Your top 3 DT albums (other than the regular top 8) (pick 3)

[Madman Shepherd]

Welp, Covid has us all on quarantine so I guess we're scraping the bottom of the barrel as far as what to talk about. I personally have found these polls to be fascinating.

Here's how they stack up so far.

Top Tier:

1: Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
2. Images & Words
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. Awake

Second Tier...updated 3/26/20 (only separated by a few votes):

1. Train of Thought
2. A Dramatic Turn of Events
3. Octavarium
4. Distance Over Time

[ChuckSteak]

FII
BCSL
SC

[MirrorMask]

The Astonishing for sure.

Then Falling Into Infinity.

Then unsure between the self titled and Black Clouds. Went with DT12 but they're hard to compare.

[Zydar]

FII
SC
DT12

[Madman Shepherd]

SC
DT12
FII

SC was in my top 3
DT12 is a great album with some great highs including The Bigger Picture which I think is one of DT's best songs. Unfortunately, a lot of the album is very middle of the road. No bad songs, just a few standouts.

The last one was hard choosing between WDADU and FII. Both albums are great. WDADU has only one song I don't like (SS) whereas FII has several. In the end I went with FII because the highs are really high. I've always felt the wrong songs get credit on this album aside from Trial of Tears which deserve all the praise it gets. I absolutely love Anna Lee, Take Away My Pain, Burning My Soul, and You Not Me.

[Setlist Scotty]

1. WDaDU
2. BCaSL
3. s/t

Was really tough on the last spot - could've been FII, but I think the s/t just edged it out.

[Cool Chris]

Is the second Awake a typo? 8VM should be tied with ToT right?

SC/TA were the easy choices. DT12 is has some good stuff, I don't know why I don't connect with it at all.

WDaDU, FII, BC&SL are bringing up the rear.

[NoFred]

FII
SC
BCSL

I genuinely like and listen to every album between I&W and ADToE

[Madman Shepherd]

Is the second Awake a typo? 8VM should be tied with ToT right?

Oops. Thanks.

[jjfumbly]

LOL the choices keep getting easier but I still can't decide! every DT record is just so freaking amazing

[krands85]

Is the second Awake a typo? 8VM should be tied with ToT right?

SC/TA were the easy choices. DT12 is has some good stuff, I don't know why I don't connect with it at all.

WDaDU, FII, BC&SL are bringing up the rear.

Very similar thoughts here. Systematic Chaos and The Astonishing definitely, then between DT12 and FII for the third spot and I went with DT12. FII just has too many of my absolute least favourite DT tracks.

[Volante99]

FII
SC
BCSL

I genuinely like and listen to every album between I&W and ADToE

This. SC and FII are a bit weak but for me but there was a noticeable drop in quality after ADToE. There are moments of greatness in each of the last 3 albums but something is missing for me.

[KidInTheDark666]

Black Clouds and Systematic Chaos are criminally underrated. The rest of the albums are DT's bottom 4 albums for me, out of which I pick Falling Into Infinity.

[Eldomm]

WDADU
Systematic Chaos


Falling into Infinity

[pg1067]

Here's how they stack up so far.

Top Tier:

1: Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
2. Images & Words
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. Awake

Second Tier (only separated by a few votes):

1 & 2 (Tie): Train of Thought & Octavarium

Well...these are my top 6.  I voted for DT12 as my #7, so it gets one of my votes in this round.  The other 2 go to WDADU (most of the songs are good or better, and all of the performances, except for Charlie, are excellent) and BC&SL (Wither and TCOT elevate it above the other options).

So I guess that makes my rankings (in tiers:

I&W
SFAM
SDOIT

Awake

TOT
8VM
ADTOE
DT12
DOT

WDADU
BC&SL

FII
SC
TA

[hefdaddy42]

Dream Theater
Falling Into Infinity
Systematic Chaos

[Madman Shepherd]

Crazy to see Systematic Chaos is in 2nd place of the bottom tier when only one person (me) put it in the top tier.

I guess that means that it is universally regarded as a mediocre album but not that bad.

[Northern Lion]

This is a lot of fun.  My choices:

TA
SC
FII

My last choice surprised me a little, I initially expected to pick either BC&SL or DT12.

[RoeDent]

Do we really need THREE "favourite DT albums" threads?! For goodness' sake! At what point do we stop?

"Top 1 DT album (other than the regular top 13)" and we're left with The Astonishing as the only option.

[KidInTheDark666]

I think this is a good way to find out what albums are the most and the least liked.

[MirrorMask]

Do we really need THREE "favourite DT albums" threads?! For goodness' sake! At what point do we stop?

Right at this thread I guess.

[geeeemo]

We should do a live albums one now.....

[Madman Shepherd]

Do we really need THREE "favourite DT albums" threads?! For goodness' sake! At what point do we stop?

Right at this thread I guess.

Heh, I say we go one more round. I mean seriously. Right now WDADU is clearly in last place BUT it was a struggle for me to not choose it this round. If it is down to WDADU and TA, WDADU would get my vote by farrrrrr. On the other hand, if DT12 ends up in second to last place then I'd have to go with that over WDADU, even though I feel both of those are far better than TA or BC&SL.

[Dream Team]

WDADU
DT
TA

[NoFred]

Do we really need THREE "favourite DT albums" threads?! For goodness' sake! At what point do we stop?

"Top 1 DT album (other than the regular top 13)" and we're left with The Astonishing as the only option.

Haha

There is probably 1 more good thread left to squeeze out of this - top 1 out of the top 2.

[Indiscipline]

Astonishing
DT12
Infinity

[LCArenas]

It was actually pretty easy for me
1. Falling into Infinity - Underrated album. Hell's Kitchen alone puts it on top, not to mention Trial of Tears, Anna Lee, Peruvian Skies...
2. The Astonishing - Its only downside: To fully appreciate it you need to listen to the whole album. This doesn't happen to SFAM, where you can listen to every song apart and still see why that album is so great.
3. Dream Theater  -  In my experience, it's The Astonishing's polar opposite: I came to like it more when I heard each song apart and less when you hear it from start to finish
---------------------------------------------------
4. Systematic Chaos - Its standouts are better than the ones from DT12 (ITPoE I, TMoLS, Forsaken) but boy its lower moments are waaay worse. Grotesque creatures battle.
5. BC&SL - Like Systematic Chaos, but worse. There are great moments here and there but... Well... Wither is its most consistent song, and that says something. That being said, I just love to remember how memeable the lyrics of the whole album were. So many laughs 10 years ago in the forum... I guess DT made the lyrics Memorable in their own way
6. WDADU - If this album was produced the way I&W was produced + LaBrie in 1989, this would be number one by a MILE. Light Fuse and Get Away, The Killing Hand, Afterlife! All bangers. But this is what we got.

[gzarruk]

Voted SC, DT and TA. (And I really enjoy the 3 of them)

Black Clouds hasn't aged too well for me, FII has really amazing highs and really low lows, and WDADU is criminally underrated, but I still like these 3 more.

[Ben_Jamin]

Systematic Chaos
Dream Theater
The Astonishing

[SleeperAwake]

Falling Into Infinity

When Dream & Day Unite


Systematic Chaos

[GasparXR]

I went with Falling into Infinity, The Astonishing and Black Clouds & Silver Linings. FII is actually one of my favourite DT albums, and the Astonishing is somewhere in the middle. BC&SL is also somewhere in the middle, and had a hard time deciding between that and self-titled.