Is it just me or is train of thought underrated?

[Aythesryche]

A great driving album.

I agree

[Ruba]

No, it's overrated. As I Am is among the worst DT songs. The only tracks I really care about are Vacant and Stream of Consciousness. The remaining four songs are good, but I rarely listen to them. And I can't see why ITNOG is so popular, it is good, but the chorus is repeated waaaaaaaaay to many times.

Perhaps I just don't like so heavy music. A C/drop C-tuning is a major turnoff for me.

[Dacling]

I used to really despise Honor Thy Father. It was one of my least favorite songs. One day I was playing a game and thought about it and I figured I never really gave the song a chance because I was never much into the heavier aspect of DT but that had grown on me over time. So I just put it on a loop and listened to it like 10 times in a row and by the end of it I was loving it and now it's probably top 50 for me. Not too high up there but definitely worth listening to. Especially in the car.

[MetropolisWatches]

And I can't see why ITNOG is so popular, it is good, but the chorus is repeated waaaaaaaaay to many times.

Glad to see someone feels the same way.

[Implode]

Like I said, it's gets to be exhausting.

[jonnybaxy]

This album is neither brilliant nor awful, as others such as SFAM, 6DoIT, 8VM are brilliant, it goes unnoticed, it does what its supposed to, they are songs with adrenaline which hype up the crowd as DT wanted, under-rated, but not amazing.

[yorost]

This album is neither brilliant nor awful, as others such as SFAM, 6DoIT, 8VM are brilliant, it goes unnoticed, it does what its supposed to, they are songs with adrenaline which hype up the crowd as DT wanted, under-rated, but not amazing.

Octavarium is as controversial as Train of Thought in regards to fan opinions.  It's trash if you ask me.

Train of Thought
Octavarium

[jonnybaxy]

This album is neither brilliant nor awful, as others such as SFAM, 6DoIT, 8VM are brilliant, it goes unnoticed, it does what its supposed to, they are songs with adrenaline which hype up the crowd as DT wanted, under-rated, but not amazing.

Octavarium is as controversial as Train of Thought in regards to fan opinions.  It's trash if you ask me.

Train of Thought
Octavarium

I respect your opinion but WHAT!?

[yorost]

The title track is awesome, but it's the only Dream Theater album I can't listen to the whole thing.  Most of the album is pretty blah, the only other songs I like are still not ones I particularly love.  It's their one release I genuinely dislike.

[The Presence of Frenemies]

The title track is awesome, but it's the only Dream Theater album I can't listen to the whole thing.  Most of the album is pretty blah, the only other songs I like are still not ones I particularly love.  It's their one release I genuinely dislike.

Not sure I'd use the word "dislike"--DT is still DT, and a cut above 98% of other music even at their worst (for my personal taste, not necessarily objectively, of course)--but otherwise I 100% agree with this assessment of Octavarium.

[SuperTaco]

This was my first DT song and first album so it holds a special place in my library. I think it was important for the band to release an album like this. It shows the ballsiest side of the band while also staying very progressive. The production is mean, in your face and quite bass heavy which is a huge contrast to most of their discography, namely the follow up, 8VM. For me, TOT is the perfect showcase for the heavy metal side of Dream Theater. Yet with all it's metal influence, 5 of the 7 songs are over 10 minutes. Just another prime example of how awesome these guys are at blending metal/prog together and making it sound right.

[7thHanyou]

Train of Thought is an album I like and want to love.  The musicianship is fantastic for the most part, and there isn't one song on it I'd remove.  As I Am, Vacant, and Stream of Consciousness are the strong points for me.  That said, I think This Dying Soul and Endless Sacrifice are too long for their own good--This Dying Soul in particular has a lot of punch to it for a while, but wears out its welcome.

There's a bigger problem here, and it's one of the issues I have with heavier Dream Theater tracks.  First of all, the lyrics are laughable for a good portion of the album.  They don't sound as sincerely aggressive as they should.  More importantly, James LaBrie's voice just doesn't sell me on any of it, even the tracks I like.  As I Am should sound much more aggressive than it actually does.  LaBrie's voice, coupled with the lyrics (though As I Am might be the lyrical high point of the album), sounds, well, a bit whiny to me.  The rest of this album follows this trend.  Worse is LaBrie's "rapping" on  Honor Thy Father.  I don't mind it just because it's often confused for rapping, but it's a bit shrill and doesn't add anything to the song.

Things like this conspire to make the album less interesting to me.  They're stumbling blocks, and have been since at least Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, but are most pronounced on Train of Thought, Systematic Chaos, and Black Clouds and Silver Linings.

LaBrie took an aggressive approach to a couple of songs in Awake that I liked, and that's distinctly different from what he did on Train of Thought.  If he was capable of it when they recorded ToT, I would have preferred it.

Musically, Train of Thought is great, but it's still very much modern DT so it carries with it some idiosyncrasies I'm not so fond of.  In the interest of full disclosure, I admit that I prefer the prog side to the metal side of DT.  I can still appreciate a good, heavy album, and Stream of Consciousness and Vacant in particular are devoid of the "problems" I've pinpointed with the rest of the album.