DREAM THEATER — The Astonishing (review)

DREAM THEATER — The Astonishing album cover Album · 2016 · Progressive Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Uknowntoall
Ok...I know there is a lot of confliction about this record and people have their different opinions on its execution, but I am one of those who is not afraid to admit that I quite liked this record...I'm not saying that its a bad album or a great album, I think it sits somewhere in middle ground along with albums like 'Falling into Infinity' and 'When Day and Dream Unite', which in turn weren't really Dream Theater's strongest moments or that's what I think. Getting back to the album itself I found that this had a different curve on the music as it seems to be more dominated by Piano, Keyboard and orchestration rather than the extreme guitar and synth work Dream Theater is better known for, I'm not saying different is a bad thing though as bands tend to change music styles to suit a particular audience to attracted new fans while trying to keep old fans interested and coming back for more, but it seemed that this lighter approach put off a lot of old DT fans sadly. The only thing I was disappointed with was John Myoung's bass lines couldn't be heard and Mike Mangini's druming was a little too simplistic in places, but I enjoyed the concept of the record, I will say that when you first listen to it you really need to have the lyric book open so you know which character James LaBrie is portraying in turn and you really need to have alot of focus/concerntration for this record due to the duration of it...131 minutes worth of music and lyric content over 2CDs...glad I did have focus for this album...I would only say listen to this if you have the time and patience for it.
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