New Dream Theater Album!

[Seducer of the Homeless]

"Progressive metal veterans Dream Theater have set "Black Clouds & Silver Linings" as the title of their tenth studio album, due on June 23 via Roadrunner Records. In addition to the standard-version CD, the effort will also be available on vinyl LP, as well as a three-disc, special-edition CD that will include the full album, a CD of instrumental mixes of the album and a CD of six cover songs, the titles of which will be revealed at a later date.


Six weeks prior to the June 23 street date, Roadrunner will release one cover song per week through digital retailers.

Dream Theater commenced work on "Black Clouds & Silver Linings" — the band's second for Roadrunner, following up 2007's "Systematic Chaos" — in October of last year.

Drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci are once again at the helm as producers, while Paul Northfield mixed the record.

"Black Clouds & Silver Linings" track listing:

01. A Nightmare to Remember
02. A Rite of Passage
03. Wither
04. The Shattered Fortress
05. The Best of Times
06. The Count of Tuscany

A video for the first single, "A Rite Of Passage", will be shot in late March.

Mike Portnoy played a one-minute "teaser" for the band's forthcoming album on the February 27, 2009 edition of Eddie Trunk's "Friday Night Rocks" radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM. The clip is available for streaming here.

Portnoy previously stated about the upcoming CD, "Imagine a Dream Theater album with 'A Change Of Seasons', 'Octavarium', 'Learning To Live', 'Pull Me Under' and 'The Glass Prison'... all on one album... Could You Handle It?? Excited? I sure am!!!!"

The band will embark on a world tour in support of the album beginning in Europe throughout June which will be followed by the second edition of the band’s "Progressive Nation" tour featuring Zappa Plays Zappa, Pain Of Salvation and Beardfish throughout North America in July/August.

Mike Portnoy will guest on "Eddie Trunk Live" on Sirius (channel 19) / XM Radio (channel 53) on Monday, March 16. The program airs from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. EST.

Dream Theater's "Chaos In Motion 2007/2008" double DVD set sold just under 9,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 2 on the Top Music Videos chart.

Thanks for the report to Blabbermouth.net."

 

[fullerene]

yes! I love Dream Theater... but kinda hated their last CD. I actually got sick of the purely technical music after a while, because it lacked originality... but it took a really long while, and I might actually start listening to them again, now that this thread reminded me of them. Kick ass instrumental skills.

 

[Ermine]

Cool. I hope it's more art and less technical this time. Hope I can make it to Progressive Nation this year. Sounds great!

 

[zxc]

Really looking forward to this. The cd with instrumental mixes sounds incredibly awesome.

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

I am hoping for something like the classics.

with the band being huge Metallica fans, i hope Death Magnetic inspired them to return to the roots. (although everything they have done is great)

I don't like Zappa plays Zappa, I like Frank Zappa but not his son making money from his fathers successes. i don't know who Beardfish are but Pain of Salvation should be good.
last year was fantastic, Opeth and Between the Buried and Me.

 

[Ermine]

Yeah, who cares who else is playing when it's Dream Theater and Pain of Salvation all in one night!

 

[Seducer of the Homeless]

Good Point...

 

[Anthile]

Just listened to A Rite of Passage. If the rest of the album is on the same niveau, it's going to be to awesome. I hope that there will be a badass ~10 minute instrumental song like Dance of Eternity or Stream of Consciousness. Also, the next Riverside album comes out at the same day! Yes, it's going to be awesome.

 

[zxc]

Just listened to A Rite of Passage. If the rest of the album is on the same niveau, it's going to be to awesome. I hope that there will be a badass ~10 minute instrumental song like Dance of Eternity or Stream of Consciousness. Also, the next Riverside album comes out at the same day! Yes, it's going to be awesome.

There will be four epics that are on average 16mins long, and another single, Wither, which is about 5mins long. No instrumentals, since there will be another disc with instrumental mixes of all the songs.

I don't mind A Rite of Passage, but it's the four epics that I'm looking forward to. (and of course the instrumental mixes)

Right now I'm taking a tour of all sorts of different bands and genres; by the time the album comes out, I'll be ready for more DT again

 

[Anthile]

I uploaded something for you: Click!

 

[zxc]

Anthile, I've waited this long, I'm pretty sure I can wait a few more days :P

 

[zxc]

I wrote a pretty long post on dreamtheaterforums.org in the BC&SL reactions thread, I'll paste it here:

Wow. I really didn't know what to expect, but I was still anxious in my anticipation. This was the first DT album I've actually been waiting for as a fan. I think some of the parts are just incredible . It has definitely grown on me.


1. ANtR: At first, I loved the intro but didn't like the vocals. Listened to the instrumental version many times, and liked the 'restrained' feel of it, as it was obviously not originally an instrumental. After many listens though, it has definitely grown on me. Killer intro! Love thunder (seems DT does too!), love eerie piano playing, love powerful dark chords, love that kind of double bass drumming, love that intro! And I love the softer section, one of the best parts of the album . Love the jazzy keyboard in the background of this part (at 5:39 especially). Lyrics reminded me of Octavarium. At first, this bothered me, but now I like it, and I love the 'hopelessly drifting' part, amazing . The solos are yet to do anything for me, though. I do however love 10:40 (is that a unison or just guitar?) until the MP bit. MP vocals part flows well, but is unsuitable I think. As for the roar, I'd prefer some death growls instead! Love the following instrumental section though. I think the blast beats are well suited, though at first I was a little stunned (the drumming in this song was a big surprise for me). Good outro.

This song has parts that I absolutely love, and parts that I don't like so much. Overall though, the former wins by far


2. ARoP: It has grown on me since it was first released. I don't like the prechorus, but the rest of the vocals are good I think. Love the arpeggios or whatever JP is playing in the second verse, makes it for me. The transition to the instrumental section sounds overused (haven't heard it in a while, but it did remind me of Ytse Jam for some reason, though I love the Jam). I love the guitar solo now, though I didn't at first. Especially when the background playing is switched up. First part of the keyboard solo is quite good, first part of the bebot solo I don't mind; the second part I used to really hate, but now I don't mind it. The transition to the chorus is still jarring, but it's getting better with time. Good outro.

There are parts that I like, and others that aren't as good. Overall, it's alright. Doesn't touch the riffage in CM though


3. Wither: This is the song I've heard the least, so far. At first it didn't really do anything for me. It still doesn't really, but it's better than some other similar DT songs. I've never been interested in these songs though. Great soft section and solo.

Not my type of song, though I don't mind it at all. Better than everything on the radio.


4. TSF: At first, I found this to be a little jumbled up, and just a compilation of riffs from the previous AA songs. Now I like this much than before. God I love the TDS guitar motif at 1:38. Lyrics here bothered me: "But now I have finally seen the light" "I've lived with serenity now, not self-righteous hate", sounded a bit mashed together for rhyming effect. The epic long JR solo didn't really do anything for me (unlike some of the others in the AA set), or at least, nothing yet. I'm still undecided on the softer section; the deep voice bothers me a bit, like it did in Repentance. The second half of guitar solo is just brilliant, and the section that follows ("I am responsible ...") is just awesome. Great use of the TDS motifs. I don't like the 'whoooaaawooo' bit, but the TGP outro is perfect as I'm sure everyone would agree.

A song which is growing on me. I love the final minutes, and the rest of the song is good too.


5. TBoT: At first, I couldn't stand it because of that overused chordal progression (don't know what it's from, but I'm not a fan). It's growing on me slowly, and I can almost get past that now. The sad/happy contrasting in the song was very fitting to the lyrical themes, I thought. But I just love the darker, ominous part at 5:46 ("But then came the call..."), if only for the first few seconds. Reminded me of Finally Free for a split second. My favourite part of the song (yes I'm obsessed with dark, minor-key music). The softer, acoustic/piano section is beautiful, and the lyrics are very fitting. Luckily, I can appreciate JP's solo despite the chords he's playing over. Great outro especially.

A beautiful song if you can get past that old chord progression, and even more so if you love that. I like the song.


6. TCoT: At first, I loved this song. Now I love it even more, and it's only grown on me over many listens. I can hardly fault it. At first, the lyrics bothered me (must be some badass historian!) but now I actually think that they're very good, in contrast to most opinions in this thread. Perhaps not always the particular prose, but the subject of the song doesn't bother me at all. JLB's singing does help, however. I especially love the intro, the keyboards at 2:37, almost all of JLB's vocals over the badass guitars and tasteful keyboard-work. I love the JLB+MP vocals. And the chorus! Best chorus on the album, and in a long time. Only possible issue is that it's very similar (with the big 'I') to Slipknot - Before I Forget, which was one of my favourite songs years ago, before my musical enlightenment began. Very cool, chill-out section, similar to the continuum intro in Octavarium but more relaxed. Love the use of the melody which will be used at the end. Beautiful acoustic section, however this is the one place I do actually have a small problem with the lyrics: "Is this the way I die?" "What did I do wrong? I just don't understand". I'm not sure if it's the way it's sung, or the lyrics themselves. And "I'll tell you once again". On the whole, it's not a big deal though, the music more than makes up for it if there really is an issue (or it's my imagination). Love the little guitar solo, and the 'whooa' section. Epic, fitting, and beautiful. Wonderful outro.

The best song on the album, and is up there with the best of the best DT songs. It's up there with ITNOG, Finally Free, and Octavarium, for the JR era of DT.


Wow that took a long time to write. I listened to the songs while writing about them. Now it's gone back to ANtR

I'd give this a 4/5 I think, overall.

So yeah. How about everyone else? How did you find the album?