What Era Did You Start With?

[Metro]

Late 2008, Systematic Chaos Era. Octavarium was the first album I listened to though.

[Madman Shepherd]

SFAM buy I was first exposed to them around FII. Music snobs at my school really dug them and talked crap about black sabbath. Later those same snobs talked crap about Dream Theater and that's around the time I started giving them a chance. I dug the riffs  but not always the major keys and certainly not the prog side. I learned to like the soft side and by the time ToT came around I LOVED the heavy side and began to appreciate the prog side.

So it took me 7 years to become a hardcore fan, partially because it was so fun to wade through the layers.

[EvantheMotel6Owmer]

SFAM buy I was first exposed to them around FII. Music snobs at my school really dug them and talked crap about black sabbath. Later those same snobs talked crap about Dream Theater and that's around the time I started giving them a chance. I dug the riffs  but not always the major keys and certainly not the prog side. I learned to like the soft side and by the time ToT came around I LOVED the heavy side and began to appreciate the prog side.

So it took me 7 years to become a hardcore fan, partially because it was so fun to wade through the layers.

Music snobs flip-flopping? Say it ain't so! 

[Schurftkut]

To live Forever was the first DT song i heard, and i got Liquid Tension Experiment 2 as my first album. Then i learned to appreciate JLB's vocals and found out the Scenes tour had just ended... 

So i put in 6doit as that was the first new album for me and the first tour i saw them live.

[Edergilmour]

The first album I ever listened was Awake on a K7. Didn't know the name of the band and I was already in love with it.

When I discovered the name of the band I soon learned that they were about to release a new album. The mighty 'six degrees of inner turbulence', my favourite until today.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

I first heard and became interested in Dream Theater when I was like 10 because they had music in a Dragon Ball Z movie. However, this was like a one-month stint and then I didn't listen to them again for like five years. I truly became an obsessed fan during the 8VM era.

[TheLordOfTheStrings]

I really came in during the “eat my ass and balls” era. But the first song I heard of theirs was The Glass Prison at around the time 8vm came out.

[crystalstars17]

the essential parts of Dream Theater, the parts that set them apart from everyone else, for me are "that awesome singer" and "that sick drummer". 

Same for me except replace "drummer" with "keyboard player".. ✨

[Dream Team]

The style of music I was listening to at the time (a lot of straight forward metal).

CM reminded me of Metallica, but better. And to this day, the drum parts played during the guitar solo is some of my favorite DT moments.

UAGM felt kind of chaotic and all over the place at the time.

Gotcha. That drumming in CM is some of my favorite ever also.

[Freeze]

 I bought "When Dream and Day Unite" in 1990 I believe. Saw them live for the first time in 1993.

[The Letter M]

I got into them in 2004, not long after Live At Budokan came out, so I picked TOT since it was their newest studio album at the time.

-Marc.

Now that I think about it, becoming a fan of the band during the TOT era wasn't my first time hearing them. That was actually when I first watched the History of Trunks anime film from the Dragon Ball Z franchise, which featured music from Scenes From A Memory as part of the film's English localization score. DBZ lends itself to metal music with it's long, flashy fight scenes, so the music worked really well as a replacement for the original score, but it didn't register with me at the time as a band I was really going to enjoy as I hadn't yet embarked on my journey to discover progressive rock/metal.

-Marc.

[pg1067]

To live Forever was the first DT song i heard

If that had been the first song I heard, there might not have been a second.

Same for me except replace "drummer" with "keyboard player".. ✨

For me, it was a few things:  First, it was the way a metal band incorporated keyboards into its sound.  I was already a fan of Yes and Genesis and Rush, but they weren't metal, and all of the metal bands who had keyboards only really used them for texture.  Second, it was the fact that all five members - particularly JM - were playing off the charts.  Alot of bands had shredder guitarists, and drums are drums, but having a bass player on the same level was definitely new in a metal band.  Vocals are foregone conclusion for any band I like.

[JLa]

My way in was LTE2. That was released in 1999, if I'm not mistaken? I know I just missed the SFAM tour, which was around the time I discovered DT.

The first DT album I bought was Awake.

[Awaken]

I've told this story many times before.

Sometime shortly after WDADU was released, I saw a snippet on MTV about "other bands you might like if you like Queensryche."  At the time, QR was riding high on the strength of Operation: Mindcrime, including being in heavy rotation on MTV.  They mentioned three bands:  Fates Warning, Crimson Glory and Dream Theater.  I took note of those names and set about trying to find albums by those bands.

I found FW and CG fairly easily.  I bought FW's current album No Exit and was immediately hooked.  I found a CG album (either the self-titled debut or Transcendence), but I didn't buy it because I was turned off by the silly masks they wore and the lead singer's pseudonym "Midnight." However, despite my best efforts, I could not find anything by Dream Theater.  After several months, I gave up, but I would occasionally check when I'd visit a record store.  Of course, if I had been in the New York/New England area, I might have had better luck, but I was in southern California.

Fast forward to the summer of 1992, and a friend told me to keep my ear open for this song called Pull Me Under.  I wasn't listening to the radio much anymore because the local metal station had gone full glam and was in the midst of going heavy into grunge.  Nevertheless, I made it a point to listen, and I eventually heard the song and found out it was by Dream Theater.  Hey...they do exist!  I loved the song and went out and bought the album and discovered that PMU wasn't even one of the best songs on the album.  I was beyond blown away.  I saw the band live four times between November 1992 and June 1993.  After the first show, a handful of fiends spent a good half hour outside the band's bus chatting up JM, JP, JLB and MP (KM stayed on the bus).  Fast forward 30 years, and here we are.

I think I've asked before, but did you ever give Transcendence a spin?  It's definitely the high point for that band, I still go back to it every now and then. 

[pg1067]

I think I've asked before, but did you ever give Transcendence a spin?  It's definitely the high point for that band, I still go back to it every now and then.

I was going to listen to it and started typing "Crimson Glory" into YouTube, and it shows that I have previously searched for Lady of Winter and Masque of the Red Death.  I assume I went with the former because it's the first song on the album, and I probably went with the latter because it's kind of a cool name.  I don't have any recollection of either, but I'll check them out again.

[Indiscipline]

My record store guy pointed me to this strange looking album with a Shirley Temple doppleganger on the cover in summer '92.

[The Letter M]

My record store guy pointed me to this strange looking album with a Shirley Temple doppleganger on the cover in summer '92.

"Da doo."

"And then suddenly, and without warning, there was a
                  total
                            eclipse
                                        of the sun."

                            *ding*

-Marc.

[wasteland]

I was first introduced to the band in Autumn 2008, when a high school friend recommended I check out Overture 1928. He later moved on from the band, I never did. It took less than 6 months for me to become a super-fan, and by the time BCSL came out (didn't really like much of it besides TBOT and especially TCOT) I knew I was in for a lifelong fandom!

[DreamerTV]

2002

Met a girl during a study trip to Southampton (UK)
She was really into SFAM, but at that time I was more into punk rock
Couple of months later a friend of mine made me listen to TDOE, but I didn’t understand what the hell that was.
I then tried with I&W on my own, and that changed me forever.
Almost one year later, in summer 2003, SDOIT was still their latest album and so the first new one I got.

[gborland]

Saw an interview with them in Raw Power on TV back in early 93, in which they played snippets of PMU, TTT and I think Another Day. Immediately bought I&W, saw them live at the Cathouse a few weeks later (April 93), and that was me hooked.

[ReaperKK]

SDOIT era. The album just came and I remember TGP blowing my mind. I went out and bought SDOIT and then Met. Pt. 2

[BlackInk]

I became a fan in 2007, so SC was the most recent one. BC&SL would be my first new album as a fan. Little did I (or we) know that MP was to leave the band shortly after

Exact same for me.

[Jamesman42]

SDOIT was the current album as I discovered them (TSCO and Metropolis being the only songs that far in). Soon after, ToT was released and my manager at the time gave me a burned copy on CD. Teenage jamesman was sold. I would then go to my first concert ever on the 8VM tour.

[axeman90210]

I first heard Dream Theater the summer before Train of Thought came out thanks to a recommendation from somebody on the Metallica forums. My fandom really picked up a few months after ToT though when I became obsessed with SFAM and saw them on the Train of Thought tour. So Octavarium was the first new album release I remember looking forward to as a DT fan.

[RaiseTheKnife]

My mom was driving me and a couple friends home from school in the Fall of 1992 and I heard Pull Me Under on the radio.  It had a strange 80s feel to it that was quickly becoming rare for songs of the time.

[HOF]

I guess to be more technical I first heard the band when Awake came out. I heard Caught in a Web on the radio, and then a little while after that my older brother started getting their albums, so I knew of them. But it was Christmas break ‘97 when I started digging into them for myself.

[devieira73]

Looking at the statiscs of this thread, it does confirm that IaW was The Big Bang for DT (obvious), but, more interesting, it seems the period from SfaM to SC was also a very consistent period in the fan base's growing (maybe The Inflationary Epoch? ). What surprise me a bit was that a lot of old fans like me are very much into this forum!

[Grappler]

The Falling Into Infinity years, though the first DT album I heard was I&W.  The first new album that they released after I became a fan was SFAM.

[HOF]

There was definitely a sense of the band picking up steam after SFAM, so it doesn't surprise me to see that era and the next few albums being the starting point for a lot of people.

[Sycsa]

Looking at the statiscs of this thread, it does confirm that IaW was The Big Bang for DT (obvious), but, more interesting, it seems the period from SfaM to SC was also a very consistent period in the fan base's growing (maybe The Inflationary Epoch? ). What surprise me a bit was that a lot of old fans like me are very much into this forum!

I'm not surprised by that, more than anything, it confirms that these type of forums are largely a playing ground for older folks. Popping the same question on Reddit would yield different results. 

[IgnotusPerIgnotium]

I went in at the FII era (97'). The story goes like this, my sister was studying abroad, I went to see her and I had with me a copy of I&W that (of course) the cassette player chewed at some point.
Anyway I listened to this album a lot, I was intrigued with the complexity of the music 'cause until then I was mainly listening to bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Iced Earth and stuff.

Then I bought ACOS and later OIAL. I liked them and they became a favorite of mine. Next was the first LTE which was awesome, but the albums that made me really follow these guys pretty much until now with consistency, was LTE 2 and non other that SFAM. Especially Scenes, I can't even remember how many copies I made to take it with me everywhere. Not to mention the Live In NY which I bought the VHS and later the DVD. It was really great to discover new music like this that made you a fan back then.

[Orbert]

My first exposure to Dream Theater was when a friend of mine played Images and Words for me at his house; this would've been Summer 1995.  I was blown away, and asked him if they had any other albums, and he said they only had one, Awake, which he also played.  (He wasn't aware of WDADU; as far as he knew, those were the only two albums.)  I'm a prog guy at heart, with some leanings toward heavier rock, but not really metal.  But this was fucking amazing music, something like Yes meets Metallica.  Complex compositions with keyboards and unusual time signatures, but also crunchy guitars and wailing vocals.  There's a reason Dream Theater is often credited as basically inventing prog metal.

Their new "album" had just come out, A Change of Seasons, which I didn't realize was an EP with the title epic and a bunch of covers, but I didn't care.  I bought it from the local Best Buy, so it was my first DT CD.  I'd ordered IAW and Awake the from record club because obviously I had to have my own copies, but they hadn't come yet.

I put Awake as the era because it was the closest album in the list.  But that's only because ACoS wasn't listed, and I think of the early stuff (anything pre-Jordan) as the IaW era.

[TheHoveringSojourn808]

I started listening after TOT had already come out, but before 8VM had been released

[Skeever]

I got into the band before I knew it was so easy to find new music. You had to be savvy with torrents (I wasn't), have a parent's credit card handy (I didn't) or just hope you found something of the band's in a store.

My first album was Awake, which I found in a store. I'd known people liked Dream Theater, but I had never heard a thing.
Then, I got their most recent album (Train of Thought) and their most recent live release (Live in Tokyo/5YIALT). I credit that DVD release with my level of fandom. It was such a cool thing to have, as a relatively new fan, and I immediately felt like the DT legacy was something worth exploring. Also, thanks to the audio commentary, I felt an immediate connection to the personalities in the band.

By the time Octavarium came out a few years later, I'd managed to find most of their studio albums.

[Herrick]

Scenes was the most recent album out when I started. My first new album with the, was 6DOIT a bit after.

Same here but the album that got me into the band was Images and Words.