Quote Originally Posted by CoopKill View Post
I take nothing away from Mangini's ability to play, but I feel that Portnoy's writing has a more dynamic feel/feeling? It may be that the older stuff has more emotional impact on me personally, I don't know.
The writing when Moore was still in the band was the best. Afterward portnoy and petrucci were ok for a while, then when rudess joined there were 2 solid albums, then, stale.

I would say that dream theater is my favorite band though. I also listen to a lot of guitar based music. The largest influence in my playing was Jason Becker. I spent a solid two years playing his material constantly. Now, I may have lost some of the love of his music through repetition, but my playing is extremely technically proficient 15 years later.



I've seen dream theater live 3 times, great show. But, the best show I've ever seen was Steve via in a small club. He played for 3 1/2 hours of pure energy.