Your Controversial Opinions on DT

[Volante99]

Very controversial opinion;

I'm kinda liking what I'm hearing on Jodan Rudess' new solo album, so far, more than (most of) D/T.

It's proggy, unpredictable, and weird. I dig it.

I could never get into JR's solo stuff. The bit I checked out was beautiful melody followed by an endless flurry of notes.

Up until this new album I would have agreed with you. It's definitely still over the top but relatively restrained. More composition, arrangement...less noodling.

[Air Weaver]

I don't want to start a whole thread about this, and it will be controversial, so here it is........

I am a huge Mangini fan - seriously. All the nonsense of having to pick Team Mike or Team Mike, it's not the real world. It is ok to love all the history of DT with Portnoy's massive influence, and to love the current era too. Even the Portnoy family was present and recognized from the stage by the band in NYC - I refuse the binary choice. I even told MM once, and I meant it, I've been on board since I&W, so I think I count as old school, but truthfully a lot of my favorite material has been since he joined the band.

OK - so with that preamble, I still find something a little odd. At the merch table on this tour, you can get signed copies of the new album, the signed drum head thing that comes in the VIP swag bag, and the vinyl re-release of Scenes, signed by the band.

You see where I am going here?

We brought a copy of Scenes vinyl for my daughter to get signed at the M&G. She loves that album beyond all others. But we didn't pass it to MM for a signature. He isn't on that recording. Just doesn't feel right. I doubt he noticed, there were a million things going by so fast on the table. I am going to take it to the next MP project I attend and hope to get it signed and complete the collection for her.

I realize it would be weird to have a partial band autograph collection on an item for sale, especially when other items are signed by everyone. But it's also weird to have MM sign the album MP recorded. I realize my reservation is mitigated by the fact that he's playing it every night on stage, as well as plenty of other material that MP wrote and recorded - that's the nature of a band line up change, sure.

Just wondering if I'm alone in having thoughts about that.  I love signed art/books/music not just for the collecting of autographs, but because it is the artist signing their own work.

[Herrick]

Up until this new album I would have agreed with you. It's definitely still over the top but relatively restrained. More composition, arrangement...less noodling.

I was only joking because we've all probably read/heard similar comments about Dream Theater's music.

[bosk1]

I don't want to start a whole thread about this, and it will be controversial, so here it is........

I am a huge Mangini fan - seriously. All the nonsense of having to pick Team Mike or Team Mike, it's not the real world. It is ok to love all the history of DT with Portnoy's massive influence, and to love the current era too. Even the Portnoy family was present and recognized from the stage by the band in NYC - I refuse the binary choice. I even told MM once, and I meant it, I've been on board since I&W, so I think I count as old school, but truthfully a lot of my favorite material has been since he joined the band.

OK - so with that preamble, I still find something a little odd. At the merch table on this tour, you can get signed copies of the new album, the signed drum head thing that comes in the VIP swag bag, and the vinyl re-release of Scenes, signed by the band.

You see where I am going here?

We brought a copy of Scenes vinyl for my daughter to get signed at the M&G. She loves that album beyond all others. But we didn't pass it to MM for a signature. He isn't on that recording. Just doesn't feel right. I doubt he noticed, there were a million things going by so fast on the table. I am going to take it to the next MP project I attend and hope to get it signed and complete the collection for her.

I realize it would be weird to have a partial band autograph collection on an item for sale, especially when other items are signed by everyone. But it's also weird to have MM sign the album MP recorded. I realize my reservation is mitigated by the fact that he's playing it every night on stage, as well as plenty of other material that MP wrote and recorded - that's the nature of a band line up change, sure.

Just wondering if I'm alone in having thoughts about that.  I love signed art/books/music not just for the collecting of autographs, but because it is the artist signing their own work.

   I'm not seeing the "controversy" here.

[TheGreatPretender]

I don't want to start a whole thread about this, and it will be controversial, so here it is........

I am a huge Mangini fan - seriously. All the nonsense of having to pick Team Mike or Team Mike, it's not the real world. It is ok to love all the history of DT with Portnoy's massive influence, and to love the current era too. Even the Portnoy family was present and recognized from the stage by the band in NYC - I refuse the binary choice. I even told MM once, and I meant it, I've been on board since I&W, so I think I count as old school, but truthfully a lot of my favorite material has been since he joined the band.

OK - so with that preamble, I still find something a little odd. At the merch table on this tour, you can get signed copies of the new album, the signed drum head thing that comes in the VIP swag bag, and the vinyl re-release of Scenes, signed by the band.

You see where I am going here?

We brought a copy of Scenes vinyl for my daughter to get signed at the M&G. She loves that album beyond all others. But we didn't pass it to MM for a signature. He isn't on that recording. Just doesn't feel right. I doubt he noticed, there were a million things going by so fast on the table. I am going to take it to the next MP project I attend and hope to get it signed and complete the collection for her.

I realize it would be weird to have a partial band autograph collection on an item for sale, especially when other items are signed by everyone. But it's also weird to have MM sign the album MP recorded. I realize my reservation is mitigated by the fact that he's playing it every night on stage, as well as plenty of other material that MP wrote and recorded - that's the nature of a band line up change, sure.

Just wondering if I'm alone in having thoughts about that.  I love signed art/books/music not just for the collecting of autographs, but because it is the artist signing their own work.

Actually, I saw a guy in front of me with a Scenes From A Memory vinyl. And when Mike Mangini received it, he actually asked, "You want my signature on this?"
The guy did. But yeah, the point is, MM is well aware that since he wasn't on the album, not everyone might want him to sign it. So I think that's normal.

[ReaperKK]

Very controversial opinion;

I'm kinda liking what I'm hearing on Jodan Rudess' new solo album, so far, more than (most of) D/T.

It's proggy, unpredictable, and weird. I dig it.

I could never get into JR's solo stuff. The bit I checked out was beautiful melody followed by an endless flurry of notes.

Up until this new album I would have agreed with you. It's definitely still over the top but relatively restrained. More composition, arrangement...less noodling.

I'll have to give it a listen. I was going to post earlier that JR loves challenging himself, I'd love to see try and do an ambient album.

Up until this new album I would have agreed with you. It's definitely still over the top but relatively restrained. More composition, arrangement...less noodling.

I was only joking because we've all probably read/heard similar comments about Dream Theater's music.

Very true but JR albums seemed to have even less breathing room.

I don't want to start a whole thread about this, and it will be controversial, so here it is........

I am a huge Mangini fan - seriously. All the nonsense of having to pick Team Mike or Team Mike, it's not the real world. It is ok to love all the history of DT with Portnoy's massive influence, and to love the current era too. Even the Portnoy family was present and recognized from the stage by the band in NYC - I refuse the binary choice. I even told MM once, and I meant it, I've been on board since I&W, so I think I count as old school, but truthfully a lot of my favorite material has been since he joined the band.

OK - so with that preamble, I still find something a little odd. At the merch table on this tour, you can get signed copies of the new album, the signed drum head thing that comes in the VIP swag bag, and the vinyl re-release of Scenes, signed by the band.

You see where I am going here?

We brought a copy of Scenes vinyl for my daughter to get signed at the M&G. She loves that album beyond all others. But we didn't pass it to MM for a signature. He isn't on that recording. Just doesn't feel right. I doubt he noticed, there were a million things going by so fast on the table. I am going to take it to the next MP project I attend and hope to get it signed and complete the collection for her.

I realize it would be weird to have a partial band autograph collection on an item for sale, especially when other items are signed by everyone. But it's also weird to have MM sign the album MP recorded. I realize my reservation is mitigated by the fact that he's playing it every night on stage, as well as plenty of other material that MP wrote and recorded - that's the nature of a band line up change, sure.

Just wondering if I'm alone in having thoughts about that.  I love signed art/books/music not just for the collecting of autographs, but because it is the artist signing their own work.

Actually, I saw a guy in front of me with a Scenes From A Memory vinyl. And when Mike Mangini received it, he actually asked, "You want my signature on this?"
The guy did. But yeah, the point is, MM is well aware that since he wasn't on the album, not everyone might want him to sign it. So I think that's normal.

That's actually very cool and self-aware of MM. I probably wouldn't really care and have him sign anyway.

[Mladen]

I remember seeing a M&G video where James refused to sign WDADU, saying "I didn't sing on that." Given that people usually don't want to sign albums they weren't on, it probably didn't bother MM if he noticed you hadn't asked for his signature.

[pg1067]

Just wondering if I'm alone in having thoughts about that.  I love signed art/books/music not just for the collecting of autographs, but because it is the artist signing their own work.

Not at all.  I wouldn't want MM to sign something related to one of the MP albums.

Back in 1988, a friend won passes to a M&G with Queensryche and Metallica (he also won the grand prize -- a guitar signed by Kirk Hammett).  I brought both my MOP album cover and my AJFA CD booklet to have signed.  Jason Newsted signed the AJFA booklet but, when I handed him the MOP cover, he said something like, "you know I didn't play on that; are you sure you want me to sign it?"  My response was, "oh, yeah, I guess you're right."  It hadn't occurred to me beforehand, but when he said something it seemed pretty obvious.

[Setlist Scotty]

I don't want to start a whole thread about this, and it will be controversial, so here it is........

I am a huge Mangini fan - seriously. All the nonsense of having to pick Team Mike or Team Mike, it's not the real world. It is ok to love all the history of DT with Portnoy's massive influence, and to love the current era too. Even the Portnoy family was present and recognized from the stage by the band in NYC - I refuse the binary choice. I even told MM once, and I meant it, I've been on board since I&W, so I think I count as old school, but truthfully a lot of my favorite material has been since he joined the band.

OK - so with that preamble, I still find something a little odd. At the merch table on this tour, you can get signed copies of the new album, the signed drum head thing that comes in the VIP swag bag, and the vinyl re-release of Scenes, signed by the band.

You see where I am going here?

We brought a copy of Scenes vinyl for my daughter to get signed at the M&G. She loves that album beyond all others. But we didn't pass it to MM for a signature. He isn't on that recording. Just doesn't feel right. I doubt he noticed, there were a million things going by so fast on the table. I am going to take it to the next MP project I attend and hope to get it signed and complete the collection for her.

I realize it would be weird to have a partial band autograph collection on an item for sale, especially when other items are signed by everyone. But it's also weird to have MM sign the album MP recorded. I realize my reservation is mitigated by the fact that he's playing it every night on stage, as well as plenty of other material that MP wrote and recorded - that's the nature of a band line up change, sure.

Just wondering if I'm alone in having thoughts about that.  I love signed art/books/music not just for the collecting of autographs, but because it is the artist signing their own work.

I hear what you're saying, and I'm the same way. It's why when I went to meet the band for the very first time in January 1993, I only brought IaW to get signed. I didn't bring my copy of WDaDU since Charlie wouldn't be there. Of course, I'm kicking myself now since that was the only chance I had to ever get Kevin Moore's autograph and I would get to know Charlie on a personal basis years later. There was one exception to that rule, and that was having Derek sign my copy of Awake after the show I saw in 1994. I think at the time he was just happy to sign anything, although I've heard later that he refused to sign it after DT CDs he was involved with were released. Considering that he was the touring keyboardist then, I had no problem with him signing it and I still don't.

[pg1067]

I hear what you're saying, and I'm the same way. It's why when I went to meet the band for the very first time in January 1993, I only brought IaW to get signed. I didn't bring my copy of WDaDU since Charlie wouldn't be there. Of course, I'm kicking myself now since that was the only chance I had to ever get Kevin Moore's autograph

When I saw DT in November 1992, we hung in the parking lot after the show and met the band, except for KM, who stayed on the bus.  I got them to sign my I&W CD booklet.  Fortunately, I got KM to sign after one of the two 1993 shows I went to.  Obviously, I didn't know KM wasn't long for the band, but in hindsight, I was very glad I ended up getting the signature.

[bosk1]

I suspect that banning Charlie from the forum might hurt my chances of getting his signature on WDADU were I to try. 

[The Walrus]

I suspect that banning Charlie from the forum might hurt my chances of getting his signature on WDADU were I to try. 

Wait... what? Charlie's banned? 

[Dublagent66]

Charlie who?  Oops!  Sorry Charlie.   

[King Postwhore]

I suspect that banning Charlie from the forum might hurt my chances of getting his signature on WDADU were I to try. 

Wait... what? Charlie's banned? 

Maybe bosk1 should tell you the story.

[Ruba]

I suspect that banning Charlie from the forum might hurt my chances of getting his signature on WDADU were I to try. 

Wait... what? Charlie's banned? 

Maybe bosk1 should tell you the story.

Pretty please.

[The Walrus]

I am curious 

[bosk1]

He crossed the crooked step.

[gzarruk]

Ohh I need to hear this

He crossed the crooked step.

Maybe his posts got out of haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

[hefdaddy42]

I suspect that banning Charlie from the forum might hurt my chances of getting his signature on WDADU were I to try. 

Wait... what? Charlie's banned? 

Oh, but yes.   

[Ruba]

Ohh I need to hear this

He crossed the crooked step.

Maybe his posts got out of haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

It was only a matter of time.

[Dublagent66]

Ohh I need to hear this

He crossed the crooked step.

Maybe his posts got out of haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

It was only a matter of time.

...until he rode the red.

[pg1067]

Ohh I need to hear this

He crossed the crooked step.

Maybe his posts got out of haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

It was only a matter of time.

...until he rode the red.

Maybe he'll figure it out someday.

[Herrick]

Ohh I need to hear this

He crossed the crooked step.

Maybe his posts got out of haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand

Ha ha!

I never knew Dominici was on this forum. Must've been before my time.

[gzarruk]

Do we know if any other DT member, past or present, also joined the forum?

[IDontNotDoThings]

Do we know if any other DT member, past or present, also joined the forum?

MP joined under the name chaossystem 

But in all seriousness, MP does have an account & made a few posts in here a long while ago: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?action=profile;u=6436

[TheCountOfNYC]

Do we know if any other DT member, past or present, also joined the forum?

Didn't Chris Collins get in some trouble on the forums a few years ago? Or was that never confirmed to be him?

[gzarruk]

Do we know if any other DT member, past or present, also joined the forum?

MP joined under the name chaossystem 

But in all seriousness, MP does have an account & made a few posts in here a long while ago: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?action=profile;u=6436

Wow! Can't believe Mike actually posted here, since he pretty much hates DTF

[hefdaddy42]

Various members and other people associated with them have posted on the forum.

[TheGreatPretender]

All righty, here's one. I'm not sure how controversial this is, but usually I don't hear people talking about this at all, and when they do, they don't seem to complain.
I really dislike pretty much every song transition on Octavarium. The songs themselves, as compositions, for the most part I love. Even the Answer Lies Within, which doesn't seem to get a lot of love, is one of my favorite of their piano-driven ballads.
But this thing they did where the songs transition into each other feels to me like a waste of time to me at best, and an annoyance at the worst. I know, the whole album is filled with all sorts of nuggets, and that those transitions are supposed to represent the black keys on the piano or whatever, but my appreciation for nuggets doesn't supersede my desire to listen to music without long, boring intros and outros, especially ones that bleed right into the musical parts of the songs, such as the intro to I Walk Beside You. And don't even get me started on the intro to Sacrificed Sons.

So yeah, after ripping the CD, I edited the whole thing down to simply be a collection of songs that start and end concisely, without any overlong intros and outros.
The "Greatest Hit" versions of I Walk Beside You, Sacrificed Songs, and The Answer Lies Within were a godsend, since they omitted the chirping birds and ticking clock that overlaps with the introductions of the songs. And that's pretty much exclusively the way I listen to this album these days.

[hefdaddy42]

^I get it^.

[Dublagent66]

Do we know if any other DT member, past or present, also joined the forum?

MP joined under the name chaossystem 

But in all seriousness, MP does have an account & made a few posts in here a long while ago: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?action=profile;u=6436

Wow! Can't believe Mike actually posted here, since he pretty much hates DTF

There would be no DTF without MP.  The original forum would still be on DT.net.

[gzarruk]

All righty, here's one. I'm not sure how controversial this is, but usually I don't hear people talking about this at all, and when they do, they don't seem to complain.
I really dislike pretty much every song transition on Octavarium. The songs themselves, as compositions, for the most part I love. Even the Answer Lies Within, which doesn't seem to get a lot of love, is one of my favorite of their piano-driven ballads.
But this thing they did where the songs transition into each other feels to me like a waste of time to me at best, and an annoyance at the worst. I know, the whole album is filled with all sorts of nuggets, and that those transitions are supposed to represent the black keys on the piano or whatever, but my appreciation for nuggets doesn't supersede my desire to listen to music without long, boring intros and outros, especially ones that bleed right into the musical parts of the songs, such as the intro to I Walk Beside You. And don't even get me started on the intro to Sacrificed Sons.

So yeah, after ripping the CD, I edited the whole thing down to simply be a collection of songs that start and end concisely, without any overlong intros and outros.
The "Greatest Hit" versions of I Walk Beside You, Sacrificed Songs, and The Answer Lies Within were a godsend, since they omitted the chirping birds and ticking clock that overlaps with the introductions of the songs. And that's pretty much exclusively the way I listen to this album these days.

Some of these bother me, some don't, but the worst imo is the outro to Panic Attack and how it drags for a whole minute before NE starts

Do we know if any other DT member, past or present, also joined the forum?

MP joined under the name chaossystem 

But in all seriousness, MP does have an account & made a few posts in here a long while ago: https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?action=profile;u=6436

Wow! Can't believe Mike actually posted here, since he pretty much hates DTF

There would be no DTF without MP.  The original forum would still be on DT.net.

I don't have the backstory to that, and I'm not trying to imply MP isn't important to DTF or anything, but we all know he hates this place, he's said that mutiple times, even to Bosk's face, and all his posts here were post split, anyway.

[Dublagent66]

The backstory is that MP shut down the DT.net forum because he supposedly hated that too.  Anyway...enough about that.

[bosk1]

The backstory is that MP shut down the DT.net forum because he supposedly hated that too.  Anyway...enough about that.

Well...yes, but there's a bit more to it than that.  To flesh it out just a bit more, MP did not read that forum and was not active on it.  But, mostly through second-hand information, he had been informed of growing "negativity" on that forum through the years.  Some of this was justified, but most was not and was exaggerated.  MP told the webmaster and forum admin, who had also become detached from actually reading, posting on, and running the forum to either clamp down on it or shut it down.  He had no interest in getting involved in the forum, so he pulled the plug.  More detail on that and how this place came to be here:  https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=39518.0

[Dublagent66]

Wow, been a long time since I read that.  Good stuff Bosk.  BTW, I remember Borlag here in the early days.  Whatever happened to him?