Your Favorite 3-Album Stretch?

[DTA]

Definitely Awake - FII - SFAM.

[SuperTaco]

Tough choice, but I'm going with SDOIT - TOT - 8VM because it has the trifecta bonus of containing my first DT songs(TOT), my favorite song(8VM), and my most listened songs(SDOIT).

Honorable second place mention to WDADU - I&W - AWAKE

[Dave_Manchester]

Another vote for Scenes - Six Degrees - ToT. And I know it's been mentioned 999,999 times already on this board but I'll take the chance to make it an even million: what a pair of albums SFAM and Six Degrees are. Recently I listened to them back to back and was as blown away as I was when I first heard them many years ago.

And ToT has my favourite 'ending pair' of songs in the DT discography: Stream of Consciousness and In The Name of God. Incredible way to end an incredible album.

[SuperTaco]

Another vote for Scenes - Six Degrees - ToT. And I know it's been mentioned 999,999 times already on this board but I'll take the chance to make it an even million: what a pair of albums SFAM and Six Degrees are. Recently I listened to them back to back and was as blown away as I was when I first heard them many years ago.

And ToT has my favourite 'ending pair' of songs in the DT discography: Stream of Consciousness and In The Name of God. Incredible way to end an incredible album.

1999-2001 is the absolute peak of Dream Theater, musically and compositionally. It is their prime.

[Dream Team]

Believe it or not I have to go with the Mangini albums despite my love for I&W, SFAM, etc because FII is so weak it ruins the other 3-album runs. The first 3 would be a close second.

[adamack]

EDIT: Moved to "least favorite 3 album stretch" thread

[LKap13]

SFAM, 6DOIT, TOT

I&W, Awake, FII a close second. It's tough to put I&W and awake in a second place category, but TOT>>FII

[Cool Chris]

Believe it or not I have to go with the Mangini albums despite my love for I&W, SFAM, etc because FII is so weak it ruins the other 3-album runs.

I have that same issue. If you look at the run from I&W-Awake-FII-SFaM-SDoIT, FII is definitely the sore thumb that sticks out.

[jammindude]

My default would have to be SDOIT-8V with Six Degrees being the weakest link in the chain. I almost feel about that the way most people are talking about FII.

It's hard to believe that as much as I adore DT, they really don't have a completely "rock solid", "perfect 10" 3 album run.

[dream75]

WDADU - I&W - AWAKE

[adamack]

Believe it or not I have to go with the Mangini albums despite my love for I&W, SFAM, etc because FII is so weak it ruins the other 3-album runs.

I have that same issue. If you look at the run from I&W-Awake-FII-SFaM-SDoIT, FII is definitely the sore thumb that sticks out.

One hundred percent without question.

I've never really thought of this before. If FII would have been an amazing album, DT would have had almost a decade-long run of masterpiece-level albums.

[Max Kuehnau]

I'll guess it will be ADTOE-DT12-D/T (skipping The Astonishing)

[TheCountOfNYC]

Scenes From a Memory, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Train of Thought

[Nachtmerrie]

SFAM, Six Degrees and ToT.

My personal top 3

[Samsara]

Images-Awake-FII. And while FII is the lesser of the three, there is enough awesomeness on that record for my tastes (specifically Hell's Kitchen, Lines in the Sand, Anna Lee, and Trial of Tears) that it is absolutely up there in my album rankings.

[Jay T]

Mine is also Images thru Falling Into Infinity, although if I could pick four, it'd be Images thru Scenes.

[Ninjabait]

SFaM - SDoIT - ToT

Runner-up:
SDoIT - ToT - Octavarium

That 4 run of albums is like peak DT for me

[SleeperAwake]

I&W - Awake - FII

The first two are my favourite DT albums. FII isn't quite up there, but not too far off either.

[Infinite Cactus]

WDADU - IW - AWAKE. Though  FII and WDADU both vie for my top 3 album spot with Awake them Images being the top 2.

[efx]

Easy. I&W-Awake-FII

[Setlist Scotty]

Gotta go with WDaDU/IaW/Awake - I could probably have chosen any of the options that went up to SDoIT, but all of those get weighed down by FII, which is a decent album, but overall rates low for me in their catalog. WDaDU, as you all probably know from Rob's Full Circle podcast, rates pretty highly in my book.   

[Trav]

Images-Awake-Falling