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Thread: FEATURED CD - Dream Theater : Images and Words

  1. #26
    Jon Neudorf
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    First of all, dedicating this one to Yanks is a very classy move. I am sure that put a smile on his face, wherever he is.

    I was late to the party regarding DT(purchased a couple of albums in the early 2000s). My first were Metropolis and Falling into Infinity. Think i bought them because i thought it was a cool name for a band and it sounded "proggy". As others have stated the band really was a gateway to progressive rock, which i had abandoned for over 20 years. By the way i seriously dig this album.

  2. #27
    I saw them open for Marillion and they had a different singer who didnt impress me very much.

    They are obviously great musicians but their music never connected with me.

  3. #28
    Great album. Nothing more to say!!!!

  4. #29
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    IMO I & W is their second best album after their debut, which is my fav DT album. Since Images & Words they haven't made many albums that I thoroughy like. I just don't like the LaBrie's vocals. I bought the debut when it came out & loved it immediately & was hoping for more of the same, I thought CD had a great voice. And in later years when JL was doing all he could to sound like Hetfield I just gave up on them. If I want Metallica I'll listen to Metallica. If I want DT I'll listen to D & D or I & W, but I must admit, I will occasionally spin Train of Thought.

  5. #30
    Quote Originally Posted by jlneudorf View Post
    First of all, dedicating this one to Yanks is a very classy move. I am sure that put a smile on his face, wherever he is.

  6. #31
    Based on newgroups buzz surrounding Dream Theater in the early 90s, I remember looking for this album in Massachusetts the day it came out. The big name retailers didn't have it but I stopped by a little record store on that gaudy stretch of Rt. 1 in Saugus (where retail parking lots exit right into 55 MPH traffic) called Rockit Records (long since gone)... indeed they had it, and the guy working there was thrilled about how good it was (he was also curious how I even knew about the group).

    Granted I had never heard a note of their music, just descriptions online. First impression - ugh. Right from the first notes of Pull Me Under, I did not care for the overproduced sound, and what seemed like a deliberate attempt at radio friendliness. Then on came the ballad-y sappiness of "Another Day"... things did not bode well, this was not what I was expecting at all.

    But then like many fans of the group, Metropolis starts up, and they get into the middle section - holy crap. That's what I was hoping for based on the rave reviews I had been hearing about the band.

    I grew to love the whole album and for some time there during my college days it was my favorite album ever. Saw the band live with each of the 3 different keyboard players.

    Their general approach to prog metal became highly emulated and lost it's appeal to me over the years, and these days I don't really keep up with them. While not being as technically complex, old Queensryche holds up a lot better for me as a more creative form of metal - with DT there is often a certain level of kitsch, a sort of "broadway music" feel incorporating cliched dramatic devices which feels somewhat cartoonish. But I certainly appreciate how they developed a large devoted fan base and introduced a more complex and challenging form of music to a lot of people, and their early albums certainly had a massive impact on me as a developing musician.
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  7. #32
    Member No Pride's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by rob martino View Post
    with DT there is often a certain level of kitsch, a sort of "broadway music" feel
    Yep; in other DT threads, I've said that there's a part of their thing that sounds like Journey playing a Broadway musical. It usually happens during the vocal sections. I sort of have a love/hate relationship with their music and that would be the "hate" part. The "love" part is when they're in prog/metal/fusion mode, doing those blistering instrumental sections. Those two sides always felt incongruous to me, like they can't decide who they want to be. I always wished that they'd do a whole album of stuff like "Erotomania" (from Awake) and "Hell's Kitchen" (from Falling Into Infinity). Liquid Tension Experiment's second album came close, but no cigar. I got 6 or 7 of their albums before finally giving up on them ever being the band that I'd like them to be. One of them is "Images and Words," which I got kind of late in the game, and my biggest impression of it was that their sound has barely changed over the course of two decades. I can't deny that they're great musicians and sometimes they write sections and even whole tunes on occasion that I really like, but at this point, I've heard enough. There's too much other great music to explore out there.

  8. #33
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    Quote Originally Posted by No Pride View Post
    my biggest impression of it was that their sound has barely changed over the course of two decades.
    I agree, but that goes for several of the 80s/90s bands. I soon realised I'd heard too many of their albums. But whatever, I'm glad they are all able to make a living doing it. Certainly DT do well these days.

    The 'Broadway' element IMHO came in with Jordan Rudess and his 'orchestra' sounds- it's not so pronounced here. This one suffers more from a 'hair metal' hangover in the production department. Other good, more hard rock bands of that early 90s period suffered from it too.

  9. #34
    Proud Member since 2/2002 UnderAGlassMoon's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by TheLongshot View Post
    I do think it was too bad that Kevin Moore was about ready to move on after this record, because the band has been missing something since he left that they haven't ever reclaimed.
    I've always thought this as well. They lost a great song writer when he left and he also brought more of a mellower, ambient side to their music that they have never recaptured.
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  10. #35
    Got this album when I was exploring prog back in the early 2000. I had heard all the buzz about prog metal and the legendary status of this album. It struck me as very 80s sounding with the extremely reverbed drums.
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  11. #36
    Member Since: 3/27/2002 MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Duncan Glenday View Post


    In honor of the late Yanks2014
    Quote Originally Posted by Jerjo View Post
    Aha! One for Yanks!


    and a great album it is... even if I prefer my Prog Metal to be sans vox, the vox here are very well done
    Why is it whenever someone mentions an artist that was clearly progressive (yet not the Symph weenie definition of Prog) do certain people feel compelled to snort "thats not Prog" like a whiny 5th grader?

  12. #37
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    Where do I start with this album... I borrowed it from a dorm mate...loved the middle section of metropolis pt 1.. Slowly I got more interested...I found the live album..the first album and lots of boots...lots a fun during this album...it was the first metal album that I really liked..yeah it was metal light but it changed my perception of what can happen if you mix Prog and metal....I prefer the live album.. Not crazy about they way the drums sounded...

  13. #38
    Do you want more whine with that cheese??

    Sorry, but IMHO, DT is a combination of the worst elements of prog and metal. Plus TRIGGRERED DRUMS!!!

    And the snare drum goes "ratatatatatatatatatatatat"

    Wtf was their producer thinking???

    Pull Me Under is a decent "song" though and I always thought Kevin M played some tasty parts.

    Note - I'm usually critical of everyone being critical, but come on, this stuff is just embarrassing crap.

  14. #39
    Member Guitarplyrjvb's Avatar
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    It sounds to me that one of the songs has Frank Zappa saying "wait a minute" spliced into the tune. Am I dreaming?

  15. #40
    Quote Originally Posted by Adinfinitum View Post
    Sorry, but IMHO, DT is a combination of the worst elements of prog and metal. Plus TRIGGRERED DRUMS!!!
    .
    I'm 100% with you on this one. I was starting to write exactly the same quote.

    Sorry Dream Theatre fans. To my ears, their music is so lifeless that is embarassing... The worst part of the story: "nerds" that go to Berklee and learn all kinds of exotic time signatures, tuning arrangements, spend months in the studio overdubbing and multi-tracking and pumping every extraterrestrial technique they can think of into the finished product and it ends just… so fucking boring. Worst combination of prog's self-indulgence and metal's masturbatory excess.
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  16. #41
    Member viukkis's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Guitarplyrjvb View Post
    It sounds to me that one of the songs has Frank Zappa saying "wait a minute" spliced into the tune. Am I dreaming?
    No, you're not.

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  17. #42
    Member Vic2012's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wounded Land View Post
    I had a hard time with this one. On the one hand, it does show a lot of ambition, which I like, but the production, tones, and LaBrie's singing style just seemed so stuck in the '80s for this child of the '90s. Plus...too many notes. Seriously.[/I]
    That was another problem I had with it, that 80s hangover. If I heard it today maybe I'd be kinder to it. But at the time I heard it I just couldn't deal with it. I had the same issue with Operation Mindcrime. All the raving and drooling over that album made me buy it, and I hated it more than I&W. Like I said earlier, how have I managed to absolutely LOVE Iron Maiden and Metallica (2 bands who've obviously influenced DT), and just cannot stand DT? I think it mainly has to do with the lead vocal, and that technical, shreddy, lead guitar style.

  18. #43
    Member Guitarplyrjvb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by viukkis View Post
    Ha! I knew it! Having Frank in there gave this album a dose of credibility to me! I got the follow-up, didn't like it as much, then lost interest.

  19. #44
    Quote Originally Posted by spacefreak View Post
    To my ears, their music is so lifeless that is embarassing... The worst part of the story: "nerds" that go to Berklee and learn all kinds of exotic time signatures, tuning arrangements, spend months in the studio overdubbing and multi-tracking and pumping every extraterrestrial technique they can think of into the finished product and it ends just… so fucking boring. Worst combination of prog's self-indulgence and metal's masturbatory excess.
    I'll have to concur, and this is the only DT album that I actually went out and bought. Being a huge fan of both classic progressive, avant-prog and experimental metal at the time, I listened tentatively through the whole thing for six or seven times in a row - and the experience gave me absolutely nothing whatsoever. Not "complex", not "powerful", not "impressive", not "progressive". I went to see them live on a few occasions as well, and had the exact same impression. On one of those occasions, I saw them the night after having attended a gig by Naked City - and the word which struck me about DT was '[---]'. They appear to draw primarily from a distinctly 'metal' fanbase, and are probably estimated by those standards as well. I guess the avant-metal of my liking strikes as thin a string with the casual 'metal' person as Krimson or Hatfield would the casual 'rock' one.
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  20. #45
    Member Zeuhlmate's Avatar
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    I bought it, and have listened to it a few times. But it doesnt speak to me.
    There are some passages which I might have liked if they had sounded differently.

  21. #46
    YES - this was a classy move indeed. He would have had a smile on his face. Thanks again. - from Yank2014's brother.

    Quote Originally Posted by jlneudorf View Post
    First of all, dedicating this one to Yanks is a very classy move. I am sure that put a smile on his face, wherever he is.

    I was late to the party regarding DT(purchased a couple of albums in the early 2000s). My first were Metropolis and Falling into Infinity. Think i bought them because i thought it was a cool name for a band and it sounded "proggy". As others have stated the band really was a gateway to progressive rock, which i had abandoned for over 20 years. By the way i seriously dig this album.

  22. #47
    I only have When dream and day unite on a cassettetape. I don't think I ever felt the need to buy more.
    A student at the audio engineering course, I did, brought an album by Dream Theater to a field day in a recording-studio. The technician from the studio, didn't really like it, because it sounded to artificial.

  23. #48
    Moderator Duncan Glenday's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Pythonphan View Post
    ...He would have had a smile on his face. Thanks again. - from Yank2014's brother.
    Regards,

    Duncan

  24. #49
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    Bought this when it came out, haven't played it in years. I got really burned out on prog metal pretty fast. It all started sounding the same to me after awhile. I remember liking it at the time. I should revisit it and see if it falls into the that prog metal hum drum for me now. I was never a big Labrie fan, that's why I prefer the LTE CDs more than DT.

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