Dream Theater's worst haters are their fans.

Ya'll are wild.

You do realize there can never be an album that scratches the itch for a previous album, right? No new song is going to cause the chemicals in your brain to fire the same way they do when you hear your favorite song of theirs from (insert literally any album here) that you remember with nostalgia.

(Band releases albums with symphonic compositions) - BCSL, D12, TA...

"They're not heavy anymore! They've lost their edge"

(Band releases album with heavy compositions) - Parasomnia to date

"They're not melodic anymore! They're just playing heavy riffs!"

Back when the fandom existed in a few myBBS forums, people hated on 6DoIT too. "They're trying to hard to sound like an orchestra! It's terrible, they're a prog METAL band!"

Then ToT - "WTF?? This is dumb. A total downgrade from 6DoIT and not anywhere near as proggy. They've sold out."

I mean, you're entitled to the opinions, by all means. But I'm also entitled to point out how impossible it is to live up to some of the most fickle and demanding expectations.

Personally, Midnight Messiah sounds amazing to me and cements in my head the fact that Portnoy is back in the soup kitchen. I'm intensely eager to hear the full album.

I. Cannot. Fucking. Wait.