42 Hell's Kitchen #76I first heard the outro on Live At Budakon. I loved the Tubular Bells in that outro, and was a bit disappointed that they were not included in the studio version. When I saw them live on the I&W&B tour and they started this song, I was happy. Until, the outro came up and JR did not add the Tubular Bells into his patch sounds, then I got sad. What makes this song for me is the build-up from the intro into the outro and those Tubular Bells add a lot to the impact of the outro. To me, those made the Hell's Kitchen outro inclusion in the Instrumedley have more of that grand finale impact, and I felt it would've worked fantastic for the entire song to be played with it. This is why I rank it at 76 and not higher.
41 These Walls #13Octavarium was one of the first Dream Theater albums I had bought and it's grand nugget themes are a reason for me enjoying this album a lot. These Walls is great in how JP uses a baritone guitar tuned down to a step to achieve the low A. Which is the next key in the musical Octave (A big theme as well that is part of the albums namesake). This is a key that relates to me, and this song does relate to me a lot. The clean guitars and the distortion tone I find to be pretty soothing. The vocal melodies actually soar through the music and I love how they build-up into the chorus. I appreciate how simple this song is for DT, especially the guitar solo. This laid-back, simplistic, atmosphere makes me feel that it represents the person unable to tear the walls down, and you feel this pent up tension waiting to be released by tearing down the walls. It's a reason for me enjoying the outro a lot as that to me is like a person trying desperately to tear down the walls, like the sound of a sledgehammer pounding down the wall. (Which I just now realized can be related to the concept of Pink Floyd's The Wall...Damn Nuggets
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40 Endless Sacrifice #43So many songs have been made since I first heard this song. It used to be one of my top 10 songs, even sitting in the top 5 at some point. What I love about this song is the intro and the way it shifts from calm to chaotic. This shift represents the emotions of both who are experiencing a separation, not due to a bad relationship, but by careers, wars, whatever causes a couple to have to resort to long distance relationships. This song represents that Endless Sacrifice many people have when those moments of separation need to happen. The instrumental is fantastic live, and this is one song I knew of when I saw them on Gigantour, I was really happy they played it. I also enjoy how the instrumental flows into the next set of lyrics that talk about making this relationship make sense while living apart from on another. It's great that it ends on a more lighter note with the mid-pace heavy tempo, rather than going back to the same mood of the intro and verses before the instrumental.
39 Barstool Warrior #26Almost making my top 25, and the top quarter of my top 100, Barstool Warrior is an excellent song. What's hilarious for me about it, is how it related to my real-life scenario at the time. I was literally that Barstool Warrior talking to his gin (In my case, it was whiskey). When the intro started on my first listen to Distance Over Time, I was happy that same mood and atmosphere of The Gift of Music was utilized again. That happy, uplifting sort of sound is a big reason why I love Dream Theater as musicians. The guitar solo in the intro are moments I highly enjoy from the band, it's a big reason for why I enjoy In The Presence of Enemies pt. 1 and The Alien. This song tells a story, and this story is uplifting. It's like these two broken souls meet up in these circumstances and both cry out their situations to another. Afterwards, both come to realize that "No one can save you, and there's no one to save", and that both now understand where they belong and leave the past behind and start a new life, the Barstool Warrior becoming sober and the Women in pain leaving her abusive husband (which is quite difficult for some women who have dependency issues, I have witnessed this dependency myself from some of my cousins, so I can relate to the women in the story this way). Sorry for the long response, but this a really great song, it is my second favorite from Distance Over Time, and is highly deserving of praise. I just wasn't feeling the song when I was ranking, but if you were to ask me now, It'd be up there, I have no idea why I ranked it so low, which I now feel should be higher in the top 10. Oh well...
38 Overture 1928 #57I actually ranked this song right behind Strange Deja-Vu because of how they flow into one another, and are technically one single entity called a Scene. It was hard ranking this, but it and SDV ended up where they are as, while I enjoy scenes, there are more other songs I like better. It's a great song overall within the album and the story. It reminds me of how The Human Equation starts out as well, calm, serene, and then the next few tracks bring the listener into the story. That's good Rock Opera right there. This overture uses a lot of the themes from the album, and also this album in general has amazing melodies for it's themes. I find myself singing the vocal lines during the guitar lines in the song, and humming along. It's a great driving instrumental that showcases all the themes, which make me imagine Nicholas being under hypnosis, travelling through a time portal, seeing the scenes before he gets to the full scenario with Strange Deja-vu. I for one thought it was fantastic that the band decided to play SFAM in full for the D/T tour. Getting to see this entire album played by Mangini, and hearing it, also seeing it, in a different light due to the set-up and the video animations being completely different from Live Scenes, made it even more intriguing. I was glad to see it and this song was the moment where I said, "It's really happening, I'm seeing SFAM in it's entirety"...
37 Outcry #41I am quite glad this song made it on the list higher than my ranking. It was a great song to hear when ADTOE first came out, and it made me happy with how it shifts moods, and incorporates the same sort of atmosphere that Endless Sacrifice does, and does not go back completely to the same mood as the intro and verses, but stays at a good, mid-pace towards the ending chorus. I like JR's use of Middle Eastern tones and scales to represent that area where the chaos in the instrumental is occurring. I like the outro lyrics as well with the chants, I think it's a great way to end the song about a call for resistance.