*Official* The Astonishing discussion thread

[Kotowboy]

Yes. The album is best enjoyed digested in small doses.

It will produce easy to manage nuggets...

..which you can then flush away in the toilet of memory

I dunno where this is going tbh.

[Bertielee]

Yes. The album is best enjoyed digested in small doses.

It will produce easy to manage nuggets...

..which you can then flush away in the toilet of memory

I dunno where this is going tbh.

Well, are you talking to yourself? Because YOU made that remark!

B.Lee

[Kotowboy]

I just hope people don't dismiss TA as "too much to digest" this early into the digesting process. The very best albums and pieces of music don't reveal everything immediately. You still find little moments you never spotted before, sometimes years after your first listen.

Did i ?

[Bertielee]

I just hope people don't dismiss TA as "too much to digest" this early into the digesting process. The very best albums and pieces of music don't reveal everything immediately. You still find little moments you never spotted before, sometimes years after your first listen.

Did i ?

Ooops! My bad!

[emtee]

These shows could end up being JLB's most difficult ever. He will need lots of tea and honey.

[Bertielee]

These shows could end up being JLB's most difficult ever. He will need lots of tea and honey.

Yes, all that is gonna be tough to say the least.

B.Lee

[Pettor]

Wow. The third time listening to this and it's definitely a grower. Finally a lot of the melodies are coming to life that I didn't hear the first time. LaBrie is on fire is doing his best work to date which for me is great, always loved his smoother voice. A Savior In The Square just turned out as a favorite, which is a bit surprising

[Enalya]

Still loving the album. Up until now Three Days is my favourite song, it just has it all. And that laugh is just amazingsexycool.

[Art]

The album keeps getting better and better here. A Tempting Offer is a song that i´ve just discovered how much i like it.

[Shooters1221]

I loved this from 1st listen, but after 7, things are musically fitting together, and it just keeps growing to notches unknown!

[The Curious Orange]

While most of the "songs" are pretty good, I just don't like the way they're only 2 minutes long before giving way to random excerpts from other songs and then just stopping. Most of them are just stitching together the same half-dozen refrains in different orders anyway.

It's a hugely ambitious project, sure, and very cleverly done, but after listening to it over the weekend, I'm not sure their reach doesn't exceed their grasp.

[ariich]

After a first listen last Friday, with headphones and booklet, I'm now trying a casual listen. It's a very good album, but still way too much to digest. I don't even know a fifth of the album. Most of it feels like new material, though it's my second listen.
I'm gonna need another 10 listens before I can make my mind up.

After 5 full listens and another listen of a handful of songs, I feel I've got a pretty good grip on the album now. Obviously there will be all sorts of details to listen out for (I hadn't noticed Faythe's theme in The Walking Shadow until I read about it here, for example).

[Train of Naught]

There's only a couple of albums that I'm as excited about as this one, 2015 was an amazing year for music, but this album keeps growing on me on every listen, I know I'm kinda getting ahead of myself but I can very easily see this album being top half DT material, might even crack the top 3.

Like I predicted though, the 'standout' tracks of the first few listen won't be as shockingly good as they were on first listen compared to the other songs, songs like Three Days and Lord Nafaryus, I still love Three Days very much though.

[ariich]

While most of the "songs" are pretty good, I just don't like the way they're only 2 minutes long before giving way to random excerpts from other songs and then just stopping. Most of them are just stitching together the same half-dozen refrains in different orders anyway.

Not everyone will dig that, for sure, but I don't think the way you've put it is very fair. JP wrote a narrative, and then they put the music to that narrative, so recurring themes represent characters and situations. So it's not a case of the same refrains popping up at random; it's about what's happening to the characters and the story.

I think it actually works very well. Ok it makes it harder to dig into an individual song in some ways, but then there are some great themes that come back later on. A great example is Evangeline's theme - in A Better Life, it comes as a bridge section late on and isn't repeated. On its own I might have thought it was a waste of a great chorus, but then it reprises in The X Aspect. It makes sense narratively, and is great when it comes back.

[Kotowboy]

The one thing bugging me is that a few of the tracks have that same slow-down crescendo ( rallentando ? )  as if they were ending an epic.

[The Curious Orange]

Yes, but if you look at something like Les Mis, each of the characters has a "signature theme" that pops up throughout the musical. But when each of those characters sings their spotlight song, those songs are self contained and "uncontaminated" by the other themes. It's just what is annoying me at the moment. I'm loving songs like A Life Left Behind, for example, but then there's the Arrabelle/Darius bit at the end, and it kind of spoils the flow of the song as a whole.

Just my $0.02.


Perhaps it would help if I started thinking of this as one 130 minute piece of music.

[Moor]

The one thing bugging me is that a few of the tracks have that same slow-down crescendo ( rallentando ? )  as if they were ending an epic.

It is the BUG effect...nevermind 

[serrano]

While most of the "songs" are pretty good, I just don't like the way they're only 2 minutes long before giving way to random excerpts from other songs and then just stopping. Most of them are just stitching together the same half-dozen refrains in different orders anyway.

Not everyone will dig that, for sure, but I don't think the way you've put it is very fair. JP wrote a narrative, and then they put the music to that narrative, so recurring themes represent characters and situations. So it's not a case of the same refrains popping up at random; it's about what's happening to the characters and the story.

I think it actually works very well. Ok it makes it harder to dig into an individual song in some ways, but then there are some great themes that come back later on. A great example is Evangeline's theme - in A Better Life, it comes as a bridge section late on and isn't repeated. On its own I might have thought it was a waste of a great chorus, but then it reprises in The X Aspect. It makes sense narratively, and is great when it comes back.

I found the Faythe Theme in The Walking Shadow quite obvious, but it can be because Faythe's theme stood out quite soon for me, it is just pure beauty.

[kaos2900]

So far I'm loving the album and I haven't even started the second disc yet! I'm really going to take my time and absorb the first disc this week and dive into disc 2 this weekend. That way it's like getting two new DT albums! I'm 3 listens in to disc 1 and it gets better every time. My 3 year old is even singing the "Evangeline" part from A Better Life. The melodies are stuck in my head. James sounds incredible. Way too early to rank but I think it will be up there.

[Chino]

The twenty seconds following 1:22 in Lord Nafaryus might be the most annoying, unpleasant piece of audio DT has ever released. Other than that, I really like this album.

[Chino]

These shows could end up being JLB's most difficult ever. He will need lots of tea and honey.

Yes, all that is gonna be tough to say the least.

B.Lee

I'm wondering if they're going to play to a click track and have some vocal parts be triggered..

[thosava]

I believe i read/saw/heard an interview where he said that some vocal lines would be playback. This was to make it more like a conversation, and not have him standing there talking to himself.

[craig1928]

I believe i read/saw/heard an interview where he said that some vocal lines would be playback. This was to make it more like a conversation, and not have him standing there talking to himself.

yeah JLB said it on the metalsucks podcast, said 99% of it will still be him though

[ariich]

Yes, but if you look at something like Les Mis, each of the characters has a "signature theme" that pops up throughout the musical. But when each of those characters sings their spotlight song, those songs are self contained and "uncontaminated" by the other themes. It's just what is annoying me at the moment. I'm loving songs like A Life Left Behind, for example, but then there's the Arrabelle/Darius bit at the end, and it kind of spoils the flow of the song as a whole.

Just my $0.02.

For sure and I totally get why you and some others wouldn't like it so much, though personally I think your example is terrible as I absolutely adore the end of A Life Left Behind, which completely makes the song for me. That's actually, in my opinion, one of the most coherent and self-contained songs on the album. Kinda reminds me of The Bigger Picture, structurally.

Perhaps it would help if I started thinking of this as one 130 minute piece of music.

Yeah, it might. I'm certainly approaching it that way, but then I tend to approach almost all albums that way anyway regardless of whether they are concept albums or rock operas or not.

I found the Faythe Theme in The Walking Shadow quite obvious, but it can be because Faythe's theme stood out quite soon for me, it is just pure beauty.

Could be partly that, as I don't find that theme so exciting.

[mikeyd23]

Holy smokes, I'm really liking this album a lot. Soooo much to digest

[Tumdace]

I get SOOOO pumped when I hear the transition from 2285 Entr'acte to Moment of Betrayal.

Also, this album feels like the most proggy album they have done since SDOIT.

[mikemangioy]

A Life Left Behind has the most unexpected intro and outro for any ballads ever. I'm in love with Daryus' parts.

[thosava]

A Life Left Behind has the most unexpected intro and outro for any ballads ever. I'm in love with Daryus' parts.

That was one of the very few weaknesses i found in the album. I would like the full song to use the intro theme, because it's just so incredibly good.

[Progmetty]

I don't envy JLB, he will be missing these nice long water breaks during the next tour, seriously I think it will be the most he ever worked in a DT concert

[Logain Ablar]

I don't envy JLB, he will be missing these nice long water breaks during the next tour, seriously I think it will be the most he ever worked in a DT concert

Agreed - this has probably got the highest ratio of vocals to instrumentals of any DT album.

Hope he's got a nice long holiday planned at the end of the tour! 

[BlobVanDam]

I don't envy JLB, he will be missing these nice long water breaks during the next tour, seriously I think it will be the most he ever worked in a DT concert

Agreed - this has probably got the highest ratio of vocals to instrumentals of any DT album.

No doubt about it! I'm sure somebody has figured out the vocal to instrumental ratio for previous albums, and will probably work it out for TA at some point too.
Hopefully the intermission will be enough for it not to be too taxing on JLB.

[wizard of Thought]

Sorry if this what already mentioned before, but why is Xander sometimes simply called X while all other characters are always mentioned in their full name?

[RoeDent]

Quite a few of the songs have at least 1 minute of instrumental introduction before JLB's vocals come in. Heaven's Cove's introduction is a good 2:30 long out of 4:19. So there are a few decent breaks for him to run backstage and take on board fluids.

[shadow1psc]

34 pages to get through, but can I just say now that it only took a second listen for this to go from "Huh, that was an album" to "HOLY  THAT WAS  AWESOME  " I'm super impressed and I can't wait to see this live!

[metrojam]

Quite a few of the songs have at least 1 minute of instrumental introduction before JLB's vocals come in. Heaven's Cove's introduction is a good 2:30 long out of 4:19. So there are a few decent breaks for him to run backstage and take on board fluids.

More like damn piano than "instrumental"!! LOL