Dream Theater Survivor 2017 - Black Clouds & Silver Linings - Round 1

[The Letter M]

Black Clouds & Silver Linings
A Nightmare To Remember
A Rite Of Passage
Wither
The Shattered Fortress
The Best Of Times
The Count Of Tuscany

The band's last album with Mike Portnoy, and one of the more interesting albums among fan opinions. Personally, I loved it from the beginning, but I can see why people might not rank it so highly. It's got a lot of great moments, even though some of the songs as a whole do not stand up to some of the band's better works.

-Marc.

[Zydar]

The Shattered Fortress

[mikeyd23]

The Best Of Times

[MirrorMask]

It's got a lot of great moments, even though some of the songs as a whole do not stand up to some of the band's better works.

I would tend to agree with this. None of these songs are bad, it's just than more than ever on this album they needed an external producer to keep the songwriting more foucused and tightened and less meandering. For example A Nightmare to Remember, which is fantastic up until 10 minutes or so, really goes downill afterwards and could have been reworked better.

Anyway, I know that probably Wither will wither away but I won't vote for such an emotional and perfect ballad, gonna go with The Shattered Fortress.

[krands85]

The Best Of Times

Good intro and great outro, but everything in between just doesn't work for me. The lyrics and vocals especially I don't really like.

[mikeyd23]

The Best Of Times

Good intro and great outro, but everything in between just doesn't work for me. The lyrics and vocals especially I don't really like.

Yup, the JP outro solo almost makes me not vote for it here, but the rest of the song is a let down.

[Serah Farron]

The Count of Tuscany, definitely.

[Crow]

TEEERRRN DA KEEEE
WALL THRUUU THE GAAAYY

[Tomislav95]

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. A Rite of Passage

[jakepriest]

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.







6. Wither

[Serah Farron]

1. Wither
2. The Best of Times
3. A Nightmare to Remember
4. The Shattered Fortress
5. A Rite of Passage
6. The Count of Tuscany

Wither is the only song with TBOT in which I can listen to without wanting to skip or growing bored of it. I have nothing against TCOT except the lyrics and some sections which irritate me to no end. The Best of Times has fantastic lyrics and it must've been really hard for Portnoys. But I love that song very much. Wither for me is one of the best DT ballads because while retaining simplicity, the song has extremely strong feels and flows perfectly.

Nightmare is great, but as others have stated, falls of greatly near the end. It was starting out so perfect!!

TSF and AROP...Well nothing special to me. I love Fortress'
 riffs and starts out a bit weak, but becomes a massive powerhouse in the end. And AROP, really catchy fantastic chorus, love the verses and Petruccis guitar solo and I fell in love with it hardcore, but I've overplayed it.

[Evermind]

The Best of Times

[?]

Bebot solo

[Randaran]

Both ARoP and ANtR are bottom 5 DT songs, so I could have voted for either one. I went with ARoP this round.

[CharlesPL]

The Best Of Times

[TheCountOfNYC]

A Rite of Passage

[Destiny Of Chaos]

One of my favorite albums. Love the flow.. and the bookend epics!


Wither is the easy choice here.

[cramx3]

The Best of Times

[Kwyjibo]

Shattered Fortress

[wolfking]

The Best of Times

[aprilethereal]

Definitely AROP

[Elite]

Basically any song.

Wither is alright, the rest is among the worst DT has done. By far their lamest effort.

[Dave_Manchester]

This album contains my all-time favourite DT song (Count of Tuscany) and least favourite DT song, so to that end, I voted for A Nightmare To Remember. One of only a small handful of DT songs I actively dislike.

[BlackInk]

The Best of Times.

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. The Best of Times

[twosuitsluke]

Wither is right up there as one of my favourite DT songs. Can't believe The Best of Times is getting votes this early on??

[home]

Nightmare

[Adami]

Count of Tuscany.

[Mladen]

I loved this album when it came out, and I still think it is VERY good.

The Shattered Fortress gets my vote. I enjoy its live version, it was fun seeing it in person twice, but when I listen to it, I think it relies way too much on reprises and references. Some of the sections really don't flow nicely as a result.

[jjrock88]

The Best Of Times

[romdrums]

A Nightmare to Remember