Dream Theater

[got_quiet]

I've been struggling to find new music. I rely on youtube too much nowadays and that algorithm is awful for any sort of discovery, and I've never been dialed in to the music scene, so decided to just go back to the tired and true method of stopping by a record store and pulling some random CDs from the just in bins. The store near me has changed a lot in the past 5 or so years. There used to be a lot more CDs, but now a significant chunk, like 60% or more, is dedicated to records, which I never cared about. And the metal section has shrunk by half.

I ended up picking up three albums from the new in the shop section. The only one I've listened to so far is Dream Theater's new album, Parasomnia. Scenes from a Memory is one of my favorite albums of all time, which makes DT one of my favorite bands of all time. This album was classic DT, but almost too much so. I've only listened to it a couple times while in the car, and while I'm definitely enjoying it it isn't blowing me away. It feels a bit too familiar and not quite pushing hard enough to do something new and interesting. I would probably prefer to listen to Scenes from a Memory again if given the choice.

Digging through the CDs I also remembered how much of a pain it is to get a good sense of whether or not I might like music based only on the hints provided on the CD case. The genres "pop," "rock," and "metal" are entirely inadequate when what I'm looking for is prog, mathcore, and complex drum and bass.

Anyway after all that I'm back to listening to an album from 1999. I'm hoping the other two CDs I got reveal something new for me.

If anyone has some rec for music with some good, complex instrumentality and fucked up time signatures, hit me up!

Comments

[shadowbliss]

I get what you mean, it's hard to find something not forced on you by an algorithm these days.

[got_quiet]

It's so bad. I feel like somehow the world is shrinking even though that makes no sense.

[autumndaze]

I don't have specific recs, but I've been slowly just making a list of every person/group I've liked one song from with the intent of going through their entire music back catalogue. You can hear a lot on YouTube and Spotify and a lot of them have listings for their albums on Wikipedia and some other places (sometimes band pages). I've also been trying to go through soundtracks of shows and movies I've watched more rigorously, and checking out groups who do like, intros or whatever, not just the composer.

[got_quiet]

I should do this more too. Sometimes a new group or something does break through but on youtube music it feels like they only want you to listen to their one most popular song unless you deliberately go to listen to their whole discography.

[yamamanama]

If you want some good prog metal, check out Atomic Guava and OK Goodnight.

[got_quiet]

These are great recs, thanks! I know I've heard OK Goodnight before but I entirely forgot about them.