Talking Into Infinity – Episode 131 – Cage Match #9 – A View from the Top of the World vs. Train of Thought!

We’re back at it – throwing two Dream Theater records intothe Octagon and seeing which one comes out on top! On this installment, will it be the divisive – and most heavy – album in the band’s catalog – Train of Thought? Or will it be Mike Mangini’s swansong A View from the Top of the World? Let’s strap the gloves on and find out!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity#aviewfromthetopoftheworld #trainofthought #mikemangini

We’re back and venturing outside of the DT world – alongwith our friends Wayne Joyner and Chris Akin - with our next installment of deep-diving the Pantera catalog! This time we’re digging into the very first “extreme metal” album to ever hit #1 on the Billboard charts - 1994’s Far Beyond Driven!

Let’s face it… we all know that Dream Theater is a veritable cornucopia of guitar insanity. However, some of John Petrruci’s riffs are so damned good that they rise above the rest. On this episode, we’re each giving our lists of our top ten favorite DT guitar riffs!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #guitar #metal#progmetal #riffs

Our good friend and world-renowned guitar author Steve Rosen has written a new book called “The Original Punk –Jeff Beck Stories – From Yardbird To The Guitar Shop” and is coming back onto the show to discuss his new release! #johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #steverosen #jeffbeck#theoriginalpunk #author #guitar #yardbirds #jeffbeckgroupOur good friend and world-renownedguitar author Steve Rosen has written a new book called “The Original Punk –Jeff Beck Stories – From Yardbird To The Guitar Shop” and is coming back ontothe show to discuss his new release! #johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #steverosen #jeffbeck#theoriginalpunk #author #guitar #yardbirds #jeffbeckgroup

We’re forty years removed from one of the greatest in heavymetal history, 1986, and we decided to do some deep dives into some of the incredibly classic records that defined that year. On this episode, we’re digging into what is probably the best record to come out in ’86 – and an album some people call the greatest in metal history – Metallica’s Master Of Puppets!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #metallica #masterofpuppets#jameshetfield #heavymetal #1986 #kirkhammett #cliffburton #larsulrich#jasonnewsted #roberttrujillo

It’s our seventh installment of album song rankings and this time we’re tackling Awake! Brian is on record as not being a big fan of this album (and later deciding that he actually quite enjoys it) whereas Jon loves it – how will our lists compare? I mean, we already know that Brian will bewrong about Space Dye Vest, but…#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity

Geoff Tate is back with the final installment of his Operation: Mindcrime trilogy – this time told from the perspective of Dr. X! Some people are calling it the sequel that no one wantedwhile some fans are saying that this may be Geoff’s best post-Queensryche album yet! We’re digging into the record track by track with some help from our good friend - the mighty Chris Akin!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #geofftate#operationmindcrime3 #operationmindcrime2 #operationmindcrime #queensryche

It’s 2013… you walk into the record store to buy DreamTheater’s self-titled album… and the clerk tells you that you CAN’T buy it! You HAVE to buy something else… what records are you buying? We give OUR choices for what we’d buy when we can’t have what we really want – the new Dream Theater record!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity

It’s our sixth installment of album song rankings and this time we’re taking on Falling Into Infinity! Jon won’t be able to rank them all number one, and Brian isn’t nearly as big a fan of this album as Jon is, so how far apart will they be in regards to Jon’s favorite DT album?#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity

He’s written almost 8,000 record reviews… he has 135 booksin print… he’s been a research expert on pretty much every hard rock and heavy metal documentary anyone’s EVER watched… he’s Martin Popoff, and he finally crossed a line (as far as Jon is concerned.) He has put out a video listing theWORST song on each of the Van Halen studio releases – we’re watching it for the first time and reacting to it LIVE with Martin himself! #johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #vanhalen#martinpopoff #rankings