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Although instrumental music is one of the band's main characteristics, Dream Theater has several songs with intelligent lyrics, dealing with profound and diverse themes
By Mauricio Oliveira
Dream Theater is a band full of excellent musicians, multiple award winners, and cited in lists of the best guitarists/bassists/drummers in the world by various specialized magazines. In addition to the individual awards of the musicians, their albums have also always been very well-received and awarded. Even for those who don't particularly like progressive metal, but who play an instrument, listening to Dream Theater can be a great learning experience. And for those who don't know the band yet, I've tried to list some reasons why I admire them.
Six reasons to listen to Dream Theater:
1. The quality of the band
Dream Theater is that of a band full of excellent musicians, who have won numerous awards and been cited in lists of the best guitarists/bassists/drummers in the world by various specialized magazines. In addition to the individual awards of the musicians, their albums have also always been very well-received and awarded. For those who enjoy well-made, quality music that explores instruments individually and collectively, Dream Theater is a great option.
2. Subliminal Messages
Dream Theater loves to put “subliminal messages” in their albums. There's a connection between several of the band's albums, where the last note of the last song on one album is the same first note that starts the first song on the next album. This concept of continuity is explored extensively by the band, culminating in the album Octavarium where the last song ends exactly as the first begins, closing a cycle between albums but leaving that cycle infinite within the album itself. Incidentally, Octavarium is an album full of curiosities, linked to the numbers 5 and 8 (the cover features Newton's cradle with 8 balls, with 5 birds between the balls in positions that form a musical octave, for example). And it doesn't stop there; the entire booklet of this album is full of very well-planned symbolism, worth taking a look at.
Octavarium cover: the first ball on the left is F, the balls are the white keys of the piano, and the birds are the black keys.
3. Constant Recording:
The band manages to maintain a reasonable period in the production of studio albums, always taking 2 or 3 years between releases. This is great for fans who don't want to wait too long for new music; each new album guarantees quality for those who enjoy progressive metal. For example, the band's last studio album (A Dramatic Turn of Events) was released in September 2011, and it was announced in April of this year that they are already in the process of composing their next album. And all this is interspersed with various tours, live albums, singles, cover shows paying tribute to great bands, and side projects by band members.
4. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
This album was released in 1999 (their fifth studio album) and is considered by many fans to be one of the band's best to date. It was the first album after Jordan Rudess officially joined on keyboards and features the band's most well-known and classic lineup (Petrucci, Portnoy, Myung, LaBrie, and Rudess). One of the album's most striking characteristics is its theme: it tells the story of Nicholas, a character who discovers his past life, and each song narrates another stage of this story in a very well-crafted way. It's definitely worth listening to.
5. Song Lyrics
Although instrumental music is one of the band's main characteristics, Dream Theater has several songs with intelligent lyrics, dealing with profound and diverse themes. Besides the already mentioned Metropolis Pt. 2, which features songs narrating stages of the same story, there is, for example, the album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, a double album where the second disc is conceptual and deals with six different mental illnesses. Many other songs throughout the band's career have incredible and well-written lyrics, showing that the band is not just a collection of well-played instruments.
6. Commitment to the Fans
Besides constantly being in the studio, the band is always touring (including world tours), releasing live albums (with some excellent ones, such as Scenes from New York and Live at Budokan) and singles. In fact, it was this immense dedication to the fans that supposedly led to the departure of Mike Portnoy, co-founder of the band, from his position as drummer. Mike wanted some time off after dedicating years of his life to the band and the fans, but the rest of the group didn't want that time. In the past, the band still played shows lasting 3 to 4 hours, called "An evening with…", without opening bands and with a break in the middle. Unfortunately, these no longer happen, as they were very tiring and even resulted in Portnoy's hospitalization. Now that's dedication to the fans.
Dream Theater breaking the news to Mike Mangini, the band's new drummer.
I hope I've convinced someone to start listening to Dream Theater, or made someone listen again with a different perspective. I myself listen to each song several times, paying attention to the different instruments each time, and I'm always surprised by the quality of the music and notice things I hadn't noticed before. That's all for now, until next time, bye!
*This text was written by a Wikimate and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the site's authors.
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