วีดีโอ

I'm sorry but I consider it a miracle for a band to stay good after the 4th or 5th album. DT lasted until 'The Astonishing'. They can make a damn Mumble Rap album for all I care. They're old, they did their time. I'm fine with whatever they do next.

Have you looked at the cover of 'Images and Words'? That is one ugly cover, but such a classic album. Other albumcovers of theirs rank low, other rank a bit higher, but frankly not a lot of people care about that. DT has always focused on the music and building that musical world, which they do like no other. So having a go at them for having artwork that doesn't make sense to you is a bit unhinged. AI? Don't care about their point of view on it. They've proven that they can create music (and everything that comes along with it) without that and whatever works for them is fine with me. I don't consider myself as a big fan, but you're taking on some big guns that earned their place in music, by putting out quality music. I mean, just put on the record and enjoy (or not), the rest is pretty futile, just like this video.

If it wasn't for Portboy being back and everyone being nostalgic, then those same people wouldn't be defending this trash. Everyone is the honey moon period of being back together that they even get upset if you critique anything DT does during this period of time. Mangini is a far better drummer and was perfect for DT. The fanbase got him fired from his dream job. Good job guys, selfish as always.

this has been bugging me so much. I love DT, I literally have their logo tattooed on my arm. I looked up to these guys so much growing up, but AI art is lazy af and goes counter to the whole message I get out of this band. And it makes me a little nauseous to look at, some kinda uncanny valley thing. I might give up my tickets to their next show, I don't wanna see this kinda stuff in their background visuals.

I wish and beg that this wasn't the case. I love the new singles they're released recently, and I've been a big time fan of all their music, but as an artist, I hate AI art and wish that they wouldn't use it. The band is literally the pinnacle of creativity, why use AI art when you've clearly protested against it in the music world (the plot of The Astonishing)? Sadly, nothing me or any of us say is probably going to change it.

Just a thought. Considering the album is all about mental and sleep issues, maybe these are all supposed to be coming from the mind of someone suffering from said issues and it's all somehow correlated to that. I can see a nightmarish ghost like referral to the Images And Words cover art. Kinda like if the girl in the Images cover was now an adult and suffering from Parasomnia issues and night terrors.

Got clickbated into looking at this post...the album's not even out yet and there's an art 'critique' about the cover. WTF?

Cooking one of my old favorite bands lololololol

The last album I listened from them was A Dramatic Turn of Events, did they make any good album aftar that one?

That's why you LISTEN to music, not WATCH music, regardless of the bad artwork, the music stills amazing, so it's time to stop watching visualizers and just closing your eyes and listening to the song, imagine stuff by yourself.

I completely agree, they have so much money, why not give a contract to visual artists.

Dream Theater's paying fans dont care. Do any of these AI haters buy physical merch and/or tickets? Doubt it.

Shannon, I agree with you 1000%! I SEE YOU'RE A PRETTY SHARP GIRL!

Most of their budget goes toward audio stuff - instruments, studio recording, the live setup. The live visuals are also not lame. I think artwork is simply veeeeeeery low on their list of priorities. If I was in their shoes, and had the choice of either having cheap artwork or no artwork, I would choose the latter. They chose the former. Their "marketing" presentation was always a little lame. But no one cared, because it's always been more about the music, and they did not pretend otherwise. To me, using generated images as artwork is pretending. I am not mortally offended. I just don't get why they would make a choice like this. The outcome is so predictable - it looks lame and people question their judgement.

Last great song was illumination theory for me. everything after is was just good or generic metal

Both their new tracks are just BAD.

It's an homage to fake ghost photos.

Jesus, I read every opinion you can possibly have. People are getting way to picky. The music is great, if you have that many negative comments and issues with the video.... Think about it.... Is it coming to you yet.... Don't you have ANYTHING else to do.... Don't listen or watch any of their videos. There are music with AI videos and some without that you might really like. And I might not like it. But, I wouldn't spend all this amount of time expressing my opinion so negatively. DT is not a major label band, go spend your life on the bands and companies that are truly costing people money and jobs.

I saw this video and at the end I was like "why am I doing this to myself?" Just throwing sht to the album cover and art. Ok.... I don't know if many of the real DT fans care that much about that. I don't specifically like the art either. From many previous albums either. But I couldn't care less about it. I am a fan of DT because of the amazing and beautiful music and because through the years they have shown to be great to their fans. Not because of the album covers. Anyway.... Thank God for freedom of speech. This girl has the right to express her views. It's ok. But if you people are DT fans and watch this video hoping to consume some good quality DT related media, you're not in the right place

You have no idea what music is. You'd better listen to the music itself instead of comlaining about the artwork and design. The song "A Brocken Man" is a great and emotional song for those people who lived a real life especially for those who went throgh their difficult life cycles, even without being a veteran or suffering of PTSB. The artwork of this video you will never understand, until you went through all asapects of a real life. You should listen to Britney Spears instead.

As an early DT fan, I’m saddened to say the band has become increasingly cringe and boomer over the years. The lyrics are cliche and doesn’t talk about human fragility like 6 degrees or SFAM, the music videos, and even if I could forgive that tacky AI style, the cliches, the video effects, the hairstyle and clothing. All leads to a cheap shallow band that used to be poetic and magnificent. Terrible

I don’t evaluate a work of art in an art gallery based on the sound track of the audience viewing in the same moment as me. Just in the same way I don’t judge a band on its artwork. The main mistake here is assuming people care about the same things, to the same level you do. Most music fans will only care about the music, and will only judge a band on that. Everything else is at most an added bonus. Give me an awesome album that I can close my eyes to and loose myself to any day over an average album with awesome artwork. A musician’s main goal to engage with their audience at an audio level, not a visual level. Your assumptions that they are lazy with their artwork is the same as them saying you’re lazy with this video.

Thank You for this! More people need to call out musicians for using A.I. for videos and artwork. I know now I am not buying their next album.

long time DT fan here (not proud to say it coz they have one of the worst fanbases in metal history) and I agree 100% with what you said. and it actually does make sense that they're using AI generated art, as it reflects how ridiculously uninspired their music is and has been for the last 3 or 4 albums. Portnoy coming back doesn't really solve anything songwriting-wise.

How much effort are they putting into their return? That is a very good question. Judging not only by not only their “art” but their music too, not a lot. So far, the whole thing is looking uninspired and Portnoy’s return has been more a marketing maneuver than a meaningful and purposeful reunion.

I love both the new songs. I didn't mind the album cover itself. I thought it was pretty cool, but that video for A Broken Man is unwatchable. I hated it so much that within like 30 seconds I just minimized the tab and only focused on the music. Similar to some more recent Queensryche videos where they used AI, I can't even look at it. So, I def agree with you 100% there. In fact, I don't know how you even watched that video. I haven't even bothered because something about it just repulses me, but I'm also used to music videos in general not being good & taking away from what the actual music is painting in your mind. So, for this album, I think the concept is really cool. I don't mind that album cover. For whatever reason the window shadows don't bother me.

Oh wow, I didn't even notice this lol. I hope they stop with the A.I. stuff. Good video! Subbed

Why everyone pooping on the new album cover!? I don’t care if it’s AI generated or not, if it looks good, I like the cover, and this album cover is good. Plus, I think that the subtle inaccuracies are good for the album, because LaBrie says that the album is going to be about Night Terrors, and most dreams, especially nightmares, have small things in them that are completely different from reality. This turns the inaccuracies into accuracies. 😁. In conclusion, it’s a good album cover, and I like it despite the fact that it most likely is AI generated.

YESSS, THAT'S THE CONTENT WE NEED. THANKS.

as you mentioned, it's jordan rudess. such a pity.

i'm pretty sure DT could hire some artists to make their videos and make a decent album cover, at least.

TBH, as a DT fan, I really just don't care if their artwork makes sense or not.

The best band art is from Marillion with Fish. They are all amazing!

There is a difference between using an v-drum set and using a drum machine. There is a difference between using AI as a tool and just being lazy.

All the points you make are good and valid, but Dream Theater has always been more about the audio than the visuals. When it comes to AI anything, the genie is already out of the bottle. People losing money from AI is one of the symptoms of late stage capitalism.

You spent nearly a quarter of hour talking about the lame visualizers and the poor cover image of an instrumental-focused band.

I mean yeah maybe they slacked off a bit in their art but a normal viewer would never even notice, true fans are here for the music and the musicians and something as stupid and small as ai art is not gonna change that

Look I’m a fan of the music. Let’s talk about that. I could give rats ass if dream theater uploaded John’s ai generated beard. As long as the music is organic and classic dream theater Prog. OH AND ALSO dream theater is supposed to be “corny” or “cringe” at times. It’s dream theater😂

Look I’m a fan of the music. Let’s talk about that. I could give rats ass if dream theater uploaded of John’s ai generated beard. As long as the music is organic and classic dream theater prog

I love Dream Theater from 'Images & Words' to 'Octavarium'. From that point forward IMO they became more of a progressive metal band (I'm sure Portnoy had a lot of influence here) and less of a progressive metal band with that melodic thrown in over each album. Their recent albums to me just started sounding the same from the last one. For me LaBrie shines when he is singing more melodic and not trying to strain or destroy his voice as has been evidenced on their current tour. Music is subjective so everyone hears the songs differently and every person likes what they like. I can listen to Dream Theater from Systematic Chaos' and forward but I never really go back to listening to those albums once I listen to them like I go back to 'Images & Words', Awake, Falling into Infinity' and 'Six Degrees'. 'Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence' is probably still my favorite Dream Theater album. The 2 new songs from the new album sound much like what they just did on their last album, so for me it's just rinse and repeat. But, if you like them then that's fine too. As far as the artwork no comment especially not to get into a huge debate about that appears below in the comments. Totally silly!

Take these notes-comments from a musician./producer/video director-editor/designer who is also a (broken) man with a DT tattoo in his arm: 1) The moment i saw the album artwork I recognized it's entirely made of AI. I ran it through the SightEngnine AI detector and proved me 94% right. Only the logo and the Majesty emblem are not AI, hence the -6% 2) Same goes for the artwork of the Broken Man. It scored a 99% on Dall-E. 3) Their videos are often just "visualizers" using 100% stock footage off Pond5/StoryBlocks etc. Been there, saw all of the footage already. 4) The Broken Man video needs A LOT OF WORK. You do not just throw a prompt and you get a 9 minute long video like this. I didn't find it hideous, nor I was annoyed by it, since I have done AI-assisted videos as well (been somewhat of a pioneer in this field in my country,Greece). What annoys me is that they give a wrong example to the scene: if a band of their caliber and budget gives their fan this kind of content, what does this say for the whole new generation of kids they follow them? In any case, if you feel you are nit-picking wait until you hear these vocals live 😞

as a fan of dream theater im gonna point out that their album artwork has kind of infamously been a bit out of the ordinary, with probably the most known example being Awake with its album cover thats almost entirely made with stock images (which obviously are different than AI art but thats kind of what id imagine as an equally controversial and "lazy" thing to do in the 90s). so me personally i feel them doing this now isnt really that surprising, but its just kinda disappointing.

The second song video is capturing PTSD and what it's like. Do you know anything about what you are critiquing?? Congrats on finally looking at the lyrics. I can imagine some of the tastes left in your mouth.

Fans don't give a shit about the visualizers. It's always ALL about the music. They're not Coldplay

You said prog isn't your thing and then offer a review of prog 😂

The cover image is capturing a confusing nightmare, thus the light you "dissect" means something different. Great analysis 😂

Funny that The Astonishing was a dystopia about Noise Machines AKA NOMACs and how Faythe discovered real passionate music created by human beings but then the very same band now uses AI art 8 years later.

As much as I love the band there are absolutely valid points you make about the artwork. As for the music, the two singles also kind of sound like they were generated through a "make me a Dream Theater song" AI to be honest. It's sounding a bit too formulaic, I want them to be brave and take more risks and try new things, they have nothing to prove at this point in their career so why not just have fun? I'd personally like less metal seriousness and instead more prog quirk from DT.

Yeah the artwork sucks, it has kinda always sucked, except for a few exceptions. No one who likes Dream Theater really cares much about that though. New music so far has been great, the visualizer for a broken man however, is trash and should be scrubbed from the internet. Terrible decision for them to release this, would have been much better if they just did a lyric video or no video at all.

I have a similar issue with the video for opethj's track Paragraph 4. It's clearly AI generated aside from the lyrics on the screen and it just looks bad. I do give Opeth a bit more benefit of the doubt when it comes to it because they haven't really mentioned anything AI related as far as I know and it was made by their record label so maybe they just didn't notice, but it still bugs me. The album it's off of, The Last WIll and Testament, is really good as well and the album cover I don't think is AI generated as there is a where's waldo for all the band members on it (as well as other tiny details,) but the video bugs me a lot.