Liquid Tension Experiment? Dream Theater fans check this out

Has anyone heard (of) Liquid Tension Experiment? They're absolutely
amazing, if I do say so myself. It's 3 of the guys from Dream Theater
(John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess, Mike Portnoy) and Tony Levin (who has
played with Peter Gabriel, King Crimson, Yes, Pink Floyd, John Lennon,
Dire Straits, Joan Armatrading, Alice Cooper, Seal, David Bowie, Carly
Simon, California Guitar Trio, Sarah McLachlan, Kevin Max, Paul Simon,
Anderson Bruford Wakeman Howe, etc) on bass.

I'm not a big Dream Theater fan because I don't like their lyrics, but the
music seems solid. That's why I like Liquid Tension. It's all instrumental
and it's basically just a group of amazing musicians showing off their
skills. Some songs are rediculously fast (and the band members are always
together so well), and others are slow ballad (dare I say Satriani-esque)
style that are incredibly powerful. Anyone who's into good music should
definitely check them out. I liked their first album (Liquid Tension Experiment)
better than their second (Liquid Tension Experiment 2). Some songs
that stand out are Kindred Spirits, Freedom of Speech, Universal Mind,
Biaxident, When the Water Breaks.

So yeah, anyone already a fan? Or anyone download any of their songs
and become a fan?

.opt

As a huge fan of the Dream Theatre style, I absolutely love Liquid Tension Experiment. Petrucci and Portnoy are two of my patron saints.

I have both albujms. They're quite good but personally I like something with a bit more depth. I appreciate the quality of playing, but afterall it's just noise and very few songs invoke any emotion within me.

I must be dead obviously.

I love Liquid Tension Experiment although I think their first album is weaker (from what I've heard so far) than their second album. Acid Rain had me hooked right away.

My friend played me some today and I have to say I was blown away. Damn it's awesome.

There are alot better instrumental bands out there, Pelican, Gordian Knot, Spastic Ink, Behold the Arctopus.

One of the things I don't like about Dream Theater is that some of their songs seem made just to show off their skill without any depth. So your descrition makes me puzzled and doesn't tell for me whether they're good or not for me...

I disagree crushed, out of those that you've listed, the only one that I'd
say is close to Liquid Tension is Godian Knot, but I still prefer Liquid Tesnion.

.opt

I've heard of them, but haven't heard an album by them, mostly because of the Dream Theater tie-in (and I'm not a fan of Dream Theater), but then again Tony Levin is awesome. I'll check them out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Optium

I disagree crushed, out of those that you've listed, the only one that I'd
say is close to Liquid Tension is Godian Knot, but I still prefer Liquid Tesnion.

.opt

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Technical skill does not make a band better. Pelican's song writing is 11/10. Gordian Knot, well Sean malone is ... just my favorite bassist.

Spastic Ink owns LTE in both Technicality (riffs can be technical too not just solos) as well as song writing.

BTA ... yeah. You must never have listened to them to say LTE are better.

Never said it did, in fact I agree with you wholeheartedly, which is why I'm
not a big fan of Victor Wooten's solo work.

Pelican is annoying. Some distortion when the song calls for it is cool. A lot
of distortion is, eh. Super distorted guitars throughout entire albums is a no.

The thing I like about Gordian Knot is that they have sort of a fusion vibe
about them, which is definitely cool.

I only have 3 Spastic Ink songs at the moment so I'm not going to make a
judgement on that.

And I don't see what you like about BTA. A little bit of double bass is cool
when the song calls for it. Tons of double bass is annoying as hell, as are
snare hits every beat. BTA seems to not have nearly the amount of
structure that LTE does, and though one of the complaints against LTE
is that they lack depth, the bands you listed seem to have far less.

See, one of the things I love about LTE is that they have a ton of
diversity in their songs, most of the bands above sound the same
all throughout.

To those who are talking about depth (except Jack :p ): have you
heard Kindred Spirits or Freedom of Speech?

To those who aren't fans of Dream Theater: neither am I.

.opt

I got into LTE 4 years ago, it was the precursor to me liking Dream Theater (who've been my favorite band for 3 1/2 years)