What album(s) is/are the best at showcasing DT's signature sound?

[YtseCullen]

The thread kind of explains it. If you're wanting to turn someone on to DT, which albums do you show them to showcase DT's sound.

Personally I'd go with:
Images and Words
Awake
Scenes From a Memory
Train of Thought
A Dramatic Turn of Events

[BlobVanDam]

SDOIT, SFAM.
IaW is also a good choice depending on the person, although some people may be put off by the dated sound (which is their loss, of course )

[Ruba]

Awake!

Though they all sound like DT. No total misses like Queensrÿche - Dedicated to Chaos.

[wolfking]

I&W
Awake
SFAM

[Mladen]

Scenes from a memory, without a doubt.

[hefdaddy42]

I&W, no question.

[Syzzle]

SDOIT and SFAM

[RuRoRul]

SDOIT easily. Not necessarily saying that's the best one to give someone to get them into DT, but it's the answer to the question in the title.

[Elite]

SFAM easily. Not necessarily saying that's the best one to give someone to get them into DT, but it's the answer to the question in the title.

Fix'd.

[?]

I'd say ADTOE. Images is a masterpiece but it may sound a bit dated for some people, ADTOE is modern-sounding but it has an excellent balance of metal, prog and ballads. Scenes would be the 2nd option.

[Sixtease]

As much as it's not my favorite album, I must concur that SFAM would likely be the best option for the given goal.

[yorost]

SDOIT easily. Not necessarily saying that's the best one to give someone to get them into DT, but it's the answer to the question in the title.

What?  That's one of the more unique sounding albums, not their signature sound at all.

Images & Words is my first impression, especially since Pull Me Under is their signature song to non-fans.  However, I kind of think it might be better classified as their classic sound, now.  Probably Scenes from a Memory is the best fit.

[Bill Carson]

Its not my favourite album but I would say a Dramatic Turn Of Events.
DT went all out to re-create their signature sound and In my opinion achieved it.

The albums to avoid are where they have, atleast on first listen anyway, veered to a particular style
e.g Train Of Thought or Awake (which is my personal favourite)
* Also as a side note, Awake or Images cannot be DT's signature sound anymore as Jordan is not on there. And his style is very different to KM's.

Albums like SFAM or SDOIT are two others that would fit the bill nicely.

[Jamesman42]

I don't know about albums, but song: Metropolis.

[theseoafs]

SFAM. I would suggest I&W seeing that it's their best/most iconic album, but the production is somewhat 80's, and that facet of DT's sound didn't really stick around.

I remember seeing in the Score documentary that DT wanted Octavarium to be this disc, the disc that you give to your friends when they say "hey, what's Dream Theater all about?"  Needless to say wouldn't call that a fair description of 8V.

[Metrovarium]

I'd say SFAM, but I don't think it showcases their old sound very well.

[Dellers]

Probably one of the ones with too much treble. ADTOE is one of the few DT albums that sound any good from a mixing perspective IMO.

[ResultsMayVary]

I&W, SFAM, SDOIT, ADTOE

[Orbert]

My first thought was Images and Words but I realized that they really don't sound like that anymore.  If you gave it to someone and told them it was a typical DT album, they'd expect a mix of prog metal, 80's metal, and the occassional saxophone.  Seriously, by having it prominently placed on the second song, someone could easily get the impression that a Jay Beckenstein soprano sax shows up once in a while.  And as has been pointed out, Jordan doesn't sound anything like Kevin and that's definitely a part of their early sound which is now gone.

Scenes from a Memory is probably a better choice, but A Dramatic Turn of Events may actually be the best answer.  It is what they sound like today, obviously, but more importantly, it shows a good balance of all sides of Dream Theater, so if that's the goal, then ADTOE is the answer if you could only pick one.  If you could pick two, SFAM and ADTOE.

[Phoenix87x]

I&W, no question.

This times a million.

[senecadawg2]

SFAM-I&W

It's a tie.

[sunseeker]

Don't know if it counts but I always go with Budokan and Score. I personally rank (well produced) live albums above any studio album of a given band in general (this applies especially to Threshold who had horrid production up to Subsurface).
It's also good that it compiles different songs from differend albums and unifies them under a common denominator in terms of sound. Budokan has a very evened out sound with a lot of punch and heavier songs , while Score has a more analytical sound with more proggy songs. From my experiance it's a good way to introduce someone with the band.

[theseoafs]

Don't know if it counts but I always go with Budokan and Score. I personally rank (well produced) live albums above any studio album of a given band in general (this applies especially to Threshold who had horrid production up to Subsurface).
It's also good that it compiles different songs from differend albums and unifies them under a common denominator in terms of sound. Budokan has a very evened out sound with a lot of punch and heavier songs , while Score has a more analytical sound with more proggy songs. From my experiance it's a good way to introduce someone with the band.

[sunseeker]

Heresy? 
Yeah I mean it, and the more I think about it the more I consolidate on that opinion Of course, provided that we are talking about a band that can pull off their stuff live properly (and I do take account that most live albums are tweaked in some degree).

[KevShmev]

See, I am the complete opposite in that I almost never recommend someone starting with a live album.  Unless the person you are giving the recs to is someone who usually prefers live albums over studio ones, why start them off with something that inevitably will be something that rarely listen to anyway?  It doesn't make sense to me.

Anyway, the best answers to this question are I&W, Scenes and ADTOE.  All three feature a nice mixture of the styles DT usually utilizes (proggy songs, heavy rockers, good shorter tunes, mellow songs/ballads, etc.), while also having very strong songwriting.  Octavarium has the mixture, but doesn't have strong enough songwriting overall to be included.  Awake is their best album to date, IMO, but isn't really indicative of their signature sound, at least as much as the others.

[darkshade]

In this order

A Dramatic Turn of Events
Scenes From A Memory
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Images & Words

I&W has many classics of course, but as whole albums, Images has a few "eye-rolling" moments...

On the topic of Octavarium being "what DT are all about", they're not technically wrong. The album covers just about every style and sound DT had covered up until that point in time. The heavy rocker, the soft ballad, the modern alt-rock anthem, the uplifting soft rock tune, the prog-metal skull smasher, the modern hard rock (slightly electronic) song, the melodic prog-metal classic, and last but not least, the big, long, epic prog-rock closer.

[sunseeker]

Ok then, after a bit of thought I would go probably with Octavarium. Like darkshade said

The album covers just about every style and sound DT had covered up until that point in time. The heavy rocker, the soft ballad, the modern alt-rock anthem, the uplifting soft rock tune, the prog-metal skull smasher, the modern hard rock (slightly electronic) song, the melodic prog-metal classic, and last but not least, the big, long, epic prog-rock closer.

spot on

[Sixtease]

I would definitely not use Octavarium to give somebody the first impression of Dream Theater. First song, Root of All Evil, is actually not that much of a rocker, and among DT openers, it's one of the weaker. Then your victim hears The Answer Lies Within, These Walls and I Walk Beside You -- three songs in a row where there's no guitar solo worth mentioning or any solo actually, no rhythm changes so far even counting TROAE.

That's four songs and the listener already made most of his opinion, totally biased because TROAE, TALW, TW and IWBY is NOT what Dream Theater sounds like or what they're all about.
Panic Attack comes and makes up for it but way too late because the first impression has already been made.

I like Octavarium, and I think Octavarium the song could even be a solid first listen for a DT virgin. But not the album.

[Pols Voice]

Probably SFAM.

[reneranucci]

SDOIT, SFAM.
IaW is also a good choice depending on the person, although some people may be put off by the dated sound (which is their loss, of course )

This.

[Ħ]

SFAM, without a doubt. Other albums, which are arguably better, have their own distinct microcosm of sound that makes them what they are. But the sound of SFAM can be heard in pretty much all their albums.

[Frost134]

Probably one of the ones with too much treble. ADTOE is one of the few DT albums that sound any good from a mixing perspective IMO.

Really? i always felt the drums were a little quiet on ADTOE.

[Ħ]

Probably one of the ones with too much treble. ADTOE is one of the few DT albums that sound any good from a mixing perspective IMO.

Really? i always felt the drums were a little quiet on ADTOE.

This, and FII and SFAM have basically perfect mixes.

[BlobVanDam]

Probably one of the ones with too much treble. ADTOE is one of the few DT albums that sound any good from a mixing perspective IMO.

I think it's one of their worst from a mixing perspective. The drums are too low and sound completely raw. The whole album sounds like a premix. Ignoring WDADU, I'd say ADTOE is definitely DT's most plain and dull sounding album, production-wise. It's like a polar opposite to FII/SDOIT which sound like so much care was taken to create some atmosphere.
And musically, I don't think it's strong enough to well represent DT to a new fan for the purposes of this question, although I agree it does have a good blend of DT's elements, especially as it's their most recent album and thus includes influence from everything that came before it.