Dream Theater - The Astonishing

Progressive metallers DREAM THEATER will release their thirteenth album, "The Astonishing", in early 2016 via Roadrunner. The band has also launched a mini-site for the CD, which appears to be a conceptual effort focusing on various "characters" and spread over two "acts," possibly to be a released as a double album.

The band comments on the artwork: "This album cover extends an ominous invitation into the retro-futurist dystopian setting of 'The Astonishing'. The deceptively beautiful yet chillingly totalitarian image is a bold harbinger of the visual components and ideas presented by the sonic story that is our most ambitious creative work to date. We are very proud to soon bring you… 'The Astonishing'."





"The Astonishing" track listing:

Act I

01. Descent Of The NOMACS
02. Dystopian Overture
03. The Gift Of Music
04. The Answer
05. A Better Life
06. Lord Nafaryus
07. A Savior In The Square
08. When Your Time Has Come
09. Act Of Faythe
10. Three Days
11. The Hovering Sojourn
12. Brother, Can You Hear Me?
13. A Life Left Behind
14. Ravenskill
15. Chosen
16. A Tempting Offer
17. Digital Discord
18. The X Aspect
19. A New Beginning
20. The Road To Revolution

Act II

01. 2285 Entr'acte
02. Moment Of Betrayal
03. Heaven’s Cove
04. Begin Again
05. The Path That Divides
06. Machine Chatter
07. The Walking Shadow
08. My Last Farewell
09. Losing Faythe
10. Whispers In The Wind
11. Hymn Of A Thousand Voices
12. Our New World
13. Power Down
14. Astonishing

I wonder if the same artist did the cover for the new Megadeth as well. Both covers look like companion pieces. The Dream Theater scene is shot from the air...


...while the Megadeth pic is shot from a ground perspective...

and they both look like the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion.

S.D. wrote:

and they both look like the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion.  

Sure, I could see that...

Megadeth cover looks much cooler.

Sounds very interesting!

I'm a casual DT fan at best, so a double-cd concept album with a cast of characters and a dedicated website to follow the story sounds like quite a chore to listen to.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm a casual DT fan at best, so a double-cd concept album with a cast of characters and a dedicated website to follow the story sounds like quite a chore to listen to.

To heck with the website, I plan to go old school - check out the liner notes and listen to the CD in the comfort of my home and let the music tell the story.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I'm a casual DT fan at best, so a double-cd concept album with a cast of characters and a dedicated website to follow the story sounds like quite a chore to listen to.

When I see that many songs, I imagine a shitload of lame interludes, or worse, spoken word crap with horrible voice acting.

I like their first concept album a lot and all of their albums have a loose theme to them. So, I am in.

Oh, by the by, thanks for the heads up, MG.

How frustratingly pretentious.

As one of the clowns from BM put it, just reading about this album is exhausting.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

06. Lord Nafaryus

Jesus Christ...

I've seen it described as a "rock opera". Which is even more frightening.

Maybe they'll cover "Mr. Roboto" ?

I want to like the idea... But it does strike me as pretentious even by DT standards.


That being said I am an unashamed fan boy so I will be right in line to buy it soon as its out and can safely assume there will be quite a bit of material I will enjoy even if it doesn't really work as a whole.

Scenes from a Memory was their second best album, hands down, but as a concept album it was goofy as hell. John Petrucci had lost his sense of lyrical & philosophical style after Awake and decided to go broke for clumsy conceptualizing and clunky narratives. Compare the lyrics in Voices or The Silent Man to Living in Her Eyes or A Nightmare to Remember. It's night and day, like comparing Luis Bunuel and Paul W.S. Anderson. Yet SfaM had a solid musical foundation that kept it upright almost the entire way through.

I don't have faith in this. It's pretty predictable. The band's output for years now has been full of cheese, self-cannibalization, watered-down heavy metal riffing, and a trade of atmosphere for showing off. In other words, pretentious. And this takes the cake.

So many of us fans keep hoping they'll go back to the mood, atmosphere, and INTELLIGENCE they had with Awake--looks like they do nothing but step further and further away from it.

Most concept albums are goofy as hell.

I never thought Petrucci was a great lyricist. Kevin Moore was the only one who could write great lyrics.

I think Awake was a big step down from I&W and I felt that way at the time it was released. There are some very cheesy, pretentious lyrics on there as well as some clunky songs. But some of it was really great.

SFaM is their most overrated release and their debut is their most underrated IMHO.

Eyesore wrote:

Most concept albums are goofy as hell.

Why don't I hear comments like these when ICED EARTH does it?

I doubt their storytelling/songwriting will be any worse than those.

S.D. wrote:

and they both look like the Tom Cruise movie Oblivion.  

Hopefully better than that film because Oblivion was rather weak...imo...


having said that I do enjoy Dream Theater.... I have rather enjoyed most of their stuff so I'm sure this will be more of the same.... proggy metal goodness....

I'll just wait to hear the finished product....

corplhicks wrote:

Scenes from a Memory was their second best album, hands down, but as a concept album it was goofy as hell. John Petrucci had lost his sense of lyrical & philosophical style after Awake and decided to go broke for clumsy conceptualizing and clunky narratives. Compare the lyrics in Voices or The Silent Man to Living in Her Eyes or A Nightmare to Remember. It's night and day, like comparing Luis Bunuel and Paul W.S. Anderson. Yet SfaM had a solid musical foundation that kept it upright almost the entire way through.

I don't have faith in this. It's pretty predictable. The band's output for years now has been full of cheese, self-cannibalization, watered-down heavy metal riffing, and a trade of atmosphere for showing off. In other words, pretentious. And this takes the cake.

So many of us fans keep hoping they'll go back to the mood, atmosphere, and INTELLIGENCE they had with Awake--looks like they do nothing but step further and further away from it.

..... and the ballads have had the same structure since Sherinian left the keyboard stand. The lyrics, they have gone downhill since Moore left. Compare Chroma Key/Kevin Moore solo lyrics to DT lyrics. He left a LARGE void to fill.

To me, Awake is their crowning achievement especially when compared to SFAM. THAT atmosphere...........

I do own A Dramatic Turn Of Events, Hmm. I didn't think I did.


Also, I think I am one of the few who really like When Dream And Day Unite and actually like Charlie's vocals on it, but I could be wrong......

I wonder if I might get through my whole life without ever hearing a Dream Theatre song? 

Hope so! 

Boris2008 wrote:

I wonder if I might get through my whole life without ever hearing a Dream Theatre song? 

Hope so! 

BTW, Have you heard any of the Chroma Key stuff?