Dream Theatre: Awake

[Pedrito]

My introduction to the band back in the day. It gets overlooked by me due to the absolute classness of Images and Words, but what a great album. It's a bit more singalongy but they were at the top of their game at the time. I think the production, while great, is a tiny bit on the dry side or something though that could be my head.

Absolute highlights would be Erotomania into the Estranged influenced Awake..bloody great tune. I love Lifting Shadows off a Dream and the sublime Space Dye Vest also though it would be hard to pick a poor song, very high quality throughout.

Back when they were at the top of their game

[Trev]

Absolutely classic album. They really lost something when Kevin Moore left

[Pedrito]

I completely agree, he brought something very special to their sound.

[H]

Incredible album. Moore leaving was a blow for sure...worse was to come later though with Jordan Rudess and his shit keyboard solos in songs. Not the same since Portnoy left either....not even close.

[Pedrito]

yep totally agree, I liked 6 Degrees for example but I fell off the bandwagon after that apart from A Dramatic Turn which CT gave an amazing review on MI..haven´t listened to  it since. Train of Thought had it´s moments, but Moore is the missing link for me, everything he touched turned to gold. 

[Trev]

I don't think they ever put out a bad album until Portnoy left. Seems that's when Rudess took a bigger role in the songwriting to fill the gap

[Juggz]

Octavarium and the one after it were pretty crap, I thought. Nothing of note in either of them. I'd rate Train of Thought as the last decent album they put out. The post-Portnoy stuff has been particularly poor, though.

[Trev]

Been listening to a lot of DT the last few days, I'd never thought much of Octavarium when it came out but really enjoyed it this time. Systematic Chaos was probably half good, half filler, liked the two long tracks on Black Clouds (apart from Portnoy's awful "harsh" vocals)

[Ducky]

This is my favourite release of theirs. I know the music wasn't as good after Moore left, but LaBrie making shit out of his vocal chords with the food poisoning is something that really contributed to their decline.

He sounds so twee after it happened.

[Juggz]

New tune. Sounds like Tool for a few seconds and then latter day DT-by-numbers for a few minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7m7l8iqGAk

[Ducky]

Had the album on yesterday after watching this video of Portnoy. Class act, glad he's back with them (no disrespect to Mangini who's a stellar player too).

[Bürggermeister]

I've been listening to them a lot recently. I&W and Awake still hold up impeccably well and I'm even warming to some of the stuff that I wasn't to hot on initially. I don't feel like they've got another great album in them, but I'm still looking forward to hearing what the new one is like.

[Ducky]

I think the last one I listened to properly was the self-titled. There's a few decent tunes on that at least. What would you recommend out of the later gear?

I&W, Awake, and A Change of Seasons still get regular whirls from me. Not quite as much, but the debut also sees a bit of regular-ish action.

[Paul keohane]

A band I don't think I've ever heard a note of their music.Growing up I can never remember any of my metal friends ever been into them.Possibly the biggest metal band I completely bypassed over the 30 plus years I've been listening to metal.

[Carnage]

I heard a song sometime in the late '80s/early '90s, hated it and never went back to them. All I've heard since is the Damage Inc. cover with Barney from Napalm Death singing, which is a bit silly.

The way they spell their name is annoying.