IA is really good. I'd only heard his two Freak Guitar albums until I got hold of the 3rd Freak Kitchen album a few days ago. Its hardly left my CD player - great tunes and brilliant musicinaship. Going to pick up the rest of their catalogue ASAP.

Liquid Tension Experiement II is pretty good, but I've not heard the first one (which I think had Mike Keneally on keys rather than JR).

So for more than a week this still stands? Incomprehensible! Jordan Rudess was on both LTE albums and Mike Keneally was never an option. Jens Johansson was considered, but nothing more.

Has anyone heard John Petrucci's solo album yet? I think its only available online.

I found this rather interesting. Petrucci's solo album is called Suspended Animation, right? Check this out:

http://www.michaelfath.com/past.htm

1992, baby! This dude has the same album title! Do you think John knows?

P.S. I was a huge fan of Dream Theater, then they dissapointed me with The Change of Seasons and Falling into Infinity, then won me over again with Scenes from a Memory, left me somewhat uninterested with 6 degrees, pissed me off with Train of Thought, but now I realised they are so beyond criticism, this guys are pro-music and I just don't fucking judge them no more. They simply deliver. And I end up buying every damn album, so ... there.

the solo freakin rocks... vai without the masturbation

??? First off, Vai doesn't masturbate. Not on the guitar. Maybe we have different definitions on guitar masturbation but between those two the masturbator is John Petrucci on any day.

On a more serious level, I think JP and SV can't really be compared, because their styles differ so much. Petrucci can create great, splendid, wonderful melodies, but remains mechanical, that is, he is "just" a great guitar player. But Vai, dude, he doesn't even play the guitar, he speaks through it, he sings with it, he makes noises with it, it is an extension of his musical genius, he works the guitar into his sixth extremity and the guitar does everything for him. He is truly beyond guitar masturbation, and - if it counts for something - Devin found that out when he was 19 and singing for him. And he hated guitar solos then already.

You seriously need to reconsider that statement of yours, it makes me t-tick.

Liquid Tension Experiement II is pretty good, but I've not heard the first one (which I think had Mike Keneally on keys rather than JR).

So for more than a week this still stands? Incomprehensible! Jordan Rudess was on both LTE albums and Mike Keneally was never an option. Jens Johansson was considered, but nothing more.

You're quite right! I realise I probably know that, but for some reason got totally

No idea where that came from, but I seem to have said it with such authority that people were afraid to question it.

Inconceivable!!!

Liquid Tension Experiement II is pretty good, but I've not heard the first one (which I think had Mike Keneally on keys rather than JR).

So for more than a week this still stands? Incomprehensible! Jordan Rudess was on both LTE albums and Mike Keneally was never an option. Jens Johansson was considered, but nothing more.

You're quite right! I realise I probably know that, but for some reason got totally

No idea where that came from, but I seem to have said it with such authority that people were afraid to question it.

Inconceivable!!!

Yeah, sheep, hahaha!

Mike Keneally was never an option. Jens Johansson was considered, but nothing more.

Damn right! He was probably off making good music or something

Mike Keneally was never an option. Jens Johansson was considered, but nothing more.

Damn right! He was probably off making good music or something

Yeah, so LTE could record a better album.

Ok, ok, I know Mike is a crazy genius, I love him, but Jordan is ... phenomenaller.

If you are looking to get into Dream Theater, then I would actually recomend that you start getting the albums in the order that they were recorded in. They you can see and hear the musical dirrections that they experiment with as they get older. Start with Images and Words (even though thats not their first album). Then go to Awake, then get A change of Seasons. Now comes the tricky part. You can get Falling into Infinity if you want to, but you have to remember that the time that they made that album, they were going through alot of changes with their manegement, and at the label. Basically the label was trying to get them to change their sound a little to be more "radio friendly" SO thats mostly why that album sounds the way it does. But there are still some really great songs on that album. Then pick up Scenes From a Memory. Then 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulance. Now for Train of thought. Their metal album. During their tour for 6 Degrees of Inner Turbulance, they started to do these shows where the second set would be them covering an album. I cant remember if they called it a "clasic album" or a "clasic metal album" But either way, The first album that they covered was Metallica's "Master of Puppets." Then they covered Iron Maidens "Number of the Beast." You can actually buy the CD's of them covering those albums at http://www.ytsejamrecords.com So after that tour was over, and they covered those 2 albums they were in the mood to write a metal album of their own. So thats why that album sounds the way it does. Most people just start bashing the album without even knowing what their whole purpose of the album was. Ignorance is no excuse to bash the band. But their newest release Octavarium, is pretty much back to them doing what they do best. Of course if there are alot of Dream Theater fans on this board, then you allready knew all that though. Didnt you!! But anyway. thats my story and I'm sticking to it.

Awake. Do not question this.

Now I used to be a DT fan so I feel qualified to say this: if you are thinking of getting into DT I would NOT get the disks in order of release. personally, if I had heard Images and Words first I would have ignored them and gone on with my life. It's scary shit! It may put you off!

I'd start with Scenes from a Memory. It is a better album in every way and contains many, many examples of why many consider them to be the best. I'm over that shit now but it's still a fine album. Nothing else in their catalogue comes near it, IMO. Every other album they have done is too flawed in one way or another, the only exception being 5 Degrees, but that is a double album and newcomers are best off with SFAM because it moves quicker.

Greg, what do you think about Octavarium? Did you give it a shot (that is 5-10 concentrated listens for the songs to sink in) or you're just not into the genre anymore?

As far as recommendations go, I'd say buy Scenes from a memory, then Octavarium and then 6 degrees disc one.

Goat, I bow down to you after that wonderful spiel on Vai. He really is a god, amazing. It shits me when people talk about Vai and masturbation in the same sentence.

Anyway, I would recommend Images and Words for pure technical proficiency. The polyrythms, time and tempo changes are more obvious and quite mind blowing. The only downfall is tghe cheesy 80s keyboards in parts but it's not too bad. It's worth it purely for Metropolis Part 1.

Also A Change of Seasons. Never mind the four covers, the title track is one 23-minute epic and may well be the single greatest track ever written. I also feel it's LaBrie's finest performance.

And Awake very impressive with perhaps the strongest song-writing of any DT album. Metropolis Part 2 is good for that as well.

I just realized something! I really don't like the Sherinian era of Dream Theater. Jordan Rudess brought DT's musicianship to a totally different level. He is a musical genius, wunderkind if you will. He and Vai should do something together damn it.
As far as LaBrie's performance goes, he really and truly shines in Trent Gardner's Leonardo: the Absolute Man. It is one of the most beautiful records ever made (in my humble opinion of course). I strongly recommend it, if you're not familiar with it already.

Vai IS god. On stage and with his guitar. Otherwise he is a totally down to earth cool guy (with slight capitalist bias, but that's business for ya). Rock on.

I like Sherinian's playing, and while its not as technical as JR I prefer what he does. You should really listen to Mythology and Black Utopia - two of his solo releases. Each features a number of top class guitarists.

I like Sherinian's playing, and while its not as technical as JR I prefer what he does. You should really listen to Mythology and Black Utopia - two of his solo releases. Each features a number of top class guitarists.

I like his playing too, he's tasty, but he didn't click with Dream Theater. Jordan is everything.