Black Clouds and Silver Linings?

[Zook]

Absolutely in top 3, so much love for it. TCOT is to me one of the best songs ever written, aside from the lyrics.

The most annoying to me are indeed the cookie-monster vocals of Portnoy in ANTR. The Best of Times sounds gayish and I always skip that one (no offense intended - I know the lyrics are emotional).

The term "cookie monster vocals" was created to describe the style of vocals that sound like Cookie Monster. Dream Theater has never had cookie monster vocals in any of their songs.

What Portnoy is doing is tough guy shouting.

[Enalya]

The term "cookie monster vocals" was created to describe the style of vocals that sound like Cookie Monster. Dream Theater has never had cookie monster vocals in any of their songs.

What Portnoy is doing is tough guy shouting.

Right. I dislike his tough guy shouting then ; )

[Logain Ablar]

TCOT is to me one of the best songs ever written, aside from the lyrics.
The most annoying to me are indeed the cookie-monster vocals of Portnoy in ANTR.
The Best of Times sounds gayish and I always skip that one (no offense intended - I know the lyrics are emotional).

Agree. It's a "go to" song for me when I want to test out a new pair of headphones.
Sort of agree. I don't have very strong feelings about the infamous ROOOAARR bit, other than it sounds a bit stupid and OTT.
Don't agree . That ending solo is one of the best things I have ever heard. I think the rest of the song could have benefitted from a bit of editing though. Maybe a couple of minutes taken out would have tightened it up and improved it a lot.

[Enalya]

Agree. It's a "go to" song for me when I want to test out a new pair of headphones.
Sort of agree. I don't have very strong feelings about the infamous ROOOAARR bit, other than it sounds a bit stupid and OTT.
Don't agree . That ending solo is one of the best things I have ever heard. I think the rest of the song could have benefitted from a bit of editing though. Maybe a couple of minutes taken out would have tightened it up and improved it a lot.

You know what, I will check it out now.

Okay just did, and yes, that ending solo is damn beautiful. Thanks for making me aware!

[Dublagent66]

To me, the run from TOT to BCASL represented a gradual decline in quality, but it has reversed itself and been on the upswing since ADTOE.

True.  It's been declining since after the release of SDOIT.  There was a slight upswing with ADTOE, but continues to decline from there.

To me, Systematic Chaos and BC&SL represent the two most, how do I say, "meh" Dream Theater albums. They're not bad by any means, but looking back on the band's career, that whole period feels a little weird. By that, I don't mean weird as in, "The band was doing a bunch of experimentation!", but rather, weird as in I kind of forget those records even exist.

For me, this period feels weird.  What they are doing now makes me go back and appreciate albums like SC and BC&SL even more.

[red barchetta]

I really like that album.  The count is a great track, Portnoy's song in memory of his father is beautiful, Wither is probably their first catchy ballad.  The album is full of fantastic harmonies.

[RAIN]

As I've stated before, this is one of my top 3 albums...

But one thing I just don't get is why A Rite of Passage sounds so different, like it was a Demo that they tried to polish up, or recorded at a different time, or different studio.  Sonically it's just so different (and somewhat quieter) than the rest of the album.
Does anyone agree?  Does anyone know why?

[SebastianPratesi]

As I've stated before, this is one of my top 3 albums...

But one thing I just don't get is why A Rite of Passage sounds so different, like it was a Demo that they tried to polish up, or recorded at a different time, or different studio.  Sonically it's just so different (and somewhat quieter) than the rest of the album.
Does anyone agree?  Does anyone know why?

I agree with you (about the overall guitar and drum sound on the intro), but I don't know why.

[seasonsinthesky]

Some songs are mixed differently for different reasons. Only the mix engineer could really answer that.

[BlobVanDam]

I don't find AROP to sound any different than the usual song to song variation in mixing, due to what the song calls for.

[SchecterShredder]

I've never really understood the hate this album gets on DTF. It's orders of magnitude better than Awake and Falling Into Infinity, especially the latter. For me, it's second only to SFAM, and that's a close call too. CoT is hands down my favorite DT tune, and Nightmare is right up there. I love the heaviness of Nightmare, and that 2nd verse when the accident takes place is just awesome. ARoP is another great tune too, in my opinion, and lyrically is great. I really like the length of the songs too. The short track lengths is one of my biggest irks with TA, so I really hope they get back to longer tracks on the next album.

[1neeto]

It's one of those albums that has great moments (that wither solo) but as a whole seems lacking and uninspiring, and I absolutely hate MP's "growl" vocals, it does ruin what's otherwise a great song. Even COT which is a fan favorite ranks pretty low on my DT epic list. It's like the same old DT, but then just going through the motions of releasing an album every other year.

[Randaran]

I've never really understood the hate this album gets on DTF. It's orders of magnitude better than Awake and Falling Into Infinity, especially the latter. For me, it's second only to SFAM, and that's a close call too. CoT is hands down my favorite DT tune, and Nightmare is right up there. I love the heaviness of Nightmare, and that 2nd verse when the accident takes place is just awesome. ARoP is another great tune too, in my opinion, and lyrically is great. I really like the length of the songs too. The short track lengths is one of my biggest irks with TA, so I really hope they get back to longer tracks on the next album.

Aside from your love for Scenes, I vehemently disagree with literally everything in this post. BCASL is the one album where the long song lengths do no favors for the record. Each one, except for Wither, could be trimmed by at least a few minutes without losing anything. I cannot say the same for an album like SDOIT.

In the case of TA, the short songs work due to their unique structures. The short lengths work perfectly for most songs, so I'm not bothered by the large number of 5 minute pieces. I would like longer songs on DT's next album, as long as they are not bloated ala Black Clouds.

[red barchetta]

I've never really understood the hate this album gets on DTF. It's orders of magnitude better than Awake and Falling Into Infinity, especially the latter. For me, it's second only to SFAM, and that's a close call too. CoT is hands down my favorite DT tune, and Nightmare is right up there. I love the heaviness of Nightmare, and that 2nd verse when the accident takes place is just awesome. ARoP is another great tune too, in my opinion, and lyrically is great. I really like the length of the songs too. The short track lengths is one of my biggest irks with TA, so I really hope they get back to longer tracks on the next album.

I totally agree with you. Nightmare puts me right in a good mood with its heavy style and you have fantastic harmonies as well. Count is great, great guitar at the beginning, great ending with a strong beat. I like the sound of the drums on that album. It is well define, the sound from each parts of the drum kit is precise and clear.

[Iceyice]

I actually haven't rated this, to tell you the truth.
All i know is my top 3 are 'Awake,'  'Metropolis 2 - S.F.A.M,'  'Falling into infinity.'
It's hard to rate their albums in my opinion. I checked an entry of my top 5 that i put on Tumblr in 2014, and was shocked at my  5th fave, which could change if i gave it more thought, as in a Train, lol. 'Images' should stay #4, though.

[axeman90210]

Not top three, but solidly above average for me. ANTR starts out good, and I *love* the Beautiful Agony interlude, but it really loses me in the second half. ARoP and Wither are both fine, if also entirely forgettable. I like Shattered Fortress a lot (except the OCD part of me goes nuts when the recurrence of the drums from The Root of All Evil ruins what was otherwise a very nice, symmetrical close to the 12 Step Suite). The Best of Times is a song I admittedly don't listen to very often, but whenever I do I wonder why I don't more often. It also has some great playing from JP. The Count of Tuscany I really enjoy, I just thing it suffers from the fact that due to it's runtime it's frequently measured against two of the best pieces of music DT has ever written in A Change of Seasons and Octavarium.

[genome]

It's two superb tracks sandwiching a fairly mediocre album, for me. The Count of Tuscany is in my top five all-time DT tracks.

[SchecterShredder]

BCASL is the one album where the long song lengths do no favors for the record. Each one, except for Wither, could be trimmed by at least a few minutes without losing anything.

I'll agree with you on this point. There's definitely room for cuts in most of the tracks. I sure wouldn't miss the Repentance section in Shattered fortress or the entire continuum part in CoT, for that matter.

[Iceyice]

"The uninvited stranger started dancing on his own,
so we said goodbye to the glowing bride and made our way back home"

I love blasting that part. The double bass gets me hyped!

[Outcrier]

It's two superb tracks sandwiching a fairly mediocre album, for me. The Count of Tuscany is in my top five all-time DT tracks.

If it's medocire for you, imagine for me who doesn't even like ANTR and TCOT that much