Dream Theater - Octavarium (LIVE Score - 2006) REACTION

[@michaelpebbles6243]

Octavarium is the eighth studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater. Released on June 7, 2005, it was the band's final release with Atlantic Records. Recorded between September 2004 and February 2005, it was the last album recorded at The Hit Factory in New York City. With it, the band decided to create "a classic Dream Theater album",[1] drawing upon their various stylistic influences while trying to make the music less complex. The album takes its creative concept from the musical octave. Octavarium peaked in the top five in the Finnish,[2] Italian,[3] and Swedish charts,[4] and in the top ten in the Dutch,[5] Japanese,[6] and Norwegian charts.[7] Critical reception of the album was generally positive; the diversity of the music was praised, although critics found some of the songwriting to be inconsistent. Dream Theater promoted the album on a year-long world tour, with the majority of concerts lasting almost three hours and featuring a different setlist each night. The tour finished at Radio City Music Hall accompanied by an orchestra; this performance was recorded and released as a live album and concert video entitled Score. They co-headlined the 2005 North American Gigantour with Megadeth. Background After completing a North American tour supporting one of their main influences, Yes, in summer 2004, Dream Theater took a two-month break.[8] The band reconvened at The Hit Factory in New York City in November 2004 to begin work on their eighth studio album. The Hit Factory, a studio in which artists such as Michael Jackson, Madonna, Stevie Wonder, U2 and John Lennon had recorded, was earmarked for closure. Dream Theater was the last band to record at that original location before it was permanently closed.[1] After writing the concept album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, the double album Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and the metal-focused Train of Thought, the band decided to create "a classic Dream Theater album".[1] Keyboardist Jordan Rudess described it as "really going back to creating a real band effort, as well as drawing upon all our various stylistic influences."[1] On Octavarium, the band wanted to make the music less complex, featuring songs which Rudess regards as "quicker to appreciate",[1] although noted that the twenty-four-minute "Octavarium" was not as accessible.[1] Guitarist John Petrucci noted that they wanted to focus on writing strong songs.[9] To achieve this, the band stripped the sound down to piano, guitar and vocals when writing, focusing on the melodies and song structures. Drummer Mike Portnoy dismissed claims that Octavarium was an attempt to write a more commercial album, stating that the band simply "[has] that side to [them]. We love bands like U2 or Coldplay, as well as liking shorter songs as well."[9] Portnoy noted that, after writing Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence and Train of Thought, they had not written an album of shorter songs for some time. He said that the band had found writing longer songs easier than writing shorter ones, and that the band was not trying to write a radio hit as "the label wouldn't have done crap with it anyway."[9] The band had previously written an orchestral-style piece in the form of "Overture" on Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, but Jordan Rudess recorded these using two keyboards- his Kurzweil K2600 and Korg KARMA, the latter being a then-new synthesizer that Rudess had bought fairly recently at the time. The tracks "The Answer Lies Within", "Sacrificed Sons" and "Octavarium" marked the first time Dream Theater worked with an orchestra, conducted by Jamshied Sharifi (who studied at Berklee College of Music at the same time as Portnoy, Petrucci and bassist John Myung). The orchestra was selected based on their sight reading ability, allowing all their parts to be recorded in a maximum of two takes, even though they had never seen or played the music before.[10] Sharifi would later go on to conduct the Octavarium Orchestra on Dream Theater's Score album. Concept When starting to work on what would become Octavarium, Portnoy noted that it would be their eighth studio album and that they had recently released their fifth live album, Live at Budokan. This sequence mirrored the octave on a musical keyboard: each octave contains eight naturals and five accidentals. Portnoy suggested that they use that concept for the entire album.[11] When writing, the band delegated each song a different key. Sound effects were placed between songs to connect them: for example, "The Root of All Evil", written in F minor, and the following track, "The Answer Lies Within", written in G minor, were connected by a sound effect in the key of F♯ minor. The album's lyrics and song titles featured references to this concept. Portnoy cited the titles "The Root of all Evil" (referring to the musical term "root") and "Octavarium" ("the octave of the octave") as two examples of this.[11]

[@michaelpebbles6243]

Octavarium" is a compound word that refers to the musical octave and an aquarium, or the place where fish are kept. The word is a nonce word, meaning it was created for a specific occasion. The octave is the space between one note and the next of the same name, and there are eight notes in an octave. "Octavarium" suggests that each track on the album is in a different key within an octave. For example, the first track, "the root of all evil", is in the key of F minor, while the final track, "Octavarium", is also in F minor. Quora What does the word 'Octavarium' mean? - Quora Feb 16, 2014 - It is a nonce word, i.e. made up for the occasion. The song itself is a tour around modern music, and “Octavarium” is a compound of “octave” (the basic 8 notes of Western music) and “aquarium” (what you keep fish in). So it's preserving music for people to see. m.youtube.com 8 Things you DIDN'T KNOW About Dream Theater's OCTAVARIUM Aug 8, 2021 - which we just said was their eighth contains eight songs on it and the third fact. and this is what kind of starts to tie everything. together is the title of the album. octavarium. right an octave in music is the space from one note to the next note of the same name higher or lower and there's eight notes in an octave. so what this means is that each track on the record is in a different key within an octave the first track which is called the root of all evil. starts in the key of f minor. and the final track on the record. which is octavarium. is also an f minor. Generative AI is experimental.

[@rtwbikerider]

Rudess could have easily played the wash/strings on the Korg keyboard while soloing overtop with the Haken Continuum. But, when he shifted to the pedal steel he needed someone else to play those strings. In the shadows you can see James LaBrie playing the preset pads. Jordan made it easy for James.