Official DT Top 50 Thread (Riceball Up Now - starting Page 66)

[i am fabio]

i fucking love ure list man. I mean before u spoofed these last 3.

[Riceball]

3. Fatal Tragedy
Damn, almost snuck this one in unnoticed...screw you "horrible_Muse_song_man!" Regardless, Fatal Tragedy was, as with Surrounded, my favourite track for a very long time; pipped at the post by my number two and number one upon me actually going through an evaluating the discography. Its clearly the best song from Scenes from a Memory, and is probably my favourite DT song lyrically (I've never actually thought too hard about it though).

Where to begin? Right from the word go, this tasty beast delivers, with Cap'ans sublime delivery of some really cool lyrics in the context of the story of Scenes, followed by the commencement of the ridiculous instrumentation that is the real hallmark of the track. I don't know, its got this really...classic feel about it – like in a century or so it would still be listened to and people will be like "woah, cool".

However, this 'start section' is just a warm up for the ear-gasmic instrumental section, which contains a fantastic unison, some blisteringly great bass work and a ridiculously rocking key section. JPs solo in this section was my ringtone for a very very long time; sometimes I'd just let my phone ring out so I could capture every one of the 20 trillion notes he plays – truly awe inspiring.

I've also seen Fatal Tragedy live, and holy mother of god it slays. I'm typically one of those guys you see at a concert just sitting back, beer in hand and taking it all in – but I was on my feet the whole time totally rocking out with/without my cock out (that's another story for another time).

For mine, anyone who doesn't rate this song at least in their top 10 is completely missing what Dream Theater is all about.

Tasty.

[serrano]

FT is/was/will be my favourite DT song. If it's sometimes not in my current top 3 is because i tend to hear it much too oft. Love everything about this song. Just perfect!
Used to hear it in my car at the way to the office but it always made me drive too fast. Since I was contributing too much to the German police finances I decided to hear it mostly at home.
Riceball: your list is a lot like mine would be.


EDIT: before it came out LTL was my nr 1.

[Jaffa]

Well, Fatal Tragedy wouldn't be nearly this high on my own list, but it's still cool to see it getting some special attention here.   

[Mladen]

Very interesting to see Fatal Tragedy at number three, it's a fantastic song. 

[namgalsipsclar]

Yep Fatal Tragedy is a top 10 song for me also

[Jirpo]

Its pretty good. Wouldn't make my top 30.

[hefdaddy42]

Fatal Tragedy is definitely incredible.

[Elite]

It is, indeed, one of the better tracks off of Scenes.

[Zydar]

6. Surrounded

A Top 10 DT song for me too.

[Laich21DT]

Fatal Tragedy is great, and was awesome to see it live for a second time last night, but I gotta admit I was mostly hoping they continued on and played Beyond This Life afterwards.

Surrounded wouldn't be in my top 10, but most likely would be in my top 20 DT songs.

[serrano]

Fatal Tragedy is great, and was awesome to see it live for a second time last night, but I gotta admit I was mostly hoping they continued on and played Beyond This Life afterwards.

Surrounded wouldn't be in my top 10, but most likely would be in my top 20 DT songs.

I would be ok with seeing SFAM back to back again.

[BlackInk]

Unexpected, but interesting. Looking forward to your #2.

[Ben_Jamin]

Your top 10's are pretty great. I enjoy reading lists that aren't the usual Octa./LTL/ACoS as top 3.

[Riceball]

I enjoy reading lists that aren't the usual Octa./LTL/ACoS as top 3.

In the words of Ted Moseby: “sorry, bro”

2. Octavarium
What can I say, I’m a sucker for a fantastic track. Which is what Octavarium is, despite really testing the limits of how long a song can be before it gets a little too long. IMO, Octavarium has it just about right. The only longer song that this that I’ve ever heard and think is as great/greater is Sleeping in Traffic by Beardfish (har har).

Now, you’ll remember that I don’t like ACoS as much as most do because of its length, but I think Octavarium is a little less…tedious, for want of a better word. ACoS to me is like a few songs cobbled together that make up this big, long thing – where as Octavarium is a bit more natural, it all kind of fits together, building slowly.

If I’m to be 117.98% honest here, and I intend to be, Octavarium was my first “release” DT album (in that I became a DT fan just after it was released), and I had always been a bit adverse to the idea of listening to the title track because of its length. I actually avoided it for a few months, afraid that I wasn’t going to be able to find the time to sit down and really listen listen to it. Didn’t help that my bro kept telling me “ZOMG DOOD THIS IS THE GREATEST SONG EVER”…

Actually, funny story about Octavarium (the album) and my first listen (I’ve foot noted it for those who don’t want a dose of Cool Story, Bro)^.

Octavarium, the track, is blindingly brilliant from 0:00 right through to 23:57, a journey of pure musical bliss that takes you on some massive highs and some equally massive lows (well, technically they are inversely massive I guess). Its really tough to pick out any highlights, the whole thing is a highlight.

If I had to, it would be the “Intervals” passage – an instance of musical bliss not seen since the early days and not yet captured since (although, I’d put parts of Breaking All Illusions in this upper echelon of epicness). The Wizard-ry which opens the track is just so fitting and creates this real sense of, how do you say, wonder and mystique; its truly unique and, like Surrounded, something I hope never gets touched again. It actually inspired me to give synthesisers a try, as in the pad-style midi synths (I failed, miserably). Cap’ans vocal performance, along with the melodies, really tell the story in a way that manages to simultaneously immerse you in the perverse experiment but still give the feeling that you're on the outside looking in.

JPs “Razors Edge” performance ranks, in my humble, most likely ill informed opinion, as one of the great instances of guitarmanship ever in recorded history – just brimming with emotion with that subtle dose of pomp that we’ve all come to worship him for over the years. Just thought I’d highlight that one separately.

The beats in the track do their job to perfection (I’m talking about MP and JM here); at the back most of the time but up front when they need to be. A special note, again, to the “Intervals” section – just magical.

In fact, magical is probably the best superlative I can use to describe Octavarium. Purely magical.

So, why not number one? All will be revealed, tomorrow



^I picked Octavarium up on a Friday before I went down south to visit my dad. On that Friday night me, my bro, my dad and my uncle went crabbing in an estuary south of Mandurah – me being the chicken shit I was at the time was like ‘hells no I’m not going in that dirty water with dem crabs’. I guess the real reason was because I wanted to have about an hour, by myself, in my dads car with an awesome stereo system to listen to this new album by this new band that I thought was really rad. Anyway, I chucked it on, got through the The Root of All Evil and The Answer Lies Within Came On. So I’m just chillin’, minding my own business, when suddenly, this huge fucking meteorite flies over my head. No joke, a fucking bright blue, massive, glowing hunk of space rock zoomed over my head and into the horizon. I was scared shitless, thinking that the world was gonna end, or I was at least about to be hit by a sonic boom or something (I was young remember). Next thing I know, the crab party come running back in, all freaked out, my younger bro basically crying and we just sat and waited. And waited. And waited. Fortunately, nothing happened. We found out later that it was indeed a meteorite that splashed into the ocean about 10kms from the beach which was just over the hill from where we were – we probably got the best view of this thing entering the atmosphere and hitting the water; intense! It was by far the coolest thing I’ve ever seen in my life – the whole sky went this bright, glowing blue colour with this huge white ball flying through it; when I say huge I mean like it took about a quarter of my vision. Ofcourse, the object itself wasn’t that big, or we’d all be dead, but the glow around it. It was magical, probably the only way to describe it.

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Octavarium is Outstanding.

[Jirpo]

Wow, that was the best writeup I've ever read! Nice work. That story sounds amazing too! Wish I could have seen it

[Riceball]

Awww shucks.

Clearly you haven't read any other write-ups, ever.

[Mladen]

Octavarium 

[BlackInk]

Nice one. 8V rules.

[namgalsipsclar]

Octavarium is the greatest song written by anyone, ever

[lyfeternl]

...Great things about Octavarium...

^I picked Octavarium up on a Friday before I went down south to visit my dad. On that Friday night me, my bro, my dad and my uncle went crabbing in an estuary south of Mandurah – me being the chicken shit I was at the time was like 'hells no I'm not going in that dirty water with dem crabs'. I guess the real reason was because I wanted to have about an hour, by myself, in my dads car with an awesome stereo system to listen to this new album by this new band that I thought was really rad. Anyway, I chucked it on, got through the The Root of All Evil and The Answer Lies Within Came On. So I'm just chillin', minding my own business, when suddenly, this huge fucking meteorite flies over my head. No joke, a fucking bright blue, massive, glowing hunk of space rock zoomed over my head and into the horizon. I was scared shitless, thinking that the world was gonna end, or I was at least about to be hit by a sonic boom or something (I was young remember). Next thing I know, the crab party come running back in, all freaked out, my younger bro basically crying and we just sat and waited. And waited. And waited. Fortunately, nothing happened. We found out later that it was indeed a meteorite that splashed into the ocean about 10kms from the beach which was just over the hill from where we were – we probably got the best view of this thing entering the atmosphere and hitting the water; intense! It was by far the coolest thing I've ever seen in my life – the whole sky went this bright, glowing blue colour with this huge white ball flying through it; when I say huge I mean like it took about a quarter of my vision. Ofcourse, the object itself wasn't that big, or we'd all be dead, but the glow around it. It was magical, probably the only way to describe it.

How sad is it that I immediately thought of the Repentance spoken-word section upon reading that...?

[Elite]

Awesome, nice writeup, makes me wonder how I'm going to mine when I get the torch from someone a couple of months later.

By the way, where does you signature come from? (The JP quote, that is)

[lyfeternl]

Awesome, nice writeup, makes me wonder how I'm going to mine when I get the torch from someone a couple of months later.

By the way, where does you signature come from? (The JP quote, that is)

If that was directed towards me, JP says that in the last of JP's instructional videos on GuitarWorld.com for OTBOA (more specifically, when he's discussing the solo section).

[Riceball]

LAME ALERT

Could this be the end?
Is this the way my list dies?
Number one all alone.
Noone by its side.

You guys don't understand.
This songs the only one who deserve this.
Why is it so cool?
Something something understand.

[senecadawg2]

Really interesting list. I love Fatal Tragedy and Octavarium, but I was a bit surprised to see the former in the top 3.

[Riceball]

1. Take the Time
This is it, the pinnacle of Dream Theater's catalogue. Beating out some of the more, popular favourites, is Take the Time. In my mind, this track is perfect in every way; the whole band is on fire, the chorus is catchy as Mark Waugh, the lyrics are phenomenal, the solos are tight – I really cannot find, for the life of me, or anyone else, a single thing that I would change, alter, chop out, add in or anything. From go to woah, Take the Time is sublime.

Shit I'm rhyming without even trying this morning.

Let me address something. I'm not sure if its popular sentiment, but those "people" who I've referred to numerous times recently don't like the "Pensive Fear" verse – they say its immature song writing, its unrealistic yada yada yada. Well, I rate this as almost the greatest verse in the discography, everything complements everything else and you are left with this virtuous circle of awesome; sure, Cap'an can't pull it off live 100% of the time, and who really cares tbh, its there in all its glory on the CD.

I'd also like to make special mention to the writing throughout this song; the composition I suppose. I'm certainly not a student of music – don't ask me what the fuck a chromatic scale is or anything like that. However, I think that Take the Time has to be as well composed as anything else in the catalogue. It breaths, you can hear everything, everything has its place and nothing seems to be the focus when it doesn't need to be. Its that spirit they captured in the Intervals section of Octavarium, except it really permeates the whole track. Awesome.

Lyrically, I love this track. I actually take back what I said about Fatal Tragedy – Take the Time has the best lyrics. The subject matter is somewhat of a personal philosophy of mine, too, which I guess helps. Just as an aside, do you think the lyrics in Just Let Me Breathe are an intentional juxtaposition, or is it just a coincidence? I particularly enjoy the lyrics leading up to the italiano-men:

I close my eyes,
and feel the water rise around me.
Drown the beat of time.
Let my senses fall away.
I can see much clearer now I blind.

Fantastic.

Unlike a number of other tracks, I think the best wankery in Take the Time is the keys. Although, really, all four of the guys get their little moment in the sun throughout – sometimes solos, sometimes just ensuring that the leads are kept in check. The instrumental break section in its entirety is a real treat, but I have to make extra special mention of 4:49 through 5:15; probably the greatest Dream Theater section ever written. It really does elicit little screams of joy within my head when I hear it, and I'm sure I'm not alone.

This is getting a little long, but I think you get the impression. Take the Time is, truly, Dream Theater's greatest track, a blissful way to spend eight minutes and twenty one seconds of your listening time regardless of  what mood you are in, where you are, what you are doing or what your specific Dream Theater tastes are.

[Elite]

That's a special no. #1, didn't really expect that, wow!

Thanks for your top 50, it was an interesting read! (, but, where is Space-Dye Vest?  ) tleast something from i&W made the top spot, so  can be happy about that 

[Riceball]

The only thing I like about Space-Dye Vest is the vocal melody - besides that I'm not a fan. It was one of those that was immediately E graded, sorry bro.

[bss4life15]

Who the hell is saying the "pensive fear" verse is bad songwriting?  I don't know how anyone can not like it.  It's my favorite JLB vocal moment ever.

[Jirpo]

1. Take the Time
the chorus is catchy as Mark Waugh

lol


Nice number 1! In my top 3.

[Jaffa]

     et cetera.

Excellent choice.  And a great write-up for it, too.

Overall a very cool list.  Nice job!

[Jamesman42]

God, who is next.

[Riceball]

Who is next? God.

[Jamesman42]

(I'm glad someone got that)