Which Group of 4 Albums do you like the most?

[The Letter M]

After realizing the last four albums were all with Roadrunner Records and that the four before them formed the sort of "meta-album", where the band connected the albums together with one starting where the last one ended (static, fading note, low F), I came up with this poll idea.

The question is simple - which grouping of four albums is your favorite? You can even rank the 3 periods of albums if you'd like in your response. I may have to think on this one for a little while before I vote, though.

-Marc.

[bosk1]

Really cool idea.  I am not sure at the moment which I would pick.  They each have some great things to offer.  I guess if I had to chose, I would pick the meta-album era.  It has my top 2 albums, and there is lots to like on TOT and 8VM as well.  Still, of the three eras, I do not see a clear winner.

[jakepriest]

Meta album era. No contest.

[James Sucellus]

I'd easily rate 'WDADU - IAW - Awake - FII' as the band's best period. The middle two are among the finest albums I've ever heard in my entire life, and the other two are flawed but have track variety. Oh, and Kevin Moore is on three of these. 'nuff said.

'SFAM - SDOIT - TOT - 8VM' loses points for the mediocrity and Matt Bellamyisms of 8VM, and the almost complete lack of variety with ToT. The latter two albums aren't as easy to marathon as WDADU and FII.

The latest run of four are still good albums, but the latter Portnoy era felt really directionless, and even now the band are merely consistent, rather than innovators.

[robwebster]

Christ, that's hard! My favourites are split fairly evenly between the three. I think, on balance, the middle era wins it, but it's a close fought thing.

[Kotowboy]

Middle option. 100%. It contains my top 3 albums.

[mikeyd23]

Man that was tricky! I went with the "Meta-Album" era though, SFAM and SDOIT in the same group are hard to beat!

[The Letter M]

Would anyone's votes change if I said the First Era could contain "A Change Of Seasons", "Eve", "Don't Look Past Me", "To Live Forever", and the five FII B-Sides as well?

I guess that would also mean the RR Era would include "Raw Dog".

-Marc.

[KevShmev]

Hmmmm, if I do this numerically, as far as my album ranking order:

The first grouping has my 10, 1, 2 and 7 albums.

The second grouping has my 3 ,4, 9 and 12 albums.

The third grouping has my 11, 8, 5 and 6 albums.

Looks like the first grouping takes it, easily. 

[CharlesPL]

The Early Era

[Tom Bombadil]

The first one has 3 of my top 5, including my #1 and #2. So definitely that one.

[Invisible]

Would anyone's votes change if I said the First Era could contain "A Change Of Seasons", "Eve", "Don't Look Past Me", "To Live Forever", and the five FII B-Sides as well?

I guess that would also mean the RR Era would include "Raw Dog".

-Marc.

Mine would, by that standard it makes the toughest poll I've read to have winner, not by much though.

The Meta Albums are more consistent(three Tier 2, one Tier 1 album), but the Early has three of my Tier 1 albums(I&W, Awake and FII) but also my least favorite, adding Cleaning Out The Closet turns the balance to the early days.

The Roadrunner Years are three Tier 3(SC-ADTOE) and the best Tier 2(DT12), all consistent but have visible flaws except for DT12.

So all in all:

1. Early Days
2. (Veeeery close) Meta-Albums
3. Roadrunner Years

[bosk1]

Would anyone's votes change if I said the First Era could contain "A Change Of Seasons", "Eve", "Don't Look Past Me", "To Live Forever", and the five FII B-Sides as well?

I guess that would also mean the RR Era would include "Raw Dog".

-Marc.

Well, that era shot up to #1 when you included ACOS, but then dropped to dead last when you included Eve.   

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

First one, despite me not being crazy about FII.

[?]

Option 1

[Dublagent66]

2nd option.  1st option not far behind.

[krands85]

Meta
Early
Roadrunner

The early selection contains my favourite album ever in I&W and although I'm not keen on 6DOIT, the other 3 albums grouped with it are in my top 5. So it's a much more consistent set than the other 2 options.

[yorost]

The meta album group has my lowest ranked album, 8VM, and it still wins easily in my book. ToT is my favourite album, disc one of SDoIT might be just as good, and SFaM is my third favourite album. For all that I dislike disc 2 of SDoIT and 8VM, I think the group is covered having 3 of their 4 great discs (other is Awake).

[Sacul]

I was going to choose the second group, but 'cause it has CrapVarium, went with numbah one.

[Kotowboy]

I was going to choose the second group, but 'cause it has CrapVarium, went with numbah one.

LOL THATS WELL CLEVER M8

I DONT LIKE WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE - SO I CALL IT WHEN GAY AND CRAP UNITE CAUSE I AM ALSO CLEVER

[The Letter M]

I was going to choose the second group, but 'cause it has CrapVarium, went with numbah one.

LOL THATS WELL CLEVER M8

I DONT LIKE WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE - SO I CALL IT WHEN GAY AND CRAP UNITE CAUSE I AM ALSO CLEVER

-Marc.

[425]

First option. Images and Words is my favorite album and Awake is one of my top favorites. Not crazy about the other two but they're both solid, enjoyable albums with a few truly great songs apiece (WDADU: A Fortune In Lies, The Killing Hand, Only a Matter of Time; FII: Hollow Years, Lines in the Sand, Trial of Tears).

The second option has a couple of great albums in Scenes From a Memory and Octavarium, but Train of Thought is middle of the Dream Theater road, and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is Dream Theater's longest album and also their weakest. Basically, it comes down to: Images + Awake beat Scenes + Octavarium, though not by too too much, then ToT beats WDADU and FII, but those two beat SDOIT and SDOIT is longer. On balance, therefore, I'll take the first era. As for the third... BCSL is one of my favorites (my top 5 in chronological order is IAW, Awake, SFAM, 8VM, BCSL), but the Mangini albums are middle of the DT road and SC is towards the bottom, so that group is pretty much out of contention.

[Another_Won]

I went with The "Meta-Album" Era, although it was very close.  I think/hope this will change once we get a few more albums and can have 4 with the MM era.

[Kotowboy]

I was going to choose the second group, but 'cause it has CrapVarium, went with numbah one.

LOL THATS WELL CLEVER M8

I DONT LIKE WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE - SO I CALL IT WHEN GAY AND CRAP UNITE CAUSE I AM ALSO CLEVER

-Marc.

I was being sarcastic.

[The Letter M]

I was going to choose the second group, but 'cause it has CrapVarium, went with numbah one.

LOL THATS WELL CLEVER M8

I DONT LIKE WHEN DREAM AND DAY UNITE - SO I CALL IT WHEN GAY AND CRAP UNITE CAUSE I AM ALSO CLEVER

-Marc.

I was being sarcastic.

So was I, but you can't really make an image green to make is sarcastic like you can (and should) with text.

-Marc.

[Jamesman42]

All 3 eras have 2 excellent albums...1 mediocre album...and 1 bad album:

IaW/Awake...FII...WDADU
SDOIT/8VM...TOT (actually, not mediocre but not the level of the prior 2)...SFAM
ADTOE/DT12...BCSL...SC

SDOIT and 8VM are almost interchangeable for my top DT album, so the meta-era.

[son_ov_hades]

The first era easily. Each of those albums are incredible and I could marathon them all day every day. The meta era is by far the most unbalanced. Scenes From A Memory is the best album and Six Degrees is pretty great, but Train Of Thought is almost unlistenable and Octavarium just isn't that great. The Roadrunner era is also unbalanced, two wonderful albums(A Dramatic Turn Of Events and Dream Theater) and two meh to bad albums(Systematic Chaos and Black Clouds).

[ThatOneGuy2112]

I love me I&W, but I take the Meta-album series easily. SFAM, their best album as well as SDOIT and TOT, two of their other classics. 8VM is always pretty good. Nuff said really.

[Tis BOOLsheet]

Tough call. I guess I'd have to vote the "metal era" album set. Overall that is the strongest set I think. The other two have more than one huge clunker, whereas the metal era only has ONE terrible album in Octavarium.

[RuRoRul]

Meta Album years easily.

[Daso]

As much as I praise ADTOE and DT12, and both are in my Top 5, the other three in my top 5 are Images and Words, Awake and Falling Into Infinity. And the RR era is more dragged down by SC and BC&SL than the early years by WDADU in my opinion.

[Dream Team]

First one, despite me not being crazy about FII.

Yeah, I hate FII but the first 3 are so strong they overcome it.

[BlobVanDam]

Easily "meta" without even needing to think about it, but if I were able to choose any 4 consecutive albums, I'd go with FII-SFAM-SDOIT-TOT. As long as it's got SFAM>SDOIT though, it's thoroughly unbeatable.

[54_diplomats]

Early era. Images and Awake are my top 2 and although SFAM and SDOIT are my 3 and 4 respectively, I'll take the former any day. I also quite enjoy WDADU and FII more than most people.

[yeah_93]

Second era. I just realized how much I like ToT.