I agree. Like... going back to Falling Into Infinity.
I've always thought Falling into Infinity was vastly under rated by the majority of the DT fan base, and even the band themselves.
I agree on Jordan Rudess being a bit soulless.
It's always been the knock on him. Incredible chops, but not enough soul. In many ways, DT kicking out Derek and getting Jordan was once of the worst things to happen to the band musically, even though I do like Train of Thought, and most of Octavarium.
There's more than just a production change over the years. The reason I love Falling Into Infinity (or the demos) so much is because the band left so much collective space for the songs to breathe. In The Presence of Enemies Pt 1 certainly feels like it has as many notes in four minutes as FIF has in the entire album. John Petrucci's guitar parts acted more as a harmonic pad than his typical dry rhythm or fast, clean, and usually appropriate lead parts. And there was a whole lot of proper dirty B3, which hasn't happened since Jordan Rudess entered the band. That's fine that everyone plays differently, but I just wish they'd let the songs tell the story, rather than just the playing.
Back in the day, they would work out songs on the road - come up with some bits, try them out during soundcheck, let it stew a bit, then revisit those bits and eventually turn them into a song. In my opinion, it's much more effective to work out a collection of songs when the band has become familiar with the songs. Maybe not quite to the point where it's muscle memory, but at least to the point where everyone can relax and play their parts as smoothly as possible, when they don't have to worry about which part is coming up next.
Yes, yes and yes.
When Derek was in the band, he had actual vintage Leslie cabinets on stage, along with several other cabinets. Different patches ran through different cabinets, so you really go that sense of air moving. It gave his sound more grit, and more soul. Jordan runs everything direct, which makes everything super clean, to the point it's just too clean.
And the whole getting away from writing on the road, and no longer having songs worked out before entering the studio has been their musical downfall. Songs used to breathe, There used to be room for the vocals. Ideas were fully developed. When Porntoy left, I though maybe this will inspire them to go back to the way it used to be, as Portnoy was the main proponent of writing everything in the studio as it was being recorded. And they did do that to some on the last album. So it's disappointing for this album they went back to writing in the studio. They claim it keeps the ideas fresh and they get stuff in the moment, but it comes at the sacrifice of development. And as I said, they don't let the songs breathe, and leave no room for vocals, James ends up sounding like they put a gun to head and told him to just sing whatever words the put in front of him.
I had gotten to the point where I thought James had just lost it, because the vocals on Systematic Chaos and Black Clouds were so terrible. But then I heard his solo album and it was like, whoah, he can still sing, if the music is actually written for vocals and if the song doesn't have a million notes in every verse, and if he's actually allowed to not have a gun to his head in the studio. But for whatever reason, John and Jordan went right back to marginalizing the vocals this time. Might as well just make 70's fusion music then.
Although as much as I've grown tired of them, oddly, their popularity seems to have increased over the last 4 albums. They have played much, much bigger venues on the last 3-4 tours then they ever did on previous tours.