DT album ranking

[abydos]

Upon listening to SDOIT in its entirely and the official release of BCSL I've rearranged my rankings a bit.

1. Awake
2. SDOIT (previously on 4th place)
3. Falling Into Infinity
4. Images and Words (previously on 2nd place)
5. SFAM
6. Train of Thought
7. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
8. WDADU (only because of the vocals, if we use live versions this album with James it will be on 6th place)
9. Octavarium
10. Systematic Chaos

[Chigun]

I've been doing a lot of lists 'round here lately. Might as well keep it up. :3

1. Awake
2. FII
3. 6 Degrees
4. BC&SL
*A Change Of Seasons*
5. SFAM
6. I&W
7. 8VM
8. SC
9. WD&DU
10. ToT

[Tick]

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Systematic Chaos
Falling Into Infinity
Octavarium
Train of Thought
Scenes From A Memory
Awake
When Dream and Day Unite
Images and Words

I & A last ? Wow !

[skydivingninja]

Images
Six Degrees
Scenes
Black Clouds
Octavarium
Awake
Falling Into Infinity
When Day and Dream Unite
Train of Thought
Systematic Chaos

[Tick]

Scenes
I&W
Chaos
Octavarium
Awake
FII
TOT
WDADU

Its too early for me to properly place the new album on a a list. It would be too hard to be objective. I think in a couple of months when I do add it, it will place very high.

[Ruesap]

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

[Infinite Cactus]

1.Awake
2.Images and Words
3.FII
4When Dream And Day Unite
5.Black Clouds And Silver Linings
6.Octavarium
7.Systematic Chaos
8.Six Degrees
9.Scenes From A Memory
10.Train Of Thought

[Portrucci]

1. Awake (The DT masterpiece, I love all the tracks. Voices, Erotomania, 6:00, Mirror, Lie, Scarred, SDV. Outstanding)
2. Images & Words (Superb music, Metropolis and Learning to Live are in my top 5 songs list. TTT is also a favourite)
3. Train of Thought (Very fun, heavy album. Awesome in the car, HTF, SoC and As I Am are my highlights)
4. Scenes From a Memory (Great production and great music. Some tracks aren't really listenable out of context though)
5. Black Clouds and Silver Linings (No fillers, ANTR, TSF and TCOS are in my top 10, Big improvement over SC)
6. Falling into Infinity (Catchy and listenable, some nice tunes here. ToT, LiTS, HK, PS)
7. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (Apart from TGP, this album feels bloated and far too long between great moments)
8. When Dream and Day Unite (I really like this album, the highs aren't very high, but it has some top songs. AFIL, YJ, TKH)
9. Octavarium (The title track is my favourite song, too many meh songs on this album drag it down; NE, IWBY, TALW, TW, SS)
10. Systematic Chaos (Their worst album IMO. Heaviness that lacks the energy of ToT. INPoE part 2 is particularly disappointing)

[setrataeso]

Images & Words
Octavarium
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Scenes From a Memory
Train of Thought
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Awake
Systematic Chaos
When Dream and Day Unite
Falling into Infinity

[Secor]

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

[Wrath42147]

Scenes from a Memory
Awake
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Images and Words
Black Clouds & silver Linings
Systematic Chaos
Train of Thought
Octavarium
Falling into Infinity
When Dream and Day Unite

[chknptpie]

I feel the need to preface this with the fact that I have only been listening to DT for about 2 months now. This list is rapidly changing. Scenes started at #1, its been replaced.

1. Images and Words
2. Scenes from a Memory
3. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
4. Falling into Infinity
5. Awake
6. Octavarium

These are albums I feel I have yet to fully digest...

7. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
8. Systematic Chaos
9. Train of Thought
10. When Dream and Day Unite

[Global Laziness]

Here's my list for the time being, although I don't feel that Black Clouds has been digested well enough to be appropriately placed quite yet:

1. Awake
2. Images and Words
T3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
T3. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
5. Scenes from a Memory
6. Train of Thought
7. When Dream and Day Unite
8. Systematic Chaos
9. Octavarium
10. Falling into Infinity

[Ultimetalhead]

As of now:

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

Whenever I listen to any of their albums, I love them. It's almost useless to rank them, because I love them all like a mother to its child.

[j]

Updated:

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

Numbers 4, 5, and 6 are basically tied, but that would have been a cop-out.   

-J

[Global Laziness]

Oh, so I'm copping out, am I?

[millahh]

Awake
Scenes
I&W
BC&SL
6DoIT
FII
ToT
8vm
WDaDU
SC

[j]

Oh, so I'm copping out, am I?

I'll let it slide since BC&SL is still sinking in.  I expect you to fix it as soon as possible though.   

-J

[staveoffzombies]

Updated ranking:

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

[Wrath42147]

I can decide which gets the number 4 spot I&W or BC&SL

[glaurung]

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

[toao]

Scenes of a Memory*
Octavarium *
BCSL *
6doit *
Images&Worrds
Awake
systematic chaos
ToT
falling into infinity
(WDADU)

The top 4 will swap positions soon...I am totally in love with BCSL right now which is why I ranked it fairly high considering I've only been listening to the album for a few days.

[InstrumentalFiasco]

1. Images and Words - Just a perfect album all around.
2. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - Love both discs and has such a full rich sound, It's very cool.
3. Awake - Dark, weird, addicting.
4. Metropolis Pt 2, SFAM - Great Concept, Almost perfect record, better as a full listen.
5. Black Clouds and Silver Linings - My new Addiction, love every song.

6. Octavarium - Underrated as fuck, not the best but That title track, These Walls, SS all Worthy songs.
7. Train of Thought - Good Heavy album, one dimensional at times but still enjoyable.
8. Falling Into Infinity - Really grew on me but it's not the best, Like most songs, even You not ME  
9. Systematic Chaos - Boring, still DT though...hate the production but I listen to it. ITPOE Pt 2 is good
10. When Dream and Day Unite - Haven't gotten it yet.

And A Change of Seasons is a great E.p up there with the top 5.

[hefdaddy42]

As of right now...

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

[Arcaeus]

Masterpieces
1 - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
2 - Images & Words

Amazing
3 - Awake
4 - Black Clouds & Silver Linings
5 - Octavarium

Great
6 - Scenes From A Memory
7 - Systematic Chaos
8 - Falling Into Infinity

Okay
9 - Train Of Thought
10 - When Dream And Day Unite

[Nihil-Morari]

Amazing
1 - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
2 - Images & Words

Great
3 - Scenes From A Memory
4 - Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Okay
5 - Awake
6 - Octavarium
7 - Falling Into Infinity
8 - Train Of Thought

Meh
9 - Systematic Chaos
10 - When Dream And Day Unite

Changed it a little bit, but I mostly agree with you

[nightmare_cinema]

1 - Scenes from a Memory

2 - Images & Words

3 - A Change of Seasons (putting this up here even though it's an EP purely for the title song)

4 - Train of Thought

5 - Systematic Chaos

6 - Black Clouds & Silver Linings

7 - Octavarium

8 - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence Disc 1

9 - Awake

10 - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence Disc 2

11 - Falling into Infinity

12 - When Dream and Day Unite

SFAM & I&W are my two favourite albums by anybody, ever, I worship them. I've never quite grasped the song Six Degrees, which I find strange as so many people around here seem to rate it incredibly highly, I feel like I'm missing something   I felt it necessary to separate the two discs for rating because the first disc of individual songs in Six Degrees, I love.

I'm surprised at how lowly a lot of you are rating systematic chaos, I love that album! Even if all the other songs were terrible, ITPOE would still put it highly in my opinion. And it's cool/weird to see people placing my favourites pretty low. I love how passionate everyone on the board is about dream theater but how we're all passionated about different albums, it makes for interesting reading.

I also love how I can love an album such as Awake as much as I do, yet have 8 other albums I like more, because dream theater are just THAT good 

[the-glass-prison]

1) Train of Thought

2) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (Disc 1)

3) Systematic Chaos

4) Scenes From a Memory

5) Black Clouds & Silver Linings

6) Images and Words

7) Octavarium

8) Falling into Infinity

9) Awake

10) Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence (Disc 2)

11) A Change Of Seasons

12) When Dream and Day Unite

That's how it looks for me at the minute. I don't play when dream and day unite very often, I don't like it very much. The sound production and vocals are pretty poor. Just as well JLB took over the vocals.

[InTheNameOfGod]

I'm surprised at how lowly a lot of you are rating systematic chaos, I love that album! Even if all the other songs were terrible, ITPOE would still put it highly in my opinion. And it's cool/weird to see people placing my favourites pretty low. I love how passionate everyone on the board is about dream theater but how we're all passionated about different albums, it makes for interesting reading.

I agree. I don't see how 8V can be any higher than SC.

The only thing that saves Octavarium is the last 2 tracks. Tracks 1-6 are all extremely average, while SC has ITPOE, Ministry, Forsaken, Repentance - all worthy songs IMO.

[vetuaki]

Nice thread to start posting.
My opinion is as follows:

Group A (amazing albums):
1. Images and Words / 2. Awake / 3. Scenes from a Memory

Group B (great albums):
4. Train of Thought / 5. Octavarium   / 6. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Group C (good albums):
7. Falling into Infinity / 8. Systematic Chaos

Group D (ok albums):
9. When Dream and Day Unite

Black Clouds & Silver Linings will be in Group B, but I don't now yet in which position it will stay (maybe in the fifth position).


As of now, this is the resulting ranking from all the posts in this thread (between brackets: rating, from 1 to 9):

Images and Words (7,67)
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (6,78)
Awake (6,60)
Scenes from a Memory (6,59)
Octavarium   (4,47)
Train of Thought   (4,30)
Falling into Infinity (3,49)
Systematic Chaos (3,03)
When Dream and Day Unite (2,17)

Some bits and pieces:
-Only SfaM and SDoIT have not been ranked last (I&W and Awake only once).
-Only WDaDU has not been ranked first (FiI and SC only once).
-I&W has been always ranked in the first four positions, excepting five votes.
-WDaDU has been ranked above the fourth position only once.

[j]

Welcome!

Those statistics are interesting, and I guess they are about what I would expect.  I might have said that Awake would end up above 6DOIT, but I get the impression that it is a little divisive and far less unanimously loved around here than I&W and 6DOIT.

-J

[PixelDream]

Masterpieces

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (that's disc 1 and 2, I love them both to bits)
2. Awake
3. Images & Words

Incredible

4. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
5. Scenes from a Memory - see note.

Great

6. Falling into Infinity
7. Train of Thought
8. Octavarium

Okay

9. Systematic Chaos
10. When Dream and Day Unite

BC&SL #4 on my list, I never expected such an incredible album this late in their career. Dream Theater rules.

Note on #5 SFAM: It used to be my absolute number 1 album, almost like my favorite album of all time. It appears I don't play it all that much anymore, even the albums below it I play more. I think it has to do with the fact that it really has to be digested as a whole, or else it won't work. But SFAM is definately a legendary album that I'm sure will keep it's value for many decades. In that aspect, it deserves to be rated even higher. But considering I'm a bit tired of it, it ranks 5th.

[CrimsonSunrise]

I&W
Awake
8V
BC&SL
6DOIT
FII
SFAM
TOT
SC
WDADU


**While only an EP.... ACOS is still hands down the best work the band has done

[tbw2445]

Awake
Scenes from a Memory
Images and Words
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Six Degrees
Octavarium
Train of Thought
Systematic Chaos
Falling into Infinity
When Dream and Day Unite

the list always changes for me lol

[sonatafanica]

1. Metropolis pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory

2. Awake

3. Images and Words

4. Black Clouds & Silver Linings

5. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

6. Octavarium

7. Systematic Chaos

8. Train of Thought

9. Falling Into Infinity

10. When Dream and Day Unite