Your top 3 DT albums (other than the regular top 4)

[Northern Lion]

It was proposed in the last top 3 poll thread that a new poll be created that did not include the top 4 albums that always win.  Namely:

Images and Words
Awake
Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From a Memory
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

So, what are your top 3 other than the top 4? 

Here are mine:

The Astonishing
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Systematic Chaos

D/T almost made my list, and who knows, in the future it just might.

[pg1067]

This was harder than I anticipated.

The four excluded albums are typically my top 4, so we're basically talking about spots 5-7.

I can eliminate

WDADU
FII
SC
BC&SL
TA

That leaves me with five albums to fill three spots:

TOT
8VM
ADTOE
DT12
DOT

TOT definitely gets one of the spots, and I'm pretty sure that I like ADTOE and DT12 better than DOT, so that means I have to choose two out of 8VM, ADTOE and DT12.  8VM has to make it because the title track is the best song on any of those albums, and I think I have to go with DT12 by a nose over ADTOE (even though I typically regard BAI as the best Mangini era song).

So...TOT, 8VM and DT12 it is.

[Cool Chris]

Hard for me as well.

I eliminated the below easily:

WDADU
FII
BC&SL
DT12

Which left:

ToT
8VM
SC
ADToE
TA
DoT

ADToE is in my top 4, so I have to go with that one.

ToT I enjoy, though usually just listen to Budokan if I want to listen to those songs.
I can't in good faith pick 8VM since I rarely listen to it.
I really enjoy SC other than CM/TDEN/R, which leaves quite a bit of music.
TA I still don't know how I feel about to this day.
And I like DoT, but it never rises above "eh... it's a good album."

So:

ADToE, SC, and..... well hell.... ToT.

[Dave_Manchester]

Fairly easy for me. Octavarium and Train of Thought are already in my top 3 (along with Scenes), so that leaves DT12 to complete the set.

[krands85]

Pretty easy for me too - I&W is the only one of the 'big 4' in my top 3 (at #1), so I just had one spot to fill.

1. Train of Thought
2. A Dramatic Turn of Events
3. Octavarium

Octavarium was my introduction to the band and was one of my favourites for a while. It's not in my top tier of DT albums these days, but it's still a great listen and I favour it over a couple of the big 4 too (it's slightly ahead of Awake and way ahead of 6DOIT for me).

[Adami]

Difficult since those four included all of my three.

1. FII (this one was easy)
2. 8VM (less easy but still not hard)
3. ADTOE (Eh, I don't love any of the others, but this is the least offensive or boring)

[geeeemo]

I went to vote, and aside from ADToE, I couldn't decide. So, the next several days I am going to listen to every album to see if I can decide. 
The thing is, Octavarium is my #1 song and there are 2 others on that record that I really love as well, but the rest, not nearly as much. The others all have 1 or 2 or 3 songs I love, but the same. I wish I could choose a live album or 2 as I end up choosing those more often.
Isn't great that this band is so good that I cant put one record above another!

[Ben_Jamin]

8VM
The Astonishing
D/T

8vm is actually my 4th favorite so it's the only one that changed.

[Revenge319]

This was pretty easy for me; two of my top 3 Dream Theater albums are Black Clouds & Silver Linings and Octavarium, so taking off Six Degrees and Metropolis Part 2 leaves me with A Dramatic Turn of Events as my #3 for this list.

[IDontNotDoThings]

Distance Over Time
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
The Astonishing

[NoFred]

8vm (also my #3 overall}
SC (low cal easy listening DT)
ADToE (really good regardless of muddy sound)

Gave A long thought toward including FII, but I just don't listen to it anymore.

[LCArenas]

8vm
ADToE
DoT

Also shoutout to FII, heavily underrated album

[Fritzinger]

I think it's weird that Six Degrees is under the top 4 of DT albums as in basically everybody loves it, like Metropolis. I've heard a lot of criticism about Six Degrees.

Anyway, I still vote for Octavarium and Black Clouds. I didn't pick a third one, because I couldn't decide. The third one could be a different one each week. I would chose between Train Of Thought, Falling Into Infinity (yes) and maybe Dramatic Turn.

[DTA]

Falling Into Infinity
The Astonishing

(Both of these are in my top 3 overall along with SFAM)

A Dramatic Turn of Events

[MirrorMask]

Octavarium without question.

Then, wich such a strong and diversified quality, it's even hard to do a good ranking.

I eventually went with Dramatic and The Astonishing, but it's hard to compare them to Train of Thought or Falling Into Infinity.

[hefdaddy42]

Train of Thought
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Dream Theater

[bosk1]

  Not sure why part of the top 4 appears on this list.

[KidInTheDark666]

Train of Thought
Octavarium
Black Clouds & Silver Linings

[Mladen]

The Astonishing
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Systematic Chaos

Bravo. Same here.

[Zydar]

FII
DT12
DoT

[pg1067]

I think it's weird that Six Degrees is under the top 4 of DT albums as in basically everybody loves it, like Metropolis. I've heard a lot of criticism about Six Degrees.

If you look at the other thread, in which folks are asked to vote for their top 3 DT albums ( https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=54901.0 ), the gap between the four albums excluded from this thread (I&W, Awake, SFAM and SDOIT) and the #5 album is quite stark.

As of when I looked a couple minutes ago, 93 people had voted in that poll.  The sum of the votes for all albums was 277 (which means one person only voted for one album or two people only voted for two albums).  The top four received the following votes:

SFAM - 64
I&W - 59
SDOIT - 42
Awake - 33

The #5 album received only 15 votes, which is less than half the number that Awake received and just over 1/3 of what SDOIT received.  These results are pretty typical.

Just to be clear, these results mean that 42 of the 93 people who have voted think SDOIT is at least DT's third best album.  Conversely, it means that more than half of the voters (51/93) do not consider SDOIT to be a top 3 album.  It does not mean that "basically everybody loves it."

[Northern Lion]

  Not sure why part of the top 4 appears on this list.

I'm not sure which album you mean?  The top four are:

Scenes
I&W
Six Degrees
Awake

None of those are included in the poll.

[pg1067]

  Not sure why part of the top 4 appears on this list.

I'm not sure which album you mean?  The top four are:

Scenes
I&W
Six Degrees
Awake

None of those are included in the poll.

He's speaking of his personal preference rather than the results of the other poll.

[Northern Lion]

  Not sure why part of the top 4 appears on this list.

I'm not sure which album you mean?  The top four are:

Scenes
I&W
Six Degrees
Awake

None of those are included in the poll.

He's speaking of his personal preference rather than the results of the other poll.

I'll admit, sometimes I misunderstand Bosk.

[pg1067]

Interestingly, the results of this poll are not tracking with the other one.

At the moment, 32 people have cast 95 votes in this thread (which means someone voted for only two albums).  The top three are as follows:

ADTOE - 18
8VM - 16
TOT - 13

By contrast, in the other thread, the top albums (after the top 4) are as follows:

8VM - 15
ADTOE - 14
TA/DOT - tied with 11 each

Not quite sure what to make of this, but since this thread currently has only about 1/3 of the votes as the other, maybe it will line up as time passes.

[Indiscipline]

Astonishing
ADToE
DT12

[Northern Lion]

Interestingly, the results of this poll are not tracking with the other one.

At the moment, 32 people have cast 95 votes in this thread (which means someone voted for only two albums).  The top three are as follows:

ADTOE - 18
8VM - 16
TOT - 13

By contrast, in the other thread, the top albums (after the top 4) are as follows:

8VM - 15
ADTOE - 14
TA/DOT - tied with 11 each

Not quite sure what to make of this, but since this thread currently has only about 1/3 of the votes as the other, maybe it will line up as time passes.

I noticed the same thing, and it may change with time, but it also may just be the result of removing DT's most loved albums.  People are having to resort to their 4th, 5th, or even 6th place choices.  And it looks like that can make a significant difference.

[Volante99]

8VM
ADTOE - still the best Mangini album by a wide margin


BCSL- maybe a tie with ToT but I'll give Black Clouds a little love- their most underrated album- fun prog Metal album, I will defend Black Clouds until the day I die.

[NoFred]

Interestingly, the results of this poll are not tracking with the other one.

At the moment, 32 people have cast 95 votes in this thread (which means someone voted for only two albums).  The top three are as follows:

ADTOE - 18
8VM - 16
TOT - 13

By contrast, in the other thread, the top albums (after the top 4) are as follows:

8VM - 15
ADTOE - 14
TA/DOT - tied with 11 each

Not quite sure what to make of this, but since this thread currently has only about 1/3 of the votes as the other, maybe it will line up as time passes.

I noticed the same thing, and it may change with time, but it also may just be the result of removing DT's most loved albums.  People are having to resort to their 4th, 5th, or even 6th place choices.  And it looks like that can make a significant difference.

So far seems people who prefer the big four voted here for ToT and ADToE, at least more than people who have more variety in their top 3.

[wolfking]

TOT
8VM
DT

[Northern Lion]

I've noticed that TA is getting more votes as well.

[TAC]

I love how the OP has WildRanger style suppositions to the Top 4 albums.

[pg1067]

I love how the OP has WildRanger style suppositions to the Top 4 albums.

They're not suppositions.

[KevShmev]

Falling into Infinity
Train of Thought
The Astonishing

Distance over Time just missed the cut.

[Dublagent66]

ToT
ADTOE
DoT