That moment that gives you chills everytime you listen to it

[Tim van Duijn]

Do you have a favorite part in any Dream Theater song that gives you chills everytime you hear it? That moment that you want to rewind until you almost get sick of it? Just to hear it again?

For me that would be the part after James hits the G5 in Octavarium where the orchestra opens up the final part of the song (especially Score version), or Another World in A Change of Seasons (the godly vocal part of James accompanied by JP's acoustic guitar playing).

[Vahvahenki]

- The Regression reprise in The Spirit Carries On
- When the guitar kicks in in Disappear
- The Stream of Consciousness finale
- The Octavarium melody in TROAE
- Razor's Edge

Off the top of my head

[Sycsa]

There are quite a lot of such moments in DT's music, but "Callow and vain..." stands above them all and gets me every time. I also have to mention the "One last time..." section of Finally Free along with the guitar solo.

[RoeDent]

The unexpected return of B minor at the final "haaaand" on Bridges in the Sky. It genuinely sounds like it's going to resolve to D minor (as it does for the instrumental break), so it's a real surprise when James goes back down to F#.

Home, "Victoria watches and thoughtfully smiles..." - Marvellous reprise of an important line and melody from Metropolis Pt. 1.

ACOS: "I WON'T LET THEM PUSH ME AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!" then that guitar entry. Just...phwoooooaaaar!!!

[robwebster]

There are quite a lot of songs that do it sporadically, but very few that work every time. False Awakening Suite prickles the back of my neck fairly reliably, as does The Embracing Circle, but they're still young. I can't see either reducing, I think they're feats of songwriting, but I'm trying to think of older moments that have proven staying power. The outro to In the Name of God - one of the first DT songs I heard, and one of the strongest outros still - and those sort of descent-into-madness bits in Sacrificed Sons and The Ministry of Lost Souls always make me sit up. There's a sort of unspoken, "Hold onto your butts." Triggers something as they shift gear.

[AngelBack]

Nice topic

1)About to Crash Reprise: 
"Still it's hard to just get by
It seems so meaningless to try
When all I want to do is cry
Who would ever know I felt so sad

Even though I get so high
I know that I will never fly
And when I fall out of the sky
Who'll be standing by

Will you be standing by"

2)Razor's Edge Solo

3)Strange Deja Vu:  "Uncanny strange deja vu, but I don't mind, I hope to find the truth"

4) Surrounded: "Once lost but now I'm found........" (rest of verse)

5) TBOT: Outro solo, most chill inducing guitar solo EVAH!!

Sure there are more, these came to mind first.

[vbrodrigues95]

There is really a lot of those moments, but that comes to mind at the moment:

- Ending of The Count of Tuscany
- Solo of The Bigger Picture
- Solo of The Spirit Carries On
- Big Heavy middle part of The Glass Prison
- 1:06 of Losing Time/Grand Finale

[Tom Bombadil]

End of TCOT
Scarred "And how come you don't understand me"
Space Dye-Vest
Beginning of Voices

Its no coincidence that those are my 4 favorite DT songs.

[Sacul]

Take Away My Pain (Demo), that vocal thing along with that guitar thing during the second chorus.

[Tis BOOLsheet]

After playing some songs to death, the chills have worn off but here are/were a couple:

1. Metropolis Pt.1 (Starting at "I was told there's a miracle" until the instrumental part)
2. Lines in the Sand (guitar solo)
3. Breaking All Illusions (the section that begins with "Live in the moment...")
4. Learning to Live ("whoa whoa whoa" section and guitar solo)
5. The Best of Times (guitar solo)

I have a separate list of songs that induce chills of a different kind-- "chills" that mark the onset of diarrhea. Does that belong in the controversial opinions thread instead of this one? 

[jammindude]

The one that sticks out to me more than anything is not just the part of the About to Crash Reprise that was already mentioned...but honestly...the whole thing.

From the moment that chord progression first kicks in, to the drum roll, to the rest of the band crashing in, to the "I'm Alive again" part, to the chorus, to the "will you still be standing by?" moment.    That is just just 4 minutes of straight up goosebumps from beginning to the opening chords of Losing Time. 

[bl5150]

- intro to Metropolis PT 1
- midsection of Erotomania
- intro to Illumination Theory
- solo section of Another Day
- outro to Innocence Faded ...............none of which involve vocals    That's not a slight on JLB (I think he's perfect for DT) but the most spine tingling moments for me always seem to be more related to the music than the vocal.  OK.......let's say the whole of Breaking All Illusions and "third and last dance" section of Metropolis also 

[jakepriest]

Through Her Eyes - "I wept just like a baby as I lay awake in bed"
TBOT - guitar solo
Metropolis reprise in Home - "Victoria watches and thoughtfully smiles"
ITNOG - The "whooooaaaah"s during the outro

[erwinrafael]

Off the top of my head:

Once the outro guitar lead kicks in The Spirit Carries On, Illumination Theory and Octavarium. Spine tingling.
When the "DYENENDYEN DYENENDYEN" riffing section in A Change of Seasons comes in like a unexpected speeding freight train
When the keyboard and the guitar leads do the Metropolis Part 1 melodies in Overture 1928
The piano solo in Blind Faith. So beautiful.
When LaBrie sings "I spent so long trusting in you!" in The Mirror. Jaw drops.
The bass and harmonics intro in Lifting Shadows Off A Dream.
The whole The Pursuit of Truth section of Illumination Theory.
About to Crash (Reprise), but only when I'm listening to SDOIT as whole. When I listen to it separately, no spine tingling effect.

Most spine tingling:

The majestic intro to Breaking All Illusions. And its majestic finale starting from the final chorus. I think this is the only song where I use the term majestic a lot of times.

[ToT-147]

Yeah, awesome topic..

Let's go album by album:

1- Right after the drum solo in Ytse Jam (3:51) and the chorus of Afterlife..
2- "Find all your need in your mind... if you taaaaaake theeee timeeee!" and Surrounded's guitar solo..
3- The solo of Erotomania (specially at 5:08, just devastating) and the heavy verses in Scarred..
4- Hell's Kitchen and the solo in Lines in the Sand..
5- "I shut the door and traveled to another home..." until the chorus, and the final chorus of TSCO..
6- Guitar solo of TGD (best JP solo IMO) and final part of Disappear, starting on "So I'm moving on..." glorious part..
7- "Now that you can see all you have done..." until Release start.. Key melody in the beginning of Endless Sacrifice, 6:24 in HTF, the whole Vacant, end of SOC and bis of ITNOG until "Straight is the path, leading to your salvatiooooonA... slaying the weak, ethnic elimination"..
8- "You've got the future on your side..." on TALW.. Chorus of IWBY, NE at 3:44 and solo of Razor's Edge..
9- "Take me far away... close your eyes and hold your breath... to the ends of the earth" and the solo too.. Solo of Repentance, "The only thing that I believe..." in POW.. and the verses of TMOLS..
10- ANTR: "Without warning" part.. TSF: "You're smart enough" part.. TBOT: solo.. TCOT: chorus and final verses..
11- Chorus in BMU.. TITL: final chorus after the solo.. Intro in Outcry, and chorus (same kind of chill, lol) and BAI at 9:07..
12- 1:10 part of TEI (specially 1:16).. "Some will not admit that 15 minutes have expired".. Final part in TBP.. Chills and amaze everytime.. and, finally, the same goes for Surrender, Trust and Passion...

Moreover, I have to say every unison would be too in those moments.. They're all epic and have chillings melodies..

They're too many, so I'll make a ranking of the best moments to me [specially this phrase or part]:

5- Final verses of TCOT ["Now wait a minute man"]
4- Solo of Razor's Edge [22:17 - 22:27]
3- Solo of Erotomania [5:09 - 5:23]
2- Final part of TBP ["See but don't believe"]
1- Final verses of Disappear [Just everyone of them...]

[ThatOneGuy2112]

Some off the top of my head:

-Home: The reprise of the Metropolis Pt. 1 theme (It's calling me back to my hooommme....)
-Finally Free: The outro. Dat riff and MP is just sick here
-About to Crash (Reprise): Around 2:23 to 3:00. Absolute chills
-The Count of Tuscany: The ending
-A Change of Seasons: The reprise of the beginning riff
-Breaking All Illusions: Dat solo
-Illumination Theory: The riff at 3:40 and the istrumental passage from 6:32
-Metropolis Pt. 1: (Before the leeaaves have faaallen...)
-Stream of Consciousness: from 8:36 to the end
-In the Name of God: the riff. You know the one
-Learning to Live: that crazy piano solo and the following instrumental section
-Octavarium: The Razor's Edge

And of course, the many more I'm probably forgetting.

[Lucien]

Lap steel guitar part in Someone Like Him
The part right after the introduction in These Walls, and These Walls in general 

Many others...

[Laughingplace56]

-The entrance into JP's solo in Another Day
-JP's solo after the F5 in LtL, the WFS reprise into the final section of the instrumental, the outro
-LSOAD intro
-Scarred intro and outro
-Space Dye Vest
-Ending of Hell's Kitchen
-ToT intro, the way the keyboard solo transitions into the Wasteland section live, Wasteland section, outro
-Regression
-When Overture kicks in, the solo
-Ending of SDVu into Through My Words
-Home intro, Metropolis reprise, and outro into TDoE
-TSCO solo through the ending
-Finally Free acoustic first verse, OLT reprise, Overture solo reprise, last line intro drum outro
-TGD intro, "Human kind has reached a turning point" the second time, outro
-Disappear intro/outro
-Goodnight Kiss solo
-ATC Reprise outro into Losing Time
-As I Am prechorus/chorus
-bassline in the first verse of TDS
-unison riff after the trade off solos in Endless Sacrifice
-VACANT
-SoC intro/outro
-ItNoG after the instrumental section
-These Walls instrumentation
-end of the solo where the orchestra kicks in in Sacrificed Sons
-Octavarium intro, Someone Like Him, keyboard solo before Full Circle, instrumental section of Full Circle before Intervals, release of Intervals into Razor's Edge, Razor's Edge solo
-TCoT intro, solo, ending
-Outcry intro/chorus/ending
-BAI main theme
-TEI main riff before the verse riff
-TBP besides the intro
-STR solo through the ending
-IT orchestra section and JP's solo before the fast technical solo that goes into the reprise of the intro's riff

There's more but that's all I got for right now.

[?]

ACOS: "I WON'T LET THEM PUSH ME AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!!!" then that guitar entry. Just...phwoooooaaaar!!!

Oh yes

Also, the lonely piano melody before the full band comes in in Space-Dye Vest, and pretty much all of Eve.

[adastra]

There are too many to list!!
But my favourite is the last chorus in I walk Beside you :3   and the JR's flurry of piano notes just before it!

[tofee35]

Blind Faith

... and still life pushes on, with or without you...

[mikemangioy]

- Learning To Live F# followed by the epic solo
- Basically all of Voices
- The wah unison in 6:00
- The live version of the last verse of Space Dye Vest (I didn't know about that and at the concert I came)
- Lines In The Sand intro
- Trial of Tears finale
- all Scenes From A Memory (especially Overture 1928, Fatal Tragedy, TSCO and Finally Free)
- SDOIT suite finale
- A lot of moments in The Great Debate
- Disappear
- Train Of Thought. All of it. And it's not even my favorite one.
- Never Enough chorus
- Sacrificed Sons solo
- Each time that the Octavarium theme gets mentioned
- Octavarium (especially the Score version)
- Dark master riff in ITPOE
- Beautiful Agony section in ANTR and the instrumental section after the ROAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR
- The Count Of Tuscany final section
- On The Backs Of Angels beginning (basically from the beginning until the first verse)
- This Is The Life
- SHAAAAAMAAAAAAAN TAAAAAAAAAAKE MYYYYYYYYYY HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND
- Breaking All Illusions solo
- Beaneath The Surface
- DT12 (Yeah, I like it that much)

I think I forgot some moments, but those are the ones I can remember.

[yeah_93]

Metropolis Pt. 1: The part after "Swimming in a lake on fire".
Learning To Live: The piano break and the ending.
The Mirror's Space Dye Vest-like section.
Erotomania's solos.
Lifting Shadows off a Dream's intro.
The entirety of Space Dye Vest.
Home's third guitar solo, the part right after the final chorus.
The Glass Prison's outro.
Blind Faith's piano solo.
Misunderstood: The final pre-chorus.
Stream of Consciousness heavy riff.
In the Name of God's ending.
In the Presence of Enemies Part 1: The dual solo outro.
Forsaken: 2nd pre-chorus solo.
The Ministry of Lost Souls ending.
In the Presence of Enemies - Part II: The 2nd pre-chorus (the one with the artificial harmonics) and 2nd chorus.
On the Backs of Angels' chorus.
Outcry's chorus.
Breaking All Illusions: The entirety of Petrucci's solo is excellent, but the best part has got to be the 8:10 section of the solo, which is on of the best moments in DT history.
The Looking Glass: Dunno, I find many moments of this song worthy.
Behind the Veil: The chorus. Those guitars man.

[son_ov_hades]

The piano break in Learning To Live. Fuck that gets every time. 

[The Stray Seed]

whoa whoa whoa

whoa whoa whoa

whoa whoa whoa

[Implode]

The climax of Octavarium is the only track that consistently does this.

[Crow]

Hmm.
Chorus of The Mirror.
PEOPLE IN PRAYER FOR ME EVERYONE THERE FOR ME
Pretty much any part in Space-Dye Vest with guitar.
I'M SICK OF ALL YOU HYPOCRITES
LitS guitar solo.
*Petrucci solo* ---> SAFE IN THE LIGHT THAT SURROUNDS ME
Murder section in Finally Free.
"A day like today" and "So I'm moving on" sections in Disappear.
End lead in Stream of Consciousness.
TAKE ALL OF ME, THE DESIRES
Intervals.
It reached all the way... to HEEEEEAAAAVEEEEN
TBOT guitar solo.
BAI guitar solo.

p. much everything in my top 30 at least has a moment or more but these are the bigger ones off the top of my head

[twanky]

Petrucci solo in Hollow Years from Live at the Budokan 

[Invisible]

whoa whoa whoa

whoa whoa whoa

whoa whoa whoaaaaaaaaaa

FTFY

Metropolis intro

"Another chance to live my liiife"
All the instrumental section of Learning To Live, the sort-of flamenco section, the reentrance of the drums, the build up, the whoaaaaa, the solo, the Wait For Sleep jam, etc etc

Erotomania: The clean(?) guitar + keys playing The Silent Man sort of melodies + the guitar playing the actual melodies on the solo

"I'm kneeling on the floor... staring at the wall..."+"I'm lying here in bed"

Lifting shadows, the entire song but the "ohh and she listens OOOOOOOOOPENLYYYYYYYY" is the best

Scarred intro+"disguised in spite of tiiiiiime" what JP plays after that is pure chills

"Do you feel... you don't know me anymore..." up until "IT CALMS ME TO KNOW THAT I WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOON'T"

Space Dye Vest, nuff said

Lines in the sand: solo+"we fabricate our demons..."+the build up back+SOMETIIIIIMES A VIEW FROM SINLESS EYES+BAAAAPTIIIZED ENLIGHTEEEEND = favourite moment in DT

Trial of Tears intro+"Still awake... I continue to move along..."+"I LOOOOK FOR A WAY BAAAAACK HOOOOOOME"

"So easy, eaaaasier, if you spoke to me!"

The Way It Used To Be "I lay down and enter a dream" with JP playing
"Radio waves, splashing my head to a rhythm that I crave" up until "move from the water" everything there is pure gold

Metropolis melodies on Overture 1928 by JP

"BACK ON MY FEEEEEEET AGAIN!!"

Home intro and WOMP WOMP

The Dance of Eternity finale resolving into One Last Time

The Spirit Carries On solo + SAFE IN THE LIGHT THAT SURROUND MEEEEE (especially if it's not JP singing )

THe sudden change of mood on Finally Free

The PIANO on Finally Free = one of the most chill inducing moments

"And still life pushes on..." all the way to the jam

ARE YOU JUSTIFIEEEEED?!?!?!

"So I'm moving on..." till the end, the whole song is chill inducer

About To Crash JR piano entrance+full band entrance, you just know you are in for something awesome

"Intro tapes begins to roll"(audience)

JP solo on Goodnight Kiss. Damn.

Instrumental on Solitary Shell

JP entrance on About To Crash reprise and the band joining him = most uplifting moment in DT history

Transition to Losing Time

"She dresses in black every day..."

Grand Finale, all of it. Pure perfection.

JP signature solo on This Dying Soul(the one that gets reprised on The Shattered Fortress)

"We're told unconditional love..."

DON CROSS THE CROOKED STEP. Dammit!

Vacant. 'Nuff said.

Arabic stuff on Stream of Consciousness

"Hundreds of believers..." that whole section is

I'll stop here to go listen some of this moments! And these were the ones on top of my head when thinking of each album!

[ZKX-2099]

That grinding riff before the solo in The Dark Eternal Night. Always gives me the fizz.

[The Stray Seed]

whoa whoa whoa

whoa whoa whoa

whoa whoa whoaaaaaaaaaa

FTFY

Thank you. I was too lazy to do it myself =D

[Mr. Mustard]

Goodnight Kiss: When the main theme reappears and JP's solo. 
Disappear: Opening section
Pretty much the whole middle section in Count of Tuscany.
Take the Time: Ending guitar solo
Learning to Live: The F-sharp and the part leading up to it (the anticipation  )

[Obfuscation]

The climax of Octavarium is the only track that consistently does this.

Yes. That whole Intervals section never fails.

[Ben_Jamin]

The Looking Glass, when the ambient part starts and onward.


Edit: Haha, I mean The Bigger Picture.

[ZKX-2099]

Ambient part in The Looking Glass?