When I first heard this song don't know why, but I just cried. It's just soo beautiful. Also hearing it live is just... undescribable. Truly one of their best songs.
Full story, as I understand it. John Petrucci, the guitarist, meets a fan while they're touring in Tuscany. The fan introduces himself as the local Count and asks John if he wants to come visit his grounds. During the ride there, the Count explains a fun fact. The character of Hannibal Lecter as seen in Hannibal is loosely based on his brother, Sebastiano. The count introduces them, shows John his wine cellars and tells him another fun fact or two. The ones about the soldiers who hid in wine barrels only to be hammered shut and never released and the one about what happened in the chapel. John is legitimately freaked out that he trusted the wrong guy and he'll end up like the soldiers or worse. He asks the Count about it and gets the answer you heard at the end of the song. The Count didn't mean to frighten him. He just wanted someone he admires to remember him and know his colorful story. He lets Petrucci go and years later, John writes the song about him. Not sure how much of the story is fiction and how much is true, but it still makes for one hell of a story. Many songs on Black Clouds and Silver Linings are based on dark experiences from Petrucci's life. The stories are the black clouds and the resulting songs are the silver linings.
Hi Michael, the Count of Tuscany, who took JP to his Villa Calcinaia in Chianti, is actually Sebastiano Capponi: his brother is Niccolò Capponi, an historian and a noble man.
Also, about your comment re Rush's influence on this band - the story goes that John Petrucci and John Myung (guitar & bass players), who were boyhood friends in Long Island, met Mike Portnoy (drummer) while waiting in line to buy tickets to a Rush concert. Portnoy happened to live just a few miles from them on Long Island. They were like 16 or 17 years old at the time. So yeah, Rush's influence was huge on them (other influences included Yes, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa - the masterpiece Octavarium is all about their influences past & present). Petrucci, Myung and Portnoy ended up going to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and dropped out before graduating to pursue their career as a band. Jordan Rudess, the current keyboardist, was accepted at Julliard at the age of 9, and joined the band in 1999 after Derek Sherinian decided to leave the group. He was the band's third keyboardist, after Kevin Moore and Sherinian.
My cousins went to King's Park high school with Petrucci and Myung... I was about 18 miles away in Miller Place. As you mentioned, Portnoy is from Long Island as well. Got to meet them all during the Images & Words tour... Everyone was very nice - except Kevin - he was on his way out of the band at that time...
I am from a classic rock/70's 80's heavy metal world and there was a part of me that didn't want to give Dream Theater a chance.....UNTIL I DID. Now I can't get enough
Tears flow every time especially when I hear the outro , it’s nostalgic the psychedelic part initially reminded me of sunny days on my bmx with my brother and the lovely life my mum n dad gave us, then recently I think about my little baby girl in her mums womb. The final solo is heavenly so peaceful, complete heart melting beauty, my favourite song of all time. Great reaction mate 🤘🏻
Welcome to Dream Theater. You will want to hear everything they have done especially since Scenes From A Memory. This will occupy your minds on a permanent basis for months if not years. In my opinion, their best albums are Scenes From A Memory and Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence. They are experts at writing long epics with lots of references and repeating patterns they play with different manners and variations. Lots of odd signatures, sometimes no rules stand, very impressive. Virtuosis musicians.
Anything by Dream Theater is epic. May I humbly suggest Octavarium, In the Presence of Enemies Parts 1 and 2, Illumination Theory (from Breaking the Fourth Wall live show), and Dark Eternal Night. All of these songs will leave you beside yourself.
Octavarium is one of my favorite albums. Also I'd recommend anything from Liquid Tension Experiment. Basically a purely instrumental form of Dream Theater, but not really. Just reflecting the artistic output of the instrumental artists of Dream Theater in collaboration lol.
I requested this on your Take the time video... I'm so happy you did it. This song makes me cry. it takes me back to when I was like 15 and went to see DT. My first concert ever. This was the ending song of that night.
I have one other MEGA-suggestion: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence disc 2 (this is a 42 minute mega-epic that deals with 6 different individuals that deal with mental issues). You'll question your existence after hearing this 42 minute masterpiece.😆😆
A story about John Petrucci went for an Adventure in Florence, Italy. The story recalled and started during Dream Theater 2002 tour where John Petrucci and his Guitar tech went for a visit to meet the Count of Tuscany and view the wine farm. But for John Petrucci this is not a regular visit as he thought it would be. Yeah, that’s another example of a story that I shared, you know, something that happened to me that I would tell my friends and family but I never really wrote about it. Yeah, it’s sort of hard to follow the story but it’s basically a few years ago when Dream Theater were playing in Florence or something and there was my friend who is my guitar tech, he’s also wine importer, so he wanted to visit a winery in Tuscany, so he asked me if I wanted to come along. So, yeah, the guy who owned the winery is a count, he wasn´t the count of Tuscany, he is a count of something, anyway he brought us to this winery, it was a very old castle in the hills of Italy, it was very bizarre, you know just really weird stories the guy told, you know, like a mummified saint and a chapel, very strange and weird, I thought it would be great to tell that story, probably make a movie of,
I discovered DT many years ago, around 1991. I was talking to the singer of my band who had his pulse on a wide variety of music. I already loved Fates Warning and Queensryche at the time. I told my singer that I would love to find a band like Rush, but heavier. So the next practice, he brought me a cassette of When Dream and Day Unite. I LOVED it. It was exactly what I wanted. A few months later, Images and Words came out. Loved it more. I was very lucky that DT went on tour to promote Images and Words, and played at the Back Room in Austin, TX. They were a new/upcoming band. This was before Pull Me Under got released on MTV. Such a small club, and such a great show (the first of many!). This song is one of my all-time Dream Theater favorites. Great to see you enjoy it! If you think DT is an extension of Rush, I encourage you to seek out the British Prog Metal band Haken; Crystallized is my favorite of theirs.
I would also like to suggest Dream Theater's AA suite. It chronicles Mike Portnoy's struggles with alcoholism. It includes 5 songs over 5 albums: 1) The Glass Prison 2 This Dying Soul 3) The Root of All Evil 4) Repentance 5) The Shattered Fortress All of it is mind-blowing!!
I saw Dream Theater live this last March. They played this song I thought the melodic part towards the end was Jordan on the keyboard. No it was John Petrucci on the guitar. ICREDIBLE !!
Great reaction. You gave me goose bumps, because you made me remember the first time I discovered or began to understand the construction of the song lol.
That is totally crazy is that it's even better and powerful live. I Saw them in Paris a few month ago and it was wonderful. The play this song as callback and John was on fire...
Great reaction. This is one song that literally took me for a ride the first time I heard it. It nearly brought me to tears when I heard it. It's a tune that I wish I could hear again for the first time, every time.
This song was one of those that changed my life. Loved it so much that my alias online is Tuscany and even my cat is named Tuscany. Dream Theater has so many of these beautiful pieces as well! Check out Change of Seasons Live!
My favorite band of all time and it's not even close. You should react to Illumination Theory live at the Boston Opera House! Another emotional journey! The Berklee choir and orchestra join them and it's insane.
Oh man, I am so jealous that you have so many amazing DT songs you've yet to hear. In this video you mentioned how they would be mindblowing live - you should check out A Change of Seasons live from their Live: Scenes from New York DVD. It's on TH-cam and I will be happy to send a donation if you'd react to it
Rush was a huge influence on John Petrucci. I once saw John on "That Metal Show" and he spoke about how Rush influenced him. He even had a jean jacket from his high school years with 2112 painted on the back of the jacket.
The most talented band of all time💜 If you react Dream Theater songs you should do it LIVE Dream Theater performances then you can see how amazing they are how they play those amazingly masterpieces on Live. You will Enjoy and amazed more trust me.. ive been watching you since you react DREAM THEATER songs and i like it! Keep rockin man 🤘🏽✌🏽( Sorry for my bad English btw )
I know this was a few months ago and you probably won't see this but I'm going to also throw in and say that no matter how much I love them I can't pretend that dream theater is popular
As a Dream Theater fan for a long time, I can recommend TONS of material, because they have produced TONS of material for quite awhile. If you want epics, try "Illumination Theory" or "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence." Bring snacks, that is a long one. EDIT: For shorter songs, try "Blind Faith," or "Fatal Tragedy."
Agree!! Really love the live version of A Change of Seasons. The vocalist's part in the middle of the song (Another World) still gives me goose bumps. 👍
For ambitious, try Manowar-Achilles the agony and the ecstasy and Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull. For insane musicianship, check out When the Water Breaks -live in LA by Liquid Tension Experiment
I can't wait until somebody lays Dream Theater's Octavarium on you, Mr. Slop. Or Hell's Kitchen/Lines In The Sand (must do those two together). Enjoy, good sir!
I think this is the song that was heavily influenced (maybe most influenced) by Rush's La Villa Strangiato. I think I remember some of the band saying that when this came out. It sounds a lot like it. Dream theater sounds like Rush if Rush was metal and a 5 piece. It is hard to compare the two bands since Rush was doing so much with just 3 guys. DT can do so much more in large part because they have 5 members. but rush was not a metal band either. They had more groove than DT. I like DT but I am not a huge metal guy. The groove is often lost especially with prog. metal .DT is one of the best at keeping a groove even though they are playing metal. I get tired of some other Prog. metal bands because often the musicality of the songs are lost with someone trying to play fast and technical with abrupt tempo changes. Again Rush and DT are kings of making great transitions compared to most prog. metal bands.
LOL, this isn't really ambitious for Dream Theater. It's longer than most of their songs but every song is pretty much this complicated. Please do them live for the full affect. They got a Zillion vids on youtube. They have been around since 1988 and release a new album about every 2-3 years. Petrucci and Mike Portnoy the drummer are the guiding lights of the group. But Portnoy left the group after this album. The drummer that replaced him might be technically better but he much less a showman and in my opinion, the over all quality of the songs slipped after Portnoy left about 10 years and 4-5? albums ago.. Don't get me wrong, they are still amazing and maybe even better musically after he left. Just, the songs are not as interesting to me as much. P.S. Stay away from "The Astonishing" album. It is their Mr. Roboto and pretty much every DT fan hates it. For you youngsters. Mr. Roboto was a song released by the group Styx at the height of their career in the early 80's and basically brought their career to a screeching halt.
THIS DT fan doesn't hate it, but I'll freely admit that it asks a lot of the listener. If you can't absorb it in one sitting without interruption, then it will likely be lost on you.
To me, whether music has soul depends on the listener. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve listened to them so much, or because I listen to them differently, but I think Dream Theater has plenty of soul. However, I’ve heard from people like yourself -who appreciate their talent, but can’t connect to the music- that they appreciated Portnoy’s other band Transatlantic more. So maybe if you can’t get into Dream Theater, Transatlantic might be your thing. I’d recommend All of the Above, a lengthy piece, but a great listen :)
How can you say there is no soul? Towards the end after he says the count of Tuscany and that soaring guitar comes in how can you not feel anything after that?
I'll never understand how someone can listen to the raw emotion in Petrucci's guitar solos, especially at the end, and claim DT has no soul. I've been reduced to tears by them live on several occasions, and I was surrounded by people crying just as hard as I was. Don't mistake slop for soul...these guys move people emotionally as well as anyone.
They are all amazing at their craft but… It’s like pretentious and egotistical Rush. Complexity overshadows the feel to a fault. Impressive but forgettable. Saw them once live and they all gave remarkable performances I have to say. They are a tight and well oiled machine.
When I first heard this song don't know why, but I just cried. It's just soo beautiful.
Also hearing it live is just... undescribable.
Truly one of their best songs.
I cried towards the end
Full story, as I understand it. John Petrucci, the guitarist, meets a fan while they're touring in Tuscany. The fan introduces himself as the local Count and asks John if he wants to come visit his grounds. During the ride there, the Count explains a fun fact. The character of Hannibal Lecter as seen in Hannibal is loosely based on his brother, Sebastiano. The count introduces them, shows John his wine cellars and tells him another fun fact or two. The ones about the soldiers who hid in wine barrels only to be hammered shut and never released and the one about what happened in the chapel. John is legitimately freaked out that he trusted the wrong guy and he'll end up like the soldiers or worse. He asks the Count about it and gets the answer you heard at the end of the song. The Count didn't mean to frighten him. He just wanted someone he admires to remember him and know his colorful story. He lets Petrucci go and years later, John writes the song about him. Not sure how much of the story is fiction and how much is true, but it still makes for one hell of a story. Many songs on Black Clouds and Silver Linings are based on dark experiences from Petrucci's life. The stories are the black clouds and the resulting songs are the silver linings.
Hi Michael, the Count of Tuscany, who took JP to his Villa Calcinaia in Chianti, is actually Sebastiano Capponi: his brother is Niccolò Capponi, an historian and a noble man.
Also, about your comment re Rush's influence on this band - the story goes that John Petrucci and John Myung (guitar & bass players), who were boyhood friends in Long Island, met Mike Portnoy (drummer) while waiting in line to buy tickets to a Rush concert. Portnoy happened to live just a few miles from them on Long Island. They were like 16 or 17 years old at the time. So yeah, Rush's influence was huge on them (other influences included Yes, Pink Floyd, Frank Zappa - the masterpiece Octavarium is all about their influences past & present).
Petrucci, Myung and Portnoy ended up going to Berklee College of Music in Boston, and dropped out before graduating to pursue their career as a band. Jordan Rudess, the current keyboardist, was accepted at Julliard at the age of 9, and joined the band in 1999 after Derek Sherinian decided to leave the group. He was the band's third keyboardist, after Kevin Moore and Sherinian.
My cousins went to King's Park high school with Petrucci and Myung... I was about 18 miles away in Miller Place. As you mentioned, Portnoy is from Long Island as well. Got to meet them all during the Images & Words tour... Everyone was very nice - except Kevin - he was on his way out of the band at that time...
I am from a classic rock/70's 80's heavy metal world and there was a part of me that didn't want to give Dream Theater a chance.....UNTIL I DID. Now I can't get enough
Same goes for me
Tears flow every time especially when I hear the outro , it’s nostalgic the psychedelic part initially reminded me of sunny days on my bmx with my brother and the lovely life my mum n dad gave us, then recently I think about my little baby girl in her mums womb. The final solo is heavenly so peaceful, complete heart melting beauty, my favourite song of all time. Great reaction mate 🤘🏻
Welcome to Dream Theater. You will want to hear everything they have done especially since Scenes From A Memory. This will occupy your minds on a permanent basis for months if not years. In my opinion, their best albums are Scenes From A Memory and Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence. They are experts at writing long epics with lots of references and repeating patterns they play with different manners and variations. Lots of odd signatures, sometimes no rules stand, very impressive. Virtuosis musicians.
Anything by Dream Theater is epic. May I humbly suggest Octavarium, In the Presence of Enemies Parts 1 and 2, Illumination Theory (from Breaking the Fourth Wall live show), and Dark Eternal Night. All of these songs will leave you beside yourself.
Octavarium is one of my favorite albums. Also I'd recommend anything from Liquid Tension Experiment. Basically a purely instrumental form of Dream Theater, but not really. Just reflecting the artistic output of the instrumental artists of Dream Theater in collaboration lol.
I requested this on your Take the time video... I'm so happy you did it.
This song makes me cry. it takes me back to when I was like 15 and went to see DT. My first concert ever. This was the ending song of that night.
They have been my favorite band for years now
I have one other MEGA-suggestion: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence disc 2 (this is a 42 minute mega-epic that deals with 6 different individuals that deal with mental issues). You'll question your existence after hearing this 42 minute masterpiece.😆😆
The name of this band should tell you everything you need to know!!😉 They are the kings of Progressive Metal...
A story about John Petrucci went for an Adventure in Florence, Italy. The story recalled and started during Dream Theater 2002 tour where John Petrucci and his Guitar tech went for a visit to meet the Count of Tuscany and view the wine farm. But for John Petrucci this is not a regular visit as he
thought it would be. Yeah, that’s another example of a story that I shared, you know, something that happened to me that I would tell my friends and family but I never really wrote about it. Yeah, it’s sort of hard to follow the story but it’s basically a few years ago when Dream Theater were playing
in Florence or something and there was my friend who is my guitar tech, he’s also wine importer, so he wanted to visit a winery in Tuscany, so he asked me if I wanted to come along. So, yeah, the guy who owned the winery is a count, he wasn´t the count of Tuscany, he is a count of something,
anyway he brought us to this winery, it was a very old castle in the hills of Italy, it was very bizarre, you know just really weird stories the guy told, you know, like a mummified saint and a chapel, very strange and weird, I thought it would be great to tell that story, probably make a movie of,
I discovered DT many years ago, around 1991. I was talking to the singer of my band who had his pulse on a wide variety of music. I already loved Fates Warning and Queensryche at the time. I told my singer that I would love to find a band like Rush, but heavier. So the next practice, he brought me a cassette of When Dream and Day Unite. I LOVED it. It was exactly what I wanted. A few months later, Images and Words came out. Loved it more. I was very lucky that DT went on tour to promote Images and Words, and played at the Back Room in Austin, TX. They were a new/upcoming band. This was before Pull Me Under got released on MTV. Such a small club, and such a great show (the first of many!). This song is one of my all-time Dream Theater favorites. Great to see you enjoy it! If you think DT is an extension of Rush, I encourage you to seek out the British Prog Metal band Haken; Crystallized is my favorite of theirs.
Im.so glad you enjoyed it!
Great choice Ginger! 👍🏻👍🏻
One of my Favs!
@@gleebyers ILLUMINATION theory, Octavarium, Breaking All Illusions too
I would also like to suggest Dream Theater's AA suite. It chronicles Mike Portnoy's struggles with alcoholism. It includes 5 songs over 5 albums:
1) The Glass Prison
2 This Dying Soul
3) The Root of All Evil
4) Repentance
5) The Shattered Fortress
All of it is mind-blowing!!
The band were tour in the 1990s In Italy, And this experience actually happened to John... Pretty wild!!
I saw Dream Theater live this last March. They played this song I thought the melodic part towards the end was Jordan on the keyboard. No it was John Petrucci on the guitar. ICREDIBLE !!
Welcome to DREAM THEATER WORLD MAN !!!
Great reaction. You gave me goose bumps, because you made me remember the first time I discovered or began to understand the construction of the song lol.
Great reaction as always John..Please react to Best of times from Dream Theater as well..Its an epic emotional ride
That is totally crazy is that it's even better and powerful live. I Saw them in Paris a few month ago and it was wonderful. The play this song as callback and John was on fire...
Great reaction. This is one song that literally took me for a ride the first time I heard it. It nearly brought me to tears when I heard it.
It's a tune that I wish I could hear again for the first time, every time.
This song was one of those that changed my life. Loved it so much that my alias online is Tuscany and even my cat is named Tuscany. Dream Theater has so many of these beautiful pieces as well! Check out Change of Seasons Live!
My favorite band of all time and it's not even close. You should react to Illumination Theory live at the Boston Opera House! Another emotional journey! The Berklee choir and orchestra join them and it's insane.
Your mind has to be blown...Dream Theater and Rush are incredible. No question, some of the best musicians on the planet! Their catalogs are massive.
Oh man, I am so jealous that you have so many amazing DT songs you've yet to hear. In this video you mentioned how they would be mindblowing live - you should check out A Change of Seasons live from their Live: Scenes from New York DVD. It's on TH-cam and I will be happy to send a donation if you'd react to it
DT is what happens when every band member is a virtuoso. Rare indeed...
At Wit's End, then check out some Liquid Tension Experiment.
Enjoy the rabbit hole!
Hey , nice video keep it up, never heard of this band or song!
Rush was a huge influence on John Petrucci. I once saw John on "That Metal Show" and he spoke about how Rush influenced him. He even had a jean jacket from his high school years with 2112 painted on the back of the jacket.
John Petrucci - Guitars
Mike Portnoy - Percussion
Jordan Rudess - Keyboards
James La Brie - Vox
John Myung - Bass
Loved your nickname hahaha
Vox😂
Keep on going, this is a good video.
great reaction. im with you brother
That is their super power they can control time make a 19 minute song feel like 7 or 8 minutes
the Outro is meant to invoke the shores of Italy
Not even 5 minutes in "this is a great song". Before the vocals kick in, you just know it's great
The most talented band of all time💜 If you react Dream Theater songs you should do it LIVE Dream Theater performances then you can see how amazing they are how they play those amazingly masterpieces on Live. You will Enjoy and amazed more trust me.. ive been watching you since you react DREAM THEATER songs and i like it! Keep rockin man 🤘🏽✌🏽( Sorry for my bad English btw )
Dream Theater was formed at Berkley in the mid 80's fusing basically Rush and Iron Maiden with some sparkles of Yes and Dixie Dregs.
Illumination theory Live please 🙏❤️
I know this was a few months ago and you probably won't see this but I'm going to also throw in and say that no matter how much I love them I can't pretend that dream theater is popular
Thank you for jumping into the Dream Theater rabbit role.
Yes, there are very many quotes and assizoations to Rush.
And, in my opinion, it's Dream Theater's pinnacle during the Portnoy era. Definitely listen to it many times. There's a lot to absorb and appreciate.
I’ve listened to this album hundreds of times and I have to say I agree with you. It happened to be the day MP announced his return today on 2023 oct!
As a Dream Theater fan for a long time, I can recommend TONS of material, because they have produced TONS of material for quite awhile. If you want epics, try "Illumination Theory" or "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence." Bring snacks, that is a long one.
EDIT: For shorter songs, try "Blind Faith," or "Fatal Tragedy."
You really need to listen to A Change Of Seasons by Dream Theater. The best 23 minutes ever recorded
Agree!! Really love the live version of A Change of Seasons. The vocalist's part in the middle of the song (Another World) still gives me goose bumps. 👍
For ambitious, try Manowar-Achilles the agony and the ecstasy and Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull. For insane musicianship, check out When the Water Breaks -live in LA by Liquid Tension Experiment
Pregame I had kind of guessed you might like this...
Check out Dream Theater ' Dance of Eternity' Live from Breaking the Fourth Wall. The musicianship will blow your mind.
Welcome to the world of Dream Theater. Dive down our rabbit hole. Enjoy.
Dance of eternity - dream theater
HOME, next!
For some more jazzy, similarly technical, jams try "The Aristocrats".
Guthrie Govan is a "must study" guitarist.
This is one of the underrated because is so NERDLY-MUSIC that .... idk
I love them, is 99% of what I listen
Don't read the lyrics, Listen to the music and the lyrics are just a complement.
I have always described them as Rush on steroids
Jon, Octavarium!!!!
Brother, do to yourself a favor and react to Change Of Seasons - Live 2000
Definitely Octaviarum next! It’s longer and imo it’s better 😜
I can't wait until somebody lays Dream Theater's Octavarium on you, Mr. Slop. Or Hell's Kitchen/Lines In The Sand (must do those two together). Enjoy, good sir!
Please react to hail and farewell to Britain - type o negative. And the sleep of no dreaming by porcupine tree
Some of Portnoy’s best drumming. He really shines here. The lyrics are a bit silly though. Ok. A lot silly. But the music makes up for it.
Rush on sreroids
You have to be a mathematician to keep up with all of the time changes.
I think this is the song that was heavily influenced (maybe most influenced) by Rush's La Villa Strangiato. I think I remember some of the band saying that when this came out. It sounds a lot like it. Dream theater sounds like Rush if Rush was metal and a 5 piece. It is hard to compare the two bands since Rush was doing so much with just 3 guys. DT can do so much more in large part because they have 5 members. but rush was not a metal band either. They had more groove than DT. I like DT but I am not a huge metal guy. The groove is often lost especially with prog. metal .DT is one of the best at keeping a groove even though they are playing metal. I get tired of some other Prog. metal bands because often the musicality of the songs are lost with someone trying to play fast and technical with abrupt tempo changes. Again Rush and DT are kings of making great transitions compared to most prog. metal bands.
LOL, this isn't really ambitious for Dream Theater. It's longer than most of their songs but every song is pretty much this complicated. Please do them live for the full affect. They got a Zillion vids on youtube. They have been around since 1988 and release a new album about every 2-3 years. Petrucci and Mike Portnoy the drummer are the guiding lights of the group. But Portnoy left the group after this album. The drummer that replaced him might be technically better but he much less a showman and in my opinion, the over all quality of the songs slipped after Portnoy left about 10 years and 4-5? albums ago.. Don't get me wrong, they are still amazing and maybe even better musically after he left. Just, the songs are not as interesting to me as much.
P.S. Stay away from "The Astonishing" album. It is their Mr. Roboto and pretty much every DT fan hates it. For you youngsters. Mr. Roboto was a song released by the group Styx at the height of their career in the early 80's and basically brought their career to a screeching halt.
THIS DT fan doesn't hate it, but I'll freely admit that it asks a lot of the listener. If you can't absorb it in one sitting without interruption, then it will likely be lost on you.
Ironically, this was also the last song DT ever had. Nothing's topped TCoT ever since MP left.
Dunno what lyrics you are reading but they are flawed...
the tempo and beats are spot on and seem almost computer generated. the lyrics are incomprehensible. i like it. but there is no soul.
To me, whether music has soul depends on the listener. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve listened to them so much, or because I listen to them differently, but I think Dream Theater has plenty of soul. However, I’ve heard from people like yourself -who appreciate their talent, but can’t connect to the music- that they appreciated Portnoy’s other band Transatlantic more. So maybe if you can’t get into Dream Theater, Transatlantic might be your thing. I’d recommend All of the Above, a lengthy piece, but a great listen :)
You just can’t comprehend it
How can you say there is no soul? Towards the end after he says the count of Tuscany and that soaring guitar comes in how can you not feel anything after that?
I'll never understand how someone can listen to the raw emotion in Petrucci's guitar solos, especially at the end, and claim DT has no soul. I've been reduced to tears by them live on several occasions, and I was surrounded by people crying just as hard as I was. Don't mistake slop for soul...these guys move people emotionally as well as anyone.
For me the best period is the Mike Portnoy period
I'm not preaching but music for me is an expression of God and its more than evident in the music of dream theater
They are all amazing at their craft but… It’s like pretentious and egotistical Rush. Complexity overshadows the feel to a fault. Impressive but forgettable. Saw them once live and they all gave remarkable performances I have to say. They are a tight and well oiled machine.