The cover harkens back to I&W and Awake era.  Very cool.

I love DT...but to be honest after hearing parts of the new OSI album I'm WAY more excited about that release.  

I've fallen behind in the latest Prog news.  I'm so glad I dropped in today and saw this thread.  

Let's hope the new album will be killer.  

Legendary UK rock critic Dave Ling had this to say...

Sunday 12th April
Picture the scene. It’s around 7.30pm on Saturday. The front door bursts open and in trudge Dave Ling and eldest son, Eddie. The former is somewhat the worse for a long, steady day’s drinking, and both are furious at having seen Cardiff – a team of dirty, diving, injury-feigning thugs with a set of fans that define the term ‘inbred cretin’ – overcome Crystal Palace, largely due to the gross incompetence of an inept dickhead of a referee that declined two penalty appeals (one of which was absolutely clear-cut; both for the home side, naturally). So the soothing effect was palpable as, after Mrs L had nodded to the corner of the room and announced: “Your post is over there”, I opened a mailer that contained… ulp… a watermarked promo of Dream Theater’s newie, ‘Black Clouds And Silver Linings’. Drummer and mouthpiece Mike Portnoy had already whetted the appetite of the band’s fans with his quote of: “Imagine if ‘A Change Of Seasons’, ‘Octavarium’, ‘Learning To Live’, ‘Pull Me Under’ and ‘The Glass Prison’ were all [contained] on one Dream Theater album”, but a simple glance at the song timings – 16 mins and 10 seconds, 8.35, 5.25, 12.49, 13.07 and 19.16 – almost had me drooling. 75 minutes later and the oafish ineptitude of R Booth (Nottinghamshire) is a long-distant irrelevance. ‘A Rite Of Passage’ and the soaring ‘Wither’ are destined to thrill those that prefer DT in more succinct form, but… the rest of the album… Christ! Apart from pointing out that the band has cut back on the growled vocals of the last album and **really** played to its long-established strengths, it’s hard to know where to begin. So instead I’ll leave it till the official unveiling date of June 22 for you to add your own personal choice of superlative.

So, if those numbers he quoted are accurate, it's

A Nightmare to Remember - 16:10
A Rite of Passage - 8:35
Wither - 5:25
The Shattered Fortress - 12:49
The Best of Times - 13:07
The Count of Tuscany - 19:16

seems pretty EPIC to me.


_________________
Power metal: the most powerful of all the metals.
http://www.last.fm/user/octaquarium

Sweet Jesus I think I just wet myself :drool:


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Needs more cowbell

sounds promising

More reviews incoming.... from Rich Wilson's blog...

'Well, I've been listening to the new DT album for about the last two weeks now. I really don't want to ruin everyone's first listen to Black Clouds And Silver Linings, so I won't go into too much detail. Save to say that 'The Best Of Times' and 'The Count Of Tuscany' (20 minutes? Oh yes!!) are both amongst the best tracks the band have ever released. It's epic. It's contemporary with plenty of prog. There's a huge portion of metal in there too. Other plus points (for me anyway) are the lack of fantasy lyrics about vampires and "dark master" which did little for me on their last album, and they've cut back on those growling vocals. In terms of balance, it's probably their most solid album since 'Scenes From A Memory'.
The only downside is that the CD is one of those watermarked efforts, and it won't play on the PC or half the CD players in the house. The only ones that work are in the bathroom and car. So cue lots of pointless car journeys and I've not been this clean since I was a baby . . .'

-----

Also a new interview with Rudess at http://dtnorway.com/podcast.xml

"The sound of the instruments - all the instruments sound even better than they ever have, like the drums sound really really good, and the guitars are really dialed in, as well as it could be, the keyboards sound great, and the bass sounds better than, i think, it ever has on a dream theater album and the vocals sound awesome
[...]
even down to the mastering of the album, the mastering was much more effective, and the dynamics are still left in the music in a big way, more so than a lot of albums these days - that whole loudness war that i'm sure you've heard about
[...]
where people are trying to make it so their music is louder than other music [...] this time around we said we're not going to play this game, that's ridiculous - we left the dynamics really in the music. I think it makes a big difference to the listening experience..."

In summary:
A Rite of Passage is about freemasonry.
No fantasy lyrics.
Most of JP's lyrics are based on his own experiences.  And according to JR, the lyrics are pretty good.
No loudness war bullshit.
The instruments all sound really good.
Best of Times is confirmed to be the song about MP's dad.
A Nightmare to Remember's working title was "Halloween".
James LaBrie didn't like one of the parts in The Count of Tuscany because he thought it didn't flow very well but they left it in anyway.  Now it's JR's favorite part of the album.  Basically, they don't always agree 100% on everything.
New JR solo album = new arrangements of DT songs on the piano + 3 originals
  
I am fucking pumped.


_________________
Power metal: the most powerful of all the metals.
http://www.last.fm/user/octaquarium

I'm drooling already. I'm STOKED


_________________
"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice" - Rush

June 23rd that's only 2 months off, I can wait.... *nervous twitch* #$%^@#@$% two more months can I just go into hibernation maybe?


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Needs more cowbell

I hate that they announced this thing so early.  


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There's a 50/50 chance that what I wrote above is plain bullshit.....believe it at your own risk.

Soooo looking forward to this!

Oh wow, that bit on the lack of loudness war BS is terrific news.  It's really getting bad these days but it's nice to hear that DT isn't trying to play that game.

DELUXE COLLECTOR'S EDITION BOX SET: $132.00 BUY NOW

Price INCLUDES shipping via Priority Mail for all domestic U.S. customers!

Pre-order this configuration and receive an exclusive code to download 5 of the newly recorded cover songs. 1 track per week will be released, beginning on 5/19, leading up to album release. You'll hear them first!

    * Find a SILVER TICKET and Win a MEET & GREET with the Band!
    * 3-CD Special Edition Set Includes Album, Instrumental Mixes and 6 Newly Recorded Cover Songs
    * Limited Edition Audiophile 180-Gram Double LP Set with Exclusive Artwork from Hugh Syme
    * Black Clouds & Silver Linings "Producer's Edition" Disc Includes Isolated Audio Tracks of the Entire Album (This Bonus Disc Only Available in Tthis Set)
    * Limited Edition, Numbered Lithograph by Legendary Artist Hugh Syme. 100 Lucky Winners will Find a Litho Personally Signed by the Artist!
    * Computer Mouse Pad, Exclusively Available with Box Set
    * Packaged in a Silver Foil Embossed Black Velvet Box.

THE FAIR IS HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No really, this is the ultimate commerce, give, get more, even more and more and more and even more and over again woohoo I got it - silver ticket - Silver Foil Embossed Black box - mousepad yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

This isn't music anymore. I turn my back on them like many americans did to PoS for being so anti-american.

The brand Dreamtheater shall be of my interest no more forever in the world's idle entiety! </pledge>

    


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What is a tumble dryer for???

Well... at least they haven't started slapping their logo on lunchboxes and caskets.

Prog_Rocks wrote:

DELUXE COLLECTOR'S EDITION BOX SET: $132.00 BUY NOW

Price INCLUDES shipping via Priority Mail for all domestic U.S. customers!

Pre-order this configuration and receive an exclusive code to download 5 of the newly recorded cover songs. 1 track per week will be released, beginning on 5/19, leading up to album release. You'll hear them first!

    * Find a SILVER TICKET and Win a MEET & GREET with the Band!
    * 3-CD Special Edition Set Includes Album, Instrumental Mixes and 6 Newly Recorded Cover Songs
    * Limited Edition Audiophile 180-Gram Double LP Set with Exclusive Artwork from Hugh Syme
    * Black Clouds & Silver Linings "Producer's Edition" Disc Includes Isolated Audio Tracks of the Entire Album (This Bonus Disc Only Available in Tthis Set)
    * Limited Edition, Numbered Lithograph by Legendary Artist Hugh Syme. 100 Lucky Winners will Find a Litho Personally Signed by the Artist!
    * Computer Mouse Pad, Exclusively Available with Box Set
    * Packaged in a Silver Foil Embossed Black Velvet Box.

Yep.  They're definitely on Roadrunner Records now.