Black Chaos and Systematic Linings

[theseoafs]

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to recut Systematic Chaos and Black Clouds and Silver Linings into one single-disc album, Black Chaos and Systematic Linings; the remaining songs are fed to Mike Portnoy and are lost forever. Put any of the tracks from the two albums in any order, the only stipulation being that your final tracklist cannot be longer than 80 minutes and that you cannot edit the studio versions in any way. (In the Presence of Enemies can be separated into Parts 1 and 2 as they are on Systematic Chaos.)

This thread will serve two types of people: the lovers and the haters. For the lovers, it will be a fun challenge to eliminate a few of the songs while finding room to preserve their favorites. For the haters, it'll be more of an exercise in trimming the fat while preserving the parts they actually like, though the haters should try to keep a little bit of music on there.

Here's mine:

1. A Nightmare to Remember
2. Prophets of War
3. Wither
4. In the Presence of Enemies, Part 1
5. The Best of Times
6. The Count of Tuscany

For a comfortable 70 minutes of music. Is it obvious I'm one of the haters mentioned above?

[MasterShakezula]

1. In The Presence of Frenemies Parts 1
2. Consistent Movement
3. The Sparkly Dolphin
4. The Dad Song
5. Profit of Whores
6. Seriously?  They're Back Again? (In The Presence of Frenemies Part 2 and an excerpt of Part Pi)
7. The Count Counts To 19 and 16 60ths.

I really enjoy the second half of The Black Album, and ITPOE is, IMO, the highlight of post-8thalbum DT.  So far. 

[theseoafs]

3. The Sparkly Dolphin

[MasterShakezula]

3. The Sparkly Dolphin

[Jirpo]

1. ITPOE
2.TMOLS
3.TCOT

[Amoniz]

1-A nightmare to rememeber
2-Forsaken
3-In the presence of enemies - 1
4-In the presence of enemies - 2
5-The shattered fortress
6-The count of Tuscany

79 minutes

[Metrovarium]

A Nightmare to Remember
ITPOE Pt 1
Wither
Constant Motion
Repentance
The Shattered Fortress
The Count of Tuscany

That should be just about 80 minutes.

[DetonationSequence]

1. In The Presence Of Enemies
2. Forsaken
3. The Ministry Of Lost Souls
4. The Shattered Fortress
5. The Count Of Tuscany

Lots of 'The' in this one. Comes up to about 77 minutes. SC-heavy, since I actually adore SC, while BCSL is in my bottom 3 and a generally patchy album.

Gotta love how everyone's ending with TSF and TCOT  

Edit: Whoops, miscounted. Had to take out TDEN to account for 10 minutes I had erroneously missed out. Ah well.

[BlobVanDam]

1. In The Presence of Enemies (as one track)
2. Constant Motion
3. A Nightmare To Remember
4. The Dark Eternal Night
5. The Count of Tuscany

Still misses out on a lot of good songs, but that clocks in at 76:57. Very much on the heavy side, with a lot of big songs.

[SlitherX]

1. In The Presence Of Enemies (25:38)
5. The Shattered Fortress (12:49)
2. Wither (5:26)
3. A Nightmare To Remember (16:11)
4. The Count Of Tuscany (19:16)

Under 79 minutes.

-Slith

[Addy]

In The Presence Of Enemies (25:38)
The Ministry of Lost Souls (14:57)
The Count Of Tuscany (19:16) (with changed lyrics )

Total: 59:51

I'd also put first like 3 mins of The Best of Times as kind of interlude, but dunno if it counts It's hard to choose though because on both albums there are some good songs ruined by specific sections (ANTR) or extended too much (2nd part of Repentance).

[DejaVu]

1. The Shattered Fortress (12:49)
2. Prophets Of War (6:00)
3. Wither (5:26)
4. The Dark Eternal Night (8:53)
5. The Best Of Times (13:09)
6. Repentance (10:43)
7. The Count Of Tuscany (19:16)

This clocks in at around 76 minutes.

[robwebster]

1. Prelude & Resurrection (9:00)
2. Forsaken (5:30)
3. Constant Motion (7:00)
4. The Dark Eternal Night (9:00)
5. Heretic (6:00)
6. Beautiful Agony (5:00)
7. Prophets of War (6:00)
8. Wither (5:30)
9. The Count of Tuscany (19:00)

That's 72:00 or so. Prelude & Resurrection and Heretic are the movements of ItPoE. The first one's ItPoE 1 in its entirity, Heretic's the first "bit" of ItPoE 2. I'm severing the connection, though, 'cause without the Grand Finale (is it called that?) and the Reckoning to tie both parts together, they don't actually have that much in common.

Would've been nice for A Rite of Passage to go in, but it doesn't really fit. I quite like Wither as the second to last track, though. I also tried to find a way to slip Repentance and The Shattered Fortress in, but they're too long and I simply don't like them enough. Hey ho, them's the breaks. Save them for an EP. The other big losses are the first half of A Nightmare to Remember, and The Slaughter of the Damned, both of which were probably short enough to fit, but A Bullet from the Night (let's call it) seems a bit lop-sided without something on the other end to weigh it down, and TSotD doesn't stand so well on its own, despite being a lot of fun.

So, that leaves The Best of Times, which I run a little hot and cold on. At any given moment, I either adore the song, or am psychopathically indifferent to it. Also, The Ministry of Lost Souls, which I quite like, but I don't like it enough to give fifteen minutes of a seventy-five minute album to it. It's fifteen minutes of "ohhh, this is pretty nifty," rather than fifteen minutes of "WHOA. THAT IS BRILLIANT," so it's not a good candidate for when I'm being frugal. Might give the album its title, though, 'cause I really like that name.

The Reckoning's out 'cause it's boring, the last section of ANtR is out because it's nice but doesn't really go anywhere, Grand Finale (is it called that?)'s out because we don't need a Grand Finale (is it called that?), so there's very little that I abjectly dislike. Just the Reckoning, really. It's just a matter of summing it up into a killer album.

[Elite]

1. In the Presence of Enemies Pt. 1
2. Forsaken
3. Wither
4. The Dark Eternal Night
5. Repentance
6. In The Presence of Enemies Pt. 2
7. The Count of Tuscany

After all, we can't have TSF before Repentance.

[hefdaddy42]

1. In The Presence of Enemies Part. 1 9:00
2. The Ministry of Lost Souls 14:57
3. Wither 5:25
4. The Shattered Fortress 13:09
5. The Count of Tuscany 19:16

Total time 61:47

[Zydar]

1. A Nightmare To Remember
2. Forsaken
3. Constant Motion
4. The Best Of Times
5. Wither
6. The Count of Tuscany

Total time 66:28

[Bolsters]

1. A Nightmare To Remember
2. Wither
3. The Best of Times
4. Forsaken
5. Constant Motion
6. In The Presence of Enemies (part 1)
7. The Count of Tuscany

It's about 76 minutes give or take.

[duncan3dc]

1. In the Presence of Enemies - Part I - 9:00
2. In the Presence of Enemies - Part II - 16:38
3. A Nightmare to Remember - 6:10
4. Prophets of War - 6:00
5. Forsaken - 5:35
6. The Ministry of Lost Souls - 14:57
7. The Count of Tuscany - 19:16

               77:36

hmmm, might have to make myself a playlist now 

[Chrissalix]

In The Presence of Enemies
A Nightmare to Remember
Repentance
Constant Motion
Wither
The Count of Tuscany

[jsem]

1. Prelude & Resurrection (9:00)
2. Forsaken (5:30)
3. Constant Motion (7:00)
4. The Dark Eternal Night (9:00)
5. Heretic (6:00)
6. Beautiful Agony (5:00)
7. Prophets of War (6:00)
8. Wither (5:30)
9. The Count of Tuscany (19:00)

This is a very good one

[?]

A Nightmare to Remember
In the Presence of Enemies Pt. 1
Wither
The Shattered Fortress
The Ministry of Lost Souls
The Count of Tuscany

[bss4life15]

1.ITPOE
2.The Best of Times
3.The Count Of Tuscany
4.The Ministry Of Lost Souls
About 70 minutes.

[EuropaEndlos]

1) In the Presences of Enemies
2) Repentance
3) The Shattered Fortress
4) The Count of Tuscany

yeah, not really a fan of these two albums...   

[Dream Team]

1. Constant Motion
2. Wither
3. Repentance
4. The Ministry of Lost Souls
5. The Best of Times
6. The Count of Tuscany

[Jamariquay]

1. In the Presence of Enemies Pt. 1
2. Forsaken
3. The Dark Eternal Night
4. The Count of Tuscany
5. Repentance
6. Wither
7. In The Presence of Enemies Pt. 2

This are the same tracks as I'd include, just a different order.

[theseoafs]

1. Prelude & Resurrection (9:00)
2. Forsaken (5:30)
3. Constant Motion (7:00)
4. The Dark Eternal Night (9:00)
5. Heretic (6:00)
6. Beautiful Agony (5:00)
7. Prophets of War (6:00)
8. Wither (5:30)
9. The Count of Tuscany (19:00)

Well, sure, but picking and choosing your sections from ITPoE and ANtR is "editing songs", which the OP forbade.

[bosk1]

So difficult...  Okay, here's my list:

1.  A Nightmare To Remember - 16:11
2.  Forsaken - 5:36
3.  A Rite Of Passage (radio edit) - 5:45
4.  Constant Motion - 6:56
5.  Wither - 5:26
6.  The Shattered Fortress - 12:49
7.  In The Presence of Enemies - 25:40

total running time:  78:23

For my "must-have" songs, I definitely had ANTR, TSF, ITPOE, Forsaken, and CM.  Those songs alone already make this the greatest DT album of all time.  But then I was kind of stuck.  With under 13 minutes of disk space left, TCOT is definitely out (which I'm fine with), and I have to choose only one of AROP, Wither, and TDEN.  Ah, but wait a minute!  The radio edit of AROP is only 5:45!  And while I'm not crazy about Wither, this track listing really needs a soft but anthemic, ballady-type song.  So Wither and the edited AROP (which I think is better than the full version in many ways) seal it.  Man, I'm going to have to actually make this track listing and rip it to CD later!

Oh, and the AROP edit already exists in official form, so *I* am not breaking the rules and creating my own edit.  DT already did:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX6jirCykI0&ob=av3e

[hefdaddy42]

For my "must-have" songs, I definitely had ANTR, TSF, ITPOE, Forsaken, and CM.  Those songs alone already make this the greatest DT album of all time.  

*throws up a little in mouth*

[Crow]

A Nightmare to Remember
A Rite of Passage
Wither
The Shattered Fortress
The Best of Times
The Count of Tuscany

How'd I do?
this made me realize how much better BC&SL is than SC.

[krands85]

1. A Nightmare to Remember
2. In The Presence of Enemies Pt 1
3. In The Presence of Enemies Pt 2
4. The Ministry of Lost Souls
5. The Count of Tuscany

76minutes

[yorost]

A Nightmare to Remember 16:10
Forsaken 5:35
The Dark Eternal Night 8:51
Prophets of War 6:00
The Count of Tuscany 19:16

55:52

[renegate]

1. A Nightmare to Remember
2. The Shattered Fortress
4. The Best of Times
5. In the Presence of Enemies

I had to chose between ITPoE and TCoT... I think that both would be a bit too much to take on a single disc. Same thing between TBoT and TMoLS.

A Rite of Passage, Constant Motion, Forsaken and Prophets of War are all decent songs, but ultimately, they are forgettable.

[The Letter M]

1. In The Presence Of Enemies (Part 1) (fade-out wind-sounds segues into the intro of...)
2. A Nightmare To Remember
3. The Ministry Of Lost Souls (fade-out wind-sounds segue into the intro of...)
4. The Count Of Tuscany (fade-out nature sounds segue into the intro of...)
5. In The Presence Of Enemies (Part 2)

-Marc.

[mrjazzguitar]

A Nightmare to Remember
A Rite of Passage
The Shattered Fortress
In the Presence of Enemies

[Cool Chris]

In the Presence of Enemies - Part I - 9:00
In the Presence of Enemies - Part II - 16:38
Wither - 5:25
Forsaken - 5:35
Prophets of War - 6:00
The Ministry of Lost Souls - 14:57
The Count of Tuscany - 19:16

I am one of the few who likes ItPoE split at the beginning and end, but I don’t know what else to do with TCoT. Wouldn’t work as an opener, and would be weird anywhere in the middle.