ProgBeat: All Black Clouds All the Time
Here’s DREAM THEATER’s marketing campaign. Here’s me wrapped around its finger.
Doesn’t matter what I say about these guys. I could tell you that they’re the worst band on the planet. I could say their music is laughable. But by God if they’re not manipulating the hell out of me with this release-a-new-grain-of-teaser-information-every-other-day marketing scheme. Say what you want about them, but bottom line: they’ve got me saying something.
Their latest grain is the track list for the cover album that will come included in the Special Edition of June 23rd’s Black Clouds and Silver Linings.
Honestly, even in A Change of Seasons, I’ve never been blown away by their covers. They’re cool, but more of a novelty for the fans than something truly new or exciting. They are doing a suit from QUEEN’s Sheer Heart Attack album, though, and I have to say, I did get a little giddy when I read that. I won’t lie to you, a flutter of giddiness did pepper through these loins. The covers might not be earth shattering, but I’d say they’ll definitely be contributing to the “Silver” around all those nasty, murky, ominous “Black Clouds.”
Leading up to Black Clouds‘ big day, each cover will be released individually–through iTunes–each with its own art to pop up all tiny and shadowed in your iPod’s two-incher. “Stargazer,” from RAINBOW’S 1976 Rainbow Rising, is the first single; it’s available now, and its art, dare I say, reminds me of a videogame I used to play back in the day on my family’s DOS system, called Scorched Earth. In the summers I’d hop onto the computer with my friends and turn into a ball of colored pixels with a line sticking out of it (AKA: a tank), and I’d use geography and physics (AKA: barrel angle and power) to shoot other tiny balls of pixels on mountainsides or in wide, rocky fields with Nukes and MIRVs and leapfrog bombs. We used to call it “Tank Battle.“
I’d like to think of “Stargazer’s” cover art as DREAM THEATER’s subtle homage to Tank Battle and a simpler time. …Yeah, I think I’m going to stick with that.
The songs and their covers will be releasing periodically, but this will be the last time I write about DREAM THEATER probably until Black Clouds is out. They’ve had their way with me more than enough times this past month or so.
01. Stargazer – RAINBOW
02. Tenement Funster/Flick of the Wrist/Lily of the Valley – QUEEN
03. Odyssey – DIXIE DREGS
04. Take Your Fingers From My Hair – ZEBRA
05. Larks’ Tongues In Aspic (Part II) – KING CRIMSON
06. To Tame A Land – IRON MAIDEN
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 19th, 2009 at 11:00 pm and is filed under music, prog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
