Last 3 albums with Portnoy vs First 3 albums with Mangini

[KevShmev]

Simple question.

I'll have to go with the run with Mangini.  I think those three albums are the best three albums they have done since 2002, and while I gotten back into 8V quite a bit lately, SC and BC&SL are both merely good.

[Outcrier]

Portnoy run.

Octavarium = ADTOE (a bit of a > to Octavarium)
Systematic Chaos = DT12
Black Clouds > The Astonishing

Astonishing could have been better than Black Clouds to me but Disc 2 exists so...

[Adami]

Sadly the MM run. I really don't like DT12, but I like ADTOE and TA a decent amount. I really don't like Black Clouds or Systematic Chaos, so I guess the 2nd run won.

[bl5150]

Mangini , even allowing for the fact that I am not particularly interested in The Astonishing.

[wolfking]

Portnoy.

[BlobVanDam]

I'd take Octavarium alone over the 3 MM albums. The rest is just a bonus. For me the best of these 3 MM albums is on par with the worst of the 3 MP albums.

[pcs90]

Definitely the Mangini run. No questions there.

Octavarium does have some very good tracks on it (TW, IWBY, SS). It's definitely my favorite album from this group of Portnoy ones. Interestingly it's also the most like the Mangini albums in several ways...so I guess that says something.

SS and BCSL are some of my least favorite albums, while the 3 MM ones are my top 3, so it's an easy choice.

[425]

I love MP, but I have to take the Mangini run. It has two likely top 5 albums for me, while the MP run has just one. These six albums, for me, would go:

A Dramatic Turn of Events
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Dream Theater
Octavarium
The Astonishing
Systematic Chaos

Keeping in mind that's a VERY provisional ranking for the newest.

[Train of Naught]

Portnoy.

[Tomislav95]

ADTOE, DT and TA. I rank all three higher than those three with Portnoy. Octavarium is still great though.

[Prog Snob]

MM, no contest.

[SebastianPratesi]

Eventhough I have fond memories of the Portnoy albums (because I discovered the band in 2005, saw them for the 1st time on the 'Chaos In Motion' tour, and loved BC&SL), I voted the Mangini albums. I love the songwriting and moods on these 3 albums, although I'd much rather have MP's drumming over MM's.

[Kotowboy]

Hard to choose. I love Octavarium & The Astonishing but I also love A Dramatic Turn Of Events.

I think ADTOE > DT12 > The Astonishing has less overall duds but Octavarium is my favourite album of the lot.

[vazquez]

Easy.

Octavarium -> Not my cup of tea
Systematic Chaos -> Their nadir
BC&SL - > Weak

vs.

ADToE -> Very good
DT -> Ok
The Astonishing -> Masterpiece 

[Mladen]

Went with the Mangini albums. Systematic chaos is extremely underrated, and Octavarium and BC&SL are both very good, but ADTOE and The Astonishing are two of their best albums, and even though I didn't really go crazy about the self titled one, the other two are waaaay to great.

[mikeyd23]

The MM era because of consistency.

Octavarium is great, SC and BC&SL not so great. I think ADTOE, DT12, and TA are really consistent and strong releases.

[darkshade]

8vm -  A personal favorite. Title track. Sort-of concept album, closes the meta-album run.
SC - A flawed album, but fun.
BC&SL - I liked this one a lot, flawed still, but this album packs a punch.

ADTOE - One of the band's best albums.
DT12 - The worst of the band's albums.
TA - Still digesting, but while it's better than DT12, I don't feel like listening to this much.

8vm-ADTOE have many songs I'll listen to individually. Nothing on DT12 or TA has really excited me. The orchestral section in Illumination Theory is beautiful, but the entire composition is disjointed. There's cool moments throughout the 2 albums, but IMO DT suffer from an arrangement problem, something MP is good at. ADTOE may have been a last hurrah of sorts, being the album was a "back to our roots" kind of album. Moving forward, I haven't been too pleased with the new albums. BC&SL and ADTOE were the last albums were I was pumped hearing a new DT album, and continue to enjoy those and every Portnoy album, while occasionally dipping into the newer stuff to see if things have changed. So far they have not.

So TL;DR -  I prefer the last few MP albums over the first 3 MM albums, flawed as they are. ADTOE is the best album of the six, but DT12 really brings it down for me. TA is 'ok' so far, I don't want to say I don't like it because I'm still digesting it, but there isn't a whole going on that makes me think "Man, I gotta listen to that again!"

[bosk1]

They are both great 3-album runs.  But I will take the Mangini-era run easily, without question.  It isn't even close.  That is their best 3-album run ever, IMO.

[hefdaddy42]

MM, no contest.

This easily, any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

[namgalsipsclar]

Mike Mangini gets this one as the rankings go something like:
The Astonishing
ADToE
Octavarium
Black Clouds/Dream Theater
Systematic Chaos

Top one is great, next two are good, final three are pretty bad

[MarkFitDT]

Mangini's 3 by a country mile.

[cramx3]

MM, no contest.

This easily, any day of the week and twice on Sunday.

For eternity

[Dream Team]

Voted MM, but he's got a ways to go to equal WDaDU - ToT. 

[axeman90210]

The Mangini run, though it was a little closer when I stopped to think about it than my initial gut reaction. Systematic Chaos just really weighs down the Portnoy run for me.

[krands85]

MM run I guess. It has the best album in ADTOE and the MP run has the weakest in BC&SL.

Ranking would be something like this:

ADTOE
8VM
------
TA
SC
DT
------
BC&SL

The middle section is very closely matched.

[CharlesPL]

MM

[MirrorMask]

The last three Portnoy albums are as a whole dragged down a bit by Systematic Chaos, which I'm not particuarly fond of.

The three Mangini albums are elevated by that insane masterpiece that is The Astonishing.

So Mangini's albums win. This does not mean that there's not a godly amount of great music on the other albums, Octavarium is still one of my favorites ever by the band.

[FracturedMirror]

Portnoy three, by far.  SC and Black Clouds would both be among my top 5 DT albums. 

[BelichickFan]

The Astonishing
ADToE
Dream Theater
Black Clouds
Octavarium
Systematic Chaos

That's my order so my answer is obvious.  I love a lot of stuff of Octavarium but some is hit and miss.  I love a lot of Black Clouds but wish The Best of TImes was done separately like A Change of Seasons.  I love the song, just too personal for my liking.  And I didn't like the direction of Systematic Chaos although I love the bookend epic.

[Bertielee]

The 3 with MM, no contest.

[pantsofeternity]

I don't know if you can make a grouping of three DT albums with BCASL that I prefer *overall* to any grouping without BCASL.  Maybe SFAM, SDOIT, BCASL versus my three least favorites.

[hefdaddy42]

I don't know if you can make a grouping of three DT albums with BCASL that I prefer *overall* to any grouping without BCASL. 

I understand.

[IdoSC]

I don't know if you can make a grouping of three DT albums with BCASL that I prefer *overall* to any grouping without BCASL.  Maybe SFAM, SDOIT, BCASL versus my three least favorites.

Totally with you there.

For me every MM era is at the top 5 or 6, last two MP albums are at the absolute bottom (particularly BCSL), Octavarium is a solid album.

[pantsofeternity]

Oddly, though I know a lot of people group SC with BCASL as fallow period for the band, I really dig SC!  Still mid-tier, but I much prefer it to BCASL.  I might like it about the same as ADTOE though, but (obviously, I guess) in a completely different way.

[Madman Shepherd]

Mangini. 

8V was the first DT album I loved front to back.  SC is surprisingly one of my two favorite DT albums but BC&SL is just blah.  Music is great.  Lyrics are terrible. 

ADTOE is my absolute favorite DT album. DT was a bit of a let down but the highs on this one are REALLY high and overall a great album.  Astonishing I can't get into. 

So while the two eras are on par in many ways with two great albums and one let down, the Mangini era edges it out in many ways.  Also, while I prefer BC&SL to the Astonishing, I have a lot of respect for undertaking the Astonishing was.  Also, the lyrics were just lazy on a lot of BC&SL making it hard to listen to.