song) have parts that sound like something out of the soundtrack from a Japanese RPG (e.g. Final Fantasy). Maybe it’s kind of a tribute to the solid fan base they have over there.
Yeah, I just picked this up a week or 2 ago myself. I quite like it, even though it isn’t quite on par with Scenes From a Memory. I think “The Glass Prison” is phenomenal. I also love “Solitary Shell.”
I suppose the overture on disc 2 does sound a bit video game-y, but a lot of overtures to big, epic things kinda sound that way.
I love DT, but I’ve had this album for a few months and I kinda hate it.
The Glass Prison is a cool song, but the rest of disk 1 is garbage (a topical song about stem cell research? WTF?) and disk 2 only has about 20 minutes worth of good material. (IMHO!!!)
SFAM is definitly their best one, but what do I know, I loved Falling Into Infinity as well.
Oddly, when I saw them live on this tour (two nights at the Beacon in NYC) they only did three songs from 6DOIT, out of a three and a half hour set. Maybe somebody said something…
Ya know they’re touring this summer with Joe Satriani and Kings X? That rules!!!
Well, FII on it’s own wasn’t a bad album, it was just their weakest work. I think a big part of that was having Derek on keyboards. Though he was technically a fine keyboard player, his composing ability was rather lacking. A Change of Seasons was good because Kevin Moore actually wrote the keyboard part for it. Moore left before it was recorded.
And their touring this summer with Satriani and Kings X? Too bad I probably won’t get a chance to go.
I hate to get into a nitpick war with you Hoopy Frood, but ACOS was mostly rewritten with Derek after Kevin left the band. You used to be able to download an MP3 of a demo version with Kevin from http://www.dreamtheater.mit.edu (I don’t know if it’s still available) that was quite different frm the official release.
I wouldn’t call Derek my fav keyboardist, but in terms of SOUND, I like him a lot more than Rudess. Rudess just uses one synth, and even though it’s a versatile one, I feel like all the sounds have the same “sheen.” I particularly dislike his organ sounds. The type of thing Derek would have turned around and played on his Hammond and B3, Rudess just uses his Kurzweill. The sound is just dull. (Again, IMHO!!!)
I’ll add another vote that Scenes from a Memory is superior to Six Degrees. Scenes from a Memory is the album that made me a Dream Theater fan. When I heard that Six Degrees was coming out, I was psyched. I waited eagerly for its release, especially after I read all the glowing reviews for it online. I bought it, listened to it a few times, and haven’t really touched it since. In a way, I don’t have much of an opinion on it, either. It didn’t reach out and grab me like Scenes from a Memory did. It’s not a bad album, though, and maybe I’ll appreciate it more after a few more listens.
Hmmm…I was unaware of that (and don’t worry, I don’t plan on getting into a nitpick war). I was under the impression that Kevin had actually written it all.
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Hmmmm…I guess in retrospect your probably right. The keyboards in SFAM do seem to be rather “monosheen.” I actually haven’t gotten a chance to see Rudess in concert. Derek did seem to have an impressive setup when I saw them at Chicago’s Vic Theater, which is the only time I’ve seen them in concert. Although, I still maintain that Rudess is a better composer.