The order of DT albums you first listened to..

[Images and Scenes]

If you were a late bloomer to DT like I was (I started listening in 2006) Then can you remember the order of albums you listened to?

I believe mine went like this:

Octavarium (I distinctly remember this being the first and it blew me away)
Images and Words (after seeing it in a music store)
Falling into Infinity
Scenes from a Memory (Blew me away again)
Train of Thought
Awake
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence  (Blew me away even more)
When Dream and Day Unite

Systematic Chaos
BC&SL
ADTOE

(Obviously the last 3 are in that order as they came after 2006)

[BlobVanDam]

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - early 2003
Then either IaW or ToT. I can't remember which order, but those were the next two. I got ToT not long after it came out though.

Then after that, all of them at the same time (up to ToT, as this was before Octavarium came out).

[Glass Moonlight]

I hate to admit this, but only this year I was introduced to Dream Theater (I'm 16 mind you, so I use that in my defense!) In any case, my friend showing me them has probably been the best thing that has happened to me this year. I remember we were on Skype talking, back in March I think. He sent me a link the DT's discography, and told me to listen to Images and Words. The rest is history. In any case, here's how I went

Images and Words (classic)
Awake (My personal favorite for it's lyrical content and awesome music in general)
Metropolis part 2 (Favorite concept album)
Falling Into Infinity (I really like this album tbh, probably in my top 5 DT albums)
A Dramatic Turn of Events (Still taking this one in, my favorites are This is the Life and Bridges)
Octavarium (Title track may be my favorite song of all time)
ACOS (song) (This one grew on me, love it)
Train of Thought (This one is great too)
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (This one I'm still taking in too, but overall I love the theme of this album, and the musicianship is insane)

I haven't heard SC or BCSL yet, I gotta get around to it.  EDIT: WDADU completely slipped my mind. I haven't listened to the entire thing but I love A Fortune in Lies and Status Seeker, and well everything I've listened to off it

[krands85]

Octavarium was definitely first. I checked it out after a friend played part of it for me on a car journey. After that, I read up on the band and discovered Train of Thought was considered their heaviest album so that was next. After that I had a period of not listening to them until Systematic Chaos came out - so that would be third. Not sure about the rest, but as an educated guess probably I&W, then Scenes and Awake. (Took me a long time to appreciate I&W - I used to think Metropolis was the only great song, then I realised it was my favourite album ever  ) BC&SL and ADTOE the most recent of course, when they were released.

[PROGdrummer]

I haven't heard SC or BCSL yet, I gotta get around to it.

When listening to these 2 albums, dont expect something like Images or Scenes, expect lots of metal and a little bit of uninspired rock. They are both great albums, but if youve saved those for last, dont expect too much mind-blowingness.

[Glass Moonlight]

I haven't heard SC or BCSL yet, I gotta get around to it.

When listening to these 2 albums, dont expect something like Images or Scenes, expect lots of metal and a little bit of uninspired rock. They are both great albums, but if youve saved those for last, dont expect too much mind-blowingness.

That's one of the reasons I've been holding off on it. I mean, I've listened to Wither and really like it, but I don't know, Black Clouds from what I heard is more metal oriented. Not a bad thing, but one of the whole reasons I like DT is they manage to combine that heaviness with some incredible melodic tracks (Awake has the best balance of this IMO). Needless to say however I will be giving both albums a listen soon.

[PROGdrummer]

I actually LOVE Black Clouds. I hated most of it at first, but now ive learned to appreciate every song (except A Rite of Passage, that song will always be shit). That album is full of really beautiful melodies, you just have to listen harder for them because theyre surrounded by so much heavy riffage and double bass drums. Still a fantastic album.

[wasteland]

I haven't heard SC or BCSL yet, I gotta get around to it.

When listening to these 2 albums, dont expect something like Images or Scenes, expect lots of metal and a little bit of uninspired rock. They are both great albums, but if youve saved those for last, dont expect too much mind-blowingness.

That's one of the reasons I've been holding off on it. I mean, I've listened to Wither and really like it, but I don't know, Black Clouds from what I heard is more metal oriented. Not a bad thing, but one of the whole reasons I like DT is they manage to combine that heaviness with some incredible melodic tracks (Awake has the best balance of this IMO). Needless to say however I will be giving both albums a listen soon.

No DT fan will ever be worth of this title without listening to The Count Of Tuscany. No one. Love it or hate it, but never ignore it!

I'll get you a live version (the best one), right now, you have no excuses!    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR3f8Yv9Q_k

[Buddyhunter1]

Octavarium (once)
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Octavarium (for real this time)
Six Degrees, Train Of Thought, & Systematic Chaos (got them all at the same time!)
Scenes From A Memory
Images And Words
Awake or Falling Into Infinity (can't remember)
A Dramatic Turn Of Events

When Dream And Day Unite: Haven't heard it.

So yeah, Black Clouds & Silver Linings got me into Dream Theater. 

[Onno]

Octavarium (once)
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Octavarium (for real this time)
Six Degrees, Train Of Thought, & Systematic Chaos (got them all at the same time!)
Scenes From A Memory
Images And Words
Awake or Falling Into Infinity (can't remember)
A Dramatic Turn Of Events

When Dream And Day Unite: Haven't heard it.

So yeah, Black Clouds & Silver Linings got me into Dream Theater. 

BC&SL got me into DT too; seems I'm not the only one after all  Have you listened to When Dream And Day Reunite? WDADU is my least favourite DT album, but WDADRU is pretty awesome.

[senecadawg2]

If my memory serves me right...

SFAM
FII
BC&SL
ToT
Octavarium
SDOIT
Images and Words
Awake
WDADU
Systematic Chaos
ADTOE

[54_diplomats]

I started listening to DT in 2008 I believe. The order I went through is... very wonky. I listened to Octavarium and Train of Thought relatively around the same time. After Black Clouds I started spacing out their discography so I wouldn't go through it very quickly.

1. Octavarium (My first. Still love it)
2. Train of Thought
3. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
4. Images and Words (Incredible first listen)
5. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (Didn't get into it till much later, still had I&W awesomeness syndrome. I had listened to TGP before though)
6. Awake (I didn't like it the first 2 or 3 listens, but it just clicked after a while and it became my favorite album)
7. Systematic Chaos
8. FII AND ADToE (I listened to both of these together. I liked FII more, but for the most part I listened to both equally)
9. WDADU (I was planning on avoiding this all together, but I bought it anyways and I love it)
10. A Change of Seasons (Phenomenal. Left it near the end because of the hype that surrounded it)

11. Scenes From a Memory (Haven't listened to this yet, but I plan to once this semester is over. I did my research back then and this album along with Images and Words are what people called the best. Since this is essentially the second part of Metropolis I put it at the end of my list so that I could hear their "best" last.)

EXTRAS: After SFAM I'll get stuff like the FII demos and whatnot. Actually I'd appreciate it if you guys can tell me what CD's I'd have to buy to listen to all the other songs like Eve and Speak to Me (except for Majesty Demos. THAT I won't listen to lol)

[Glass Moonlight]

Eve is on the single for The Silent Man, as a bside. The other demos and stuff can be bought through Dream Theater's official bootleg series. Also, I listened to The Count of Tuscany, it's insane.

EDIT: You're gonna shit your pants when you listen to scenes. Not only is it one of the best concept albums of all time, most of the songs on it just kick ass by themselves.

[Cedar redaC]

I discovered Dream Theater about a year ago like Glass Moonlight. I first heard of them on Dimarzio's website after listening to a sound clip of the isolated guitar solo from "A Rite of Passage". I figured, hey, that's pretty cool, I wonder what the rest of the song sounds like. I looked it up on grooveshark, and was soon listening to Black Clouds and Silver Linings regularly (although I still don't own the album, ironically). I was amazed that a band could not only weave so many different textures and moods into a song, but also write a song over 20 minutes long that could keep my attention. A few weeks later, A Dramatic turn of events came out, and the rest is history. I suppose this is my list, albums I own are in bold and albums I've only heard parts of are in italic:

Black Clouds and Silver Linings
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Images and Words
Scenes from a Memory
Octavarium
Systematic Chaos
Falling into Infinity
Train of Thought
Awake
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Finally, seeing Dream Theater live got me interested in When Dream and Day Unite

[The Letter M]

I first became a fan in early 2004, and according to my Amazon.com order history, here's the order I bought their albums online:
When Dream And Day Unite - February 25th, 2004
(I believe I bought this first as I normally start with a band's first album when discovering them)

Awake - March 7th, 2004
A Change Of Seasons - March 16th, 2004

Scenes From A Memory - April 8th, 2004
Images And Words - April 8th, 2004
(These two were arguably their most popular albums at the time, so I bought them together, and I believe I saved them for after the others, since up to their 5th album, these two were their "best").

Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence - May 25th, 2004
Live Scenes From New York - June 1st, 2004
(I got these two next since they were the last studio album I hadn't owned and the best live album of theirs at the time)

I'm pretty sure I bought Train Of Thought at a brick-and-mortar store, so between February and June of 2004, I owned all 7 of the band's studio albums up to that point.

After that, I bought their remaining two live albums (Live At Marquee and Once In A LIVEtime) on December 30th of 2004, completing my DT collection of officially released studio and live albums, but around that same time (as I was on vacation across the country in California), I bought Live At Budokan on CD and DVD another brick-and-mortar, so LAB was my first NEW Dream Theater purchase.

When New Year's came around, and I had Christmas money to spend, I got the LTE and TA studio albums, but eventually spent most of 2005 buying a core 70's Prog collection (all the Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, and Pink Floyd studio albums, as well as some Jethro Tull and ELP). I remember anxiously awaiting the release of Octavarium! Since then, I've been on-top of every new DT release, often pre-ordering each major release.

-Marc.

[chaotic_ripper]

I started in 1998 I think.
Awake
Images
A change of seasons
Falling into infinity
Dream and day
Then got Scenes when it came out and every album after that on the release day

[GasparXR]

2009:

Greatest Hit
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Octavarium

2010:

Systematic Chaos
Chaos in Motion (DVD/CD)
Images and Words
Awake
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
Score (CD)
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Falling Into Infinity
Train of Thought

2011:

A Change of Seasons (EP)
Live Scenes from New York (CD)
Live at Budokan (CD)
When Dream and Day Unite
A Dramatic Turn of Events

2012:

Live at the Marquee (CD)
Once in a LIVEtime (CD)

[Phoenix87x]

1. Awake
2. Falling Into Infinity
3. SFAM
4. Train of Thought
5. SDOIT
6. Images and words
7. When Dream and day unite
8. Octavarium
9. Systematic Chaos
10. Black clouds and silver linings
11. ADTOE

[DebraKadabra]

Images and Words (1992/1993)
Awake (I won a promo CD after it came out in 1994)
The covers portion of the A Change of Seasons EP

BIG drop out of DT land....

then...

Metropolis Pt. 2:  Scenes From a Memory in 2006
Systematic Chaos before it came out
Octavarium (can't remember exactly when, but it was around 2007 that I REALLY got into it)
Black Clouds & Silver Linings before it came out
A Dramatic Turn of Events before it came out

You'll see that my list is missing When Dream and Day Unite, Falling Into Infinity, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and Train of Thought.  Haven't fully listened to all four.

[Elite]

Images and Words / Scenes from a Memory (I grew up with these, so I can't say which came first)
Awake
WDADU / FII / Train of Thought / Octavarium / Systematic Chaos (don't know the order)

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Black Clouds and Silver Linings
A Dramatic Turn of Events

[TheGreatPretender]

SFAM - I loved Dance of Eternity long before listening to this album so I knew this was the one I had to get first.
SC - Lived by to all my expectations after hearing SFAM.
BCSL - I hated to admit this to myself, but this album was fairly disappointing. Much less interesting than what I'd heard up to that point.
T&W - Not as heavy as I expected, but definitely lived up to the hype.
SDOIT - Didn't feel like that big of a deal, but it grew on me since then.
ToT - I knew from the SC documentary that this one was 'balls to the wall', and it definitely lived up to that. 
Octavarium - A little underwhelming. I'd heard a few songs from it on the Greatest Hits and some live performances, so the songs that were new to me didn't live up to the rest.
FII - Exceeded my expectations. I was expecting something really watered down, but it was really good!
Awake - Really disappointed me when I first heard it. I thought it wasn't very good at all. It has grown on me since, though.

I don't remember at which point I've heard WDADU. But it wasn't anything special. Again, some of the songs grew on me since then.

Then it was a whole year, long, agonizing year before ADTOE came out.

[adameastment]

Systematic Chaos (funny thing is, it's my least favorite DT album, but at the time I fucking loved it)
Images and Words
Awake (these two were around the same time)
A Change of Seasons (are we counting ACOS?)
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (these two again about the same time)
Black Clouds and Silver Linings (Linings is a funny word)
Octavarium
Train of Thought
Falling to Infinity
When Dream and Day Unite (I bought these four at the same time, was a good day)
Scenes from a Memory
A Dramatic Turn of Events (best till last?)

This was all between about 2007 and 2011

[Destiny Of Chaos]

Images & Words
Awake

Falling Into Infinity
When Dream & Day Unite

Scenes From A Memory
Six Degrees
Train of Thought
Octavarium
Systematic Chaos
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Dramatic Turn of Events

[Super Dude]

1. Train of Thought - I thought it was terrible at first. It took me almost a month to finally learn to tolerate ItNoG, and then eventually I came to enjoy the whole album. July 2005
2. Awake - Got it from the same friend who gave me Train of Thought, the first DT CD I popped in of my own free will. September 2005
3. Octavarium - First DT album I bought. Liked it but the title track depressed the hell outta me. January 2006
4. Scenes from a Memory - My dad bought it for me. Loved it, especially Overture 1928 and Finally Free. January 2006
5. Images and Words - My version of Metropolis Part I cut off about three minutes early, which I wouldn't learn until almost half a year later. February 2006
6. Falling Into Infinity - I didn't understand at the time why people hated it. I still don't. February 2006
7. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - iTunes only had six of the tracks. I had to find the others on my own. February 2006
8. When Dream and Day Unite - Somehow so rare, the only way I was able to get it was by ordering the Dutch import version or some weird shit like that. March 2006, mere days before going to see my first ever DT concert.
9. Systematic Chaos - The first DT album release I waited for, but I didn't pre-order it because I knew no one likes Dream Theater lol. Got it on the release date, picked it up after school. June whatever-it-was, 2007
10. Black Clouds & Silver Linings - This is the first and so far only DT album I pre-ordered. The next day I got to hook up with a chick, it was awesome. June 22, 2009 I think.
11. A Dramatic Turn of Events - Picked it up the weekend after it was released. I was at college and decided to just go out and pick it up. September or whatever 2011

[BlobVanDam]

You'll see that my list is missing When Dream and Day Unite, Falling Into Infinity, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and Train of Thought.  Haven't fully listened to all four.

WTF Deb! Fix that right now! The three bolded albums deserve your full cooperation!

[Cedar redaC]

You'll see that my list is missing When Dream and Day Unite, Falling Into Infinity, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and Train of Thought.  Haven't fully listened to all four.

WTF Deb! Fix that right now! The three bolded albums deserve your full cooperation!

Hmm... Drop Six Degrees off of that list, and you've got my "haven't fully listened" list as well...

[BlobVanDam]

You'll see that my list is missing When Dream and Day Unite, Falling Into Infinity, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and Train of Thought.  Haven't fully listened to all four.

WTF Deb! Fix that right now! The three bolded albums deserve your full cooperation!

Hmm... Drop Six Degrees off of that list, and you've got mine as well...

Well hop to it, pal! They're both great albums. Am I gonna have to start busting asses in here?







Because I'm far too lazy to do that.

[Dreamer81]

I started listening in 2000 but SFAM was not the first album i've heard.


I&W (at the first listening it was terrible, but after a few listening i was caught completely)
SFAM
ACOS
Awake
FII
SDOIT
TOT
8V
SC
BC&SL
ADTOE


And WDADU somewhere between SFAM and TOT..

[MoraWintersoul]

I hate to admit this, but only this year I was introduced to Dream Theater (I'm 16 mind you, so I use that in my defense!)

Nothing wrong with that, I became a fan at 16 too

When I first got the albums, sat down and listened to them from beginning to end, I went chronologically from IAW. I only got BCSL and listened to it for the first time in the fall of 2010, that's how long it took me to familiarize myself with all the others I guess however, back in "checking out random tracks" phase, which lasted from 14 to 16 (sorry about the incomplete sentence, I'm not AWAKE yet, hah, awake, get it, hah *shoots self*) most of the stuff I checked out was from Scenes and Images and FII. And the very first song I heard was Hollow Years.

[MoraWintersoul]

T&W

Timages and Words.

[YtseJamittaja]

ToT was the first one for me. 8V was second. Then maybe FII and I&W.

[Ruba]

I have never listened BC&SL in whole. Don't have any urge for it.

But the others.

Images and Words January 2010
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence January 2010
Falling into Infinity March 2010
Awake May 2010
Metropolis pt.2: Scenes from a Memory July 2010
Systematic Chaos July 2010
Train of Thought September 2010
When Dream and Day Unite December 2010
Octavarium December 2010
A Dramatic Turn of Events September 2011

[Lolzeez]

Octavarium (thanks to panic attack)
Images And Words
ACOS
Six Degrees (Blew my balls off)
SFAM
WDADU
Awake
FII
ToT
SC
BC&SL
ADTOE

[RoeDent]

The order I bought my DT albums:

Sep 2009
Octavarium
Scenes from a Memory

Dec 2009
A Change of Seasons
Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Feb 2010
Once in a LIVEtime
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Feb 2011
Images and Words
Falling Into Infinity

May 2011
Awake

Sep 2011
A Dramatic Turn of Events

I don't have the other albums yet.

[Cedar redaC]

T&W

Timages and Words.