Last two with Portnoy vs last two with Mangini

[bosk1]

Yeah, agreed.

[CharlesPL]

SC and BC&SL

[XJDenton]

There's very little from SC that I find myself wanting to listen to, and BCASL is also very spotty. The D/T and AVFTTOTW conversely I find myself listening to all the way through more often. So probably the MM set.

[NoFred]

Enjoyed all four of these on release, but this is easy. I am totally OK with an alternate history where we get D/T and A View right after Octavarium. I'd miss ADTOE and some other songs, but the most recent two have been the most inspired of their last seven.

[NoseofNicko]

The Portnoy albums have higher highs but the Mangini albums are far more consistent so went with Mangini.

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

MM pair for me.

I think SC only has one truly great song, which is ITPOE 1. BCSL has Nightmare, which is an amazing and nearly perfect song. I never really got the popularity of Count. It's a good song but I don't love it. BCSL has some top moments but it's so inconsistent as a whole.

Distance and View have some pretty friggen awesome tracks: Barstool Warrior, Pale Blue Dot, Wit's End, Out of Reach, S2N, View, Alien, Awaken. It's leaps and bounds above.

[Trav]

Ok. I went and did it.



1   The Count of Tuscany
2   The Ministry of Lost Souls
3   In the Presence of Enemies
4.  Barstool Warrior
5   The Alien
6   A View from the Top of the World
7   The Best of Times
8   The Dark Eternal Night
9   Wither
10   A Nightmare to Remember
11   The Shattered Fortress
12   Fall Into the Light
13   Forsaken
14   Pale Blue Dot
15   Answering the Call
16   Awaken the Giant
17   Untethered Angel
18   Invisible Monster
19   Constant Motion
20   S2N
21   Sleeping Giant
22   Paralyzed
23   A Rite of Passage
24   Transcending Time
25   Repentance
26   Prophets of War
27   Out of Reach
28   Room 137

[TAC]

Hmm...I like it. I'll do one tomorrow.

[bosk1]

Same. Mine will look VERY different.

[Lax]

MM has my vote easily, I've already listened to his albums way more than the 2 last MP

I was beginning to suffer from lazy DT / inspiration corner DT and compared to that feeling there are DOT and AVFTTOTW that were refreshing and relieving to me !
Of course a lot of the usual modern DT stuff, from chug chug to less surprises, but from at wit's end to transcending time...no debate

[nikatapi]

MM no contest for me.

SC has a couple of good songs (i like ITPOE, Ministry Of Lost Souls, The Dark Eternal Night).
BC&SL i think is one of the weakest in DT's discography, feels very bloated and i never listen to it from start to finish. I was excited when it was released, but now i rank it very low in the body of work that DT has released.

On the other hand:
D/T - Solid album, with a bunch of amazing songs (At Wit's End, Barstool Warrior)
AVFTTOTW - Probably my favorite of the MM era, i LOVE the title track, and it's a great listen all around, with amazing production and Mike's playing is mindblowing on this one.

[emtee]

I spun both MP albums after work last night. While I like parts of both, many of the songs feel much longer than they need to be and I found myself struggling to listen beginning to end without fast forwarding.

So the MM albums win this battle for me.

[axeman90210]

The MM albums for me. D/T is easily my favorite of the four, and while View was a little bit of a letdown as a follow up it's still on par with Black Clouds and better than Systematic Chaos.

[MirrorMask]

Hard to say.

The last two Portnoy albums are the ones where I felt there was a desperate need of a producer, to help them organize better the bloated songs and the random transitions into the solo sections. There's fantastic stuff there, buried beneath a "geez, these lyrics are bad" here and a "damn here comes again out of nowhere the solo section that derails the song's mood" there.

The last two Mangini albums... they're supposedly everything I wanted; concise, heavier without going too much overboard, a collaborative effort, and yet there were the albums with least replay value for me. I've always been interested in any DT album for a good portion of time upon release, and yet the last two albums with Mangini have come and gone and I hardly ever listened to them. They're surely my least replayed albums in DT's discography. I don't even know why, since I can't pinpoint a single bad thing with those albums (maybe a lack of choruses on d/t - many choruses would work as bridges), they're just.... there for me.

I hope the new album with Portnoy changes this trajectory, you can't force yourself to like a band, if they make albums that don't particularly interest you that's it, but I hope the next one stays with me for a long time.

[Trav]

I didn't really notice it but you're right about the choruses in DOT. They aren't that strong. Even on a song like Barstool Warrior that starts really strong, the chorus isn't that great.  I still think it's a good song though. The same can be said about S2N, At Wit's End and Pale Blue Dot

[TheOutlawXanadu]

DOT and AVFTTOTW win out pretty easily for me, personally. The last two-album stretch that beats out that combo without thinking, for me, is SFAM/SDOIT.

[pg1067]

Hmm...

My DT album rankings:

10. BC&SL
11. DOT
...
13. View
14. SC

They're basically even, but I guess I'll give BC&SL/SC the nod because BC&SL is the top ranked album of the batch and because I don't think anything on DOT/View come close to being as good as the best songs on the other two albums:  TCOT and Constant Motion.

[Laughingplace56]

This was a lot harder than I expected. A View is easily my favorite album of the 4, but D/T is one of my least favorite albums from them. There are some amazing highs on SC and BC&SL (ITPOE 1, Constant Motion, Ministry, TSF, TBoT and TCoT), but then some of my least favorite DT songs ever (ARoP, Wither, Repentance). After ranking all the songs, the MP albums won out by like 1 percent. Here's where they ended up ranking:

1   The Count of Tuscany
2   A View From the Top of the World
3   The Alien
4   Shattered Fortress
5   In the Presence of Enemies Pt. 1
6   Constant Motion
7   The Ministry of Lost Souls
8   The Best of Times
9   Answering the Call
10   Pale Blue Dot
11   S2N
12   In the Presence of Enemies Pt. 2
13   At Wit's End
14   The Dark Eternal Night
15   Sleeping Giant
16   A Nightmare to Remember
17   Barstool Warrior
18   Transcending Time
19   Viper King
20   Invisible Monster
21   Forsaken
22   Fall Into the Light
23   Awaken the Master
24   Untethered Angel
25   Prophets of War
26   Room 137
27   Paralyzed
28   A Rite of Passage
29   Repentance
30  Wither
31   Out of Reach

[MrMike]

For me, it's the two MM albums by a lot.  Not that I consider either of SC/BC&SL as bad albums, but DOT and AVFTTOTW are both more consistently good throughout IMO.

[bosk1]

Here is my song-by-song:

1   At Wit's End
2   S2N
3   A Nightmare To Remember
4   In the Presence of Enemies
5   Sleeping Giant
6   Answering the Call
7   Constant Motion
8   Out of Reach
9   The Shattered Fortress
10   Fall Into the Light
11   A View from the Top of the World
12   Forsaken
13   Awaken the Master
14   The Alien
15   Paralyzed
16   Pale Blue Dot
17   Untethered Angel
18   The Count of Tuscany
19   The Dark Eternal Night
20   Invisible Monster
21   Barstool Warrior
22   Transcending Time
23   Room 137
24   A Rite of Passage
25   The Ministry of Lost Souls
26   Wither
27   Repentance
28   Viper King (bonus)
29   The Best of Times
30   Prophets of War

Most of the list is a pretty good mix of the four albums.  But what is a bit telling for me and confirms my vote for the two Mangini-era albums is that, with the exception of a bonus track (Viper King), 24-30 is all from SC and BCSL, and 25-30 are songs that I never seek out and would be just fine never seeing them appear in a set list.  The best songs from the first two albums are right up there with the best from the latter two.  But the bottom songs don't even compete for spots.

Another observation:  For my songs in the 11-22 range, there are a number of songs that I look at and initially think, "How could they have ranked so low?  That doesn't seem right."  And it's just that every song above them are songs I like just a little bit better.  TCOT is a perfect example of that.  It doesn't feel like it should possibly be as low as 18, especially since I really gained a new appreciation for it seeing it live on this last tour cycle.  But it's just that there isn't anything in the 1-17 spots that I would rank lower. 

[Mosh]

I do get the idea that Petrucci really enjoyed Systematic Chaos and A Nightmare to Remember. I remember him being really excited about his lyrical contributions especially and that he was trying new things like lyrics that are in the fantasy realm. It also seems clear during the Mangini era that maybe he and the rest of the band aren't as into the conceptual thing as Portnoy is, so the "anything goes" qualities of those two albums were probably more appealing. Maybe that contributes to them playing a lot off those albums live. I was pretty happy with the BC&SL representation over the last decade, especially because I was really disappointed about the lack of a live release from that album at the time. Now we've got a decent amount of stuff out there. I think everything besides Wither and The Best of Times is now represented in a live release somewhere? That's almost all from the Mangini era.

As for the poll question, it's actually kinda tough. Systematic Chaos and Distance Over Time are probably both in my DT bottom three. Systematic Chaos probably gets an edge at this point just for sentimental reasons, but overall the two albums are comparable in quality for me. Similarly, Black Clouds & Silver Linings and A View From the Top of the World are both flawed albums with a few career highlights. I guess Black Clouds gets the edge for having The Count of Tuscany. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[DoctorAction]

The Mangini pair and they're MILES ahead of the Portnoy pair for me.

SC and BCSL destroyed my faith in one of my all-time favourite bands. Distance and View restored it.

DOT
VIEW

SC







BCSL

[bosk1]

I do get the idea that Petrucci really enjoyed Systematic Chaos and A Nightmare to Remember. I remember him being really excited about his lyrical contributions especially and that he was trying new things like lyrics that are in the fantasy realm. ... I was pretty happy with the BC&SL representation over the last decade, especially because I was really disappointed about the lack of a live release from that album at the time. Now we've got a decent amount of stuff out there. I think everything besides Wither and The Best of Times is now represented in a live release somewhere?

Yeah, I'm really happy about that too.  All I really would have wanted would have been Nightmare, Count, and TSF, and we have those all on live releases (and I have been able to see each of them in person as well), which is all I could have hoped for.  I honestly don't even care if we get the others (Do we have AROP on a release?  I thought so, but couldn't find it.  But if we never do, it wouldn't bother me too much.  Much more interested in the three that I mentioned).

I'm also glad that we have gotten really good representation from SC as well.  Other than ITPOE in its entirety, we have gotten the three songs I care about most from that album (Forsaken, Constant Motion, and TDEN).  And despite the spotty quality of CiM, as I recall, ITPOE isn't too bad on that one.

[Mosh]

A Rite of Passage is on the recently released MSG bootleg from the Iron Maiden tour. I think that's the only place it appears as it wasn't played since 2010.

ITPOE and A Nightmare To Remember together were easy highlights of the Distance Over Time tour for me. Two great tracks that I didn't really expect to return.

[bosk1]

Yeah, I forgot that I'm behind on the LNF stuff.  It's been a lot harder to track than the Ytsejam releases were.  But that makes sense as being something I vaguely recalled being out there. 

I'm right there with you on the d/t tour and those two songs.  I really thought we were going to get Panic Attack at those shows too, but only because there was an Octavarium graphic up on the screen at one point during sound check.

[pg1067]

Oh, why not...

The Count of Tuscany
Constant Motion
Wither
S2N
Barstool Warrior
The Dark Eternal Night
Transcending Time
A View from the Top of the World
Pale Blue Dot
Viper King
Untethered Angel
Out of Reach
The Alien
At Wit's End
The Shattered Fortress
Answering the Call
ITPOE
Invisible Monster
Sleeping Giant
TMOLS
Awaken the Master
Fall into the Light
Paralyzed
Forsaken
Room 137
A Nightmare to Remember
A Rite of Passage
Prophets of War
The Best of Times
Repentance

[Trav]

I'm kinda surprised at how high S2N is with y'all.

[Buddyhunter1]

In The Presence Of Enemies Pt. 2 (both parts combined would be here, too)
A Nightmare To Remember
The Count Of Tuscany
In The Presence Of Enemies Pt. 1


Constant Motion
Fall Into The Light
The Shattered Fortress
Wither
Answering The Call
Paralyzed


A View From The Top Of The World
Barstool Warrior
Untethered Angel
Pale Blue Dot
Awaken The Master
The Best Of Times
The Alien
S2N


Repentance
A Rite Of Passage
The Dark Eternal Night
At Wit's End
Sleeping Giant
Transcending Time


Forsaken
Out Of Reach
Prophets Of War
Room 137


Invisible Monster
Viper King
The Ministry Of Lost Souls

[gmillerdrake]

I thought MP was correct in the sense that the band DID need a little break/refresher. Maybe let them all do some solo stuff and let MP take a breather from DT because outside of ITPOE (Pt I and II)_and TCOT there is little left on those albums that were really all that good. That's relative speaking in DT terms because it was still 'good' but it was just run of the mill DT and felt very formulaic.

The last two from DT however sounded great to me and had many songs that I liked....so, I voted the MM era last two.

I'm hopeful that the reunion produces some 'fresh' DT and maybe they pull something magical out of it all and recapture some of the original feel and spark. We shall see.

[hefdaddy42]

The only album I like less than the final two MP outings is WDADU.

MM easily.

[RandalGraves]

I think SC and Black Clouds have higher highs than Distance and View but Distance is the best album of the 4 for me and that's enough to vote for the latter option.

[EPIC Outro]

Can't I just have one of each? lol

[Cruithne]

This is trivial for me - the last two with Mangini.

That run of DT albums that started with ToT and ended with MP leaving is just about redeemed by Octavarium, a top tier DT album for me, but it's fighting being weighed down heavily by three out of four of my least favourite DT albums (The Astonishing is the fourth), with BC&SL right at the bottom of the pile. If DT had continued along that path I would've long since lost interest in them.

Distance Over Time is my favourite one with Mangini, just nudging aside ADTOE on that score, and View is a really good album too. They're not in the top tier with I&W, Awake, SFaM and Octavarium but they're in the second tier along with 6DoIT.

Tier 3 has WDaDU, FII and the S/T in it.

[wasteland]

Obvious preference for the last two MM efforts on my side, despite there being some very good songs and dear to me in SC/BCSL. As many other said, the 07-09 year were not among the finest runs of the band, IMO.

A View from the Top of the World
The Count of Tuscany
Sleeping Giant
The Dark Eternal Night
Answering the Call
Awaken the Master
At Wit's End
Pale Blue Dot
In the Presence of Enemies
The Alien
S2N
A Nightmare To Remember
Out of Reach
Paralyzed
Barstool Warrior
Invisible Monster
The Best of Times
The Shattered Fortress
Forsaken
Untethered Angel
Fall Into the Light
Viper King (bonus)
The Ministry of Lost Souls
A Rite of Passage
Wither
Room 137
Prophets of War
Transcending Time
Repentance
Constant Motion

[Stadler]

Stunned by how low Transcending Time - my favorite song on the new album - is on most of these lists.