Dream Theater album ranking and rating score

[macneil]

• Scenes From a Memory - 10
• Images and Words - 10
• Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 9
• Awake - 9
• Train of Thought - 9
• Black Clouds - 8
• Octavarium - 7
• Distance Over Time - 7
• A Dramatic Turn of Events - 7
• Systematic Chaos - 6
• Dream Theater - 6
• View From the Top of the World - 6
• Falling Into Infinity - 6
• When Dream and Day Unite - 5
• The Astonishing - 3

[Lonk]

I've been listening to the full discography over the last few weeks (taking my time). Awake dropped some spots from my last ranking. WDADU went up a couple of spots. The rest stayed put.

10. Scenes from a Memory
---------------------------------------
9. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
9. Images and Words
---------------------------------------
8. A Dramatic Turn of Events
---------------------------------------
7. Distance Over Time
7. Octavarium
7. Falling Into Infinity
7. When Dream and Day Unite
--------------------------------------
6. Awake
6. The Astonishing
6. A View From the Top of the World
6. Train of Thoughts
6. Systematic Chaos
--------------------------------------
5. Black Clouds and Silver Lining
---------------------------------------
4. Dream Theater

[MetropolisWatches]

Images and Words - 10
Scenes From A Memory - 10
Awake - 9
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 9
------------------------------------
A Dramatic Turn of Events - 8
Train of Thought - 8
Falling Into Infinity - 7
Octavarium - 7
The Astonishing - 7
Distance Over Time - 7
Dream Theater - 7
Systematic Chaos - 6
A View From The Top of the World - 6
------------------------------------
When Dream and Day Unite - 5
Black Clouds and Silver Linings - 3

[TAC]

I've been working on my list, and one if the problems is that a few albums are very top heavy.

Like BC&SL, there's two songs in my Top 14. The next two came in at #77 and #97, and then the other two didn't rank in my Top 100.

[DT05]

Images and Words - 99
Awake - 92
Train of Thought - 90
Scenes From a Memory - 88
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 82
Octavarium - 80
Falling Into Infinity - 79
Systematic Chaos - 77
Black Clouds & Silver Linings - 68
When Dream and Day Unite - 60
A Dramatic Turn of Events - 56
Dream Theater - 31
Distance Over Time - 26
A View From the Top of the World - 15
The Astonishing - 4

[Dream Team]

He said a scale of 1 to 10.

[DT05]

pretend there's decimal points to the left of each last digit, it's not that hard

[Trav]

pretend there's decimal points to the left of each last digit, it's not that hard

Try being respectful to people around here, it's not that hard.

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

bump.

Excited to revisit the rankings once I've had more time with Parasomnia. I've been listening to a lot of DT in preparation so a few things will change as well.

[Nissim]

SFAM - 10
I&W - 10
ADTOE - 9
Awake - 9
TOT - 8.5
SDOIT - 8.5
Octavarium - 8.5
BC&SL - 8
AVFTTOFW - 8
Systematic chaos - 7.5
DOT - 6.5
FII - 6
WDADU - 6
TA - 5
DT - 3

[lovethedrake]

SFAM 10  Magical
I&W 10    Magical
SDOIT 9.5  Magical

Awake 8 a few mediocre tracks but mostly excellent
FII 7.5    Lows are low but highs are super high
TOT 7  Where they shift to more metal but still feel inspired
WDADU 6.5  rough but excellent
DOT 6.5    Nice - At Wits End is amazing
TA 6        Love it but not much re-listen power after its played through a billion times (funny to say I know)
Octavarium 6  hated it when it first came out but has grown on me
AVFTTOTW 6   Title track incredible, the rest is ok
DT 6     Nice but pretty subdued for DT
BC&SL 6   slight return to form from SC

SC 5     About as bad as it gets for DT - still good overall
ADTOE 4  BAI is great - the rest i barely listen to outside of the one awesome part in "lost not forgotten".     Production is just bad.

*ACOS is a 10 as an EP   - EPIC and Magical.

[erciccio]

I&W - 10: The disc that changed my life. I love every song start to finish.
SFAM - 9+; Fantastic, even though not as perfect and innovative as I&W
Awake - 9: The dark side of Dream Theater, unexpected at the time
The Astonishing - 9-: The highest density of beautiful melodies, the - is for the cheesy moments..
ADTOE - 8,5: So many masterpieces, too bad that the production doesn't help
SDOIT - 7,5: Very experimental but...sometimes just boring
Octavarium - 7+: 5 for the first seven songs, 9+ for THE song!
Dream Theater 7: my favorite metal song ("The Enemy inside"), a great epic, the rest is okish..
DOT - 6.5: Ups and downs, I don't like most of the vocal melodies though
TOT - 6,5: I just don't like the metal side of Dream Theater..I love "In the name of God", though
BC&SL - 6+: the plus is for "The Best of Times" solo...
FII - 6: a couple of masterpieces, but most of the songs are really not at DT standard..
WDADU - 6------: the talent is there, the ------- are for Charlie...
AVFTTOFW - 5: high technical quality, but there is not a single song I like start to finish..
Systematic chaos - 4.5: same as AVFTTOTW but with a lower technical quality

[PixelDream]

1 Awake: 10
2 Images and Words: 9,5
3 Scenes From a Memory: 9
4 Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: 9
5 Octavarium: 8,5
6 Train of Thought: 8,5
7 Falling Into Infinity: 8
8 Black Clouds and Silver Linings: 7,5
9. Systematic Chaos: 7,5
10. A Dramatic Turn of Events: 7,5
11. Distance Over Time: 7
12. When Dream and Day Unite: 7
13. A View From the Top of the World: 6,5
14. Dream Theater: 6,5
15. The Astonishing: 6

[BeatriceNB]

Album ranking moment, let's go
My points system is based on my enjoyment of the albums as a whole, not any kind of objective system.
10: I enjoy the whole album, and I have no complaints at all.
9-8: still an enjoyable listen, but something might bother me.
7-5: I like some songs more than others, or maybe dislike a few, but in the mood I enjoy the whole thing.
4-3: maybe I like a few songs; I can't recall any album I would rate like this.
2-1: music I wouldn't return to.

1. The Astonishing: 10
2. Awake: 10
3. Images and Words: 10

4. A Dramatic Turn of Events: 10; I would deduct a point for the production, but I don't think it makes the listening experience worse, I think they have worse sounding albums.
5. Octavarium; 10; there's no chance I would ever listen to Never Enough and Panic Attack outside of a full album listen, yet when listening to Octavarium those songs become really fun.
6. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: 10; took the longest to grew on me, but it was one of the first DT albums I listened, and I'm glad I can enjoy it in full now

7. When Dream and Day Unite: 10
8. DT12: 9; point deducted for awful production.
9. A View From the Top of the World: 9; the lack of ballad can make it a tiring listen, but the music is still amazing.

10. Black Clouds and Silver Linings: 7
11. Train Of Thought: 6; Vacant-SOC-ITNOG is an amazing three songs sequence, and my favourite part of the album, I don't care for the rest unless I'm in the mood.
12. Systematic Chaos: 6
13. Parasomnia: 5; I don't see a future where this album rates higher, as the ones above have some of my favourite DT songs, and Parasomnia doesn't. It will hang out nicely with the other Metal albums I listen very occasionally.

14. D/T: 1
15. SFAM: 1
16. ACOS EP: 1
17. FII: 1
I can enjoy the songs from D/T, SFAM and a few from FII if they were played live, or randomly played in a playlist, or isolated. As far as albums as a whole go, I can live without these, and listening to them is usually a negative experience.

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

1. Images & Words + ACOS - 10
2. A Dramatic Turn of Events - 9.5
3. Distance Over Time - 9
4. DT12 - 9
5. View - 9
6. Scenes - 8.5
7. Six Degrees - 8.5
8. Awake - 8
9. Train of Thought - 7.5
10. Parasomnia 7
11. Black Cloud & Silver Linings - 6
12. Octavarium - 5
13. Systematic Chaos - 4
14. Falling Into Infinity - 4
15. When Dream and Day Unite - 3
16. The Astonishing - 3

Updating to account for Parasomnia and months of listening to older DT in preparation.

[Dedalus]

After many days of listening to a lot of Dream Theater, I made a new ranking (after a long time since my last attempt). It's considerably different from what it used to be.

1 - Images and Words 10
2 - Awake 9
3 - A Dramatic Turn of Events 9
4 - Scenes from a Memory 9
5 - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence 8.5
6 - Dream Theater 8
7 - The Astonishing 8
8 - Whem Dream And Day Unite 8
9 - A View From The Top of the World 8
10 - Distance Over Time 7.5
11 - Falling Into Infinity 7
12 - Octavarium 7
13 - Train of Thought 5
14 - Black Clouds 3
15 - Systematic Chaos 1

I had never put Awake in second place. And WDADU moved up quite a bit in my ranking. I think I'm suffering from extreme nostalgia for the 90s Dream Theater with Kevin Moore.

SFAM has never been so low in my rankings.

The bottom three still have the same albums, but after a long time I've put Systematic Chaos in last place again. I hate pretty much all of BCSL, but TCOT is really way better than anything on SC.

[DTiwbwMP]

Updated after a month a re-listening to ALL DT (including Parasomnia) in preparation for the NA tour:
1. Scenes From A Memory 10*
2. Images & Words 10
3. Awake 9.5*
4. Train of Thought 9.5
5. Parasomnia 9*
6. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence 9
7. A Dramatic Turn of Events 8.5
8. Falling Into Infinity 8*
9. Octavarium 8
10. Black Cloud & Silver Linings 7.5*
11. Systematic Chaos 7.5
12. DT12 7
13. When Dream and Day Unite 6.5
14. Distance Over Time 6
15. A View From The Top of The World 5
16. The Astonishing 2

[impolybius]

Ah, fun thread!:-) It inspired me to make my first album ranking in quite a while.

A quick preface: many of these placements are constantly shifting, especially in the top 10. Just a year ago, this list looked entirely different. Images and Words has climbed back toward the top over the last few years, while Scenes has gradually dropped a few spots. Albums usually move down a bit after I've overplayed them, and I might have listened to Scenes enough for a lifetime, hehe.

That said, my current top five is pretty interchangeable. For reference, I started listening in '05.

• Awake - 10
• The Astonishing - 10
• Images and Words - 10
• A Dramatic Turn of Events - 10
• Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 10
• Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory - 9
• Distance Over Time - 9
• A View From The Top Of The World - 9
• Dream Theater - 8
• Parasomnia (after a week of listening—will probably change) - 7
• Falling into Infinity - 7
• Octavarium - 7
• Systematic Chaos - 7
• When Dream and Day Unite - 6
• Train of Thought - 6
• Black Clouds & Silver Linings - 6

[Pettor]

Alright!
I'm holding off on ranking Parasomnia for now. It's too soon, and I tend to get overly excited. An album needs to stand the test of time, and I've learned the hard way how much my perception can change 😁 

Problematic Records 
These albums have major issues that make them hard for me to enjoy. The mix is a big problem in both cases, but other factors — like vocals or overall direction — also hold them back. 
15. When Dream and Day Unite 
14. Dream Theater 

Seldom Listen 
For one reason or another, I rarely revisit these records. That said, some individual songs do get frequent spins. From time to time I will try to spin the full record.
13. The Astonishing 
12. Falling Into Infinity 

Great but Flawed 
These albums come close but have sections I tend to skip. I can't just put them on and listen start to finish. 
11. A View from the Top of the World 
10. Systematic Chaos
9. A Dramatic Turn of Events

Regular Listen 
These are go-to albums. I can throw them on in the car and sing along without hesitation. 
8. Octavarium
7. Distance Over Time 
6. Black Clouds & Silver Linings 

Amazing Records 
Super solid albums packed with incredible melodies. 
5. Images & Words 
4. Awake 

Masterpieces 
Flawless. I can play these at any time and enjoy every second. 
3. Train of Thought 
2. Scenes from a Memory 
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence 

Edit: If I had to guess Parasomnia will place itself at position 6 just before BC&SL.

[snapple]

1.) Awake
2.) Falling Into Infinity
3.) Images and Words

—-I don't listen to any Dream Theater other than these albums listed above. I'll rank the rest but just know I think they're all pretty bad, save a couple of songs here and there.—-

4.) SDOIT
5.) Octavarium
6.) WDADU
7.) ADTOE
8.) SFAM
9.) train of thought
10.) st
11.) Black clouds
12.) systematic chaos

—-the rest were so bad I could not even finish whole songs, let alone albums—

13.) dot
14.) a view
15.) parasomnia
16.) the astonishingly shitty

[elfriedejelinek]

1 I&W, 10/10
2 Awake 10/10

3 SDOIT 8.5/10
4 ADTOE 8.5/10
5 FII 8.5/10

6 SFAM 8/10
7 TOT 7.5/10
8 8VM 7.5/10
9 WDADU 6.5/10
10 SC 6.5/10
11 BCSL 6.5/10

12 D/T 4.5/10
13 TA 4/10
14 View 3/10
15 DT12 2/10


ACOS 8.5/10 (title track)
Parasomnia 5-6/10 rn

[lovethedrake]

SFAM 10  Magical
I&W 10    Magical
SDOIT 9.5  Magical

Awake 8 a few mediocre tracks but mostly excellent
FII 7.5    Lows are low but highs are super high
TOT 7  Where they shift to more metal but still feel inspired
WDADU 6.5  rough but excellent
DOT 6.5    Nice - At Wits End is amazing
TA 6        Love it but not much re-listen power after its played through a billion times (funny to say I know)
Octavarium 6  hated it when it first came out but has grown on me
AVFTTOTW 6   Title track incredible, the rest is ok
DT 6     Nice but pretty subdued for DT
BC&SL 6   slight return to form from SC

SC 5     About as bad as it gets for DT - still good overall
ADTOE 4  BAI is great - the rest i barely listen to outside of the one awesome part in "lost not forgotten".     Production is just bad.

*ACOS is a 10 as an EP   - EPIC and Magical.

I have about 6 listens now and tons of listens to the singles.

If I had to guess it will fall in the 6/10 rankings I have here.

There's not any bad songs so the lows are pretty high.  However, there's no classics.   Pretty similar in quality to AVFTTOTW but I think that title track probably trumps anything on Parasomnia.

I hope I change this as time goes on.

I think overplaying the singles is skewing things a bit so will revisit the rankings for sure

[SeRoX]

When Dream and Day Unites-7
It suffers from neat production. Dominici doesn't bother me. But with good production and James this album would have hit top 3. Lyrics and music are amazing.
 
Images and Words- 9
Their masterpiece. No words. James is Godly. Learning to Live is definition of progressive.

Awake - 10
Their musical peak. Both musically and lyrically this album is flawless. James is again star of the album. Scarred is my all time fav. of DT. This album is dark which I love and I adore the signature sound that Moore has created.

Falling Into Infinity-7
People seem to list it a bit low but this is a fine progressive album. There is a couple of songs I can live without but its highs are high. And this is the only album where mix is flawless.

Scenes From A Memory-8
I think it's amazing album but I find the story a bit cheesy. The story takes the 2 points. Other than that SFAM is an another masterpiece of progressive genre.

Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence-9
Their second peak for me. The last album DT goes full progressive. After SDOIT they lost their progressive side.

Train Of Thought-7
Their heaviest album. It's like DT was try something new at that time and they are good at it. In The Name Of God is highlight.

Octavarium-7
Their most popish sounding album. It's kinda light. Octavarium song itself is a masterpiece.

Systematic Chaos-6
This is where DT started to sound more metal less progressive. I like the album but The Ministry of Lost Soul may be the only song DT ever created that bore me to the death.

Black Clouds and Silver Linings-4
Their lowest point. Everything is uninspried. TCOT has most awkward lyrics and I don't praise it like others but have to admit it flows nicely in the live enviroment. The other songs are mostly meh.

A Dramatic Turn of Events-8
Their second awakening. Modern sound with more progressive elements. It suffers from bad production but everything else is just fine.

Dream Theater-6
Another album that suffers from bad production and mix. It has beautiful songs that reminds me Awake days style but the production and the usage of keyboards killing it.
 
Astonishing-6
DT is good at creating concept album musically but both SFAM and Astonishing have very bad story. It's even laughable. James is the star, of course.

Distance Over Time-6
Nice effort. Production is killer.

A View Top Of The World-4
Production is good but everything else is meh and even bad.

Parasomnia-8
People and even DT itself define this album like their heaviest or darkest one. While I agree to some degree but I also think this album has balanced progressive sound in it. My 8 point may be change in the future but I now love what I hear. I can say it's higher than my expectation.

[macneil]

• Scenes From a Memory - 10
• Images and Words - 10
• Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 9
• Awake - 9
• Train of Thought - 9
• Black Clouds - 8
• Octavarium - 7
• Distance Over Time - 7
• A Dramatic Turn of Events - 7
• Systematic Chaos - 6
• Dream Theater - 6
• View From the Top of the World - 6
• Falling Into Infinity - 6
• When Dream and Day Unite - 5
• The Astonishing - 3

Revisiting my ranking from 6 months ago, I did a complete discography listen-through in the lead up to Parasomnia. Interesting how things can change:

• Scenes From a Memory - 10
• Images and Words - 10
• Awake - 10 (+)
• Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 9 (-)
• Train of Thought - 9
• Octavarium - 8 (+)
• A Dramatic Turn of Events - 8 (+)
• Distance Over Time - 7
• Black Clouds and Silver Linings - 7 (-)
• Falling Into Infinity - 7 (+)
• Systematic Chaos - 6 (-)
• A View From the Top of the World - 6
• Dream Theater - 6 (-)
• The Astonishing - 5 (+)
• When Dream and Day Unite - 5 (-)

I'm not willing to put Parasomnia in the ranking yet but I think it's a surprisingly stronger album than I expected based on the singles pre-release. My feeling at the moment is a score of 8 slotting in just under ADTOE, but we'll see over time how it settles.

Things I noticed this time around:

• Yeah, Awake really is a god-tier album. No idea why I only gave it 9 last time, perfect 10.
• For me, last album of the DT "golden era" is Octavarium. Systematic Chaos is a fun album but a noticeable step down.
• I enjoyed The Astonishing a lot more this time. Yeah it's still pretty low in my ranking, but I think there's a lot of great musical ideas and moments here that I can't really call it a bad album. Ironically if you pick out one song at random a lot of them are quite good, but as a whole it doesn't feel like it came together as well as it could have.
• ADTOE is a super strong album and a real return to form after SC and BC&SL.
• BC&SL from #6 to #9 - one of those albums where if I focus only on my favourite songs I think it's a really strong album, but taking it as a whole there's a lot on here that doesn't feel particularly inspired.
• FII from #13 to #10 - kind of the opposite of BC&SL, if I take more notice of the good material I realise the highs are really high which elevates it for me. Would be a lot stronger if 2 or 3 songs were cut.

[BeatriceNB]

1.) Awake
2.) Falling Into Infinity
3.) Images and Words

—-I don't listen to any Dream Theater other than these albums listed above. I'll rank the rest but just know I think they're all pretty bad, save a couple of songs here and there.—-

4.) SDOIT
5.) Octavarium
6.) WDADU
7.) ADTOE
8.) SFAM
9.) train of thought
10.) st
11.) Black clouds
12.) systematic chaos

—-the rest were so bad I could not even finish whole songs, let alone albums—

13.) dot
14.) a view
15.) parasomnia
16.) the astonishingly shitty

Now this is DT rating!

[jayvee3]

Apologies for not sticking to the OP ranking system, but the middle tier constantly changes for me, and I know Parasomnia would be somewhere through the middle and go up or down, depending on what I'm feeling like listening to.

What wouldn't change is my top 3:

Scenes
Awake
Falling into Infinity

Those three are not only about the music, but the feelings they gave me when I first heard them and the joy I've had listening to them and the connection to them over the years.

I&W and ADTOE would probably be next

My lower albums are definitely 8V (which I think is their most overrated album. I may be lynched for suggesting this, but I think the epic is also a bit overrated and for me, meanders a bit at the beginning. Sacrificed Sons could actually be my fave from that album). SC is ok in parts but definitely bottom 3, and BCASL is easily at the bottom for me. The Count is the one thing that pulls it from being very average.

SDOIT is the odd one for me. I really like it, not as much as some others, I'm just lukewarm on disc 2. The experimentation is great, I'm just not sure everything lands. So it would definitely be in the top half of my rankings, but I don't see it as outstanding.

I'm actually a lover of the Astonishing, and if I'm in the mood for it, it really is an album I love listening to more than a lot of their catalogue. I also think DOT and DT are severely underrated.

Just a few random thoughts...

[LCArenas]

1. Images and Words - 100
2. Awake - 99
3. Scenes from a Memory - 97
4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 95
5. Octavarium - 92
6. A Dramatic Turn of Events - 90
7. Train of Thought - 88
8. Distance Over Time - 86
9. Falling into Infinity - 85
10. Parasomnia - 83
11. The Astonishing - 82
12. Dream Theater - 79
13. Systematic Chaos - 78
14. Black Clouds and Silver Linings - 77
15. When Dream and Day Unite - 75
16. A View from the Top of the World - 70

[WilliamMunny]

Album ranking moment, let's go
My points system is based on my enjoyment of the albums as a whole, not any kind of objective system.
10: I enjoy the whole album, and I have no complaints at all.
9-8: still an enjoyable listen, but something might bother me.
7-5: I like some songs more than others, or maybe dislike a few, but in the mood I enjoy the whole thing.
4-3: maybe I like a few songs; I can't recall any album I would rate like this.
2-1: music I wouldn't return to.

1. The Astonishing: 10
2. Awake: 10
3. Images and Words: 10

4. A Dramatic Turn of Events: 10; I would deduct a point for the production, but I don't think it makes the listening experience worse, I think they have worse sounding albums.
5. Octavarium; 10; there's no chance I would ever listen to Never Enough and Panic Attack outside of a full album listen, yet when listening to Octavarium those songs become really fun.
6. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: 10; took the longest to grew on me, but it was one of the first DT albums I listened, and I'm glad I can enjoy it in full now

7. When Dream and Day Unite: 10
8. DT12: 9; point deducted for awful production.
9. A View From the Top of the World: 9; the lack of ballad can make it a tiring listen, but the music is still amazing.

10. Black Clouds and Silver Linings: 7
11. Train Of Thought: 6; Vacant-SOC-ITNOG is an amazing three songs sequence, and my favourite part of the album, I don't care for the rest unless I'm in the mood.
12. Systematic Chaos: 6
13. Parasomnia: 5; I don't see a future where this album rates higher, as the ones above have some of my favourite DT songs, and Parasomnia doesn't. It will hang out nicely with the other Metal albums I listen very occasionally.

14. D/T: 1
15. SFAM: 1
16. ACOS EP: 1
17. FII: 1
I can enjoy the songs from D/T, SFAM and a few from FII if they were played live, or randomly played in a playlist, or isolated. As far as albums as a whole go, I can live without these, and listening to them is usually a negative experience.

There are 2 things I LOVE about all of your posts...

–The are ALWAYS so thoughtfully written and a pleasure to read for that reason.
–You give no quarter to any sacred cows. You like what you like, and your opinion often runs contrary to the masses (again, a pleasure to read for that reason)

As for me, I was thinking I was going to wait a couple of weeks before deciding how I feel about DT16, but I am totally in line with you that the album's dark, depressing, and monochromatic tone will render it something I will rarely, if ever wish to revisit.

Funnily enough, this album hit me so negatively (I cannot remember being this disappointed by a release before), that I dug out The Astonishing this weekend and holy hell did it hit me like a ton of bricks! The scope and variety of the peace totally clicked, especially as a contrast to Parasomnia. Better late than never!

[svisser]

I just redid my list. The top and bottom have remained pretty consistent over the years. I still need to revisit all their albums to feel out where their new one ranked, but this is it so far:

    Images and Words 10

    Awake 9.7

    Scenes From a Memory 9.5

    Octavarium 9.4

    Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence 9.1

    A View From the Top of the World 8.7

    Black Clouds and Silver Linings 8.5

    Systematic Chaos 8.3

    Train of Thought 8.2

    A Dramatic Turn of Events 8

    Parasomnia 7.9

    Distance Over Time 7.8

    DT 7.5

    When Dream and Day Unite 7.2

    The Astonishing 7

    Falling Into Infinity 6.5

[MHStrawn]

[MHStrawn]

Haven't received my copy of Parasomnia yet and I never bought View so I'm missing the last couple albums.  Also, A Change of Seasons only references the 25-minute song, not the additional live songs:




If you're interested in more I did a lengthy video ranking not only the studio albums but every live album and DVD release. 

[Dream Team]

10.0 Images
 9.8 Scenes
 9.5 ADToE
 9.2 Dream Theater
 9.1 The Astonishing
 9.0 Six Degrees
 8.6 WDaDU
 8.4 Parasomnia
 8.1 View
 7.9 DoT
 7.7 Black Clouds
 7.5 Awake
 7.3 Octavarium
 6.9 Train of Thought
 5.9 Systematic Chaos
 4.8 Falling into Infinity

[Trav]

Delete

[direwhale]

Metropolis, Part 2: Scenes From a Memory - 10
Images and Words - 9.5
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 9.5
Awake - 9.5
Train of Thought - 9
Black Clouds and Silver Linings - 9
Parasomnia - 8.5
Systematic Chaos - 8
Octavarium - 7.8
A View from the Top of the World - 7.6
A Dramatic Turn of Events - 7.5
Distance Over Time - 7
Falling Into Infinity - 6.5
Dream Theater(Self-titled) - 6
When Dream and Day Unite - 5.5
The Astonishing - 5

[Trav]

Based on your rating system, and trying to be completely honest with myself...

Scenes from a Memory 10
Images and Words 10
Awake 9
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence 8
Train of Thought 8
A Dramatic Turn of Events 7
A View from the Top of the World 7
Falling Into Infinity 7
Octavarium 6
Black Clouds and Silver Linings 6
Distance Over Time 6
When Dream and Day Unite 5
Systematic Chaos 4
Dream Theater 4
The Astonishing 3

As of right now, I would put Parasomnia between ADTOE and View. I would rank it as a 7 the same as those.