YTSEJAM Digest 2898 Today's Topics: 1) Mission: Improggable by Chris Oates 2) Keyboard transcription question by Shai Yallin 3) How Dare I? by Christopher Ptacek 4) AWAY by Christopher Ptacek 5) Mission Impossible by "Jeremy P. Kube" 6) Some new CD's, DT concerts by Marcelo Vanzin 7) APSOG lyrics by Erik Gorissen 8) Bootleg debate, Bahr, etc by Randy Haskin 9) Amorphis, Opeth etc. by Rogerio Brito 10) Re: Richard James / Cover Art by "Chad Allen Klunck" 11) ProgDay '97 by Brenton McCraven 12) Blind Melon by Steve Zebrowski 13) Sale posts and so forth by durnik 14) spoiler of sorts.....FII quik review by Partha Mukhopadhyay ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 06:38:54 -0700 From: Chris Oates To: email_address_removed Subject: Mission: Improggable Message-ID: Yes, the original theme to M:I is in 5/4. The schmucks who did the movie soundtrack screwed it over and turned it into a dancey 4/4 most of the time. Yeech. __ /\ __ Chris Oates: email_address_removed __\/__\/__ +---- \_||_/ | This space under construction. | /__||__\ | Looking for something new to say here ... | // \ | \\ ----+ \| http://www2.ucsc.edu/people/aspect/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 16:50:52 +0300 From: Shai Yallin To: email_address_removed Subject: Keyboard transcription question Message-ID: Well, there's like this song, "In The Dead Of Night" by UK. DT and Yngwie covered it (I have the Yngiwe version). I've been trying to transcribe the keyboard part, but I didn't manage to do it because the mixing is bad (you can hardly hear the keyboards) and very unclear, plus this is a very tough time sig. Anyway, do any of you know any keyboard transcription of this amazing song? -- "Yauza Yauza Yauza...." - Frank Zappa "You say you want everyone happy. Well, we're not laughing..." - John Petrucci, "Scarred" Visit my home page at http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palladium/3247 ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 09:10:53 -0500 (CDT) From: Christopher Ptacek To: email_address_removed Subject: How Dare I? Message-ID: > From: durnik > Subject: Fuck this!! You never answered a question on the lat wave of "shit". You just sort of blew it all off, so relax. > Chris Ptacek, you're just fucking wrong on this one, PERIOD. Any > collector who's into bootlegs will tell you that DUPLICATES SUCK. When you're buying and selling bootlegs, it's part of what goes on out there. You can tell me I'm wrong, but you know that despite your efforts or anyone elses efforts, it will remain so. I'm not telling you that "I think it's awesome that you have a chance to buy 2 or 3 cds with the same material." I'm saying that no matter how you look at it, sooner or later this is going to happen. Situation: You get the source for your new cd, from Joe Supplier. You create your cd and blast out 500 copies. Joe Supplier then turns around and sells the source to someone else. They blast out only the 5 songs they think kick ass on the source. Does that make them wrong? Does that make you right? Do you understand where I'm coming from? What I'm finding distasteful is that you defend your right to make "cut and paste bootlegs" (which I'm all for, BTW) like WDATU, but you say at the same time that it's bad for other people to do the same. It's a little naive to argue that you're the only person who has access to the sources that you use. I know you don't think that (and I don't think you've said it). If you take 3 songs from show X and 4 songs from show Y, you can't, as a collector, complain if someone releases all of show Y as it's own bootleg. AND you said it's cool to recopy and resell bootlegs. Typically, to make them sell better, people are going to add a track or two, or change the price. Since this is a skin of the teeth business, as I'm lead to understand, price drops (except from your camp) are rare. > that's usually cheaper than the CDs!! From the collector's standpoint, I > am absolutely right in saying that it would be better if every single boot > out there contained material unique to that bootleg. We want as much > different stuff as possible. Then why is it okay for you to mix sources on a cd? Doesn't WDATU have some stuff off of other releases? This plan assumes that everyone who makes bootlegs is aware of your stuff, and it's like assuming you should have some rights over the material on your bootlegs. There comes a point at which the buyer should have to exercise some brain cells. YOU ARE GOING TO GET FUCKED if you go online and try to find and buy every bootleg you see. It's not the bootlegger's fault if a fan buys a cd without doing any research, and ends up with a $25 copy of a cd he or she already has. We're not fucking lemmings. I don't recall ever seeing any of these boots claiming "This is completely unique. No one else's bootlegs have this material, and no one ever will, so when you buy this cd, you're going to get rare music in rare form!" I wouldn't put it past some foolish bootlegger to do something like that someday, but I blame the buyer for believing it if a problem arises out of such a statement. > It sucks that there are only six true soundboard tapes from Rush, > and that we therefore hear them over and over again on boots. It always WILL SUCK, Mike. This is commercial bootlegging. Maybe YOU care about the band(s), but I hardly believe the majority of bootleg producers care about the bands or are running their businesses to help the fans. They're doing it to make money. PERIOD. > And it sucks that people like you who apparently lack > either experience or knowledge in this area have decided to publicly slam > someone who _does_. It does suck that I bring this up, doesn't it. Well the fact that you seem to want immunity in this issue sucks too. I just don't see where you can say that once you use Surrounded from one show, no one else should. It's like you're saying that "It's mine first, so you can duplicate this bootleg, but you can't change the track list and keep any of my material." It's something that's just destined to happen when some people don't fully know which material is released and which is not, or when some people care and some do not. > general. It sucks when ANY bootleg duplicates another. I was collecting I'm to assume that you mean duplicates another, but carries a different name, right? > boots for many years before I even dreamed I would make CDs. I've been > through the wringer in every way on this issue, as the buyer and as the > seller. Your time buying bootlegs isn't the issue. The issue is that it's a business for almost all of these people involved in commercial bootlegging, not a hobby. They will do whatever they must to make their money. If that means finding the best sources they can and making a bootleg, without researching to see if it's already been released, then so be it. No one but the artists can claim the rights to the material. It may suck, but there's no way you can change it. It's like saying "It sucks that ebola exists. In my opinion, no one should ever contract ebola". That's all well and good, but it's not likely, practical, or possible. To agree with your argument, you have to assume that all bootleggers care about the bands as much as you do. You have to assume that all bootleggers have to care about the fans. You have to assume that all bootleggers are aware of all bootlegs, to make sure that they're not selling material that's already been released. You have to assume that people believe that once they sell a source tape or dat to one bootlegger, they can't sell it to another. I'm not willing to make those assumptions, Mike. And yes, it does suck. YOU'RE wrong if you think I WANT it to be that way. But I'm not at all wrong in saying that's the way it is, and the way it will probably always be. As cynical as it sounds, there is NO WAY for you to change this, unless you can make all bootleggers care. Since you can't, you deal with it. If you've taken part in this problem in the least way, for any reason, then you can't complain that it exists. - Chris Ptacek ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 09:13:10 -0500 (CDT) From: Christopher Ptacek To: email_address_removed Subject: AWAY Message-ID: I'm moving this morning, and I won't have a phone until the 29th. That means limitted internet access. It may take a while for me to respond to e-mail, so please be patient (those of you who expect responses) -- Chris Ptacek at EnterAct, L.L.C -- (773) 248 8511 http://www.enteract.com (business) http://www.prognosis.com/madsman/ (my contribution to --------------------------------- the vast wealth of "To err is human... to suck out | underdeveloped one's brain with an orally | web sites) deployed flesh tube is not."-MS| **************** --------------------------------- ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 10:21:24 -0400 From: "Jeremy P. Kube" To: email_address_removed Subject: Mission Impossible Message-ID: I believe the original version of Mission Impossible (which DT covered and the show theme) was in 5\4, although, when the crappy movie came out about a year and a half ago, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. of U2 did it in 4\4 and it sounded like shit. Oh well hope this helped.... J ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 06 Aug 1997 10:02:58 -0300 From: Marcelo Vanzin To: Freaks R Us Subject: Some new CD's, DT concerts Message-ID: Hey there jammanoids! I bought some new stuff today, and before the reviews, man, are CD's getting expensive here... What I used to buy for about $16, now you can't find for less tham $20... Think I'm going to become a "Internet Shopper", and not only for hard-to-find CD's. =) (BTW, Itchy, do ya have any link for CD Universe? =) ) Now for what I bought: - Stratovarius: Visions - Wow, one of the best albuns I have ever heard, kept my attention till the last second. It rocks hard!!! Gotta check other stuff from them. =) And, to complete the album, the kick-ass AVI video for "The Kiss of Judas"... The image quality is not that good, but the video rulz. - Amorphis: Elegy - Thanks to Rogerio Brito for the suggestion, a very nice CD. I had already heard it at Roger's, them decided to buy. Hafta check "Tales from the Thousand Lakes" now! - Time Machine: Shades of Time - The most expensive of all ($25, and my pocket still hurts...) VERY different from their last album (Act II: Galileo, kick ass one), inferior to that one may I say, but still a pretty cool one (although it's pretty short: about 31 minutes of playing...) It has probably the coolest packaging I have ever seen on a CD. =) The strange thing is that they thank a lot of brazilian radios in the booklet, but I can't remember seeing or even hearing about them here... - Megadeth: Cryptic Writings - Cool. Nothing much to say about this one, I think all jammerz are tired of reading about this album. =) ot as good as Rust in Peace or Countdown, but (IMHO), far better than Youthanasia. Damn, I was looking for Eldritch's "Seeds of Rage" (is that right?), but they were out of stock... Well, next time maybe... Ahhh, o'course... I'm the happy owner now of two tickets for DT shows here. =) I'll be there on both nights, but I'd like some info and I'd like some jammer from São Paulo to help me: what's the address of the Clube Aramaçan??? It'd be cool to know how do I get to the place of the show. =) -- []'s /**********************************************\ |* Marcelo Vanzin *| |* email_address_removed *| |* http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/6308/ *| \**********************************************/ ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 16:57:14 +0200 From: Erik Gorissen To: email_address_removed Subject: APSOG lyrics Message-ID: <3.0.2.32.19970824165714.007a3b30@online-club.de> >Date: Fri, 22 Aug 1997 19:18:42 -0700 >From: email_address_removed >To: email_address_removed >Subject: Fates Warning >Message-ID: >don't know, I just think of Parallels as FWs first and only concept >album(for all I know APSoG is about sitting around going color blind, >and doing nothing about nothing ;). Hehe... but serious, anyone got any suggestions about the actual meaning of the lyrics on APSOG? In an interview with a German fanzine Matheos said it were the thoughts of someone lying awake at night, trying to find some sleep. Sounds alright, but still it doesn=B4t tell anything about the meanin= g behind those thoughts, and I am sure there is one. There may be thought fragments, but they fit together and make sense as a whole. In my opinion the lyrics are about a deeply experienced feeling of guilt, guilt of not having helped someone a long time ago. While the song goes on, the person finally learns to accept this feeling and manages to live with it. Any other suggestions? >> Well, I don't know about the people that were talking about 'melody'. All= I >> know is that it bugs the hell out of me. >> 'anyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyymoooooooooooore'. I don't know. It just sounds= unnatural >> to me. That has nothing to do with the melody. It just messes up the= flow >> of the lyrics (for me). Well, for me this is part of the special feeling the vocals of Fates create. But yes, sometimes it does mess up the flow of the lyrics (not the flow of the music!), especially in the older songs (No Exit for example). It often sounds like Jim Matheos writing down the lyrics and the music seperately, then giving both to Ray Alder, saying >>Here are the lyrics, and these are the songs, now please try to put them together somehow, I know you can....<< But I don=B4t mind at all, on the contrary. The way Ray Alder sings is just what makes Fates Warning so outstanding for me. I don=B4= t think it sounds unnatural, but extraordinary, and as far as I am concerned I love it. Barbara (I=B4m using my boy-friend=B4s adress at present) ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 11:06:53 -0700 From: Randy Haskin To: email_address_removed Subject: Bootleg debate, Bahr, etc Message-ID: I have been a part of the Ytsejam list since early 1993 when this whole thing got started...yes, I do remember the old "email_address_removed" days. Anyway, I am ordinarily just a lurker, reading my jams and gleening the 1/10th of a percent of real DT info out of them. This recent Mike Bahr slamming trend on the list has really gotten to bothering me and inspired me to write something. I think I am an "average" ytsejam reader...I'm heavily into DT, yes, but I also have a full time military career (like others have full-time school) and I don't have all the time in the world to devote to collecting and trading tapes (like so many of you seem to). Mr Bahr provides those of us who do not have time to trade tapes with a service. That service is the ability to listen to ultra rare music on a convenient CD format, and to have all that material in one package. This is a service which I, and others, are WILLING to pay for. $25 is a very reasonable price to pay, considering the effort Mr Bahr has to expend to collect the material and produce the CDs. With this understanding, the only gripe I would have would be if he were making money >at the expense of the band<. The fact is, and many of you tend to forget this, that Mike makes these CDs with the FULL KNOWLEDGE of DTs management. When they asked him not to release certain material, he obeyed. The fact that they asked that certain material NOT be released implies consent to the material he DOES release. Do all of you not see Mike Portnoy's name at the top of every one of Mike's buyer listings? The first time I ever heard of Bahr, I was trading him for the 79 Pinkpop Rush bootleg. I wanted this boot very bad at the time, and the only thing I had to send him back was a bootleg video of Rush from the RTB tour. As soon as Bahr received my trade, he emailed me and said he felt he had gotten out "too good" on the deal, and was sending me some tapes to even out the trade. A few weeks later I received two DT bootleg tapes ("Consciously Unreal", which, at that time was one of the few DT boots..) in the mail. He's a fair man. He's in it for the MUSIC and NOT THE MONEY. My point is that Mike Bahr is a music fan who is helping get the music out to other music fans. If he makes money off it to compensate for his efforts, big deal. It's the SERVICE he's selling, NOT the music. Randy Haskin email_address_removed ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 15:58:21 -0300 (EST) From: Rogerio Brito To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: Amorphis, Opeth etc. Message-ID: On Sun, 24 Aug 1997, Marcelo Vanzin wrote: > Hey there jammanoids! > > - Amorphis: Elegy - Thanks to Rogerio Brito for the suggestion, a very > nice CD. I had already heard it at Roger's, them decided to buy. Hafta > check "Tales from the Thousand Lakes" now! Well, I've put "My Kantele" (acoustic version) in my compilation of acoustic songs. If you're not pissed with those death metal growlings, then I think that you may check "Tales from the Thousand Lakes". It has *THE*SAME* elements of "Elegy" (maybe only a *little* less keyboards), but almost all vocals are growling (when they released "Tales", they only had one singer, not two), with some "clear" voice that is not clear at all (they seem to be like if the singer were talking inside a can of paint). I only knew this album due to the kind trade of Mattew Teiper and I think that "Tales" is one of those albums to hear when you're a bit pissed. BTW, continuing with the Black/Doom thread, I'm waiting to receive copies of both Opeth's albums. I've heard some MP3 (complete, CD quality!) of these albums and it is pretty different from everything that I have ever heard. If you are not afraid the growlings and some heavy parts, you'll probably experience some of the *MOST* beautiful acoustic parts ever released! IMO, these obscure bands should have more support (and Opeth has released some long songs, say 10, 15, 20 minutes long). []s, Roger... -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Rogerio Brito - email_address_removed.br - http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito Undergraduate Computer Science Student - "Windows? Linux and X!" Bootleg/trade page: http://www.ime.usp.br/~rbrito/bootleg.html "Life is ours, we live it our way (...) / And nothing else matters" James Hetfield (Metallica), Nothing Else Matters =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 14:24:17 -0500 From: "Chad Allen Klunck" To: Subject: Re: Richard James / Cover Art Message-ID: I noticed a post about the lack of Storm Thorgerson in Pink Floyd albums. As far as I remember (and correct me if I'm wrong), Storm _did_ do the better majority (if not all) of PF's cover art. Take Ummagumma, for example. "Re-package design by Storm Thorgerson & Jon Crossland". "Original sleeve design & photography by Hipgnosis." Hipgnosis _is_ Storm. It's a pseudonym he uses for cover art design; sometimes you see his name, sometimes you don't. If I am way off base, please correct me, but I believe this is how it works. Chad ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 16:53:22 -0400 (EDT) From: Brenton McCraven To: Multiple recipients of list Subject: ProgDay '97 Message-ID: Does anyone in the Chapel Hill, NC area know much about ProgDay this weekend, Aug 30-31? I don't know any of these bands and I was wondering if Saturday or Sunday was a better lineup. Thanks. Brent ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 17:02:59 -0400 (EDT) From: Steve Zebrowski To: email_address_removed Subject: Blind Melon Message-ID: > 2- I just read Blind Melon's comment about DT in > GFTPM magazine. Is this some sort of joke...? No. The article is no joke. Blind Melon, on the other hand, was a BIG joke. Steve Z ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 14:36:31 -0700 (MST) From: durnik To: email_address_removed Subject: Sale posts and so forth Message-ID: Sale posts are so rare on the Jam, why does anyone even bother raising issues over them. You want newsgroups with obnoxious amounts of marketplace-type spam? Check out the Magic, Nintendo, and Star Wars groups!! - Mike Bahr - email_address_removed - http://www.goodnet.com/~durnik ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 24 Aug 1997 19:54:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Partha Mukhopadhyay To: email_address_removed Subject: spoiler of sorts.....FII quik review Message-ID: what follows below is a quik compendium of my thoughts on the new album, both after an initial listen, and then after multiple listenings...... it ain't got no music theory, nor does it contain much in the way of "John did this and then Derek did that" if you want one of those reviews, Pat Griffin did one a while back that I figure he wouldn't mind me forwarding to others, or sending it out himself.........and it has nothing about production since I am not qualified to judge such things (what the heck is a triggered snare, anyway?) if it feels like I am going overboard, saying, "look what I got"....i apologise totally......then again, this IS the first time I have been privy to such a thing, I mean Geez, a whole month early......even before skadz, if i interpreted him quesiton on irc correctly the other night, and I'm having a hard time being 'cool' about it....... that said, here's what i thought/think of the album......... (By the way, my source who shall remain anonymous tells me to tell y'all that he like Peruvian skies and Lines in the Sand best of all on FII) First Listen Reactions 1) A New Millenium: Kick Ass, 'nuff said 2) You Not Me: Better than I'd expected based on comment on the jam.....except for that chorus, just don't know, man 3) Peruvian Skies: Load-like, Bon Jovi-ish....but cool tune, esp. after it start Rocking 4) Hollow Years Commercial....if it were Blind Melon, I (we) might be ragging it to death.....then again, i sorta liked BM.....and I like this song.... 5) Burning My Soul Ooooh, CRUNCHY...early fave, techno-ish touches 6) Hells Kitchen are you SURE this used to be the middle of that monsterously heavy thing that is BMS? 7) Lines In the Sand DOUG PINNICK!!!!! forget what i said about BMS being my early fave.... 8) Take Away My Pain Really Touching, esp, w/ the awareness of what it relates to 9) Just Let Me Breathe Back to Heavy....you know the bass is present when you turn off the MegaBass (TM) and JM is still coming thru the headphones -- Awesome! 10) Anna Lee Another Ballad, sorta sappy...don't like at first blush 11) Trial of Tears Man, I just had to turn the megabass off again! Great Instrumental Passages overall: just freakin' awesome...... Upon Further Review: 1) A New Millenium: Chapman stick, 7-string....Rocks, and hard....Awesome Knock on wood effect early in the song....there's a spoken word section in there, trying to be Henry Rollins or something....... 2) You Not me: Begins well, bridge to chorus is just fine, and then the chorus hits and it doesn't REALLY fit, not in the song, not on a DT album as *we* might want it to be....the keys during the chorus are just cheesy effects, adding little.....the lyric (eating your words is making me sick) is making ME sick.....funny thing, though, I don't see this as being all that commercial.....outside the chorus, this IS a DT song, got funky things going on all over the place, JP's moaning/groaning guitar (is that the Wah pedal?) does NOT have "hit" written on it....some samples at the end, can't make out a thing 3) Peruvian Skies: I still say this starts out like something on LOAD......lost my Bon Jovi connection on this listen, but there's still a whiney guitar in the background at the "battereed and bruised" part that sounds pure country.....and then the song just starts rocking.....there's a nice build-up to a great pay-off. The end of this song may be the best part to the whole album, but overall, the song suffers for the ballad part 4) Hollow Years: This better be a single if DT wants to catch the AOR, (or is it the AAA now?) market.....very commercial to my ears, but still I like it....It's not happy commercial, like Gin Blossoms, nor is it depresso-pop like so many bands are doing these days......I guess I could imagine a COunting Crows, or....dare I say it....Richard Marx....doing a song like this........not kidding, but that doesn't make it bad in any way 5) Burning My Soul: The song include the lyric "Twisting Turning"....add the word "schizophrenia" and you're well on your way to the frayed ends....but you also describe FII perfectly up to this point.....DT can't make up whether to be a heavy band or a ballad band, and so it keeps going back and forth to the two extremes (including doing both in a single song (PS)),and on BMS, they pul out the HEAVY (all CAPS intended).....one of those "turn off the megabass" songs, JM very well represented 6) Hell's Kitchen: Starts out balladsy, are you SURE this was a part of the all-out BMS originally? maybe the beginning is an intro added to make the instrumental complete? about a minute or 1:30 in, there's a palpable shift, a passage that signals harder stuff ahead....the build-up to a quick keys solo is pretty cool, but then it sorta keeps building and building and never gets to the BIG BANG I kept expecting......fades/blends into LiTS.... 7) Lines in the Sand Begins with that bluesy lick used in the instrumental after Take the Time on the Awake tour (pa na na nooo) :) Best song on album....short intro, quick jump into the vocals....heavy without overwhelming bass presence.....Doug Pinnick does his backing voacals differently on all three choruses, which is nice.....one excess scream, but I'm being extremely picky because there is nothing not to like about this song....1 hi-powered and 1 low key instrumental passage..... 8) Take Away My Pain: Should Be a single....hit potential if people are looking for a low key, emotion-tugging hard-hitting song.....knowing what it's about, petrucci's dad and all, really makes it work for me..... that line "what else can we do babe/i guess i won't be coming home again" is sung very simply, but may become my fave single vocal line of all things Dream Theater.....instrumentally, their influences shine thru..... interesting segments where they go away from the basic song structure to have a Police-like background (not quite reggae) and then switch to something that sounds like Steve Perry and the Boys (journey) for a few seconds before going back to the song proper.....only problem with making this a single is that it's 6 minutes long, and NONE of it is cuttable, as would have to be done to make it commercial length (4-4.5 minutes) 9) Just let Me breathe: SOng lives up to its name! A 5 minute rant and rave about the state of the music biz "kill yourself and sales go through the roof", Labrie name checks Kurt Cobain, and get this Shannon Hoon (yeah, Pedro, it's true about BM and DT).......Balls and Chunk Galore for the duration....Derek's style is evident here, maybe better than in other songs......you can hear keys in the background that would NOT have been there in that manner were KM still in the band.....Derek's main solo is choppier that Kevin Moore equivalent solo would have been....but you know something? IT WORKS....for me, anyway, my worries about Sherinian were unfounded, so far as I've heard until now..... 10) Anna Lee: Total Ballad for ballad's sake.....well done, tro be sure, but when I get the CD, if there's any song I'm skipping, this is gonna be it......even hollow years kicks its butt Not too much to say about this really, except they cut Raise the Knife for THIS??? might be the space dye vest love/hate song from FII....I for one found it nowhere as compelling as space dye vest, which i thought cool, even if i wasn't sure i liked at first........ 11) Trial of Tears: If I cared about the weather in New York City, this might be my early fave....but I don't, so it falls to about 4th or 5th......13 minute length leaves time for mucho instrumentation....but the song goes by realy quick, and I can't figure out if that is a good thing or not........usually, a song that's *quick* means I like it, and want more.....but with DT, the best songs for me are OAMOT and LTL, which drag on and on, and leave me fulfilled, and ToT doesn't yet have that effect....it IS a great song, needed to hit the MegaBAss switch to be able to listen to the rest of the band..... Overall: When They Rock, they Rock.....but with 3.5 ballads (Hollow years, Anna Lee, Take Away My Pain and half of Peruvian Skies) this album isn't focused totally on the heavy.....it goes for the sensitive stuff as well, and that works well, except for Anna Lee....just not liking that tune.....but there are plenty of highlights to make up for it, starting with DOUG PINNICK!!! and all of lines in the sand, for that matter.....Burning My Soul and Just let me breathe are unrequited rockers, and if what I've started making of JLMB's lyrics bear out for the full lyrics, that may well become my Fave song lyric-wise in DT's Canon (and may Coolio never rip this Canon off!)........ As a first response, I'm putting this (among full length albums only) at #2, after I&W, but ahead of WDADU, and well ahead of Awake...... the thing is, that ranking (in relation to Awake) means nothing except I didn't like awake (for production reasons or whatever).....FII offers stuff for both awake fans (Guitar being the clear primary instrument) and I&W fans (in terms of vocals, etc).....this could be the one that unites us all....then again, this being the Jam..... :) obviously, time will tell where this ends up on my list, on yours, on the charts and in Billboard mag...........but right now I'll say only this....... Mike Portnoy, you have every right to call your work "Awesome". THANK YOU! Partha Sarathi Mukhopadhyay swept away by the tide through the hole in my hand crown of thorns by my side drawing lines in the sand LiTS, DT ------------------------------ End of YTSEJAM Digest 2898 **************************