Incredible talent, but I was never a big Dream Theater fan. Mostly turned off by the vocals, but they also always seemed too academic in style. Creativity and technical complexity, but maybe not much passion (beyond JLB’s opera wailing) and not much darkness. A lot of their music, and this track in particular, has tons of unison playing and parallel motion. Impressive to sinc up so well on these tricky rhythms (and they can nail it live as well), but I’m missing the more contrasting layers of sound.
Haken’s Nil by Mouth has a lot of closely matched rhythms as well, but generally a more filled out sound and a lot more darkness. That one gets my vote.
Haken for me. It’s funny how much I prefer Dream Theater sans vocals, but it still doesn’t stand up to this Haken track, which I do think is quite good. I just like the composition, and it has generally a more filled out sound and a lot more darkness.
The Progress Report 
Incredible talent, but I was never a big Dream Theater fan. Mostly turned off by the vocals, but they also always seemed too academic in style. Creativity and technical complexity, but maybe not much passion (beyond JLB’s opera wailing) and not much darkness. A lot of their music, and this track in particular, has tons of unison playing and parallel motion. Impressive to sinc up so well on these tricky rhythms (and they can nail it live as well), but I’m missing the more contrasting layers of sound.
Haken’s Nil by Mouth has a lot of closely matched rhythms as well, but generally a more filled out sound and a lot more darkness. That one gets my vote.
LikeLike
Haken for me. It’s funny how much I prefer Dream Theater sans vocals, but it still doesn’t stand up to this Haken track, which I do think is quite good. I just like the composition, and it has generally a more filled out sound and a lot more darkness.
LikeLike
Hey, wait a minute…
LikeLike
Nil By Mouth sounds fuller and like its from the past 20 years.
LikeLike