DT Album Ranking

[smerfak]

1. Scenes from a Memory
2. Images & Words
3. Falling into Infinity

4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
5. Train of Thoughts
6. Octavarium
7. Systematic Chaos
8. Awake

9. When Dream and Day Unite
10. Black Clouds and Silver Linings

[berrege]

1. Scenes From a Memory
2. Images & Words
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. Awake
5. When Dream and Day Unite
6. Train of Thought
7. Systematic Chaos
8. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
9. Octavarium
10. Falling Into Infinity

[ElliottTamer]

So, what I'm wondering is.... Is this all gonna be tallied up then? I'm not saying like, right away, but will it?

I will use everyone's ranking to make an "average ranking" (which should more or less show how the DT community feels about each album in relation to each other). I will also try to find out stuff like which albums have the most consensus, which are the most polemic and which were most often picked as their release order (e.g. Six Degrees in 6. place). That is, if I can figure the maths of that out and have enough time.
That all being said, I'm trying to tally up the rankings on a daily basis, so once people really posting their rankings I'll publish the results.

[Nic35]

1. SDOIT
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Systematic Chaos
4. Awake
5. Images And Words
6. Falling Into Infinity
7. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
8. Train Of Thought
9. Octavarium
10. WDADU

[yorost]

Train of Thought and Octavarium get a big spread on opinion.  I ran some recent threads on those two, since so many people seem to assume one is either loved or hated by most fans.

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=22173.0
https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=22215.0

[ACID_FOX]

1.Six Degrees
2.FII
3.Train of Thought
4.Awake
5.I&W
6.Scenes
7.Ocatavriun
8.Systematic Chaos
9.Black Clouds
10.WD&DU

[krands85]

It's so interesting reading peoples list and seeing the diversity, as well as trying to spot people who have similar rankings to myself. Someone needs to get a calculator and see how many different permutations of possible rankings there are Nobody seems that close to my list - only 2 people share the same top 2 albums as me (and one isn't the same order).

Anyway:

1. Images and Words
2. Train of Thought
3. Octavarium
4. Scenes From a Memory
5. Awake
6. Systematic Chaos
7. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
8. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
9. Falling Into Infinity
10. When Dream and Day Unite

Positions 5,6 and 7 were probably the trickiest and might have been different on another day. Awake would have been 3rd for sure if it just had a couple of tracks that were in my top 15 or so favourite tracks overall. WDADU would have been higher with JLB and better production. I'm hoping ADToE makes the top 5 at least, but I can't see it coming any higher than 3rd.

[Jaffa]

Nobody seems that close to my list - only 2 people share the same top 2 albums as me (and one isn't the same order).

High five for 1. I&W 2. ToT!

[krands85]

High five for 1. I&W 2. ToT!

[ubit]

It's so interesting reading peoples list and seeing the diversity, as well as trying to spot people who have similar rankings to myself. Someone needs to get a calculator and see how many different permutations of possible rankings there are Nobody seems that close to my list - only 2 people share the same top 2 albums as me (and one isn't the same order).

10! = 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = 90 x 56 x 30 x 24 = 2700 x 1344 = 3,628,800 permutations

No calculators needed!  :-)

[Jaffa]

It's so interesting reading peoples list and seeing the diversity, as well as trying to spot people who have similar rankings to myself. Someone needs to get a calculator and see how many different permutations of possible rankings there are Nobody seems that close to my list - only 2 people share the same top 2 albums as me (and one isn't the same order).

10! = 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = 90 x 56 x 30 x 24 = 2700 x 1344 = 3,628,800 permutations

No calculators needed!  :-)

Finally got that chance to show off your maths, huh? 

[TheGreatPretender]

Frankly, I'm surprised how low Systematic Chaos is on most people's lists, though. I thought it was a phenomenal album. One of their best.

[ubit]

It's so interesting reading peoples list and seeing the diversity, as well as trying to spot people who have similar rankings to myself. Someone needs to get a calculator and see how many different permutations of possible rankings there are Nobody seems that close to my list - only 2 people share the same top 2 albums as me (and one isn't the same order).

10! = 10x9x8x7x6x5x4x3x2x1 = 90 x 56 x 30 x 24 = 2700 x 1344 = 3,628,800 permutations

No calculators needed!  :-)

Finally got that chance to show off your maths, huh? 

Couldn't resist.  :-)

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Frankly, I'm surprised how low Systematic Chaos is on most people's lists, though. I thought it was a phenomenal album. One of their best.

I liked it, but I just found most of their other albums better.

[BanksD]

Might as well update my ranking

1. I&W
2. SFAM
3. Awake
4. SDOIT
5. FII
6. Octavarium
7. BC&SL
8. TOT
9. SC
10.WDADU

[ubit]

Frankly, I'm surprised how low Systematic Chaos is on most people's lists, though. I thought it was a phenomenal album. One of their best.

I'm always surprised too.  The metal side of DT gets less love here, generally.  Seems to be a prog-dominated board, which is fine.  

[setrataeso]

1. Images & Words
2. Octavarium
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. Scenes from a Memory
5. Train of Thought
6. Falling Into Infinity
7. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
8. When Dream and Day Unite
9. Awake
10. Systematic Chaos

[ACID_FOX]

9. Awake

lul wut?

[setrataeso]

9. Awake

lul wut?

Best not to get me started on Awake...

[Dcrupi]

1. Images and Words
2. Awake
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. Octavarium
5. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory
6. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
7. Train of Thought
8. Falling Into Infinity
9. When Dream and Day Unite
10. Systematic Chaos

[TheGreatPretender]

I liked it, but I just found most of their other albums better.

Hmm.. Yeah, and that kinda makes this type of ranking (as opposed to rating) flawed as well. Because outside of Dream Theater itself, we have no point of reference, do we?
So, it's easy to look at 10. Systematic Chaos and thing, "They think it's the worst DT album," when chances are, they probably think it's the "Least Best". Which is different. Like I said, my 10 was WDADU, as was most other people's, but there's absolutely no point of reference outside this actual band.
The fact that I'd still put WDADU above any Fates Warning album, and above most Queensryche albums (both bands I like), in Prog Metal alone, says something about how I feel about the album.

[setrataeso]

Well, to get a better idea, here's a slightly different way of doing it:

1. Images & Words

2. Octavarium
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

4. Scenes from a Memory

5. Train of Thought
6. Falling into Infinity








7. Black Clouds & Silver Linings


8. When Dream and Day Unite

















9. Awake











10. Systematic Chaos



I dunno man, my love for DT has sort of flatlined recently. They'll still always be one of my favourite bands, but I've been listening to a lot of other stuff since Black Clouds came out, so I'm a bit on the cynical side in terms of ranking them along other artists.

I would say only the top 3 albums for me would rank close to albums by other bands I love like 10,000 Days, Beggars, Power Windows, and Revolver. The rest of the stuff has lost a lot of it's impressive factor over time for me.

[Jaffa]

Hmm.. Yeah, and that kinda makes this type of ranking (as opposed to rating) flawed as well.

True, but no ranking system is ever perfect.

[ubit]

Hmm.. Yeah, and that kinda makes this type of ranking (as opposed to rating) flawed as well.

True, but no ranking system is ever perfect.

We must simply include every album ever made by any band ever in existence.  Problem solved!  :-)

[setrataeso]

Hmm.. Yeah, and that kinda makes this type of ranking (as opposed to rating) flawed as well.

True, but no ranking system is ever perfect.

We must simply include every album ever made by any band ever in existence.  Problem solved!  :-)

Well, I think it would be an interesting idea for everyone to take Dream Theater and another band that they love equally and rank the albums together, and see where they all stack up.

[TheGreatPretender]

Well, I think it would be an interesting idea for everyone to take Dream Theater and another band that they love equally and rank the albums together, and see where they all stack up.

Truth be told, I'd still probably put DT above them almost entirely. Album wise. Maybe taking individual songs, yeah, I'd say there's plenty of Fear Factory and Epica, and etc. etc. songs that I like better than my less liked DT songs.

Plus different people rank things based on different reasons. So the criteria has to be the same too. And it can be simple. Like, "If you had to listen to either this song or this song for the rest of your life, and never hear the other, which would you choose?" Which would be cruel. But you know, that's the best way I find of ranking things. What would you give up over what in the long run? And in that respect, like I said, most DT albums would outrank anything in my eyes.

Call me a fanboy, if you wish. All I care about is how much I enjoy the music, and it's a lot, and that's all that matters. People can hate on Systematic Chaos, that won't make me like it any less.

[Ravenheart]

Awake
Images & Words

After that, there's a major drop in quality.

SFAM
SDOIT
FII

Everything from Train of Thought and onward is mostly awful.

[Matt7]

1) Scenes from a memory
2) Images & words
3) Six degrees of inner turbulenc
4) Awake
5) Black clouds & silver linings
6) Falling into infinity
7) Train of thought
8) Octavarium
9) Systematic Chaos
10) When dream and day unite (honestly I never really listen to it so much, I can't stand Dominici's voice)

[TheGreatPretender]

10) When dream and day unite (honestly I never really listen to it so much, I can't stand Dominici's voice)

You should get the Live recording of when they did the whole album with LaBrie, "When Dream and Day Reunite".

[Arnold Layne]

1. Awake
2. Images & Words
3. Octavarium
4. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
5. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
6. Falling Into Infinity
7. Train of Thought
8. Scenes from a memory
9. When Dream and Day Unite
10. Systematic Chaos  (I've never liked it)

[Matt7]

You should get the Live recording of when they did the whole album with LaBrie, "When Dream and Day Reunite".

I have it.
And I listened to it just few times.
I have to liste to it again, because I really want to explore that album.
But honestly, I conseder it a great debut, but really far from what they' did few years later, with Images&Words.

[TheGreatPretender]

Well, yeah, I think it's like that with every good band's first album. That very first experience I think always launches every band to grow as artists big time, and have their next album that much greater.

[Phantasmatron]

1.  Scenes from a Memory
2.  Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
3.  Octavarium
4.  Awake
5.  Train of Thought
6.  Images and Words
7.  Black Clouds and Silver Linings
8.  Systematic Chaos
9.  Falling Into Infinity
10.  When Dream and Day Unite

[Bolsters]

This was harder than I thought it would be. I still feel that some albums are ranked too low (in particular FII all the way down at 7), but I can't push them any higher for fear of what has to be pushed down to accomodate them. But this is what I eventually came up with:

Metropolis part 2
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Train of Thought
Images and Words
Awake
Octavarium
Falling into Infinity
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Systematic Chaos
When Dream and Day Unite

[jag66]

(classics)
1. Images and Words
2. Scenes From a Memory
3. Awake
4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

(these 3 much of a muchness)
5. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
6. Falling Into Infinity
7. Octavarium


(not a huge fan)
8. Train of Thought
9. Systematic Chaos
10. When Dream and Day Unite