House of Drumming.com

"They're in late-stage RUSH mode."

This^^^^

I'm not exaggerating when I say that I used to listen to their first two albums at least twice a day, back when I was in high school. Therefore, it pains me to hear this new material. Dashed is any glimmer of hope that I may have held that they would get inspired and motivated to be progressive as a band due to the addition of their new bandmate; instead, it seems they're continuing this arc of acting as a lame parody of themselves, unfortunately.

Say that they've jumped the shark, nuked the fridge, whatever... they are simply way past the point of producing anything that has an ounce of inspiration to it.

Best time feel from the drums on any of their albums.

The only difference is that the drums are lower in the mix, less in your face...and less annoying.
MP probably had the last word on the mix and wanted his drums loud.

[Nigel is playing a soft piece on the piano]

Marty DiBergi: It's very pretty.

Nigel Tufnel: Yeah, I've been fooling around with it for a few months.

Marty DiBergi: It's a bit of a departure from what you normally play.

Nigel Tufnel: It's part of a trilogy, a musical trilogy I'm working on in D minor which is the saddest of all keys, I find. People weep instantly when they hear it, and I don't know why.

Marty DiBergi: It's very nice.

Nigel Tufnel: You know, just simple lines intertwining, you know, very much like - I'm really influenced by Mozart and Bach, and it's sort of in between those, really. It's like a Mach piece, really. It's sort of...

Marty DiBergi: What do you call this?

Nigel Tufnel: Well, this piece is called "Lick My Love Pump".

WTF?^^^^^^^XD

A Spinal Tap quote is always welcome!

I like DT heavier. Portnoy was good at taking the complex stuff and laying down a groove, sometimes they were pretty cool. This is less groovy and headbanging, more wanking. A whole song doesn't have to be in freaking unison.

I really only listened to their first two or three albums when they came out,... and really liked them. But, in my opinion Portnoy has always been to me just a modern flashy version of Peart(don't get me wrong, they are both great drummers). Some more chops, but nothing that floored me and left me wondering wtf was he playing there? Mangini on the other hand is a wizard... the guy can play anything in the realm of that genre, and branching out to some others...with a good feel, insane chops that could make Portnoy cry, and seems to be, from what I've read and seen in videos, a heck of a nice guy. Sorry, kind of ranting, but I'm tired of seeing posts on sites and youtube saying how the new drummer sucks...most of the guys from the auditions would have been an improvement drumming wise IMO.

It's hard to keep a band together, and even harder to replace a key member. I don't consider myself a fan of Dream Theater, but they seem like genuinely decent and hard working musicians. I'm happy for Mangini and hope the band is even more successful and gets more musicians interested in music off the beaten path.