LTE (1 & 2) are good for the first song and maybe the second but then it gets boring.
Dream Theater has some really great albums. Scene's from a Memory is one of my all time favorites. Awake is also pretty good most of the way through.
Train of Thought can be a bit boring but there are some good heavy songs, the newest album is just really not any good imo.
I find that most players like them who are crazy technical have a hard time not just trying to impress themselves with how fast and accurately they can
play. They forget about the music or just aren't capable of writing good music since they spent all their time learning to play the
guitar/drums/whatever instead of learning to write and compose music which is a completely different skill.
Dream Theater has written some really great music. Scenes is complex musically and conceptually. the story is interesting and not incredibly obvious
the playing is nothing less than top notch and more importantly it stays interesting and fresh, they know when to slow down and when to not over do
it with crazy long technical scale shreds. The music is definitely hard to play but apart from certain sections most of it isn't out of the reach of a good
intermediate player.
Honestly I used to really want to shred but after I got a clue and realized what it does to people I really have lost interest. Technical ability is
important since it lets you play more music but it is not the end all be all of playing music. Having musical knowledge, experience, and practical ability
is much more important.
Anyway yeah I agree Petrucci can get a little carried away with himself. And while he has helped write good music in the past I haven't been really moved
by anything he has done recently or on his own.
Maybe I've become biased against virtuous music but none of it really makes me care anymore. I'd rather listen to four guys bang on broken drum sets
and un-tuned guitars than listen to one guy (or four in the case of DT) try to prove how good they are at playing. I want energy in my music and just
cause you have a fast drummer and distorted guitar doesn't mean your music has energy. Perfect playing just tends to sound lifeless. Grit is more real.
five guys who have devoted their entire lives to becoming virtuosos inorder to be "the best" player are less interesting to me than five guys who can
barely play and are up on stage burning to death in each others passion and couldn't care less about what people think about their playing.
