What are your FOUR least favorite Dream Theater studio albums?

[KevShmev]

Okay, the flip side now.

Pick your four least favorites.

I will go with:

When Dream and Day Unite (as much as I like it, Charlie's vocals and the mix are why I ding it)
Systematic Chaos (has some really good songs, but has a few of their lowest lows ever)
Black Clouds and Silver Linings (good record, with five of the six songs being very good, but feels like the album itself has no personality)
Dream Theater (consistent record, but probably has the lowest highs of any of their records, and whoever decided to make Mangini's drums sound like that should be punched)

[TAC]

FII
6 D's
8V
DT12

[Puppies_On_Acid]

WDaDU - This has some fantastic songs, but the production and Charlie's vocals knock it way down. The live versions of these songs are far stronger.
ADToE - This album just feels lazy to me and the songwriting of Mike Portnoy feels missed
DT12 - Worst sounding DT album since WDaDU. There are some good songs here, but some feel phoned in.
D/T - Snoozefest for the most part, especially after the fairly adventurous The Astonishing. And (unpopular opinion time) yes, The Astonishing is the best of the post-MP albums.....so far...

[geeeemo]

WDaDU. Just hadn't found their rhythm quite yet, and no JLB.
I & W. .. I know. I just like the others better
DT.  I really don't care for TLG or TEI. IT is a top song, but I just don't listen that often other than that.
TOT. These  last 2 were hard to pick. There really aren't any I don't  like except WDaDU.

[fischermasamune]

I went with WDADU, Octavarium and SC.

Not that any of them is really that bad, but overall they have the weaker songs (despite some hits such as Trial of Tears and the last track of Octavarium)

The fourth one could be any among TOT, FII, TOT, ADTOE, DT12, but I can't be pressed to decide so I'll be only voting on three.

[jammindude]

Two are super easy. SC and BCSL. Probably the only two DT albums I just plain do not like and never revisit.

WDADU takes a third spot strictly for the piss-poor production. It's an otherwise very enjoyable album.

And I'm afraid I'm going to have to go with The Astonishing for the 4th slot. I was this album's biggest defender when it came out. I really loved chutzpah of the project. And I even loved the story. In fact, the story was big enough to go 3-discs. But alas, too many of the ideas feel unfinished, and for as many tracks as there are, there's only a small handful of songs that stand on their own. There was no DT album I WANTED to love more than this one, and for a time I sung the praises of its scope and initiative. But it just didn't have the staying power to actually hook me. But I'm glad they did it, and I will continue to revisit it from time to time.

[HOF]

Only voting on the ones I own (up through SC):

WDADU
Train of Thought
Octavarium
Systematic Chaos

[Zydar]

The Astonishing (dead last, I can't put into words why I dislike this one so much. It just doesn't do anything for me at all, and a boring story)
BCSL (nothing wrong with it, there's just not much there to grab me)
SC (a little better than BCSL, some more good moments overall)
WDADU (I kind of really like some of the songs there, but the production and Charlie brings it down)

[lucasembarbosa]

WDADU
8V
BC&SL
DT12

[DTA]

Octavarium
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Systematic Chaos
DT12

[Trav]

I've given up on the whole album ranking thing. They have so many albums that are pretty much equal in my mind that it's easier to just group them.

Perfect:
Images and Words
Awake
Scenes From a Memory
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Great:
Train of Thought
Octavarium
Systematic Chaos
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Dream Theater
Distance Over Time

Not So Great:
When Dream and Day Unite
Falling Into Infinity
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
The Astonishing

[TheCountOfNYC]

WDaDU
FII
SC
DT12

[krands85]

Least favourite first:

When Dream and Day Unite - As has been mentioned countless times before, the lack of JLB and the production are the main issue here. If they'd re-recorded it in the early 90s, it'd probably be at least 4 spots higher in my list.
Black Clouds and Silver Linings - When even I think songs need trimming down, there's definitely a problem  TCOT is great, and ANTR is pretty good, but even that could have been a bit shorter. I found TSF to be a let down; AROP feels kind of uninspired, plus is far too long; Wither is only OK and TBOT is one of my least favourite DT songs. I think if they had shortened some of the tracks and used the time saved to add 1 or 2 good tracks, it would have been a better album.
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - Please don't hurt me. I really want to love this, but I've just never seen in it what most others do. There's nothing I really dislike on it and I can't even think of ways to make it better, but TGP is the only great song for me.
Falling Into Infinity - A great sounding record, with some really good tracks - especially TOT and LITS, but it also has 3 of my least favourite DT songs. There was a thread a while back about reconfiguring the album and I think if you got rid of YNM, BMS and JLMB and replaced them with an extended version of To Live Forever and maybe Speak to Me, we'd have a middle of the pack album, rather than one in the bottom 4. TLF was written well before FII of course, but it'd be cool to have it on an official studio album.

I still listen to many of the songs from all these albums and 3 of the albums as a whole. WDADU is the only one I almost never listen to in its studio album form.

[Lonk]

WDADU
SC
BC&SL
DT12

[Dream Team]

FII
TOT
OV
SC

Yeah that's a low point for me from 2003-2008.

[hefdaddy42]

When Dream And Day Unite
Octavarium
Systematic Chaos
Black Clouds & Silver Linings

[kirksnosehair]

BETTER-->| Systematic Chaos >Dream Theater >Distance over Time >The Astonishing | <-- WORSE

[Snow Dog]

Black Clouds...
Octavarium
Systematic Chaos
The Astonishing

In that order.

[Revenge319]

11. Dream Theater
12. Train of Thought
13. Falling Into Infinity
14. When Dream and Day Unite

Half of the self-titled album is really great, but the other half is just okay in comparison.
If it weren't for Honor Thy Father, Train of Thought would probably be in my Top 5 Dream Theater albums.
And then FII and WDADU both fall into the category of "good, but outclassed". They both have some amazing songs on there, though.

[pg1067]

The bottom 4 are as easy to list as the top 4.

The Astonishing is at the very bottom.  No matter how many times I've tried, it won't click.  There are some moments that stand out (there's a song that sounds very Dixie Dregs-ish, but I can't ever remember what the song is), but SO MUCH of the album sounds so very much the same that it's a chore to listen to.

Systematic Chaos was at the bottom until TA was released.  SC features DT's all-time worst song (Redemption), and it's "epic" has never clicked with me.  I LOVE Constant Motion, and TDEN is ok, but everything else is just meh.

Falling into Infinity comes next.  Several good songs (YNM, HY, HK, AL and TOT), but none of those are great.  LITS had potential but is ruined by the chorus.

The last spot was between WDADU and BC&SL.  WDADU has a couple duds, but most of it is really good.  The best stuff on BC&SL (Wither and TCOT) is better than the best stuff on WDADU, but large chunks of BC&SL (ANTR, AROP and TBOT) are no better than meh.  BC&SL gets the vote.

And I'm afraid I'm going to have to go with The Astonishing for the 4th slot. I was this album's biggest defender when it came out. I really loved chutzpah of the project. And I even loved the story. In fact, the story was big enough to go 3-discs. But alas, too many of the ideas feel unfinished, and for as many tracks as there are, there's only a small handful of songs that stand on their own. There was no DT album I WANTED to love more than this one, and for a time I sung the praises of its scope and initiative. But it just didn't have the staying power to actually hook me. But I'm glad they did it, and I will continue to revisit it from time to time.

I share a lot of these sentiments.  Some folks think they shouldn't have tried this, and I disagree.  I admire the attempt and the effort.  The story seems a bit derivative, but no real problem there.  Few songs stand out on their own.  I WISH I loved this album, but no....

[Setlist Scotty]

According to my analytical way of rating albums, my four lowest rated albums are FII, SC, ADToE and TA.

[Dellers]

When Dream and Day Unite - can't get used to the sound or the singer
Awake - I just don't particularly like any of the songs
Falling into Infinity - some good tunes, good sound, but not a lot of songs that click with me. Contains their absolutely worst song, BMS
Dream Theater - I can't stand the mix, and most of the songs are too similar to Rush in a bad way (I don't particularly like Rush)

[Adami]

Easy. Distance Over Time, The Astonishing, DT12, and BCSL.

[Elite]

Easy. Distance Over Time, The Astonishing, DT12, and BCSL.

This, except Train of Thought instead of The Astonishing.

[Wim Kruithof]

Good: Falling into Infinity / Systematic Chaos / The Astonishing / Distance over Time
Great: When Dream and Day Unite / Images & Words / Awake / Scenes from a Memory / Octavarium
Brilliant: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence / a Dramatic Turn of Events / Dream Theater
Perfect: Train of Thought & Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Falling into Infinity is so hard for me to dig because you have to work yourself throught two of DT's worse song in there history, New Millenium and You not Me, to get to the better part of the album. Somehow it's my least favorite of all, maybe also because of the cover without there logo. Hells Kitchen and Lines in the Sand are beautiful, but it's hard to get there.

And The Astonishing is a very good idea, real nice concept but I truly believe it would be so much more meaningful if a woman would sing the parts of the princess. I read the book which helped me 'in', but still, I do believe it is not as brilliant as the others. I miss the metal-aspect and an epic on it.

Distance over Time would probably age very will and rise in my ranking after a couple of years...

[DreamerTV]

When Dream and Day Unite
Systematic Chaos
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
Dream Theater

[darkshade]

WDaDU
DoT
DT12
The Astonishing

[YtseJam]

BCSL is awesome and a million times better than ADTOE. No wonder I'm not friends with any of you. 

[RandalGraves]

WDADU is an easy pick. Not because the music's bad or anything but Charlie was never really my jam, and the songs just aren't as strong as most of their others

Systematic Chaos. Despite loving most of ITPOE and having fun with TDEN, most of this album a wash for me. Every now and again I listen to the whole thing for the novelty. but it doesn't do much for me.

Dream Theater. I think this album has a bad mix and a lot of the tracks feel pretty by-the-numbers to me. Sometimes I'll throw on the epic for all of the fun riffs but there's not much here that engages me.

The Astonishing. I actually don't hate this album, but the story is sub-par and 2 discs is a big commitment for a concept album that's just "mostly okay." If anything, I love that there are some really short tracks on here that go a lot of places. I'd love if DT were to incorporate that aspect more into future albums.

[Trav]

The problem with WDADU for me is, I think all of the songs are good. I really like all of them. It's a decent album. But, every album they made after it was better. It's at the bottom by default.

[Dedalus]

Octavarium (but I love the title-track)
Train of Thought
Systematic Chaos
Black Clouds & Silver Linings (I strongly hate four songs on the album... which has 6 songs)

[Puppies_On_Acid]

I'm a little surprised how many people have Octavarium in the bottom 4. Weird...

[KevShmev]

I'm a little surprised how many people have Octavarium in the bottom 4. Weird...

It was in my bottom 4 for a while, so I get it.  My order is ever-changing (aside from the top 4 which is pretty much set in stone), and I'd now put 8V in the 8-10 range, but I get why others put it in the bottom 4.  I know the album overall is far too derivative for some.  DT has always worn their influences on their sleeves, but that is the one album where it feels like they went a bit too far with them, from the Muse riff in Never Enough to the countless borrowed things in the title track to them channeling Diary of a Madman at the end of Sacrificed Sons, etc.  I enjoy the album from start to finish, and the title track, despite all of the borrowing, is still a killer song (a 10/10), but to me it's an album full of 6's and 7's prior to the 10 (title track).

[darkshade]

I'm a little surprised how many people have Octavarium in the bottom 4. Weird...

It was in my bottom 4 for a while, so I get it.  My order is ever-changing (aside from the top 4 which is pretty much set in stone), and I'd now put 8V in the 8-10 range, but I get why others put it in the bottom 4.  I know the album overall is far too derivative for some.  DT has always worn their influences on their sleeves, but that is the one album where it feels like they went a bit too far with them, from the Muse riff in Never Enough to the countless borrowed things in the title track to them channeling Diary of a Madman at the end of Sacrificed Sons, etc.  I enjoy the album from start to finish, and the title track, despite all of the borrowing, is still a killer song (a 10/10), but to me it's an album full of 6's and 7's prior to the 10 (title track).

Sacrificed Sons is an 8 at least.

[Volante99]

Astonishing
DoT
DT12
SC