Best DT Album Closer

[Outcrier]

I went with SDOIT, although I don't really think of it as an album closer, as it's a whole disc on its own.

I too don't think of it as album closer so i voted Learning to Live.

[aprilethereal]

I love all but two of these songs, Octavarium being my favourite, that's what I voted for. I think a lot of these work excellent as albums closers, especially Space-Dye Vest, Finally Free, In The Name Of God, Oceanarium, In The Presence Of Enemies, The Count Of Tuscany and Illumination Theory.

EDIT: 24 votes for 8VM, nuggetz

[Tim van Duijn]

First epic i heard live was The Count of Tuscany, it was also my first DT concert and first concert in general. When JP kicked in the acoustic ending, i was touched and even a tear escaped my eye. It was something i never experienced. So TCOT holds a special place in my heart.

[CharlesPL]

Learning To Live and Trial Of Tears,today vote for TOT.

[BlobVanDam]

First epic i heard live was The Count of Tuscany, it was also my first DT concert and first concert in general. When JP kicked in the acoustic ending, i was touched and even a tear escaped my eye. It was something i never experienced. So TCOT holds a special place in my heart.

When I heard that acoustic section kick in live, I got chills, so I understand the feeling.

[mikeyd23]

Learning to Live... Hard to top that as a closer.

[Dublagent66]

LTL definitively.

[hefdaddy42]

Learning To Live and it isn't even close.

This exactly.

[Rattlehead]

I went with LTL as well, but it just barely edged out TCoT for me. I think LTL is a better song and a great closer, but TCoT is also an excellent closer and a top 15 song for me so it wasn't exactly an easy choice. 

[Nekov]

LTL with Octavarium being a very close second

[Theme Dreater]

This has to be one of the hardest polls yet. I don't think TCOT is my favorite song on the list, but I do think it has the most satisfying ending, so that is what I chose.

The poll is what it is.. You can't change it.. You must not..

[Outcrier]

I went with SDOIT, although I don't really think of it as an album closer, as it's a whole disc on its own.

I too don't think of it as album closer so i voted Learning to Live.

Shit, i didn't saw that there was 8V in the pool 

[Enalya]

Hard choice, I love 8VM and IT, but TCoT can't lose for me. Ever.

Edit: Oh sht, didn't really count SDOIT in there...Don't make my brain explode to decide about this

[ToT-147]

I went with SDOIT, although I don't really think of it as an album closer, as it's a whole disc on its own.

I too don't think of it as album closer so i voted Learning to Live.

No matter how long, it's a song.. I get what you guys say, since 6 Degrees it's about 20 minute more long that the epic ones, but the same can be said about these, which are also about 20 minute more than BTS an SDV..

The only reason 6D the song it's the whole disc two is because the first one doesn't have the time enough to let it be there.. But, if even so you wanna see it like that, then go ahead.. The mistake, to me, it would be to think of Losing Time/Grand Finalle as the album closer.. Being that in the same way we can think of The Wasteland, Razor's Edge, Salvation and Surrender, Trust and Passion as album closers, but they're not.. Because they're not songs.. Same thing for Losing Time/Grand Finalle.. 

[dongringo]

Went with Six Degrees. Doesn't get any more epic than that.

[BlobVanDam]

I went with SDOIT, although I don't really think of it as an album closer, as it's a whole disc on its own.

I too don't think of it as album closer so i voted Learning to Live.

No matter how long, it's a song.. I get what you guys say, since 6 Degrees it's about 20 minute more long that the epic ones, but the same can be said about these, which are also about 20 minute more than BTS an SDV..

The only reason 6D the song it's the whole disc two is because the first one doesn't have the time enough to let it be there.. But, if even so you wanna see it like that, then go ahead.. The mistake, to me, it would be to think of Losing Time/Grand Finalle as the album closer.. Being that in the same way we can think of The Wasteland, Razor's Edge, Salvation and Surrender, Trust and Passion as album closers, but they're not.. Because they're not songs.. Same thing for Losing Time/Grand Finalle.. 

I'm the first guy on this forum who will defend SDOIT as a song, and I love the whole album, but at the same time, it is two distinct discs, so I don't think of SDOIT the song being the "closer" to the album, because it's a whole disc on its own.
It's just a difficult mindset to think of an entire disc of 42 minutes as the album "closer", that's all.

[ToT-147]

Yeah, I know it's hard to even think about it.. That's DT.. Like the complexity with the ITPoEs.. Both tracks has the same name, but the vast (near absolute) majority prefers to call them "part 1" and "part 2" respectively, when actually those parts are in the same song (track), the first one (being Prelude and Resurrection those parts).. The song has SIX parts! Not TWO..

Regarding 6DOIT, yeah, I get it.. IT IS a disc on its own.. But that's insignificant and very anecdotical, IMO.. Peculiar maybe, but it doesn't change the fact that 6DOIT it's the last song in the album (consisting in 6 songs, not in 5 and 1.. The latter is just what it seems, not what it is ).. So I ask you this: if 6DOIT doesn't make an album closer, which one does?.. LT/GF? It could be, but it's a part after all.. Disappear? It's the last one on the first disc and it's a "normal" song... but it's not the last one on the album.. So...

Well, I think it's time for sleep now.. Too much thinking...

PD: you would be the second guy..

[BlobVanDam]

Hey, I've been part of this forum for almost a decade, defending SDOIT's honour. I think I count before you, buddy!

[energythief]

Finally Free. Not my favorite song in the list (that would be Space-Dye Vest), but it is a perfect album closer.

[KevShmev]

It's just a difficult mindset to think of an entire disc of 42 minutes as the album "closer", that's all.

Only if you're not a prog guy in general , which I know you're not.  But seriously, closing an album with a very long song is pretty prog.

[Rodni Demental]

I get how it doesn't feel as much like a closer because it's beginning makes it feel like it's own thing. But that's why Loosing Time is also called Grand Finale isn't it? To finish off the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (as the 6th song of the album and the closing to the suite itself).

[ToT-147]

Hey, I've been part of this forum for almost a decade, defending SDOIT's honour. I think I count before you, buddy!

Yeah, I can note that.. But I just said that because you used the "will" in your sentence.. So you WILL defend it, while I AM defending it..

However.. I know for sure we're not the only ones... Actually it's a fact: it is a song.. That's how they think about it.. And no one can change that..

That's why Loosing Time is also called Grand Finale isn't it?

I have understood that Grand Finale starts at 2:13 with the phrase: "Hope in the face of our human distress..."

[robwebster]

Yeah, due to the format, Six Degrees is the first thing you hear when you put its disc in and press play. While Six Degrees is all one album, I think as it's split into two discs, it's sort of got two openers, two closers. Disappear is "end of part one," and Six Degrees, taken as a whole, feels more like a new beginning than the final stretch.

Hey, I've been part of this forum for almost a decade, defending SDOIT's honour. I think I count before you, buddy!

Yeah, I can note that.. But I just said that because you used the "will" in your sentence.. So you WILL defend it, while I AM defending it..

However.. I know for sure we're not the only ones... Actually it's a fact: it is a song.. That's how they think about it.. And no one can change that..

Oh, go on then, you poked the hive enough.

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a song, yes. Solitary Shell is also a song. They released it as a single, they gave it a classical "verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo" structure, it has its own lyrics, subject and distinct melodic identity, they even indexed it separately for your pleasure! They play it on its own live, they even wrote a nifty extended jam for it on the BCSL tour. They also included it as one of the "21 Other Pretty Cool Songs" of Dream Theater's Greatest Hit and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs. Surely that's as definitive a statement as you get - way more conclusive than some interview from ages ago with a man who isn't even in the band any more!

Basically, the argument that because Mike Portnoy said it was a single song Six Degrees should only be referred to as one cogent piece isn't quite watertight. I'm not saying you're wrong, I agree, Six Degrees is one statement and was indexed as such on Score, but I think the fact they listed all the tracks separately on its home album is mixed signals, at best? Six Degrees is a song, and it's a suite, and it's an album, all at the same time, and The Test That Stumped Them All is also a song, and Solitary Shell is a song, and Goodnight Kiss is a song. Trying to define something as ambiguous and subjective as music in simple English can be a tricky sell, and Six Degrees more than any other DT song points and laughs at our petty human nomenclature. I will absolutely never correct someone if they tell me Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a single song, but I will be the first to defy them if they try to tell me Solitary Shell isn't one, too. It works on its own, and it works as part of a bigger whole. It's a song and a movement and a track and all the rest, too. Fans are way more precious about the definitions than the band ever were. What's in a name?

[JiM-Xtreme]

LTL is easily the best closer. The ending gives me chills every single damn time I listen to it. Not even a contest.

[BlobVanDam]

Yeah, due to the format, Six Degrees is the first thing you hear when you put its disc in and press play. While Six Degrees is all one album, I think as it's split into two discs, it's sort of got two openers, two closers. Disappear is "end of part one," and Six Degrees, taken as a whole, feels more like a new beginning than the final stretch.

Hey, I've been part of this forum for almost a decade, defending SDOIT's honour. I think I count before you, buddy!

Yeah, I can note that.. But I just said that because you used the "will" in your sentence.. So you WILL defend it, while I AM defending it..

However.. I know for sure we're not the only ones... Actually it's a fact: it is a song.. That's how they think about it.. And no one can change that..

Oh, go on then, you poked the hive enough.

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a song, yes. Solitary Shell is also a song. They released it as a single, they gave it a classical "verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo" structure, it has its own lyrics, subject and distinct melodic identity, they even indexed it separately for your pleasure! They play it on its own live, they even wrote a nifty extended jam for it on the BCSL tour. They also included it as one of the "21 Other Pretty Cool Songs" of Dream Theater's Greatest Hit and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs. Surely that's as definitive a statement as you get - way more conclusive than some interview from ages ago with a man who isn't even in the band any more!

Basically, the argument that because Mike Portnoy said it was a single song Six Degrees should only be referred to as one cogent piece isn't quite watertight. I'm not saying you're wrong, I agree, Six Degrees is one statement and was indexed as such on Score, but I think the fact they listed all the tracks separately on its home album is mixed signals, at best? Six Degrees is a song, and it's a suite, and it's an album, all at the same time, and The Test That Stumped Them All is also a song, and Solitary Shell is a song, and Goodnight Kiss is a song. Trying to define something as ambiguous and subjective as music in simple English can be a tricky sell, and Six Degrees more than any other DT song points and laughs at our petty human nomenclature. I will absolutely never correct someone if they tell me Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a single song, but I will be the first to defy them if they try to tell me Solitary Shell isn't one, too. It works on its own, and it works as part of a bigger whole. It's a song and a movement and a track and all the rest, too. Fans are way more precious about the definitions than the band ever were. What's in a name?

tl;dr version - songception?

[robwebster]

Basically!

[TheGreatPretender]

Yeah, due to the format, Six Degrees is the first thing you hear when you put its disc in and press play. While Six Degrees is all one album, I think as it's split into two discs, it's sort of got two openers, two closers. Disappear is "end of part one," and Six Degrees, taken as a whole, feels more like a new beginning than the final stretch.

Hey, I've been part of this forum for almost a decade, defending SDOIT's honour. I think I count before you, buddy!

Yeah, I can note that.. But I just said that because you used the "will" in your sentence.. So you WILL defend it, while I AM defending it..

However.. I know for sure we're not the only ones... Actually it's a fact: it is a song.. That's how they think about it.. And no one can change that..

Oh, go on then, you poked the hive enough.

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a song, yes. Solitary Shell is also a song. They released it as a single, they gave it a classical "verse, chorus, verse, chorus, solo" structure, it has its own lyrics, subject and distinct melodic identity, they even indexed it separately for your pleasure! They play it on its own live, they even wrote a nifty extended jam for it on the BCSL tour. They also included it as one of the "21 Other Pretty Cool Songs" of Dream Theater's Greatest Hit and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs. Surely that's as definitive a statement as you get - way more conclusive than some interview from ages ago with a man who isn't even in the band any more!

Basically, the argument that because Mike Portnoy said it was a single song Six Degrees should only be referred to as one cogent piece isn't quite watertight. I'm not saying you're wrong, I agree, Six Degrees is one statement and was indexed as such on Score, but I think the fact they listed all the tracks separately on its home album is mixed signals, at best? Six Degrees is a song, and it's a suite, and it's an album, all at the same time, and The Test That Stumped Them All is also a song, and Solitary Shell is a song, and Goodnight Kiss is a song. Trying to define something as ambiguous and subjective as music in simple English can be a tricky sell, and Six Degrees more than any other DT song points and laughs at our petty human nomenclature. I will absolutely never correct someone if they tell me Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is a single song, but I will be the first to defy them if they try to tell me Solitary Shell isn't one, too. It works on its own, and it works as part of a bigger whole. It's a song and a movement and a track and all the rest, too. Fans are way more precious about the definitions than the band ever were. What's in a name?

To corroborate on what you said, I definitely agree. And as such, I can't in all honesty call Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence an "Album Closer" because that would be like saying, "Act II of SFAM is an album closer"--which, if it was, it would win, hands down out of all of them  . But that's not the point, the point is, if I had to choose a proper "album closer" for the SDOIT album, I would say it starts with the About to Crash reprise, and goes on until the end, and in that form, it's a fantastic album closer.

[Dellers]

I can't choose. Seems they have a lot of strong closers.

[Lolzeez]

Learning To Live and it isn't even close.

This exactly.

Yup.