I'm listening to the link right now. This is great work. It's not as heavy as Train of Thought so far but still fat and heavy. Octavarium is my favorite song so far. Amazing. This is seriously way better than anything I've heard in a long time. You'll be looping hte beginning of Octavarium (the song) over and over, I promise, lol.

DT-Heads unite!

Octavarium may be the best DT I've ever heard. Self Titled song is fucking nuts. this is just freaking insane. SS you're going to freak out, seriously

where can i listen to it?

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**Life is a game,it's ment to be played**

RNG/NIN║RNG/NIN(Future Goal)║NIN/WAR(Future Goal)

Get it from a Torrent network or kazaa/limewire whatever

i'll wait til tomorrow when its released rather than invite a million viruses onto my comp

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

I'm on a mac

I'm on my third listen in as many hours. I have to say I really enjoy it. It's definitely a lot different than any other DT I've heart. More melodic, less instrumental sections, solos etc. I can count on my hands how many John Petrucci solos there are on the album unlike Train of Thought, which was just a huge shred fest for everyone.

A lot of people have complained about the apparent influences on the album. In particular the Muse reference in "Never Enough." The song structure and riffs sound similar to "Stockholme Syndrome," which is.. my favorite muse song on Absolution, so I'm definitely ok with that, and "Never Enough" is a great song in my opinion.

This album is more about song writing and melody. James LaBrie sounds great on this album and attempted a lot of different approaches to his vocal lines, most of which were sucessful. Myung, Petrucci, Rudess and Portnoy as always are solid. In this album they maintain their musical integrity while exploring outside of the typical prog trend of shredding instrumental sections, abundant feel changes and odd meter shifts.

Of course worth noting is the 24 minute title track, Octavarium. It is perhaps their most adventurous piece they've done thusfar. It builds, going from light to dark, clean to heavy. It's epic. As good as A Change of Seasons? I dunno.. I'll have to give it a couple more listens because ACoS is just... really damn good.

I'll probably write more later tonight, 've gtta head to work.

Sacrificed Sons is the best IMO lyrically and Octavarium is just mindblowing. Itunes has recorded 7 listens and probably 12 more today on my ipod.

Ok gone again just had to say that

Listenin to it atm, on the track title everyone is talking about, and its quite good. I personally thought Train of Thought was the worst of the albums, just lots of mindless rock, not what you would expect from DT at all. But I am quite pleased with this album, goin to see em with megadeath in august

Dream Theater has a habit of continuing certain themes throughout their albums, this one isn't any different. From the opening seconds of track 1, the references are there musically, and lyrically

"The root of all Evil" is very interesting to me. It's a continuation of The Glass Prison and This Dying Soul. From what I understand it's a musical expression of the 12 steps of AA Mike Portnoy went through not much before Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence was recorded. This album ends with part VII, so I assume it will finish up either on the next record or the one following. I really like the continuing theme through the album. Some people find the references to past songs annoying, but I tend to think of it as a whole work spread out over 4 years. (SDoIT in 2001 ToT in 2003.)

I do have to say that Petrucci has been lacking a bit from a lyrical standpoint in the past two albums. I miss the days of Awake in particular, (Scarred and Space-Dye Vest had really good lyrics.)

Musically, I think there is a lot more influence from Jordan Rudess and John Myung on this album. The heavier songs seem more bass oriented and Jordan has a lot of little fills to punctuate certain parts of songs. The album is mixed very well, with the exception of a few muffled drum parts. A problem I've always had with earlier DT albums is that John Myung is very low in the mix and it's difficult to hear his bass parts, (even when he assumes the role of playing melody, for example YTSE jam.) It started with Train of Thought, and I think in this album they finally found the perfect balance to accomodate Rudess, Petrucci and Myung as a trio.

I think this is a good album for introducing people to dream theater. My experiences from telling people they should check them out have always been something to the effect of, "I can't follow the music." Being as there aren't nearly as crazy moments on this album than any other, it's certainly better than saying, "Hey check out dance of eternity. It's got time signatures in it most people couldn't even think to write in."

I'm at work. I really want to just sit in my car and listen again. I really want to form a solid opinion on the album before I rank it amongst the others.

didnt even get time to get it today, i'll pick it up tomorrow

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

I listened to octavarion or whatever... i didn't particularly like it. I guess i like my stuff heavier.
Root of all evil for example was a bit more to my liking... I haven't listened to the rest yet.
never enough starts out rocking enoguh but I guess I don't like the guys singing too much.

Yeah Root of All Evil sounds like it should belong to Elements of Persuasion. Speaking of that Vurin you shoudl check it out. It's James Labrie's solo album, it's heavier. Not bad.

Anyways, yeah Octavarium is sweet. Does anyone else seen like, the very similar sound between "I walk with you" and U2? Considering I love both of those bands, it's a very nice song, and a refreshing respite between the headbanging anthems.

Oh and I'm gone again I just wanted to talk about octavarium

first time through i have to say i really like tracks 5,6,7,8
tracks 1,2,3,4 i will have to keep listening to

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

man i'm loving this album. fuck yeah! love DT! Can't wait for the concert.

Okay- everyone knew this was coming eventually.

I've listened to this album I don't even know how many times now. Studied the lyrics, cover art, read a few forums, stuff like that. Here are a few observations I've made and a few borrowed ones that I think are fucking neat.


1. Look at the back cover. The piano keys dispalyed are a full octave from F to F. The band members are on the accidentals and the songs are listed on the white keys. The key the title of the song is listed on is what key the song is in, (for the most part.) The key signature is also notated on the staves inside the booklet where the titles are listed as well.

The root of all evil - F minor
The Answer Lies Within - G minor
These walls - A minor
I walk Beside you - B minor (a lot of the song is in D major, the relative key, but it starts in B minor.)
Panic Attack - C minor
Never Enough - D minor
Sacrificed Sons - E minor
Ocatavrium - F minor

2. The front cover work. 8 balls, 5 crows. The crows are placed to represent I would guess accidentals on a piano. The balls would represent the 8 albums released by dt as well. I'm not exactly sure who that is on the back of the booklet. It looks like JOhn Myung with a lot of make up on. lol

3. The dominos are the third page of the booklet. 5 and 8. 5 members, 8 albums. The dominos are in the ground, symbolizing tombstones? A couple of people, including myself have said these represent former members Chuck..whatever... the first singer. lol and Kevin Moore, the original keyboard player. I wouldn't even fit Derek Shirinian into the equation because he only did one album, (as far as I know they wrote a change of seasons while jordan was temporarily in the band before doing the dixie dregs gig.) So I would guess the crows are Portnoy, Petrucci and Myung, the only "original" members of the band.

4. There's no way out of the ocatgon shaped maze. I'm not exactly sure the significance of the spider, however.

5. Ocatavarium lyrics- The "megadeth" section as I call it is probably my favorite section of the song. If you listen closely you can hear Portnoy say , "Root, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, octave." one word after every phrase. This section also seems to be almost a recap of the album with every phrase representing a different song.

Root
"Our deadly sins feel his mortal wrath
Remove all obstacles from our path" - The Root of All Evil

Second
"Asking quesitons
Search for clues
The answer's been right in front of you" - The Answer Lies Within

Third
"Try to break through
Long to connect
Fall on deaf ears and failed muted breath" - These Walls

Fourth
"Loyalty, trust, faith and desire
Carries love through each darkest fire" - I Walk Beside You

Fifth
"Tortured insanity
A smothering hell
Try to escape but to no avail" - Panic Attack

Sixth
"The calls of admirers
Who claim they adore
Drain all your lifeblood while begging for more" - Never Enough

Seventh
"Innocent victims of mericless crimes
Fall prey to some madmen's impulsive designs" - Sacrificed Sons

Octave
"Step after step
We try controlling our fate
When we finally start living it has become too late" - Octavarium

I really have a ton of shit I've read and noticed myself, but I want to hear other people's thoughts.

Discuss~

Feel the need to post again.

Holy shit. They really thought this one out! That's some excellent observations...wow. I never even put together the summarization, sadly. I thought about the keyboard layout (though not realizing the songs all fit so perfectly).

Oh and do you have any idea what the song octavarium is about? Is it just a "medley" with no unifying theme or does it have a story? BTW, the "Medicate me" part is groovy.

Anyways that's some crack detective work as usual SS, good work

now im really into 1,3~8, so i just gotta listen to 2 a bunch. but yea this album seems really good so far

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

I've been learning root of all evil on guitar, fun song.

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Here's a bit more on Ocatvarium. It seems Disappear, Vacant, and part II of Octavarium, Medicate are all connected. James LaBrie did work on an album called "The Human Equation" by the Ayreons. In the album he played a victim of a car accident that left him in a comatose state. It seems these songs are extentions of LaBrie's part in that album.

From Mikeportnoy.com forums-


As far as the whole song having one unifying theme, I'm not sure. I think most of the parts of song are continuations of past DT songs. Another Day > Take Away my Pain > Someone like him come to mind. All written about the death of John Petrucci's father, perhaps? I dunno, just a speculation a few others and myself have made.

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As far as guitar work goes, this album is definitely a "break" so to speak. SDoiT and ToT I still can't imagine I'll ever be able to play. haha Then again, I did basically stop playing for about 6 months. -.-

EDIT- Just noticed this, actually. The album is split into three different parts, which I think I've said..? Tracks 1-4 5-7 and track 8. The interludes between songs also follow the piano theme. Inbetween The root of all evil and The Answer lies within, the interlude is in F#. The answer lies within and these walls, G# etc. There's only a slight break to signify the divison of parts in the album. The division of acts, if you want to call them that are signified by B>C E>F, where there are no accidentals between.

i love this album
especially the last track, OMG


btw
http://www.gigantour.com/flash.html

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RIP Shiloh - I'll never forget ya

Yeah I agree the last track rules. Honestly, I haven't been listening to anything else but Octavarium. Sadly, I've been skipping over The Answer Lies Within and Sacrificed Sons quite a bit. AFTER I've listened to Octavarium maybe I'll listen to something else or listen again. I love this album.