First single 'The Alien' from upcoming Dream Theater album out today

Meh, I hate to say this about my favorite band, but to me, it's "Nothing new under the sun." Was really hoping for something that would break new ground, but I don't hear it.
To be clear, I'm not longing for 'the old DT', but I'd like something that hit me the same way when I heard SFAM the first time. That was innovative. This is not.
All my opinion, ymmv, yada yada.
 
i really like this track. the mix is amazing, the drums sit in nicely - especially the cymbals, which felt disconnected in the past few recordings. this does give me the feeling of "classic DT" where it's more riff-based rather than just big open long chords and passages. i like those too, but i prefer what this song gives.

very excited for the full album.
 
I was into for the first couple minutes and then it lost me. Could just be my mood right now, though. Definitely the most energetic drums I've heard from Mangini yet and I love the drum mix!

I dug the last one quite a bit, the first album of theirs I listened to more than 5x since Train of Thought. Hopefully they retain some of that writing energy. I know they tracked this one at their new headquarters/studio/storage joint, which was being built when they recorded the last one. Should be interesting to hear the sound of the albums over the next couple releases to hear how the sounds change up while remaining in the same place.

Slightly related- One of my best childhood bro's is working at the Drum Center of Portsmouth, where they've got Mangini's former touring kit for sale. I got him into Dream Theater in '97 when we were in high school and we were fanatical with them, especially SFAM. He went on to go to Berklee and ended up taking every Mangini lab available for the two years he was there. Obviously, pre-DT times, but it was still a trip for him when Mangini got into his favorite band of all time because they got pretty tight during that time. While he's not supposed to play the kit, he slips back every now and then and goes nuts. Only $50K!

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And JR's ever-present ragtime riffs he always has to inject into at least one DT song per album...? (I've never actually counted them, but damn, after doing it once, that's enough. For like, forever.)
 
I dig the music on this one. First DT song that has grabbed my ear as spectacular since "Pull Me Under".

I would dig them more if they were an all instrumental band, because I just never warmed up to LaBrie's head voice.
 
I dig the music on this one. First DT song that has grabbed my ear as spectacular since "Pull Me Under".

I would dig them more if they were an all instrumental band, because I just never warmed up to LaBrie's head voice.

Is Liquid Tension Experiment close enough?? :)

 
Lots of people in the video comments mentioning the drum mix (as well as the drumming.) Wonder if it's because of the new room?

The production of late sounds too "processed", for lack of a better word. To me, it doesn't have the dynamics and "organic feel" they used to have. In that respect, I do prefer older stuff from them. They're obviously playing as great as ever, maybe even tighter than ever before, and perhaps that's what I'm hearing.
 
So weirdly enough, after watching 2 different guitar COVERS of this song (who ARE these guys that can learn, memorize, record, & post, a brand new DT song in less than a DAY?), it's growing on me a bit.
 
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