New Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings review - Page 4

Systematic Chaos has problems of its own, but I think that the songs work better than Black Clouds.

For example, Constant Motion is not any good, but it's uniformly not any good. And that's because it's a 7 minute song, instead of a 12 minute 2-for-1 song. If Constant Motion were on Black Clouds, they would have thrown Forsaken in there as a "breakdown" in the middle of the song.

That's not to say that I don't like songs with different themes / movements / ideas in them, but I am saying that Black Clouds feels mishmashed and really glued together. Where A Change of Seasons works as one song, A Nightmare to Remember exists in fragments played one after another.

In general the sound quality is excellent. Few bit of clipping, but generally very good.

OP, very nice review. I really like the new album a lot. I've only been through it twice, but I definitely like it better than the last one. I guess I am a bit of an "old school" DT guy, and I can definitely live without the Cookine Monster vocals even occasionally, but in general the album is quite good IMO. I want to listen to it more, but so far I am digging it.

I got the 3CD version, and the covers disc is great too. The "Lark's Tongues in Aspic Pt 2" is proof that these guys are amazing musicians. Very few bands could pull that off.

Hmmm....first listen to the full album...

...sound quality is OK...pretty good production...but overcompressed, hurting the cymbals the most.

"Nightmare..." is a definite case of the good (some instrumental parts), the bad (rather blase songwriting) and the very ugly (Portnoy's "singing").

I'm still not that high on "Passage." A few more listens since my first post have not done much to change my opinion of the song...forgettable.

"Wither" is a pretty nice softer song, not as good as their best, but definitely better than some of the hokey crap on 8varium. I don't know that it is a stand-out track, but definitely a listenable one.

Despite being pretty unoriginal "Shattered Fortress" is still a fairly compelling song, and held my interest. Again, nothing wowing, but solid, which is more than I could say about most of their last two albums.

We get a bit better with "Best of Times," which might not be a DT classic, but is one of their better songs lately. I definitely got into it more than I did anything on the previous album.

And again a bit better with "Count of Tuscany," a very well-done epic track, and definitely their best song since Train of Thought. Even though, this was really the only song that even began to remind me of what I loved about DT's older work.

All-in-all it is less spotty than the last two albums, but DT is still in critical condition, IMO. We need a great album, and soon, or I will really lose my faith that they can do anything much better than mediocre.

I'm still split on Shattered Fortress. It's a nice capstone to the suite and all, but how would it sound to someone who didn't have a point of reference for all the old material in the song? It sounds a bit disjointed to me as it is, I'd have to figure it'd be downright confusing for someone who hasn't heard the other songs.

And that doesn't even bring in the idea of making a song with very little new material in it. When Pain of Salvation revisits the same theme on an album I don't have a problem (and scream, 'lazy songwriting!') as they tend to vary the theme enough/it goes towards building the concept. That sort of justification could apply here, but it seems like a stretch.

just picked it up today. in fact,when i first listened to it in the cd shop,it was better than i expected. overall good album with some nice melodies. but anyone else is bugged by the sudden talkings through the album? didn't like it.
and what's the heck with the sound?? is it just me or this album sounds "so so "at the least. i mean..where is the images and words sound? and awake? where is the beautiful metalic sound gone?
this album's sound is similar to the "train of thought" sound (which i dont like) only worse. i need to listen in very low volume in order to be able to listen to it without hurting my ears, at least with my rs1. maybe this is for the denons.
any comment on that?

Thats interesting. I actually enjoyed the Train of Thought sound. I might need to pick this one up soon.

for me,the train of thought sound is very closed and muffle,so like the new album. can't stand it on headphones,maybe it's good on speakers.

i think it started from "scenen from a memory"...i noticed that the sound is very close. I also gave my brother (that is a sound man) and he also noticed this without me telling him.
i personally didn't like this change in sound, i prefer the metalic open sound of images and words and awake and everybody who know those albums and also the new ones will know what i am talking about.
anyway..hope i will get used to the sound of the new album cause it's really nice. especially the solo in the end

After listening several more times, there is no doubt the tracks 1, 2, and 4 are the weakest. I like "Wither", but both "The Best of Times" and "The Count of Tuscany" are just EPIC. Really great stuff, IMO.

Just heard the album once now.

I think the last 7-8 minutes of 'The Count of Tuscany' might be one of the best pieces of music they have ever written.

Even though Images & Words is my favorite DT album, it's probably the crappiest sounding DT album. Well their first album might sound even worse but I don't like that album.

i guess me and you have totally different tastes in sound. images and words is the best sounding album of DT imo together with awake.

after listening a few more times to the new album and also twiked a little bit with my setup, i figured that the sound is not that bad, but still very closed and veil..unlike images where the sound is very open and detailed, very metalic. the sound is getting better from track 3 to the end.

I've just ordered it on double vinyl, anyone got the album on this medium ? I hope it'll sound good...

I was tempted by that - please let us know how it sounds!

It should arrive in a few days, so far i've just listened to some bits of the album off youtube and it seems good...some stuff is heavy ToT style...the Count of Tuscany seems like a great melodic epic. Nearly 20 minutes long it should take up and entire LP side

The only thing I didn't like about the vinyl is that they had to rearrange the tracklist to fit it on. Wither and The Shattered Fortress are swapped.

Sounds good to my very amateur ears though.