Ħ's top 22 Dream Theater songs -------#1 REVEALED!

[Ħ]

Hello all, I'm here to present my top 21 Dream Theater songs. Truth be told, I don't listen to Dream Theater as often as I have in the past. When I first discovered them six years ago, I was but a sophomore in high school. I was in marching band and we would participate in many competitions with other schools. Some of the schools were far away and we would spend hours socializing on the bus. During one particularly long bus ride, my friend Chris shared with me some of his heavy metal music. Part of his selection for me was Dream Theater's "The Glass Prison", "Metropolis", and "The Dance Of Eternity". I was floored by the incredible technical proficiency of these musicians. Dream Theater soon became my favorite band.

I started off by purchasing Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence. I was stunned by the innovative sounds they would employ, like the bell chimes in the intro section of "The Glass Prison", and the orchestra in the title track. I was even more staggered by the variety of tones and moods – every song sounded so unique, standing alone as a powerful statement. Yet the songs themselves could be taken together to form a beautiful tapestry! This is what I came to love about Dream Theater, and progressive music in general.

As I poured through their albums, I sought more and more of their music. Each song's individuality meant that there was always more to discover.

Then I found DTF, and was exposed to bootlegs, demos, and live renderings of songs. I longed to listen to everything by this band that I loved so much.

Now, I'm sad to say that I am no longer in love with Dream Theater. They will always hold a special place in my heart, but I simply don't connect with their music like I used to. Besides, there's nothing left to discover. I know nearly every song by heart, even the demos and live versions. In fact, I have moved away from investing a significant amount of my time in music generally. I find that life has so much to offer, and music is but one of life's many wonders.

These 21 songs are the ones that I hold closest to my heart. If I had to, I wouldn't buy DT's studio catalog all over again, but I would buy these songs. I hope you enjoy my write-ups.


22. "Endless Sacrifice"
"Endless Sacrifice" is one of those songs that you either love or hate. And I have empathy with those that hate it – indeed, I have disliked this song at times. But I'm a sucker for somber, desperate love songs, and that's what "Endless Sacrifice" is to me. James does an outstanding job of expressing the angry loneliness of the lyrics. The chorus's energetic forcefulness is what really gets me. It expresses how I feel so well at times when I feel alone that I'm able to overlook any flaws it has. It's emotional hold on me grants it a top 21 spot.

21. "Overture 1928"
People often forget about this song, in light of other behemoths from Scenes From A Memory like "Fatal Tragedy" and "Home". One way you can see its importance is by listening to the album without it.
One of the reasons I love "Overture 1928" is that the band succeeds as acting as a single unit. They paint a very memorable portrait which captures the colors of Scenes without being too cookie-cutter. It's a definitive statement that you're in for a ride with this album. Its success at being what it needs to be makes it memorable to me, and so I think it's worthy of a top 21 spot.

20. "Blind Faith"
I'm happy to see "Blind Faith" getting more praise these days. It's Jordan Rudess at the heart of this song – from the ethereal atmosphere of the introduction to the delicate piano interlude, he succeeds at making this song royal and majestic. I do struggle with the lyrics, which I think are a bit amateur, but they don't detract much from the overall experience. A solid song that has its unique place in DT's catalog.

[senecadawg2]

Cool, 3 great songs right off the bat!

[DebraKadabra]

Endless Sacrifice, as much as they play it, is still SUCH a beast live.  Overture 1928 is stellar, and Blind Faith is so massively underrated it's damn near criminal.

Awesome start so far, bud!

[wasteland]

Good first couple of songs, although neither ES nor O28 would ever come this high in my top 50. Your introduction was really sad, I must say 

[GasparXR]

Three greats right off the bat! I persinally find O28 to be even better on the album, despite how majestic and uplifting it is on its own. One of DT's best shorter pieces, and easily their best instrumental. It just connects so well with the rest of the album, while the recurring motifs are represented in a way that's both similar to their other occurences and different enough to justify the meaning of the track as a whole.

[Pols Voice]

I love those songs. All three are in my Top 15.

[Lolzeez]

Two of those songs are on my list and very high.

[?]

So you're running both this list and the SW/PT one at the same time? for that, I could only concentrate on doing one list at a time. Anyway, nice start, although Blind Faith is the only one out of those I find exceptionally awesome.

[Ħ]

19. "The Dance Of Eternity"
Here's a song that gets lots of flak. Well guess what? It's in my top 21! So deal with it.

It's technical, it's wacky, but what I love the most about this song is how fun it is. You try to focus on all the moving parts and you just get lost. It's like not being able to find mommy at the circus. Loads of fun.


18. "Pull Me Under"
"Pull Me Under" is like that friend that is always there for you even though you constantly forget to invite them to your party. It never hit me upside the head with its awesomeness, I was never excited to hear a live rendition or anything like that - I always just forgot about it.

I popped it on one day to reminiscence my Dream Theater glory days, and it blew me away. It's so good. It's powerful and melodic. It's nearly nine minutes long but it feels like five. One of the best tracks off Images and Words.


17. "Hell's Kitchen"
The last instrumental on my list. This song inspires me. It's literally made me go running at the crack of dawn. It's magical and uplifting, and it's one of my favorite songs in general.

[King Postwhore]

Overture 1928 is something I love blasting when I'm driving in my car.  Great pic!

[senecadawg2]

TDOE and PMU? 

Different strokes for different folks.

[Unlegit]

6 great songs, and awesome to see The Dance of Eternity up there as well as 3 instrumentals in these 6 songs.

[BlobVanDam]

Nice choices. I like all of those tracks a lot, but instrumentals don't rank so highly with me, and PMU is an average DT song forme (which is a very high average, mind you).
But I'd say they're all underrated tracks, so it's interesting to see them make a list.

[Ħ]

Yeah, I'd say PMU is an average song for me too. But after really thinking about it, I couldn't not include it.

[Cedar redaC]

 

[theseoafs]

Glad to see HK and BF.

[Ħ]

16. "On The Backs Of Angels"
When Dream Theater first made this song available several weeks before A Dramatic Turn Of Events, I was very nervous to listen to it. This song was the first musical statement by the band since Mike Portnoy left. I was fearful that since Portnoy was a huge force that affected the band's direction, they would fall apart at the seams musically and we'd be left with just a bunch of technical widdley-diddley with no real concept or meaning behind the music. I am so happy to say that I was wrong. "On The Backs Of Angels" is one of Dream Theater's most powerful statements. It is energetic and technical, yet it manages to be tasteful.  Each of the band members shines out, yet they still work as a single effectual unit. It is for these reasons that I rank it higher than anything off of the three most recent albums.

15. "Honor Thy Father"
This is where we start to get into some very elite territory. "Honor Thy Father" is easily the most ballsy Dream Theater track. From the very intro, it wallops you with mad drum fills, crunchy bad-attitude riffs, and sinister keyboard lines. I don't care about what they say about "The Best Of Times," this is Portnoy's signature song. His best songwriting abilities come out in his rage and this is angriest song he's written.

14. "Take The Time"
No one hates "Take The Time" for a very good reason - it's awesome. Everybody shines. Plus, you have perhaps John Petrucci's tastiest solo. I always get a little swagger in my step when I hear that "doo doo doo WAHHHH WAHHHH wohhhhh". Love it.

[mike099]

15. "On The Backs Of Angels"
When Dream Theater first made this song available several weeks before A Dramatic Turn Of Events, I was very nervous to listen to it. This song was the first musical statement by the band since Mike Portnoy left. I was fearful that since Portnoy was a huge force that affected the band's direction, they would fall apart at the seams musically and we'd be left with just a bunch of technical widdley-diddley with no real concept or meaning behind the music. I am so happy to say that I was wrong. "On The Backs Of Angels" is one of Dream Theater's most powerful statements. It is energetic and technical, yet it manages to be tasteful.  Each of the band members shines out, yet they still work as a single effectual unit. It is for these reasons that I rank it higher than anything off of the three most recent albums.

This is the first song I heard by DT.  By accident, I say the video and was hooked.

14. "Honor Thy Father"
This is where we start to get into some very elite territory. "Honor Thy Father" is easily the most ballsy Dream Theater track. From the very intro, it wallops you with mad drum fills, crunchy bad-attitude riffs, and sinister keyboard lines. I don't care about what they say about "The Best Of Times," this is Portnoy's signature song. His best songwriting abilities come out in his rage and this is angriest song he's written.

A lot of folks do not like this song very much, but it is bad ass.

13. "Take The Time"
No one hates "Take The Time" for a very good reason - it's awesome. Everybody shines. Plus, you have perhaps John Petrucci's tastiest solo. I always get a little swagger in my step when I hear that "doo doo doo WAHHHH WAHHHH wohhhhh". Love it.

What can you say, great song off a great cd.

[BlobVanDam]

Interesting update. OTBOA is ok, but I find it to be an incredibly sterile song with no energy. I don't dislike it at all, but it doesn't excite me in the slightest. But your other two choices definitely make up for the lack of energy there!

While I wouldn't rank HTF all too highly, it's a great metal song when I'm in the mood to listen to Train of Thought. Definitely badass, as you put it.

Nice, concise writeup for Take The Time. An excellent song from start to finish.

[theseoafs]

Three great tunes in the last update, and a pretty solid list so far.  I'll be following because H is my best friend

[Ħ]

I completely forgot about a very essential song, so now I'm going to have 22 songs.

[Big Hath]

I completely forgot about a very essential song, so now I'm going to have 22 songs.

Lost Not Forgotten?
A Nightmare To Remember?

[Scorpion]

I completely forgot about a very essential song, so now I'm going to have 22 songs.

Raw Dog, amirite?

[Destiny Of Chaos]

So the song was Lost and Forgotten?

[Ħ]

It was Lost Not Forgotten in A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. It nearly gave me a Panic Attack! What a Fragile situation. I will make sure The Incident does not happen again.

Imagine if Oops!...I Did It Again in my Steven Wilson top 50. That'd be a Strange Deja Vu and quite A Dramatic Turn Of Events. That'd put me too Close To The Edge for my taste.

[GasparXR]

It was Lost Not Forgotten in A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. It nearly gave me a Panic Attack! What a Fragile situation. I will make sure The Incident does not happen again.

Imagine if Oops!...I Did It Again in my Steven Wilson top 50. That'd be a Strange Deja Vu and quite A Dramatic Turn Of Events. That'd put me too Close To The Edge for my taste.

Your post was a Fatal Tragedy. You should get on your Bike and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.

[Lolzeez]

It was Lost Not Forgotten in A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. It nearly gave me a Panic Attack! What a Fragile situation. I will make sure The Incident does not happen again.

Imagine if Oops!...I Did It Again in my Steven Wilson top 50. That'd be a Strange Deja Vu and quite A Dramatic Turn Of Events. That'd put me too Close To The Edge for my taste.

Your post was a Fatal Tragedy. You should get on your Bike and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.

Errr...

THE COUNT OF TUSCANY!!!

[GasparXR]

It was Lost Not Forgotten in A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. It nearly gave me a Panic Attack! What a Fragile situation. I will make sure The Incident does not happen again.

Imagine if Oops!...I Did It Again in my Steven Wilson top 50. That'd be a Strange Deja Vu and quite A Dramatic Turn Of Events. That'd put me too Close To The Edge for my taste.

Your post was a Fatal Tragedy. You should get on your Bike and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.

Errr...

THE COUNT OF TUSCANY!!!

I wonder if anyone calls the Count of Tuscany "Your Majesty"?

[Dacling]

It was Lost Not Forgotten in A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. It nearly gave me a Panic Attack! What a Fragile situation. I will make sure The Incident does not happen again.

Imagine if Oops!...I Did It Again in my Steven Wilson top 50. That'd be a Strange Deja Vu and quite A Dramatic Turn Of Events. That'd put me too Close To The Edge for my taste.

Your post was a Fatal Tragedy. You should get on your Bike and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.

Errr...

THE COUNT OF TUSCANY!!!

I wonder if anyone calls the Count of Tuscany "Your Majesty"?

It seems he needs to keep better track of his...

















INVENTORY

[Cedar redaC]

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!

[Unlegit]

Good to see Take the Time. The other songs are good but not great.

[Lolzeez]

It was Lost Not Forgotten in A Momentary Lapse Of Reason. It nearly gave me a Panic Attack! What a Fragile situation. I will make sure The Incident does not happen again.

Imagine if Oops!...I Did It Again in my Steven Wilson top 50. That'd be a Strange Deja Vu and quite A Dramatic Turn Of Events. That'd put me too Close To The Edge for my taste.

Your post was a Fatal Tragedy. You should get on your Bike and Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun.

Errr...

THE COUNT OF TUSCANY!!!

I wonder if anyone calls the Count of Tuscany "Your Majesty"?

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

[theseoafs]

I wonder if anyone calls the Count of Tuscany "Your Majesty"?

Nah, man, that's not how it is.

[Ħ]

13. "As I Am"
The final song from Train Of Thought that makes my list. It's a song that makes me feel like I can obliterate anything in my path. "As I Am" blasts out, loud and proud, cutting down its haters. Even in the fadeout, it's brutal! Plus, that gnarly solo.

12. "Strange Deja-Vu"
A greatly under-appreciated track from Dream Theater's master album. It's essentially a perfect song that's just good at being what it's meant to be. John Myung and James LaBrie shine particularly well - it's got my favorite moments for each of them: the first chorus for LaBrie, and that snazzy VRRROOM bit from Myung.

[BlobVanDam]

Nice choices. As I Am has always been one of my favourites from ToT (behind ITNOG, and maybe Vacant, although it's hard to compare them since they're such polar opposite songs). I'd probably rank it top 20 too.
Strange Deja Vu is cool too. That middle section is one of DT's most rockin' sections. As I've said before though, I don't rank most of SFAM that highly individually despite it being my 2nd favourite DT album.