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Did anyone see the new South Park earlier?

My husband and I were going to watch the rerun, but they're airing another episode.

Was the new episode that offensive?

Surrounded is probably one of my favorite songs on the album. I actually like Under a Glass Moon the least. Still like it though. But Metropolis is probably my overall favorite song by Dream Theater.

I only got Awake recently. I like the Mind Beside Itself suite, (which is Erotomania, Voices and The Silent Man) which I pretty much listen to altogether, as one big song, rather than 3 separate tracks. Lie is always awesome. But the one that stood out most for me was Space Dye Vest. Kevin Moore was a kick a** composer.


Well, a Change of Seasons is technically an EP and not a full fledged album, and all the other songs on it are live covers. Which, the Big Medley I love. But yeah, the Change of Seasons song is like, worth its own CD.

Overall, I think Six Degrees is definitely not my favorite album, but the Six Degrees suite, the "Disc 2" of the album, basically, is like, one of the best things they've ever done, IMO. 40 minute epic.

You don't like the quiet, acoustic songs, do you?
Train of Though is just metal. It's always good, when I'm in that heavy mood. Endless Sacrifice is probably my favorite song on it.

As if, man. Octavarium was sick. Especially the title track, but I loved every track on the album to an extent.

Yeah, Systematic Chaos is probably my second favorite album of theirs. No fillers on that one, each song is very distinct and has a very different sound to it.
EDIT: Favorite song: Ministry of Lost Souls


Well, the two albums of theirs that I don't have are "When Dream and Day Unite" which was their first album. It was pretty good, there's a few memorable tracks on it, but this was before James LaBrie, so because they had Charlie Dominici as the singer back then, they kinda sounded like Queensryche. So take from it what you will, it's like old school DT music, with Queensryche singing.

The other album of theirs that I have yet to buy is Falling Into Infinity. I listened to many songs from it though, and here's the thing. When they were making the album, their record label got massive staff changes, and they were kind of pushed into making a "Radio Friendly" album. It's still good music, but it's all 4, 5, 6 minute songs, so there's no epics on it. Which kinda sucks. But there are some really good songs on it like Peruvian Skies and Hollow Years. Actually, you might not like it so much, because overall, it's a fairly soft album.

Their newest album, Black Clouds and Silver Linings is awesome. It's like Systematic Chaos in that it's got very different sounding songs, and all of them are fairly heavy, or epic. The only difference is that conceptually it's the opposite of Systematic Chaos. SC was telling all kinds of stories with vampires, evil spirits and whatnot, and Black Clouds is all about real life stories that happened to John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy. They're pretty cool, though. So I definitely recommend it.

But Scenes From a Memory, their album from 1999 is I'd say their best album. It's a concept album, first of all, so it's got its own murder mystery storyline thing going on, which is aweseome. But musically it's also really diverse. It's got slow, powerful ballads, it's got really crazy fast heavy tracks, it's just awesome. A lot of DT fans consider it their favorite, and I do too.
Actually, if you watched the American version of "DBZ: The History of Trunks" where it shows that alternate future with Androids 17 and 18, and Gohan loses his arm... There's like 4 or 5 songs from this album in the movie, during fight scenes, and some other scenes. That's actually how I found out about Dream Theater in the first place.

See, what I don't get is, if you like Pink Floyd better than Dream Theater, but you only like Dream Theater's heavy stuff... But Pink Floyd is softer than Dream Theater... How does that work?


Hmm, that's interesting. Usually they run the South Park episodes fully uncensored here in Canada, on TV, so I'll have to check it out when it actually airs on Saturday, to see how much of it they let go.

Not really.

But it was really satisfying for the old school fans such as myself. Some characters that haven't been seen for nearly a decade return, and sadly, one of them dies. crying

Also, the revelation at the end of who Cartman's father really is was pretty effed up...But not nearly as effed up as the episode directly related to the revelation.

Oi, Bio! When are you gonna put up your top 10 already? I'm brimming with anticipation!

But the great thing about Dream Theater is that they cater to everything. Some of their lighter stuff I wouldn't even call Rock... Like, you know, if I wake up one day and I'm in a Metal mood, I can be like, "alright, I'll put on Train of Thought" or one of their heavy songs from their other albums, and it's awesome. Some days I wake up and it's like, I just feel so uplifted, and I just wanna listen to something lighter and happier, things like "Surrounded" from Images and Words, or "The Silent Man", and it's perfect. And yeah, typically if I wanna listen to "Rock" rock, I'd pull for something closer to Kansas or Dio, or something of the sort. But with DT, their lighter stuff is almost Soft Rock, it's almost like... On the level of Pop only with actual integrity, like Elton John type pop, but without the constant romance subject matter.
If I had to name a Dream Theater "Rock" song, that would compare to bands like Dio or Styx, it would be Take The Time, which I personally don't think is that Metal, even though at the time it was one of their heavier songs. Same with 6:00, it's got a very "rock"ish sound to it, especially the drums. But they're still on the heavy side.
But with songs like Surrounded or The Answer Lies Within, I wouldn't even put them into Hard Rock. They're like, acoustic, on the same level as Queensryche's "Silent Lucidity", which is also a beautiful song.

But the awesome thing is that Dream Theater ranges in all directions of the Rock genre. It's not just about incorporating other genres, it's about embracing them that much more. They might call themselves a Progressive Metal band, but they don't pigeon hole themselves into it. In that way, they're a lot like Queen, only with a bit more emphasis on the Metal. And that's a good thing.

Look, even if we took Dream Theater out of the equation, I'd say Queensryche is better than Pink Floyd. And Dream Theater is better than Queensryche.

You know what I think my biggest problem with Pink Floyd is? Now, I'm not extensively familiar with 1960's and 1970's Rock music in general, so I don't really know how influential Pink Floyd was as a band BACK THEN... As in, how original their overall sound was compared to the other stuff that was around at the time... But listening to Pink Floyd, their overall sound seems a tad generic. Now, don't take that offensively, like I said, I'm not too familiar with Rock of that time, so for all I know every other Rock band I've heard that sounds like Pink Floyd, is just an immitation act... But the fact is, I have heard a LOT of very similar sounding music. I can honestly say that I have never heard anything like Dream Theater. Now, Dream Theater might have one song that's inspired by such a band, or another genre, or whatever. But their overall sound, I've never heard anything like it.

But back to that poing, no I don't think Dream Theater has any songs that sound, "Classic Rock"ish. I'm not really that into Classic Rock, so to be honest, if I WAS to start listening to it, I'd have to shop around before I can tell you that I like Pink Floyd better than some other bands that might have been out around that time.

The thing is, you're right, Pink Floyd and Dream Theater have a very different sound. And the only reason we're even having this conversation was because at one point, I said something like, "Nothing better than Dream Theater, when, such and such," I don't remember what EXACTLY I said, but then you said, "Well, Pink Floyd is better," so you're the one who made the comparison. Which, the only reason I see to comparing them would be because they're both "Progressive" even though one's Rock, the other is Metal. So I dunno, it's kind of not fitting.
Now, if I said, "Nothing better than listening to Rush," and you said "Pink Floyd is better," that's a different issue, because they're both Progressive Rock. Though to be honest, yes, I think Pink Floyd IS better than Rush.

Hmm... Should this conversation be in the debate forum?