DT album ranking

[Cool Chris]

1. Awake
2. Images and Words

3. Scenes from a Memory - has nostalgic appeal since it got me back in to DT after a down period in my life. Appeal has waned since release, but not much

4. Train of Thought
5. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - the hardest album for me to rank. If it was just the first disc, it would be #3 easily, just the second disc, it would be #10
6. Systematic Chaos – CM and TDEN are two of my least favorite DT songs. Otherwise I like the rest of the tracks more than others seem to. 
7. Black Clouds and Silver Linings – Still up in the air on this one. A collection of good songs. Nothing fantastic, nothing horrible.
8. Octavarium – The opposite of BC&SL. Some great songs, some horrible songs. The great ones are great, though.

9. When Dream and Day Unite – Decent album, I like it for what it is.
10. Falling into Infinity – Never liked this album much, and at this point probably never will.

[yorost]

Black CLouds and Silver Linings
Systematic Chaos
Octavarium

Train of Thought
Six Derees of Inner Turbulence

Scenes From A Memory


Falling Into Infinity

Awake


Images and Words

When Dream and Day unite

I don't get it, you listed them in chronological order?  You prefer them strictly in their reverse order of release?

[ScioPath]

Yeah I don't get it either. 

[BRGM]

okay...

But I think they're seriosult getting better and better for every album! :O and the ones that are grouped is pretty tied.

[yorost]

It's a surprising ordering, I'll give you that.

[LKap13]

Rankings as of my 4 hour car ride today:

1)Awake
2)Images & Words
3)Scenes from a Memory
4)SDoIT
5)Train of Thought
6)Falling into Infinity
7)Black Clouds & Silver Linings
T-8)WDADU
--Octavarium
--Systematic Chaos

[robwebster]

How can Awake be NOT at the top?

Easily

[...]

1. Octavarium

I like you.

[moffatt]

How can Awake be NOT at the top?

Easily

[...]

1. Octavarium

I like you.

I don't see how everyone can't love it!

[ariich]

It's a surprising ordering, I'll give you that.

A couple of people said that the first time he posted his ranking, but I don't see why it's that surprising. This thread in particular shows how diverse the fanbase is, and how every single album is high in some people's rankings and low in others. So to me, no ranking is surprising.

[Jamesman42]

How can Awake be NOT at the top?

Easily

[...]

1. Octavarium

I like you.

I don't see how everyone can't love it!

My rankings always switch around, and sometimes 8VM takes the top spot. I love you two.

[BRGM]

agreed with james, for me, there's no album that has it's definite spot in the ranking, it varies pretty much.

[AwakeFromOctavarium]

I thought Octavarium was a single?

[yorost]

It's a surprising ordering, I'll give you that.

A couple of people said that the first time he posted his ranking, but I don't see why it's that surprising. This thread in particular shows how diverse the fanbase is, and how every single album is high in some people's rankings and low in others. So to me, no ranking is surprising.

To some extent, you're right.  However, there are 3,628,800 different rankings of the albums if you don't allow ties, as well as a strong fanbase bias towards 4 albums in the first 6, skewing distributions towards rankings favouring those albums.  All but the rankings that fall very closely to general opinions are actually extremely rare, especially when you think about how many people have actually heard all of Dream theater's albums.

That there are many rankings that are rare is not surprising, but one with such a specific property certainly stands out

[RoeDent]

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

[CJkins]

Scenes From a Memory
Systematic Chaos - This album introduced me to Dream Theater, so it's kinda personal album for me. I think it's just great, probably it has something to with me being younger and more into the fast paced songs, and I really did like the faster singing. (And yeah, i'm a pretty new fan compared to you guys)
Images and Words
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Awake
Octavarium
Train of Thought
Falling Into Infinity
When Dream and Day Unite - Mostly due to Dominici's vocals.

[LTE3]

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

[FinkPloyd]

1- Images and Words
2- Awake
3- Six Degress Of Inner Turbulance
4- Metropolis II - Scenes From A Memory
5- Falling Into Infinity
6- Black Clouds and Silver Linings
7- Octavarium
8- Train Of Thought
9- When Dream and Day Unite. (I mean Reunite, I can't stand CD's voice)
10- Systematic Shits. (I mean Chaos)

I can place Awake #1 but Learning To Live owns all. 

[tri.ad]

I like the way you think (leaving SFAM aside).

[Amoniz]

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

[Raiden]

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

[juice]

For the time being...

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

[wolfking]

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

[ThroughHerEyesDude6]

1. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory

2. Images and Words

3. Awake / Falling Into Infinity / Octavarium / Systematic Chaos

4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence / Train of Thought

5. When Dream and Day Unite

[Zantera]

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

6DOIT and Awake are pretty much even for me, with SFAM slightly after.
ToT, 8VM and SC are albums i listen to occasionally but not often, the lowest 4 are the albums i pretty much never listen to, because i find them to be pretty bad.

[M-boogie]

1.Awake
2.Scenes from a Memory
3.Images and Turds...i mean words
4.ToT
5.SDOIT
6.BC&SL
7.Octavarium
8.Systematic Chaos
9.Falling into Infinity
10.WDAU

[Jarlaxle]

Everybody mosey on over to general discussion and check out the ultimate DT album survivor and see how your list stacks up against DTF's

[Dittomist]

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

[PixelDream]

Holy three - this barely changes at all. On these albums, everything is just right, and there is magic.

1) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2) Images & Words
3) Awake

These albums have everything balanced out right. Atmosphere, DT-ness, cool instrumental work, awesome vocals, and I feel they have the most soul of all DT albums. The emotions are feeling real to me.

The Identity Crisis - On these albums, DT are evidently trying to figure out what's a good sound for them.

4) Train of Thought
5) Octavarium

I'm all for change, and indeed ToT sounds DT wants to get heavier. That had some very positive but also some less inspiring side effects. Same goes for 8VM being a little more restrained and symphonic.

The middle one - a signature DT album, but somehow missing a spark to it that other DT albums do have.

6) Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Overall, I think of BC&SL as a very good DT album. It's DT sounding extremely confident about their genre of music. That's what makes it almost a bit cliche. But I'm very happy with it, fairly strong songwriting - they improved on vocal melodies a LOT, coming from SC. And the instrumental work is great, balanced between tastefulness and craziness. The vocals themselves I regard as JLB's finest performance since Six Degrees. Not the incredible highs, but a very professional and mature delivery.

The glorious return - The album they'll be remembered by.

7) Scenes from a Memory

Used to be my #1, it's possibly DT's masterpiece from a compositional standpoint. But I've heard it so much, I just get bored when I hear it. And over time, I've come to realise that I find certain sections and especially vocal melodies which are not sounding that good to my ears. This is without a doubt my least favorite JLB vocal performance, coupled to their most impressive instrumental workout and concept.

The underdog - The album that regained some fan respect over the years.

8) Falling Into Infinity

I've ranked it higher in the past, possibly because I was overwhelmed by the standouts of the album. There are a few songs that belong to my rare list of DT songs I don't care about. Adding to that, I feel that the album doesn't flow well at all. The good tracks are DT classics nonetheless.

The promise - The album that was exciting when it came out, but went on to be a slight disappointment.

9) Systematic Chaos

A very entertaining, fun album. But nonetheless I rarely have a desire to listen to it. The songs don't have enough staying power, and I can't relate to the fantasy lyrics that much. My favorite songs are 'ITPOE pt. 1' and 'The Ministry of Lost Souls'. But I can think of tons of DT songs I like better than those songs.

The stranger - The album I never really listen to.

10) When Dream and Day Unite

I have tried to listen to WDADU so many times, but it just doesn't appeal to me, except for some cool instrumental parts (Stuff they arguably improved on a lot on later albums. Wait, not even arguably.)

I'm not ranking the EP 'A Change of Seasons' for obvious reasons, but the title track is a top 10 DT song for me. The production of the track is awful, though.

A special mention goes out to the bonus disc of BC&SL, that's just so much fun. And JLB absolutely rules on 'Stargazer'!

[The Letter M]

Holy three - this barely changes at all. On these albums, everything is just right, and there is magic.

1) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2) Images & Words
3) Awake

These albums have everything balanced out right. Atmosphere, DT-ness, cool instrumental work, awesome vocals, and I feel they have the most soul of all DT albums. The emotions are feeling real to me.

The Identity Crisis - On these albums, DT are evidently trying to figure out what's a good sound for them.

4) Train of Thought
5) Octavarium

I'm all for change, and indeed ToT sounds DT wants to get heavier. That had some very positive but also some less inspiring side effects. Same goes for 8VM being a little more restrained and symphonic.

The middle one - a signature DT album, but somehow missing a spark to it that other DT albums do have.

6) Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Overall, I think of BC&SL as a very good DT album. It's DT sounding extremely confident about their genre of music. That's what makes it almost a bit cliche. But I'm very happy with it, fairly strong songwriting - they improved on vocal melodies a LOT, coming from SC. And the instrumental work is great, balanced between tastefulness and craziness. The vocals themselves I regard as JLB's finest performance since Six Degrees. Not the incredible highs, but a very professional and mature delivery.

The glorious return - The album they'll be remembered by.

7) Scenes from a Memory

Used to be my #1, it's possibly DT's masterpiece from a compositional standpoint. But I've heard it so much, I just get bored when I hear it. And over time, I've come to realise that I find certain sections and especially vocal melodies which are not sounding that good to my ears. This is without a doubt my least favorite JLB vocal performance, coupled to their most impressive instrumental workout and concept.

The underdog - The album that regained some fan respect over the years.

8) Falling Into Infinity

I've ranked it higher in the past, possibly because I was overwhelmed by the standouts of the album. There are a few songs that belong to my rare list of DT songs I don't care about. Adding to that, I feel that the album doesn't flow well at all. The good tracks are DT classics nonetheless.

The promise - The album that was exciting when it came out, but went on to be a slight disappointment.

9) Systematic Chaos

A very entertaining, fun album. But nonetheless I rarely have a desire to listen to it. The songs don't have enough staying power, and I can't relate to the fantasy lyrics that much. My favorite songs are 'ITPOE pt. 1' and 'The Ministry of Lost Souls'. But I can think of tons of DT songs I like better than those songs.

The stranger - The album I never really listen to.

10) When Dream and Day Unite

I have tried to listen to WDADU so many times, but it just doesn't appeal to me, except for some cool instrumental parts (Stuff they arguably improved on a lot on later albums. Wait, not even arguably.)

I'm not ranking the EP 'A Change of Seasons' for obvious reasons, but the title track is a top 10 DT song for me. The production of the track is awful, though.

A special mention goes out to the bonus disc of BC&SL, that's just so much fun. And JLB absolutely rules on 'Stargazer'!

Now where's The Miracle and The Sleeper?

-Marc.

[ThroughHerEyesDude6]

Now where's The Miracle and The Sleeper?

-Marc.

I think those might be live albums 

[MetalManiac666]

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

[DarkEternalNight]

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

[JayOctavarium]

1. Awake
2. Images and Words (barely beaten out by Awake)
3. Octavarium
(3 1/2. A Change of Seasons)
4. Train of Thought
5. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
6. Systematic Chaos
7. Metropolis II   (ToT, SFaM and BC&SL are a four way )
8. Falling Into Infinity
9. Six Degrees of Inner T.
10. When Dream and Day Unite (three way)


I just threw SC in there. i cant believe i forgot about it

[RuRoRul]

1. Train Of Thought - My favourite album, the easiest choice. It was the first album I listened to so it's my equivalent of Images And Words. As I Am is a pretty straightforward rocker, Vacant is just an intro track (not quite as good as Wait For Sleep), but the other songs are all DT greats in my opinion, and no other album reaches that level of consistency.

2. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence - This is the only album that comes close to ToT for me. Every song is pretty solid, it's got the second disc concept song, and The Glass Prison and Blind Faith are two of my favourite songs.

3. Black Clouds And Silver Linings <<
4. Metropolis Pt. II: Scenes From A Memory <<
5. Systematic Chaos <<
6. Images And Words <<

These ones are pretty even for me. They're pretty much split half in half into greats and average songs. SFAM edges out in front because even though some of its individual parts arent greats, they're part of a bigger picture.. Systematic Chaos only really has two that I consider greats, but together they take up more than half the album. Images And Words has a few of DT's best songs, plus a lot of average ones.

7. Octavarium - Has two or three great songs, including one of the best DT ever, so it hurts me to put it this low. But apart from the title track the rest of the album isn't so good.
8. Awake - I love Awake so it seems bad that it should be so low down, but the middle albums are pretty close together and one of them has to land at the bottom of the pile. Scarred is my favourite song on the album and one of my favourite DT, but there are still one or two from each of the albums above that I like even better, so that's why this lands here.
9. Falling Into Infinity - It's got about five good songs, but even the best of them fall short of the heights that all of the above albums reached. Also, unlike the other albums, it's other songs aren't just average, or mediocre, they are pretty bad.
10. When Dream And Day Unite -To be honest I haven't really listened to this album that much so it might be a bit unfair me even ranking it. But I don't like the sound, I don't like the singer, and none of the songs sounded as good as any from Images & Words or after, so I'm putting it last.

[Infinite Cactus]

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

I posted in this thread ab out a year ago and a few have changed since then. This is what it looks like now.