DT album ranking

[BowlCity]

I'm a newbie fan of DT, and haven't listened to The Astonishing yet, but here's everything else.

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

The Great Debate sucks. But every other song plus the suite on this album are top notch. The suite alone may be one of the greatest things ever written in rock music.

2. Scenes From A Memory

Another masterpiece, even if one or two songs tend to drag on like Beyond This Life.

3. Black Clouds and Silver Linings

It's almost unfair how much this album seems to get shat on. One of my very favorites and The Count of Tuscany is one of my favorite DT songs ever.

4. Octavarium

Also unfairly treated often. Love the wide variety.

5. Dream Theater

Just an album with a collection of shorter (by their standards) tunes plus a good epic at the end. Great throughout.

6. Awake

Sounds extremely dated, like Queensryche almost but it took all the good parts of I&W and made an awesome metal album. Side 2 is perfect.

7. A Dramatic Turn Of Events

Very consistent, even if a few songs aren't that great. Only Bridges In The Sky and Breaking All Illusions really transcend to the top of their catalog, but the album doesn't disappoint.

8. Images and Words

Yeah, yeah, I know. It's just not my type of DT. I like them a lot more with Scenes and beyond when they discovered their metal side. That said, aside from the dated sound most of the songs are good.

9. Train Of Thought

This is like Rush's Vapor Trails. It's not a bad album but I rarely listen to it. It's got good songs but I really have to be in the mood to listen to ToT.

10. Systematic Chaos

Very inconsistent. ITPOE, Constant Motion, Ministry of Lost Souls, those are awesome. The others tend to fall flat. Very confusing album, and downright bad in other spots (Prophets of War).

11. Falling Into Infinity

This album gives me cancer.

12. When Day And Dream Unite

No LaBrie.

[TheAtliator]

Right now, it's seems to be sitting like this in my head:

1-3: IMAGES & WORDS, AWAKE, A DRAMATIC TURN OF EVENTS - Best song writing, most emotionally thrilling and invigorating

4-10: WDADU, SFAM, 6DOIT, TOT, 8VM, SC, DT12 - Freaking Dream Theater
11: BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS - DT is the best band in the world
12: FALLING INTO INFINITY - only slightly lower because of a few songs that were meddled with, dragging down the level of perfection.

13: THE ASTONISHING - Not very well written by DT standards, just has a few fantastic songs/moments. Entertaining to listen to. Lowest in the context of DT's discography, but if I never had their discography to stack it up next to, it's utterly phenomenal.

Very well might change over a very long period of time 

[Adami]

1. Awake/A Change of Seasons
2. 6 Degrees
3. Scenes from a Memory
4. Falling into Infinity
5. I&W
6. 8VM
7. The Astonishing
8. A Dramatic Turn of Events
9. When Day and Dream Unite
10. Black Clouds
11. Train of Thought
12. Systematic Chaos
13. DT12

[Train of Naught]

I'm a newbie fan of DT, and haven't listened to The Astonishing yet, but here's everything else.

Okay, go ahead.

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

The Great Debate sucks.

NO

[TheOutlawXanadu]

The more I listen to The Astonishing, the higher up it goes on my list. I can definitely see it going down as a Tier 1 album for me.

[pantsofeternity]

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

The Great Debate sucks.

NO

Couldn't agree more with BowlCity

[SebastianPratesi]

Well, subjectively speaking, my Top 3:

• Dream Theater
• The Astonishing
• Black Clouds & Silver Linings

I started listening to the band in 2005, and those are the albums which I loved upon release.
However, objectively speaking, Images & Words and Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence probably beat one or two of the aforementioned.

[Enigmachine]

However, objectively speaking

Stop right there.

[SebastianPratesi]

However, objectively speaking

Stop right there.

Well, maybe I misspoke. What I meant is, I like the music in those albums very much (in fact Six Degrees was the album with which I started liking the band), but since they had already been released by 2005 (which is when I found out about the band), I can't consider them my favourites.

It's this strange thing that I have. For instance, my favourite Pixies' album is Indie Cindy. I also like Bossanova a lot, but that one was released when I was 1 year old, so I can't consider it my favourite.

It's weird, I guess.

[AboutToCrash]

My opinion has changed recently, but the only fair way would be to listen to all the albums again in a short time space. Nevertheless;

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

2. Images and Words



3. Metropolis Pt2
4. The Astonishing



5. A Dramatic Turn of Events
6. Train of Thought

7. Dream Theater
8. Octavarium
9. Systematic Chaos
10. Black Clouds and Silver Linings

11. Falling Into Infinity

12. Awake


13. When Dream and Day Unite

I try so hard to get into awake but I just can't. Maybe I'm missing something

[Randaran]

The position of TA might change, but this is how I would currently rank them.

1. SDOIT
2. I&W
3. TA
4. Awake
5. SFAM
6. ADTOE
7. WDADU
8. ToT
9. FII
10. DT12
11. 8va
12. SC





13. BC&SL

[crbazevedo]

Hi everyone, I'm a relatively long-time Brazilian fan and this is one of my first posts here. I've been into DT since 2002. First track I ever listened to was Hell's Kitchen and it didn't do much for me. Second track was ACOS version performed in Live Scenes and I instantly loved the band. I'll provide a direct [and unconventional] rank while trying to identify my top 3 preferred albums with respect to five criteria that are relevant to me: emotional, prog rock, metal, melodic, and songwriting elements. I hope this gives you a better picture of the reasoning behind my ranking.

It goes like this:

1. The Astonishing - Top 3 progressive rock elements ; Top 3 crazy/insane performance ; Top 3 melodic lines; Top 3 songwriting elements

I am in love with this album. It has not made it into my Top 3 Emotional DT Albums as yet due to the relatively short time I've been listening to it. I've gave it 15 full spins already. Beautiful and memorable melodies, some insane guitar, drumming, orchestration, piano and vocal lines, brilliant songwriting. Crystal clear production. All progressive elements DT are know for are there. Insane metal moments. What more can I ask for? The story line may not be the most original one, but, musically, TA is IMO their magnum opus. Indispensable tracks: The Gift of Music, Lord Nafaryus, A Savior In The Square, A New Beginning, A Tempting Offer, A Moment of Betrayal, The Path That Divides Us All, The Walking Shadow, My Last Farewell, Our New Order.

2. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - Top 3 emotional album; Top 3 progressive rock elements album;Top 3 songwriting elements.

It gives me relief whenever I put it to play. It has such an embracing atmosphere that's hard to explain. Absolute favorite emotional and progressive rock album from DT. Songwriting is also very strong. Indispensable tracks: Blind Faith, Misunderstood, Disappear, About to Crash, The Test That Stumped Them All, and Losing Time.

3. Octavarium - Top 3 emotional album; Top 3 songwriting elements.

Sometimes I cry while singing along the first vocal verses of the title track. It is that emotional. All tracks are cohesive and enjoyable. Indispensable tracks: Root of All Evil, These Walls, Never Enough, and Octavarium. PS.: I doesn't really connect emotionally with Sacrificed Sons, despite having cried like a baby when I visited the 9/11 Memorial in NYC.

4. Scenes From a Memory - Top 3 emotional album;Top 3 progressive rock elements .

This is such a fun and enjoyable album to listen to star to end. Very accessible to a larger audience. Indispensable tracks: Overture 1928, Strange Deja Vu, Beyond This Life, One Last Time, The Spirit Carries On, Finally Free.

5. A Dramatic Turn of Events - Top 3 melodic lines;

It contains three emotional songs that make myself feel calm and relieved. Indispensable tracks: This is the Life, Bridges in the Sky, Far from Heaven, Breaking All Illusions.

6. Awake - Top 3 metal/aggression elements;

I cried the first time I sang this part in 6:00 "nobody knows what they want 'til they finally let it all go". Indispensable tracks: 6:00, Caught in a Web, The Mirror, Lifting Shadows Off a Dream.

7. Systematic Chaos - Top 3 metal/aggression elements;Top 3 melodic lines;

I think this is the best mix of aggression and melodic elements DT has ever experimented with. Indispensable tracks: ITPOE pt 1, Prophets of War, Ministry of Lost Souls, ITPOE pt 2.

8. Train of Thought - Top 3 metal/aggression elements; Top 3 crazy/insane playing

When it was released, it was among my favorite top 3 DT albums. But as my musical tastes evolved, it now sits around the middle of the rank. Indispensable tracks: As I Am, This Dying Soul, Endless Sacrifice, Stream of Consciousness, In The Name of God.

9. Dream Theater - Top 3 crazy/insane playing

As strange as it might sound, I get a lot of strong emotional responses whenever I listen to TEI. I almost always cry singing along Surrender to Reason and I get myself chills with this line from IT: "When flesh and blood are threatened. What are you willing to kill for? We seek to understand?". It is also one of the strongest ones in terms of craziness (piano/drum lines in IT, drumming in TEI, funny passages in TEM), barely top 3 in this respect. Indispensable tracks: The Enemy Inside, Enigma Machine, Surrender to Reason and Illumination Theory.

10. Images and Words

A couple of my all time favorite tracks are in this album. But I never felt it to be consistent enough to make me want to listen to this album from start to end. Indispensable tracks: Surrounded, Under a Glass Moon, Wait for Sleep, Learning to Live. PS.: Metropolis pt I is great, but I often skip this track for some reason.

11. Black Clouds and Silver Linings

The first show I attend from DT was in Sao Paulo 2010 during the BC&SL tour. It is a very atmospheric and enjoyable album, although I only really listen to regularly three tracks on it. Indispensable tracks: A Nightmare to Remember, The Best of Times, The Count of Tuscany

12. Falling Into Infinity

Strong emotional album. Almost made my Top 3 in this regard. I enjoying listening to the more mid-temp songs when I want to calm down. I don't enjoy that much the more rock'roll songs though. Indispensable tracks: Peruvian Skies, Hollow Years, Take Away My Pain, Trial of Tears.

13. WDADU

Only listened to this album about 5 times in 14 years as a DT fan, although I enjoy very much the more recent live versions of songs that appeared in Live at Budokan and Live at Luna Park. Indispensable tracks: A Fortune in Lies, The Ones Who Helped to Set the Sun, Only a Matter of Time.

[pretorios]

1. The Astonishing - I know, too new to rate this high, but it's just about perfect.What's impressive is that DT discarded their own formula to make this record. The music is short and to the point, and it's beautifully done. 

2. Scenes From a Memory - The album that sold me on DT. This record has a dark brooding feel that gives it a nourish murder feel. Love it.

3. Awake - The album I've listened to the most. Not crazy about some of the opening tracks, but everything from Voices on is golden.

4. Falling Into Infinity - Most fans seem to hate it, but this album has some of DT's better songs.

5. Octavarium - The songs are all pretty good. The title track is epic and almost an album unto itself.

6. Train of Thought - When I'm in the right mood, nothing beats DT's heavier side. I would rate it higher, but ITNOG is rather aimless and disappointing.

7. DT 12 - I really, really loved this record when it came out, but I overplayed it to the extent that I rarely want to hear it now. And looking back in retrospect, it contains only two songs that I love, BTV and IT.

8. Six Degrees - Disc 2 drags this one way, way down. I love everything from TGP to Disappear, but the rest is ... Pretty uninspired, to be honest. Not my cup. Funny that folks compare Disc 2 to TA, because I hate the former and love the latter.

9. Images and Words - I never understood the hype. I love Take the Time and Metropolis. The rest ... not so much.

10. A Dramatic Turn of Events - A few good songs, but that's about it. This album is just ... Okay.

11. Systematic Chaos - This was a great live tour with nice visuals (especially Dark Eternal Night), but it's not one I'm compelled to play very often. I dislike James' vocals, but that may be yet more MP influence.

12 Black Clouds - I generally enjoy DT's longer tunes, but everything here feels like aimless noodling. With the exception of Wither, every track on this album should have been cut brutally. Positive: JP's solo on TBOT.

[lovethedrake]

The FII hate is pretty interesting.   

Peruvian Skies, Hells Kitchen, Lines in the Sand, Anna Lee, and Trial of Tears are all Dream Theater classics.

New Millenium and Take Away my pain are quite good.

You Not me, Burning my Soul, and just let me breathe are arguably their worst three tracks of the classic era (Pre TOT).

Personally I rank FII at the bottom of their classic era but ahead of everything else. 

That is until The Astonishing came out of course.  Now I have The Astonishing 4th, Awake 5th and FII 6th.  All Classic albums though with a big dropoff right there.

[pantsofeternity]

You Not me, Burning my Soul, and just let me breathe are arguably their worst three tracks of the classic era (Pre TOT).

Oh man, could not agree more with that statement.  And the rest of the tracks on that album are FIRE.

[Dream Team]

However, objectively speaking

Stop right there.

Wrong - I can distinguish between my objective and subjective rankings.

[Enigmachine]

Wrong - I can distinguish between my objective and subjective rankings.

How?

[ASacrificedSon]

1. Black Clouds and Silver Linings

-THE REST-

[Ħ]

Haven't listened outside of TA for ages, so I had fun coming up with a list. Some distance from the rest of the albums has allowed for a better perspective, I think.

1. Scenes From a Memory
2. The Astonishing
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
These albums are fantastic start to finish.


4. Train of Thought
5. Octavarium
6. Images and Words
7. Awake
8. Systematic Chaos
All around solid albums, no serious complaints. Just don't have that extra magic factor that my top 3 have.

9. A Dramatic Turn of Events
10. Dream Theater (self-titled)
11. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
12. Falling Into Infinity
Albums with a mix of good and bad songs.

13. When Dream and Day Unite
Bad, bad album.

[BlobVanDam]

Wrong - I can distinguish between my objective and subjective rankings.

How?

By mistaking the collective influence of subjective opinion as objective.

[Dream Team]

Nope. Awake is a better album than DT12, but I prefer to listen to the latter.

Shawshank Redemption is a much better film than Predator, but I prefer to watch Predator.

See how that works?

[BlobVanDam]

Nope. Awake is a better album than DT12, but I prefer to listen to the latter.

Shawshank Redemption is a much better film than Predator, but I prefer to watch Predator.

See how that works?

Yep. You're mistaking wider opinion for objectivity.

[Dream Team]

Nope. Awake is a better album than DT12, but I prefer to listen to the latter.

Shawshank Redemption is a much better film than Predator, but I prefer to watch Predator.

See how that works?

Yep. You're mistaking wider opinion for objectivity.

I'm not basing it on widespread opinion. In my own personal opinion Shawshank is a better film, but I prefer Predator. I can easily separate quality from preference. I'm sure others can too. 

[BlackInk]

Do you even know what "objective" means?

[Ħ]

Nope. Awake is a better album than DT12, but I prefer to listen to the latter.

Shawshank Redemption is a much better film than Predator, but I prefer to watch Predator.

See how that works?

Yep. You're mistaking wider opinion for objectivity.

I'm not basing it on widespread opinion. In my own personal opinion Shawshank is a better film, but I prefer Predator. I can easily separate quality from preference. I'm sure others can too. 

This makes perfect sense to me. I think there is a difference between saying "X is my favorite album" and "X is the best album." What it means, then, to say something is the best is another matter for debate, I guess, one over the objectivity of aesthetic quality.

[BlobVanDam]

Nope. Awake is a better album than DT12, but I prefer to listen to the latter.

Shawshank Redemption is a much better film than Predator, but I prefer to watch Predator.

See how that works?

Yep. You're mistaking wider opinion for objectivity.

I'm not basing it on widespread opinion. In my own personal opinion Shawshank is a better film, but I prefer Predator. I can easily separate quality from preference. I'm sure others can too. 

So you're judging one by subjective quality, and one by subjective preference. If you think that either one is actually objective, I've got news for you.

[erwinrafael]

So, two weeks since the release of TA:

1. The Astonishing (I never thought I would listen to a two-hour album almost twice a day everyday for two weeks)


2. Awake
3. Dream Theater

4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
5. Scenes from a Memory

6. Train of Thought
7. Images and Words

8. A Dramatic Turn of Events
9. Falling into Infinity
10. Octavarium

11. When Dream and Day Unite

12. Black Clouds and Silve Linings


13. Systematic Chaos

[BlobVanDam]

I suppose I've heard TA enough times to safely slot it into the ranks now.

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Scenes from a Memory
3. Images and Words
4. Falling into Infinity

5. Train of Thought
6. Octavarium

7. Systematic Chaos
8. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
9. The Astonishing
10. Awake
11. A Dramatic Turn of Events

12. Dream Theater


lol. When Dream and Day Unite


That middle clump is really hard to rank, so that's kind of more of a general "tier". But they all belong in the clump for various reasons. They know why. TA could have been up to 7th if it was half the length.

[ASacrificedSon]

I suppose I've heard TA enough times to safely slot it into the ranks now.

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Scenes from a Memory
3. Images and Words
4. Falling into Infinity

5. Train of Thought
6. Octavarium

7. Systematic Chaos
8. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
9. The Astonishing
10. Awake
11. A Dramatic Turn of Events

12. Dream Theater


lol. When Dream and Day Unite


That middle clump is really hard to rank, so that's kind of more of a general "tier". But they all belong in the clump for various reasons. They know why. TA could have been up to 7th if it was half the length.

I see FII is in your 4th place! Nice! What brought it above TOT and 8VM? Why is Awake also ranked pretty low?

[BlobVanDam]

I see FII is in your 4th place! Nice! What brought it above TOT and 8VM? Why is Awake also ranked pretty low?

I love the more laid back bluesier/rock style of FII, and I'm a bigger fan of DT's "simpler" music than many people. I also think the songwriting is overall great, and the production is DT's best, so I just always find myself coming back to this album more than any of the albums I rank below it.
Awake's lower ranking is simply lack of consistency. It's excellent up to and including The Mirror, but then for me it takes a sudden nosedive into a long stretch of many of my most disliked DT tracks. If it ended with The Mirror, the album would move up to the second tier somewhere.

[ASacrificedSon]

I see FII is in your 4th place! Nice! What brought it above TOT and 8VM? Why is Awake also ranked pretty low?

I love the more laid back bluesier/rock style of FII, and I'm a bigger fan of DT's "simpler" music than many people. I also think the songwriting is overall great, and the production is DT's best, so I just always find myself coming back to this album more than any of the albums I rank below it.
Awake's lower ranking is simply lack of consistency. It's excellent up to and including The Mirror, but then for me it takes a sudden nosedive into a long stretch of many of my most disliked DT tracks. If it ended with The Mirror, the album would move up to the second tier somewhere.

Oh?
Then may I ask you what you think of Lifting Shadows, Scarred, and Space Dye Vest?

[BlobVanDam]

I believe I just said.

[ASacrificedSon]

Oh, so you dislike ALL of them? Then that makes sense. 

Why don't you like Scarred? Don't you think Scarred is kind of like Voices, only a stronger?
And Lifting Shadows and Space Dye Vest?

[BlobVanDam]

Oh, so you dislike ALL of them?

Yes. Strongly. Let's leave it at that.

[ASacrificedSon]

Sure thing!