Dream Theater: Underrated? Overrated? Mainstream? The Most Important Prog Band Now?

I guess that I have a complicated history with Dream Theater. They were definitely my favourite band through a long period of time. To be honest;  DT was the band that changed everything for me: the way that I listen to music, they way that I perceive music and I know that this may sound as a complete exaggeration but they were the ones who introduced me to the whole genres of Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Avant-Garde and that's where everything began for me.

I remember, almost 5 years ago when I listened to them for the first time in the"Live At Budokan" DVD,  I was completely blown away by this band. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but most importantly, I couldn't believe what I was listening: pure musical virtuosity, complex song structures, impossible solos, a complete new musical genre for me, that I instantly fell in love with combined with my two long favourite genres of my youth: Rock and Metal.



Dream Theater was like no band that I have heard before, they were completely different in every sense of the word. The first time that I listened to them, all the other bands look like amateurs, lacking all sense of musical skills with no other choice but to  adopt a simplistic approach to music that I mocked of. Dream Theater were the greatest musicians in the world and period. And I know that's the exact attitude of a lot of youngster that have recently found this band or a lot of hardcore Dream Theater fans who only listen to them have. And yes I know, at first sight Dream Theater could seem as the greatest band out there, they are truly an amazing band, but they're not the greatest band ever (such thing doesn't exist) and another thing: they are not the only band in this genre. At first, is really easy to assume that Dream Theater is the only Progressive Metal band out there just by the simple fact that they are the most popular prog band out there and also, they have one of the most "in your face" styles of composition in Prog Metal music.

But no, there are a ton of Progressive Metal bands out there with different styles that you definitively should know about.(Pain of Salvation, Tool, Animals As Leaders, Cynic, Death is his later years, Fates Warning...) What I'm trying to say is that DT is not the only Progressive Metal band out there, you shouldn't lock yourself up and only listen to them. If you like the genre you should explore the whole genre.

The other interesting thing of DT in this modern age is the apparent course that they have spell into a lot of modern progressive metal bands of these days. I can see that a lot of recent prog metal bands want to create their own sound but; being heavily inspire by the genre itself (the genre that DT apparently conquer) they end up sounding like them. That's something interesting and I guess it most be hard to compose without being influence by the bigger and most popular band of the genre.



In my personal experience, when I listened to Dream Theater the first time, I completely fell in love with them and I kinda had the same attitude that I already describe before, but that attitude fade away quickly for me. And that's when the greatest thing that DT could have done for me happened. I began to investigate about this weird new genre that I have encounter: "Prog" and I quickly trail it back to its true origins: the Progressive Rock of the 70's and that's where it all began. Thanks to Dream Theater I discovered Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Rush, Yes, Camel, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Van Der Graaf Generator and my favourite of them all Genesis (of the Peter Gabriel Era of course!). Thanks to Dream Theater I discovered 70's Prog Rock then I moved on to Avant-Garde and this was important because Avant-Garde music made me more open-minded about music in whatever genre, then Jazz, then Classical, then Metal once again, then RIO, then Death Metal then Indie music until the stage that I'm right now in which I basically listen to everything Prog related, everything that sounds weird and interesting, 70's and 80's Pop, Indie rock, Death Metal and pretty much everything except modern mainstream music xD.

And I have Dream Theater to thank for that because they basically opened the doors for me. And I completely love them for doing that and I know that I'm not the only one, it's very probable that if you're a reading this to; you had a similar story with this band. A lot of people love them, a lot of people hate them, some people call their music epic virtuosity combined with everything that the world of music has to offer and other people call their music just a bunch of gymnastic compositions lacking true feelings, creativity or meaning.



Some people think that the old DT was the greatest one, other people thing that the new one is the greatest stage that they ever had. But despite whatever other people may think of them, for me, they are the most important prog band right now and the greatest achievement that they did and that they're still doing to this day is inspiring people and introducing them to this genre and that's something truly amazing and is also something that only they could do. Dream Theater is a relative "unknown" band if you want to compare them with the most mainstream bands out there. But without a doubt they are still  the most mainstream prog metal band out there, at least they're mainstream enough to pop out in an MTV music video and catch the eye of a future fan. And believe me, just a few couple of Prog Metal bands can do this.

But after all of that, after all this prog  journey, no, after all this musical journey that I had and that I'm still too far to complete, I look back once again at Dream Theater and now I realize that I look at them with different eyes and I listen to them with different, truly different ears. I listen to everyone of their albums once again in chronological order to answer these questions: Are they truly that amazing and unique demi-God band that surpasses the way that a lot of other bands create music? Is their music just a bunch of gymnastic compositions with lack of true feeling and meaning? Have they already done the greatest album that they could? Are they overrated? underrated? I will try to answer all of these question in this following series of album reviews that I'm going to do in the course of these weeks, I'm going to review every DT album with a completely new perspective and I'm going to be completely impartial about this giving my honest opinion of course.

So follow me (if you like) in this series of reviews that I'm going to do to rediscover a band that 5 years ago I looked at them like Gods but now I' not really sure how I look at them in a musical sense.

Thanks for reading :).