Ok. BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG disclaimer. Never have fully dug these guys. Typical "Labrie's voice drives me nuts" sentiment from me. I always felt they were trying way too hard to be heavy when there was no chance in hell that they would ever, in fact, be heavy. Not gonna happen.
Listening to their new cd as I work and I have to say; abandoning the psuedo heaviness and embracing catchy songwriting has done the trick for me. Occasional foray into Saga-Rush-Prog-Nerd keyboard land works pretty good for me here as well. IMHO to say the very least as I know a ton of people love them (justifiably) and a ton of people hate them (again, justifiably https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Fplaylists%2F10212516%3Fsecret_token%3Ds-lmRUv
I've waffled a bit over the years with Labrie as well. I think I've grown to like his vocals more lately, he's also much better as a vocalist now than he was in the earlier days. The tipping point was listening to his solo albums. They're very DT-esque, but it's amazing how different he sounds when he's writing his own vocal lines and lyrics. Static Impulse was quite good.
I've waffled a bit over the years with Labrie as well. I think I've grown to like his vocals more lately, he's also much better as a vocalist now than he was in the earlier days. The tipping point was listening to his solo albums. They're very DT-esque, but it's amazing how different he sounds when he's writing his own vocal lines and lyrics. Static Impulse was quite good.
Not sure, but I think this is the important point for me as well. No shout rapping crap from Portnoy anymore (and the associated direction to be "heavy" that I am assuming he contributed, well; heavily to )+Labrie singing an actual catchy vocal line for me=win. He seems to be singing as his voice would dictate he should as opposed to trying to be Hetfield or whatever archetypical metal singer MP wanted him to be but wasn't. I will say the last tune drags on way too long imo but the rest (other than the syrupy ballad midway) is really good stuff; vocally and instrumentally.
Amazing musicians. Really complex writing and typically flawless execution. I have a lot of respect for these guys..
but the music..... boring as fuck (I listened to the first 3 tracks on this stream link). At the end of any day I could give a fuck how well you shred. I've been listening to Satriani's latest album Unstoppable Momentum a lot for the past couple weeks. It's way less technical than anything he's ever done before and way less technical than anything DT has ever done, and yet, every song is SOOOO GOOD. Rich soulful melodic playing. That's what me likes regardless of how shreddy it is.
I think this release is a very solid effort and I used to be a huge DT fanboy since I&W. That said I can only take so much of LaBrie's voice these days!!!
I don't expect them to ever be as good as they were in their earlier days, but on it's own, I really liked the new album. Took a few listens, but it grew on me.
I have to say though, Haken's new album is the real highlight in this months prog albums IMO. I'd say to check that out as well.
)+Labrie singing an actual catchy vocal line for me=win. He seems to be singing as his voice would dictate he should as opposed to trying to be Hetfield or whatever archetypical metal singer MP wanted him to be but wasn't. I will say the last tune drags on way too long imo but the rest (other than the syrupy ballad midway) is really good stuff; vocally and instrumentally.
