Octavarium - Final Cover

Please, nobody kill me :[

I was bored; yea I know the shiny spot is wrong on the last ball now. There is a little bump at the top too to show where the string is connected on the first picture. I'm just a sucker for equilibrium :]

This is NOT a "Photoshop This" thread.

Can´t wait for the tour opening video when the balls begin to crash at each other and thunder and lightning are shaking the screens... Just dreaming ... It´s an awesome cover!

I still feel as I did in the first thread. I DON'T CARE WHAT THE COVER LOOKS LIKE, I ONLY CARE ABOUT THE MUSIC WITHIN.


With that said, I'm assuming that maybe Wey posted an unpolished draft accidently in the first thread. This FINAL version looks "fixed". I'm also assuming that the final one was done already and the forums input, (valid, but too harsh), has nothing to do with the one we see now.

BLICKEM BLICKEM BLICKEM BLICKEM

ORIGINAL: Zepp3lin

Please, nobody kill me :[

I was bored; yea I know the shiny spot is wrong on the last ball now. There is a little bump at the top too to show where the string is connected on the first picture. I'm just a sucker for equilibrium :]

Interesting...especially the light mistake. I don't think Hugh Syme would make mistakes that noticable...but perhaps it's intended? I can't imagine why though.

Music is the wine that fills the cup of silence.
--Robert Fripp

I posted what I was sent. There was no accident involved.

ORIGINAL: jcharney

ORIGINAL: Zepp3lin

Please, nobody kill me :[

I was bored; yea I know the shiny spot is wrong on the last ball now. There is a little bump at the top too to show where the string is connected on the first picture. I'm just a sucker for equilibrium :]

Interesting...especially the light mistake. I don't think Hugh Syme would make mistakes that noticable...but perhaps it's intended? I can't imagine why though.

Again, why are people assuming these are mistakes? Would a lifelong artist and the person who commissioned the artwork really allow these "mistakes" to pass through? There's probably a very good reason for the short string and whatever else people think they've found in this...

ORIGINAL: Tabs

There's probably a very good reason for the short string and whatever else people think they've found in this...

It's probably to twist panties all over the internet.

Chris Brooks

Well, I think the cover is great. I always loved the Hear In The Now Frontier cover and I think this one is even better. I too think it's very progressive. Not in looks, but in idea, it reminds me of those great prog covers and classic rock covers.

ORIGINAL: Tabs

ORIGINAL: jcharney

ORIGINAL: Zepp3lin

Please, nobody kill me :[

I was bored; yea I know the shiny spot is wrong on the last ball now. There is a little bump at the top too to show where the string is connected on the first picture. I'm just a sucker for equilibrium :]

Interesting...especially the light mistake. I don't think Hugh Syme would make mistakes that noticable...but perhaps it's intended? I can't imagine why though.

Again, why are people assuming these are mistakes? Would a lifelong artist and the person who commissioned the artwork really allow these "mistakes" to pass through? There's probably a very good reason for the short string and whatever else people think they've found in this...

Yea I would go along with the first theory posted about throwing the other balls into chaos when that Majesty one comes down.

I enjoy photos of green nature, sloping hills, mountains, and clouded blue skies with birds flying, so I am really into this album cover. Its very easy and pleasant on the eyes.

Reminds me SO MUCH of a Pink Floyd cover. Division Bell, or something.

Check out my MYSPACE!

I love it, and I loved the first one. For some reason it gives me the feeling like theres going to be a mandolin on the album or something.

Great work everyone involved

I am Canadian

me like

I don't have a copy of yesterday's version saved to compare to, but it looks to me right now like the black bar is a different shade, or texture, or something. I think I remember the last version being dead black, and it made it look a little bit cheesy, but this one looks kind of stoney, and it looks a lot better to me. But the whole thing looks a bit less vibrant, so it may just be that.

Either way, it looks a lot more polished. I liked it before (I'm a sucker for that kind of landscape), but now it actually looks like a finished album cover. Two thumbs up.

Edit: Apparently I am completely incapable of making an error-free post on the first try. LADIES EMAIL ME

Wow, is it just me or the record company are really increasing their DT budget?!
First, recorded the album on The Record Plant, then they gave the album to be mixed by the same guy that mixes the Coldplay albums, and now they put Hugh Syme to do the artwork??
This is reaaaaally cool, IMO!!!
BTW, Killer cover too!!!

"These pretzels are making me thirsty..." - Cosmo Kramer

ORIGINAL: Caught in a glass prison

Anyone happen to have the original saved and can post a pic of it? I'd like to look at them side-by-side. Loved the cover since the beginning.

Here is the original cover and new one:

Check out my MYSPACE!

does the bar now look sort of see-thru to anybody else? Thats cool

I am Canadian

ORIGINAL: gangstayoda

i love the imagery of this cover.
theres a supernatural element fused with the earthly. (the balls hanging from the heavens + the pasture and hills in the background; the birds are maybe a link between the two).
also the peaceful and the heavy \m/ \m/ !!! just try and imagine the sounds of nature: birds chirping, etc, and then theres these ginormous metal balls clanking in the sky! imagine what that would sound like = \m/

beautiful.

So glad somebody mentioned this! I think this contrast is huge. I mentioned it in the other thread, but it was not worthy of a reply. Lots of contrast in this cover... perhaps like the music on the album? Not too much of a stretch considering DTs back catalouge... I think this artwork fits them perfectly!

ORIGINAL: Dream Team
the other 1% are a bunch of whining, spoiled, inconsiderate, rude, obnoxious, jealous, insulting, impolite, negative pessimists

No prizes for guessing who got a Thesaurus for Christmas

ORIGINAL: jcharney
Interesting...especially the light mistake. I don't think Hugh Syme would make mistakes that noticable...but perhaps it's intended? I can't imagine why though.

I'm pretty sure Zepp3lin meant the highlight was wrong in his photoshopped version, now that he'd moved the ball... Everyone can holster their sidearms - there's no bashing happening

the third ending

insultive.

looks fantastic, can't wait to hear the music!

YouTube Videos. - Buzz Magazine.
"It's funny how everything you thought would never change is different now."
-- Trent Reznor, NIN.

its even better now
really liked the changes :D

I just realised that we are near the end of april, so We only need to wait for just over 1 month for the album.

Can't wait, the suspense is kiling me, but I love DT for how they handle these situations, and I can't wait to hear the album as the artwork truly rocks.

ORIGINAL: Liquid Drum Theater

I just realised that we are near the end of april, so We only need to wait for just over 1 month for the album.

51 days!

Carpe Diem !

ORIGINAL: zoso

ORIGINAL: Liquid Drum Theater

I just realised that we are near the end of april, so We only need to wait for just over 1 month for the album.

51 days!

50 days for me

Excellent work!

I'm happy to see Mike prove once again that he's not a spoiled, arrogant rock star (think Dave Mustaine's posts recently) but instead a really nice, down to earth kind of guy. The fact that some details about the supposedly final cover were changed after constructive criticism from the fans (and I mean constructive - f*ck all the tactless, loud-mouthed bashers!) really undermines that. I'm very impressed with Mike's reaction to the whole situation.

~beeyautiful~

I still think the black bar will be somehow removed... The Lateralus-like cover idea would be awesome

Wait and see

"Time for the song that will get us chicks backstage!"

ORIGINAL: Liquid Drum Theater

ORIGINAL: zoso

ORIGINAL: Liquid Drum Theater

I just realised that we are near the end of april, so We only need to wait for just over 1 month for the album.

51 days!

50 days for me

Actually i think it's 48 days and 6 hours and 20 minutes, for me

..-----.--.-.......--.-..-....-.-...-.....

i was counting today and the release date.

Carpe Diem !

i loved it before, i still love it now

bring on the music!

PDGA #26511

ORIGINAL: goalkeeper19

bring on the music!

Why so greedy?

ORIGINAL: zoso

i was counting today and the release date.

Well i only have to count 6 hours and 15 mins for today, cos it's 2.45AM here and obviously i'm not gonna take in count the whole release day cos i'm gonna be in front of the record store door 9AM

..-----.--.-.......--.-..-....-.-...-.....

I still love it.. some of the subtle changes were for the better.. then again i never thought that the last image was the total finished cover.. it looks awesome.. as someone else said, its very relaxing, and im expecting that the booklet and rest of the packaging are gonna be amazing as well. all the colors look great together. great job guys, cant wait for the music part..

matt

To love someone is to know the song that is inside their heart, and sing it to them when they cannot remember how it starts..Izz-----R.I.P Dime--------Cheat to win! EG

I loved the first one and I love this one as well. I love landscapes such as the one on the cover and I've always found Newton's Cradle interesting.

Cover looks great! Now it's time to reveal the track lengths.

I'll say exactly what I said in the first thread.
Two words: Fucking sweet.

The artwork is gorgeous. This album is going to KILL!!
June 7th, Octavarium; June 17th, Batman Begins and June 21st, my 29th birthday!!! Oh sweet June. How I love thee.

"... [L]et's continue that musical journey right now with 'Images and Wads'!" - James LaBrie: Score

The cover looks fantastic! As a couple people mentioned in the other thread, it reminds me a bit of Devin Townsend's "Terria" cover - one of my all time favorites. That landscape is just stunning and I love the subtle change from clarity in the foreground to the faint, shadowy fog in the background. I'm very interested to hear what that symbolism relates to.

Man, this is a nice cover. I can't wait to eat the stuff through.

And remember kids, don’t try this sequence at home (or even worse NEVER, EVER play it backwards) or you will incant the demons of excrement and be sucked up into your own asshole. " - Trey Gunn

I updated my wallpaper with the release of the Final Cover.

hey kevTheater, not to be picky or anything, but I'm afraid you misspelled "Panic" in "Panick Attack"

carry on

It looks better. If I had any problems with the previous cover (and they were just some texture on the balls, the strings and the black bar) it's all solved now. It looks excellent! It gives me a "FII" vibe to it (judging just the cover) and, though I still think Awake is their best (by far), Octavarium's not far behind.

Bravo! I'm anxious!

"Melancholic music is very uplifting. Why? Because its a shared experience. In contrast, I find music that is artificially happy or very joyful to be very depressing." -Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree

The detail improvements are great.

Love it, thanks for taking our opinions (however roughly phrased) into consideration... you're the man, Mike.

Maybe its like the tool album with the funky case. If you twist it by your eyes the balls bounce?

That is SO much better. I always liked (nay, LOVED) the concept for the album cover, I just thought the execution was a tad underdone, and not really up to Hugh's, or DT's usual standard.

ORIGINAL: krista

ORIGINAL: NetShark

I love the way that the right ball is positioned..I think that it was sligthly positioned out of place on purpose..maybe the reason that the only ball that is going to hit the other balls(mainstream) has the majesty logo is because Dream Theater is about to shake things up..and isn't positioned in a place you normaly think it would because because DT is diferent..am i making any sense at all?

I presented an idea similar to yours in the first cover reveal thread. You know that THE ball describes DT and how they have a complete artistic freedom when it comes to their music, composing, their passion. And how they don't feel the need to be where some people want them to be or do what some might expect them to do. And when DT's music reaches people, they don't know what hit them (oh yeah, the ball!) since DT can come from where you least expect them to come (the ball being out of its 'normal' place) I'd say it's DT taking their own course, as usual!

ORIGINAL: Zepp3lin

That string has to be short on purpose, I don't think someone who has done so much can mess up something like that, it'll always be the first thing I notice when I look at the album though, lol.

These are all valid points and speculations, but I don't think it was meant to be read into this much. Coming from a designer's perspective, if the last ball were at the "proper" height, then the text would have to be pushed down, possibly resting on the hill or even overlapping it... which would throw the layout off. Obviously Hugh Syme knows this. The text is easily legible and positioned properly, so I don't think the string being short is too big of a deal.

ORIGINAL: Boromir the Third

I still think Awake is their best (by far), but Octavarium's not far behind.

HAHA... What?

That rocks alot man reminds me of Bridge Across Forever you know kinda peacefull and stuff. I also see you added they added the little attachment to the balls.

Its awesome I love it.

ORIGINAL: Mr.NotSoGodlike
they added the little attachment to the balls.

I once saw a video where they did that...

OMG ANOETHER B@LLS J0KE!

BTW I'm glad I didn't post an opinion in the original thread... I didn't really like it then, but as with many of the responses here, now the execution has been tightened up, I'm liking the cover a lot.

Portnoy did say in the original thread that it was the final artwork though... I find it really interesting that this one is different in so many ways.

the third ending

Still looks good to me!!!

man....now that I've had enough time for this to sink in, I really think that this is a kick ass cover. It looks especially good as my avatar

I am Canadian

Kick ass cover....I think I'm smelling a digipack

THANX MIKE

YEA! YEA! YEA! thats the stuff!

*tips hat*

Sweet!

I make the devil laugh and angels wail.  Forever I will reside beyond the pale.

Hey, any way anyone could make a 1600 x 1200 of that wallpaper? PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! PLEASE!!! overwise ill die!!! and im not talented enough

Much, MUCH better (and I liked the original)!

There seems to be something like a pond on the main hill. What's that?

i would poo myself with glee if that were a digipack

ATTN: Portnoy: n00bs demand digipack!

ORIGINAL: SilenceNOmorE

ATTN: Portnoy: n00bs demand digipack!

Don't let Big Suave read that. That man HATES digipacks with a passion.

what an odd thing to hate. digipacks are grrrrreat! any particular reason, maybe an allergy to cardboard?

ORIGINAL: theonlyagent
Hey, any way anyone could make a 1600 x 1200 of that wallpaper?

No, but here's a pic with the right aspect ratio.

lmfao @ stevej's signature^^^

Steve...that sig f'in sules !!11!!1!

"The secret of freedom lies in educating people, whereas the secret of tyranny is keeping them ignorant."

I spent most of today watching the cover that was posted first, and I realized the only two things of the cover that I dint like at all. The first one was the incomplete black bar, I liked at first because I tought there was more to it but when mike said that was the final thing I thought it wasnt that good. And the second thing was the wires, I simply didnt like them. I realized that other than those 2 little details the cover was great (too bad the thread was closed and I couldnt say it before). But as you can see now the 2 little details that I dint like are gone so I'm pretty happy with cover now.

I think that the reason why many people dint like the cover was because it was something very different from the previoses covers. I took me some time to assilate the cover but now I'm happy with it.

http://mikepetrucci.deviantart.com/

High-res desktop? How's this?

http://aaron.theaftershow.com/octavarium.jpg

ORIGINAL: Ragutis

Steve...that sig f'in sules !!11!!1!

Too bad it's over the signature limit here.

ORIGINAL: Weymolith

ORIGINAL: Ragutis

Steve...that sig f'in sules !!11!!1!

Too bad it's over the signature limit here.

Party pooper


















please don't ban me

ORIGINAL: Weymolith
Too bad it's over the signature limit here.

What's the exact limit in pixels? I thought I'd kept it to the equivalent of 4 lines.

65 pixels I believe.

ORIGINAL: drumline

ORIGINAL: SilenceNOmorE

ATTN: Portnoy: n00bs demand digipack!

Don't let Big Suave read that. That man HATES digipacks with a passion.

Same here. But I still buy the god damned cds even with errors in the covers

ORIGINAL: drumline

ORIGINAL: SilenceNOmorE

ATTN: Portnoy: n00bs demand digipack!

Don't let Big Suave read that. That man HATES digipacks with a passion.

So do I now, as it means having to buy 2 copies, one to keep selaed and the other that gets scratched every time you take the discs out

Ebay listings http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/thefunkygibbons/
Silver bootleg and other sales www.thefunkygibbons.net

ORIGINAL: drumline
65 pixels I believe.

Thanks, I did a bit of pixel-measuring and found that there are 16 pixels to a standard line. So my sig is back, 64 pixels high.

ORIGINAL: thefunkygibbons

ORIGINAL: drumline

ORIGINAL: SilenceNOmorE

ATTN: Portnoy: n00bs demand digipack!

Don't let Big Suave read that. That man HATES digipacks with a passion.

So do I now, as it means having to buy 2 copies, one to keep selaed and the other that gets scratched every time you take the discs out

Indeed.

Great work!
I'm happy that those few things were improved.
I'm still hoping the position of the 4th ball will either be improved or explained.

What I don't understand though is why yesterday everyone who was critisizing these things were concidered to be dt-bashers and pricks with no clue. While right now their points have been incorporated. I think there's WAY too much hate towards any form of critisism overhere. Of course the "Oh it sucks big time" people are annoying, though most of the people overhere just pointed at those minor things. No need to bash them for that.

In short: don't overhype with passion on everyone who has some comments, questions or critisism.

Great cover!

Thats almost as cool as a Mecho!!!!!!!!!!

ORIGINAL: SteveJohnson

ORIGINAL: drumline
65 pixels I believe.

Thanks, I did a bit of pixel-measuring and found that there are 16 pixels to a standard line. So my sig is back, 64 pixels high.

That signature is awesome

Ebay listings http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/thefunkygibbons/
Silver bootleg and other sales www.thefunkygibbons.net

Thank you. I see it's already been stolen by someone on the DT board.

do not allow them to get away with it! ATTACK!