Well, well, well... Looks like a concept album to me. 🧐
Also, pretty oldschool cover art design save for the muted colors and sparser composition.

Edit: Never mind, the cover art stylistically reminds me more of BC&SL. But the girl in a night gown and a bed immediately made me think of Images and Words 😁
And I read an interview where Portnoy said:

Quote:
"If I'm being honest, I think it picks up right where 'Black Clouds' left off, to be honest. There's a certain style that the five of us have when we write together. And if you listen to the album with this lineup from 1999, '[Metropolis Pt. 2:] Scenes From A Memory', through 2009's 'Black Clouds & Silver Linings', if you look at that string of five or six albums, that's the sound and style of these five people. So I think that's a good indication of what you can expect with the new DREAM THEATER album. It definitely sounds like classic DREAM THEATER."

Never beating the shitty cover art allegations

Written by (o> . <o> ) on 10.10.2024 at 21:02

And I read an interview where Portnoy said:

Quote:
"If I'm being honest, I think it picks up right where 'Black Clouds' left off, to be honest. There's a certain style that the five of us have when we write together. And if you listen to the album with this lineup from 1999, '[Metropolis Pt. 2:] Scenes From A Memory', through 2009's 'Black Clouds & Silver Linings', if you look at that string of five or six albums, that's the sound and style of these five people. So I think that's a good indication of what you can expect with the new DREAM THEATER album. It definitely sounds like classic DREAM THEATER."

That's great to hear. Black Clouds is one of my favourite DT albums, I was hoping this would be a continuation of that sound and style.

Night Terror had a better album cover than this.

I can't say the first single makes me excited, but it is decent. I'm mostly curious about the final track because of its 19 minute running time (as reported by Metal Archives).

Written by Zap on 14.10.2024 at 11:40

I can't say the first single makes me excited, but it is decent. I'm mostly curious about the final track because of its 19 minute running time (as reported by Metal Archives).

Why? They have such long songs on most albums, and they're not always so great (like on the previous album).

Written by Daniell on 14.10.2024 at 12:31

Why? They have such long songs on most albums

That depends on what you mean by "such long songs". Out of the five Mangini era albums only Dream Theater and A View from the Top of the World had a song of what I would consider similar length (around 20 minutes). If we're talking 10+ minutes, then sure, most of their albums have them. Regardless, I find that the longest song on a Dream Theater album is usually among the best, if not the best.

Quote:

and they're not always so great (like on the previous album).

Agreed, the last one wasn't great, but it was still the best or second best song on the album as far as I'm concerned.