Let's see.
Welcome to the forum!
Just to show some differences of opinions (and that's all they are):
For one, I think SDoIT was generally not too great of an album (especially considering the others around that time)
I think it's easily one of their finest albums, falling just below the triumvirate of
Images & Words,
Awake, and
Scenes From A Memory.
And similarly I think Disappear is one of if not the most underrated Dream Theater tracks (next to Wait for Sleep, which at the very least is overlooked)
Not sure how underrated Disappear is, but it's definitely a favorite of mine. I would add that whatever underrating it may suffer from is most likely from the rarity of its live performances (only twice).
Falling Into Infinity was a perfectly fine album, and it has some songs that I love quite a bit (Hollow Years, Trial of Tears)
It certainly is perfectly fine. The problem is that it came after
Images & Words and
Awake, both of which were EXCEPTIONAL albums, for which FII suffered by comparison. If you weren't a fan at the time, I completely understand how that wouldn't be a factor.
BTW, it also contains, among its less stellar offerings, some of my favorites as well (Lines in The Sand, Trial of Tears, etc).
Systematic Chaos is one of Dream Theater's best albums (And Black Clouds is another fantastic album)
I kind of like SC, but I find that the music has little depth, offering surface-level enjoyment only. It's a great driving album.
But BC&SL is mostly dreck.
These Walls is one of the worst Dream Theater songs (But the rest of the songs on Octavarium keep the album at a high place anyway)
These Walls isn't even one of the worst songs on
Octavarium.
The self titled album is honestly also a fantastic album (Though Along for the Ride is my least favorite DT song period.)
I agree about the album, but I love Along For The Ride.
The Astonishing is arguably worse than WDaDU. (And both are the worst albums)
The Astonishing is definitely an oddball in the discography, but worse than WDADU? No way.
The only other thing in DT's output worse than WDADU is Raw Dog.
Again, welcome!