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1:58 I've been wondering when the hair loss had been started for Jordan Rudess

But It's way better than the albums after "Scenes from a memory" I don't feel any sense from Train of thought, systematic chaos, black cloud & silver linings, .... except Dream Theater and Distance over time. DT write mediocre, plain and too verbose songs with excellent playing technique. What the hell have they been doing for almost 20 years? Awake is the best album. It has all the things that great albums should have. I can feel good memody with touching, sharp and mixed emotions and a dynamic riffs in rythm. Also it brings jazzy approach in the songs so we can enjoy rich thrills and tensions among sensual variations along the songs. Although I'm an old fan of DT, I don't like the albums of latest 20 years except self titled album and Distance over time. Falling into infinity to DT is somewhat Youthanasia album to Megadeth or black album to Metallica. It's fairly different from their previous albums but the new approach was good and I can accept it. Falling into infinity album is good enough to enjoy with easy mind.

Looking back I really 2 tracks from this album, the wonderful atmospheric Peruvian Skies and Lines in the sand for the fabulous guitar solo.

My favorite album…

First, this broadcast mentioned Deep Purple and metal in the same sentence when they have never been a metal band.

Rudess might be untouchable on a technical level but I preferred Sherinian's work with DT. I think his overall sound is more ballsy and inovative. And it's not like he doesn't have some serious technical chops as well.

As another lifelong BG fan (having listened to them since 2004 and gone to 4 concerts since 2007), I enjoyed listening to both parts of your analysis as talking to someone with as much passion and knowledge for the band as I have. Agree with 80% of your takes and disagree with 20%, like a good conversation should go. Hope you keep doing videos for your channel, the DT one (another similar taste we have) was the thumb that attracted me to it. Thanks!

A great album. Yes, flirting with radio friendly but still some great music on it. And, yes, a shame how the Derek Sherinian role was played out. A great musician with great ideas and sound.

Each album is different and has its own history behind. In spite of past criticism the album is objectively great and it is more and more appreciated with time. DT was still finding its ways. Jordan Rudess was still not there and you can see all the good things he brought later and are missing. But even Hollow Years has to be redeemed. Just listen to the solo Petrucci put out of his hat for that song in their live performance at Budokan. It is recognized by many as one of the best guitar solos of all time. I have listened to all DT's albums many times and I still do and by no means I would put Falling into infinity as the less good.

What we have learned through the years is that Dream Theater has a formula of writing music and producing albums that are not similar. Which is why with their expanded catalog it allows them to be that more diverse and gain new fans to their fanbase.

Great album, nuff said!

Despite the hate Falling into Infinity gets… My favorite “piece” of Dream Theater music is the guitar solo/bridge section of “Drawing Lines in the Sand”… Also - LaBrie should’ve taken the break…

Its equal to the love you make ah ah ❤

I liked this video but I think a bigger distinction should've been made between writing lyrics and music. To a newer fan, it could sound like Myung, LaBree, and Portnoy wrote all the music for those individual songs when it was really the lyrics they wrote.

This album is amazing. Just skip she commercial slow songs that arent even prog.

Bland and boring. The Guitar player plays fast but thats just about it!!

It's the best album since the last one with the worst Ian Gillan ever.

good , enthusiastic review , thx!

Lines in the sand is one of my fav DT songs, theres alot of great shit on FI2I, and i prefer Fi2I over any album after Train of thought...great video mate you should do a video on every DT album lol cheers

I thought "=1" was their best since "The Battle Rages On". After many listenings, I was wrong. It's their best since "Perfect Strangers". Its a 9/10. It's actually so good that messed some minds out there, forgetting what a riff is and how guitar / organ was used in DP once a time... In addition to "steve morse left the band to take care his wife", because I hear that a lot... Steve Morse has tendonitis and on last album Bob Ezrin decided to tune down his guitars... Also, he never listened to his band mates. You can see already how nicely the couple Simon & Don is working. You can't possibly think that Don started being good at his 80s, aren't you? He was always good, he now found a proper guitarist to work with..

I cant believe you havent mentioned the most enduring song on the album, lines in the sand. To me peruvian skies and lines in the sand are the best songs on the album

Bro thinks MP wrote the music to the heavier tracks. lol.

Derek Sherinian did not feet well in DT, there's no chemistry and unity between them. Worst keys at DT history.

To be honest, I don't agree that this is a "great" album, certainly overhated and a good deal better than what most fans give it credit for, but still fairly flawed. Also, I am far from an Astonishing defender, but even I scoffed when you said that Hollow Years was better than anything on that album, that's completely ridiculous. The Astonishing is overall a worse album compared to Falling Into Infinity, it's too long, has a dumb story and too much filler, but there are some great tracks and good music on it, certainly far better than the generic Hollow Years. Anyways, I thought this was a solid video, nothing I didn't already know, but I know way too much about this band lol.

Awesomeness

Best album since Whoosh.

Cuz it always works out real well when record companies want/force bands to "make radio hits." A friend of mine is a big Dream Theater fan; he's called the record "Falling Into Obscurity."😂

I'll go on record and say this is the best Deep Purple album of all time. Simon's tone is stellar.

Is a good album but is not the best in years, i think Now What, Definitive and Whoosh is better.

I also believe that kicking Derek so early was a tremendous mistake. I love Jordan style but Derek fits better on DT.

Amazing, someone who feels EXACTLY the same way I do about Rush's 1980s albums. One Prog band not mentioned but worth examining were called New Wave and never Prog by most: The Fixx. They were clearly influenced by 1970s Prog but also heavily by New Wave. And Rupert Greenall DID master all that synth technology that the 1970s bands couldn't master. They eschewed love songs of pop and complex time signatures of 1970s Prog in favour of complex themes within four minute songs. "Red Skies"; "Less Cities, More Moving People"; "Liner" (about the Falkland Islands war); "Saved By Zero" (buddhist themes and ideas); "Driven Out" (environmentalism); "Woman On A Train"; "One Thing Leads To Another"; among many others. Listen to them from the beginning again, but think of them as a Prog Rock band as you do, not New Wave.

The beginning of lines in the sand 🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘. Witch eventually lead to in the i will just defy you!!!

Great review! I think this is a fantastic newer album by such an iconic, legendary rock/metal band. Who knows how much longer we have left of them. Let’s enjoy Deep Purple while we’ve got them. Can’t wait to see them at the end of August 🤘🔥

I got some of the numbers wrong in the vid so just to clarify - The band is 56 years old not 65, I wrote it the wrong way round in the script and didn't catch it - When talking about lineup changes, I was mostly talking about the guitar and so forgot to mention Airey coming in for Lord after that

Bit of an odd review, mixture of positive and negative, but hey, we are all entitled to our own opinion. Some observations on your mistakes: * “Over 65 years since forming in 1968” Mate, where did you learn maths? It’s 56 years, not 65 years, yes? * “First line up change in nearly 30 years”, wrong, Airey replaced Lord in 2002, that’s 22 years ago, yes? * “Departure of Blackmore nearly 30 years ago”, Blackmore departed in 1993, more than 30 years ago, again, where did you learn maths? Mate, if you are going to talk about DP history, best to get your facts straight, otherwise it destroys your credibility. Couple more points *length of album, 13 tracks, some reviewers are saying they don’t like this track, or that track. Fair comment, but what would they prefer? The average of 7-8 tracks from the early days? If you don’t like a particular track today, skip forward, problem is easily solved, and maybe those people’s opinion changes in the years ahead. Cover art, who cares? It could be in a brown paper bag for all I care, if I’m driving in my car listening, I’m not looking at the cover art, again, who cares? Anyway.... We are lucky that a very important and influential, hard rock band from 1968 (56 yrs ago), is still putting out new music and is continuing to tour the world too. Does it get any better? Cheers,

DT fans don’t like Hollow Years? Since when?!

A Change of Seasons is the best Dream Theater song

Throwing shade at The Astonishing? That album does not deserve the hate!

I understand that. You were the same as most people! I've got to make the video that describes why they did that album. Listen to Chosen, Ravenskill and Hymm. They aren't prog songs but don't listen to them expecting a prog song. I'll get back to you. I can't explain my philosophy of that album in text 😂

Enjoyed the vid. You are wrong about the astonishing though. There are some amazing songs on there and the concept of the album was lost on most people, these people concentrated on the concept of the album story rather than the concept of DT and the music. I will make a video on that soon

🇬🇧🇺🇸...everyone has their favourite musicians... Since I have a preconception about playing the drums, DT is out of the question for me since MP left! 🇩🇪...so hat ein jeder seine favorisierten Musiker... Da ich seitens des Schlagzeugspieles vorbelastet bin, ist DT seit MP Weggang für mich raus!

you can tell that Octavarium's "Sacrificed Sons" writing style follows the vein of "Peruvian Skies", with dreary melancholic playstyle at the beginning but getting louder and aggressive by the end.

So I've recently been on a prog rock/metal binge which I assume is what led the algorithm to recommend your Falling Into Infinity video, which I loved, and now has led me to this great video as well. Really enjoy this sort of personal analysis that shows how passionate someone is about a topic. Good job sir and can't wait to see whatever comes next.

No matter how technically proficient Rudess is, Sherinian's tones will always set him apart.

A lot of hard core DT fans dislike this album. I love it. But then again, I also think ToT is a solid effort. Derek added a while new dimension to the band.

I love this album for one reason... DT were so frustrated making it they just went bonkers on the next album, Metropolis pt 2. That album is magic and we would never have it without the troubled production of FII.

I'd definitely add Meshuggah from Chaosphere to Obzen. And really unpopular opinion, but: The five album run for Metallica would be Ride up until and including Load

So are you just reading off of the biography? I'm confused to why this was put out? Plus the demos of FII were far superior to the released material.

I really had to get used to the completely different sound of Falling into Infinity, but it’s like the creator of this video said: it grew on me over the years and it’s so much better now than it was back then. Awake still is my favorite after all these years, so I’m surprised it did poorly.

Underrated gem, I wish they would make another one in this vein.