Dream Theater

[Metalhead]

Anyone else listen to this band? Seems everyone I talk to hasnt heard of them, but they have one of the fastest guitarist alive. Been around for years too.

[trblmkr13]

Anyone else listen to this band? Seems everyone I talk to hasnt heard of them, but they have one of the fastest guitarist alive. Been around for years too.

They have a good following I always heard allot of musicians like then

[musicman]

You can't even understand how much I love Dream Theater! John Petrucci is truly one of the greatest guitarists alive, and Mike Portnoyis equally amazing on drums. I can do without James Labrie (singer) and the keyboards (now Jordan Rudess) get on my nerves sometimes, but they are an incredible band. Their later concept albums are a little hard for non-fans to get, but Images and Words and Awake are albums that most people can digest easily. Those albums are from the mid nineties.

Petrucci has done a couple G3 tours and all of the members have side project bands. My favorites are Jelly Jam and Liquid Tension Experiment. Maybe tomorrow when I have more time I post up links to some of their best stuff.

[Metalhead]

Octivarium, Systematic Chaos, and Images and Words are excellent albums. Scenes from a memory also is a great album as well!

[extremescene]

Used to listen to them religiously. Got to see them in Chicago for the Metropolis ptII tour and they blew me away. One of the tightest bands I've ever seen live. I kind of outgrew the style after that, however, and never explored any later albums.

The guitar player, John Petrucci, is simply one of the best. They changed keyboard players a few times, I liked the guy on Awake. The pre images and words vocalist was very 80's sounding... James Lebrie is a little too operatic, being a former opera singer, but definitely better than the sound they had before.

The classics albums:

Images and Words - very mechanical but flawless. Probably overproduced but that's part of the charm. Straight of of music school sound... classic melody and solo sections.

Awake - debut of Petrucci's 7 string Ibanez, this album was much heavier and darker. More approachable to mainstream rock crowds.

A change of seasons EP - 24 minute song experiment is one of my favorites, classic melodic sections and vocal melodies. The 7 string acoustic guitar intro is amazing in and of itself and lasts 2 or 3 minutes.

Metropolis pt II - I purposefully skipped an album, as I didn't care for it. This is the next good one. A return to the melodies and themes that we fell in love with. This album is a bit different due to the keyboard player but it is basically a sequel to a song, Metropolis pt1, off of Images and Words. It is a return to the progressive style of that album. There are some amazing solos hidden on this album, even some of the keyboard solos are incredible!

Edited January 6, 2010 by extremescene

[Guest Drewsett]

I absolutely LOVE Dream Theater. I have every album, but Live at Budokan is probably my favorite...

Musicman, how could you forget John Myung on the bass?

Here's a few of their songs. Oh and just a warning to those of you who haven't heard of them before...they tend to be a little long winded

YouTube - Pull Me Under

[LagerHead]

EDIT: Too dumb to post video

[LagerHead]

How 'bout this? 9 year old kid doing Dream Theater cover on the drums. Damn kids.