DreamTheaterForums.org Dream Theater Fan Site
Dream Theater => Dream Theater => Topic started by: Scar on October 18, 2016, 08:29:44 PM
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www.loudwire.com/dream-theater-albums-ranked/
If you're too lazy to look yourselves....
13: When Dream and Day Unite
12: Falling into Infinity
11: The Astonishing
10: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
9: Black Clouds and Silver Linings
8: Octavarium
7: A Dramatic Turn of Events
6: Metropolis Part 2
5: Dream Theater
4: Systematic Chaos
3: Train of Thought
2: Awake
1: Images and Words
I'm surprised Dream Theater and SC is above SFAM.
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www.loudwire.com/dream-theater-albums-ranked/
If you're too lazy to look yourselves....
13: When Dream and Day Unite
12: Falling into Infinity
11: The Astonishing
10: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
9: Black Clouds and Silver Linings
8: Octavarium
7: A Dramatic Turn of Events
6: Metropolis Part 2
5: Dream Theater
4: Systematic Chaos
3: Train of Thought
2: Awake
1: Images and Words
I'm surprised Dream Theater and SC is above SFAM.
IMO, the bolded part makes the entire list invalid.
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:blush :lol :lol
Whoops. Fix'd
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There is so much wrong with that list but I'll just mention two that immediately slapped me in the face. Six Degrees is way too low and Systematic Chaos is way too high.
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Scenes behind Systematic Chaos? *forgets about the list*
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I can't take any list with WDaDU at last seriously... like, clearly you just either take popular opinion, or you didn't even listen to it in the first place (or both). Or you DID listen to it, heard Charlie sing in AFiL, and then just turned it off. Seriously, though, those songs are so fresh, so filled with excitement, I will never understand why people rank it so low. Forget the production, just take the songs and listen to five dudes just giving it their all. For my money, it's on par with Images and Words, and is among the upper half of their albums.
Also... as said before, Six Degrees is way too low on this particular list.
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I can't take any list with WDaDU at last seriously... like, clearly you just either take popular opinion
This is a longshot, but seeing as it is a popular opinion, wouldn't it be possible that the person making this list and ranking WDADU in the bottom spot shares that same popular opinion along with, say, 99% of Dream Theater's fan base?
Nah that can't be possible
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I don't put WDADU at the very bottom but I don't see how that is a step. To most people, the rest of their discography is a pretty huge step above the debut.
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I can't take any list with WDaDU at last seriously... like, clearly you just either take popular opinion, or you didn't even listen to it in the first place (or both). Or you DID listen to it, heard Charlie sing in AFiL, and then just turned it off. Seriously, though, those songs are so fresh, so filled with excitement, I will never understand why people rank it so low. Forget the production, just take the songs and listen to five dudes just giving it their all. For my money, it's on par with Images and Words, and is among the upper half of their albums.
Also... as said before, Six Degrees is way too low on this particular list.
Awesome post! Completely agree.
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I can't take any list with WDaDU at last seriously... like, clearly you just either take popular opinion, or you didn't even listen to it in the first place (or both). Or you DID listen to it, heard Charlie sing in AFiL, and then just turned it off. Seriously, though, those songs are so fresh, so filled with excitement, I will never understand why people rank it so low. Forget the production, just take the songs and listen to five dudes just giving it their all. For my money, it's on par with Images and Words, and is among the upper half of their albums.
There are many reasons to not take that list seriously, but ranking WDADU is not one of them. Whether you happen to like the album or not, the fact remains that the vast majority of fans rank it last and feel that it has some serious flaws. And the band mostly feels the same way. You can like the album all you want, but to imply that there is something wrong with anyone who disagrees with you is just pompous and misguided.
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Sorry but there is just no f---ing chance that Dream Theater is better than Octavarium.
Six Degrees at #10 :rollin.
Move along. nothing to see here.
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I can't really argue with #1 or #2 much (though they'd be 2 and 3 for me, it's very close. A lot of the rest of that list is laughable. Even some of the writeups praise tracks that are filler while ignoring album highlights.
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Eh, rankings are rankings. Everybody is going to disagree with something in them. But the write-ups are unequivocally bad. And it must be the same author who did the Maiden album ranking on the same page, because that one is awful as well.
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I think it's the first where I have seen 'Metropolis Part 2' listed at all ;)
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¡¡¡¡ Kotowboy's Dream Theater Ranking !!!!
1. Octavarium
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. Train of Thought
6. The Astonishing
7. Images And Words
8. Falling Into Infinity
9. Dream Theater
10. Awake
11. Black Clouds
12. Systematic Chaos
13. When Dream And Day Unite
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¡¡¡¡ Kotowboy's Dream Theater Ranking !!!!
1. Octavarium
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. Train of Thought
6. The Astonishing
7. Images And Words
8. Falling Into Infinity
9. Dream Theater
10. Awake
11. Black Clouds
12. Systematic Chaos
13. When Dream And Day Unite
Some obscure calls, but I love where your head's at. I usually rank albums in tiers. Mine would be:
Tier One: Images, Awake, Scenes, Astonishing
Tier Two: FII, Six Degrees
Tier Three: TOT, Octavarium, DT12
Tier Four: Chaos, Clouds
Tier Five: WDADU
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Tier Five: WDADU
Tier Five - which we will call the "When Dream and Day Unite" Tier.
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¡¡¡¡ Kotowboy's Dream Theater Ranking !!!!
1. Octavarium
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. Train of Thought
6. The Astonishing
7. Images And Words
8. Falling Into Infinity
9. Dream Theater
10. Awake
11. Black Clouds
12. Systematic Chaos
13. When Dream And Day Unite
wrong
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www.loudwire.com/dream-theater-albums-ranked/
If you're too lazy to look yourselves....
13: When Dream and Day Unite
12: Falling into Infinity
11: The Astonishing
10: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
9: Black Clouds and Silver Linings
8: Octavarium
7: A Dramatic Turn of Events
6: Metropolis Part 2
5: Dream Theater
4: Systematic Chaos
3: Train of Thought
2: Awake
1: Images and Words
I'm surprised Dream Theater and SC is above SFAM.
What an interesting ranking by Loudwire.
Eh, rankings are rankings. Everybody is going to disagree with something in them. But the write-ups are unequivocally bad. And it must be the same author who did the Maiden album ranking on the same page, because that one is awful as well.
That is totally true. I read the write ups and I agree that it was ambiguously bad. For Falling into Infinity, the author writes that the band flopped miserably. What? That is not true. Infinity was still a very strong album.
In any case, I respect the author's list.
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¡¡¡¡ Kotowboy's Dream Theater Ranking !!!!
1. Octavarium
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. Train of Thought
6. The Astonishing
7. Images And Words
8. Falling Into Infinity
9. Dream Theater
10. Awake
11. Black Clouds
12. Systematic Chaos
13. When Dream And Day Unite
wrong
Er no. It actually is my ranking.
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¡¡¡¡ Kotowboy's Dream Theater Ranking !!!!
1. Octavarium
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. Train of Thought
6. The Astonishing
7. Images And Words
8. Falling Into Infinity
9. Dream Theater
10. Awake
11. Black Clouds
12. Systematic Chaos
13. When Dream And Day Unite
wrong
Er no. It actually is my ranking.
But the ranking is wrong. Do it over until you get it right.
Never mind the fact that 3 of your top 4 are in my top 4, even though you got the order wrong.
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Eh, rankings are rankings. Everybody is going to disagree with something in them. But the write-ups are unequivocally bad. And it must be the same author who did the Maiden album ranking on the same page, because that one is awful as well.
Those websites (Loudwire/ultimateclassicrock) suck. You can tell when the author isn't even familiar with what he's writing about. I read a review of The Final Frontier on there once that basically just said what some of the songs were about, and even some of those descriptions were incorrect.
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¡¡¡¡ Kotowboy's Dream Theater Ranking !!!!
1. Octavarium
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. Train of Thought
6. The Astonishing
7. Images And Words
8. Falling Into Infinity
9. Dream Theater
10. Awake
11. Black Clouds
12. Systematic Chaos
13. When Dream And Day Unite
wrong
Er no. It actually is my ranking.
But the ranking is wrong. Do it over until you get it right.
Never mind the fact that 3 of your top 4 are in my top 4, even though you got the order wrong.
1. Octavarium
EVERYTHING ELSE
13. WDADU
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I usually don't do rankings, but I'm trying to avoid a certain shitshow on TV that is going on right now, so here it goes:
1. Scenes From A Memory
2. Images And Words
3. Awake
4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
5. Falling Into Infinity
6. Train of Thought
7. Octavarium
8. Black Clouds
9. A Dramatic Turn of Events
10. The Astonishing
11. Dream Theater
12. Systematic Chaos
13. When Dream And Day Unite
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I'm glad you put FII higher. :tup
Though I'd rank SC higher. Its just my opinion.
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ToT and SC way too high and FII and Six Degrees way too low.
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I can't read seriously a top where scenes is not first, or at least second.
They must have ranked album's covers, or the guy never listened to dream theater before last week, I don't know
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¡¡¡¡ Kotowboy's Dream Theater Ranking !!!!
1. Octavarium
2. Scenes From A Memory
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. Train of Thought
6. The Astonishing
7. Images And Words
8. Falling Into Infinity
9. Dream Theater
10. Awake
11. Black Clouds
12. Systematic Chaos
13. When Dream And Day Unite
Images and Words lower than The Astonishing? Awake lower than Falling In Infinity and Dream Theater?
That's almost as bad as the magazine article.
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All these lists are wrong. Here is the correct list.
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Octavarium
3. Images and Words
4. When Dream and Day Unite
5. Scenes From A Memory
6. Train of Thought
7. Awake
8. The Astonishing
9. Falling Into Infinity
10. Dream Theater
11. Systematic Chaos
12. A Dramatic Turn of Events
13. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
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Excluding SFAM, the fact that six other albums came before 6DOIT is a head scratcher, for me personally. At least they got the top two right.
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When Dream and Day Unite above Scenes and Awake?
Wrong. Next.
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xD
1. Images and Words
2. Scenes from a Memory
3. Awake
4. Six Degrees
5. Octavarium
6. Train of Thought
7. Falling into Infinity
8. A Dramatic Turn
9. Black Clouds
10. DT 12
11. The Astonishing
12. Systematic Chaos
13. When Dream and Day Unite
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Falling Into Infinity is too high.
Next.
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Can I get a retry?! :'(
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:lol
I'm just being facetious. Now suck it up before you get one of these as a parting gift. :lol
(https://odditymall.com/includes/content/tampon-flash-drive-3.jpg)
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What in the world is that??
Its so huge! Wow!
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1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Images And Words
3. Scenes From A Memory
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. Octavarium
6. Falling Into Infinity
7. Awake
8. Train of Thought
9. Black Clouds
10. The Astonishing
11. Dream Theater
12. Systematic Chaos
13. When Dream And Day Unite
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Another one with a hard-on for Falling Into Infinity...and putting it above Awake. Oh, wait. Did you spell them both wrong and meant to switch them? :lol
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Another one with a hard-on for Falling Into Infinity...and putting it above Awake. Oh, wait. Did you spell them both wrong and meant to switch them? :lol
I was never a blown away by Awake.
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Another one with a hard-on for Falling Into Infinity...and putting it above Awake. Oh, wait. Did you spell them both wrong and meant to switch them? :lol
I was never a blown away by Awake.
Did you say that with an Italian accent?
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A mama mia!
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www.loudwire.com/dream-theater-albums-ranked/
If you're too lazy to look yourselves....
13: When Dream and Day Unite
12: Falling into Infinity
11: The Astonishing
10: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
9: Black Clouds and Silver Linings
8: Octavarium
7: A Dramatic Turn of Events
6: Metropolis Part 2
5: Dream Theater
4: Systematic Chaos
3: Train of Thought
2: Awake
1: Images and Words
I'm surprised Dream Theater and SC is above SFAM.
This is really the worst 'album rankings' list I have ever seen.
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1. Awake
2. Images & Words
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. Scenes From a Memory
5. Falling into Infinity
6. The Astonishing
7. Octavarium
8. A Dramatic Turn of Events
9. Train of Thought
10. Dream Theater
11. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
12. When Dream and Day Unite
13. Systematic Chaos
Wow, do they have a lot of great albums. I always put Awake at #1 because I got into DT shortly after Images was released. At the time I couldn't wait for Awake to be released and I wasn't disappointed in the slightest. That was "my" album and sadly the last with Kev.
Spots 2-4 are almost interchangeable as they're that good to me.
The Astonishing and Falling Into Infinity could be swapped although I really like Trial of Tears and Peruvian Skies.
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Tell me about it. Was a really interesting list, even if I disagreed with a lot of it. :loser: :facepalm:
And Awake is a fantastic album. Felt a lot more keyboard presence in that album.
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Oh, what the heck... Okay, here is the correct ranking:
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: Wonderful album. It does have one song I don't care for at all and skip every time. So from the standpoint of consistency, part of me feels like I should rank the much more consistent ADTOE or s/t above this one. But the title song is a wonderful beast of a masterpiece. And every song that is not named Blind Faith is up there among my favorites. With such a huge quantity of music that is so, so good, I can't not rank this one at the top.
2. Scenes from a Memory: I've said it before, and I'll say it again, although plenty of songs by themselves would be just "okay" by DT standards, this is definitely a case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The band hit it out of the park with this album.
3. A Dramatic Turn of Events: So consistently good from start to finish. Hardly a moment on this entire album that I don't thoroughly enjoy. I could easily rank this as my #1 for the consistent high quality. It's just that its highs don't reach quite as high as those from Six Degrees. But I am still astonished that the band could put out something this good so late in their career.
4. Dream Theater: And continuing my thoughts from ADTOE, this one is right behind it, and there are some days where I might like it just a bit more. Outstanding continuation. If only the drums were mixed better on these two albums.
5. Images & Words: This album is SO inconsistent. But more than half of it is amazing. And the highs on this album are among the best the band has ever done. This is the album that made me a fan back in 1992, and for good reason.
6. Awake: This one is close behind Images & Words, despite sounding so different. The band's heavier, darker side suited them well for this album. Scarred, The Mirror, and Lie are some of the best things the band has done.
7. Octavarium: Song for song, there are better albums that are ranked lower. But the title track is gorgeous. That, the overall concept, and strong songs TROAE, Panic Attack, and Sacrificed Sons really carry this album.
8. Systematic Chaos: Like Images & Words and Octavarium, a very inconsistent album. It is about 2/3 an album of amazing, and about 1/3 of an album that I never listen to. But the amazing parts get this album (in its abbreviated form) a LOT of spins from me.
9. Falling Into Infinity: This album was a slow grower. Songs like LITS and ToT take it over the top. Also has one of my favorite ballads, TAMP. Rounding that out with other quality songs like New Millennium, Peruvian Skies, Just Let Me Breathe, and Anna Lee, this is a fine album, even if it takes awhile to appreciate.
10. Black Clouds: So much promise. But, really, the only songs I can say I truly "love" and listen to with any regularity, ANTR, TSF, and TCOT, which is only half of the six songs on the album. That drags it down a bit. I still like it. And the covers disk is quite good as well. But having so much of the album be skipable drags this one down near the bottom of the discography.
11. Train of Thought: On any given day, this could rank ahead of BCSL and maybe even FII and SC as well. Lots to like here. But I just don't connect as strongly with this album as I do with others. And there are long musical passages in some of the songs that do not hold my interest. Still a solid album. But since I tend to favor dark and heavy, it is interesting that DT's two darkest and heaviest albums rank near the bottom of their discography.
12. WDADU: I'll give the standard criticisms: The production and the vocals really drag this one down for me. But just because the criticisms are standard doesn't mean they are wrong. Still, this album shows a lot of promise. There are some really good songs. And there are some really good moments in others. In a way, this album is typical of debut albums: It really shows a lot of the seeds of what would later make the band great, but it also shows that they were young and had not yet matured in the songwriting process. Still, good initial effort. I am thankful we have live versions of all these songs with James so that I can truly enjoy them.
Unranked: The Astonishing. Really hard to rank. I like it. A lot. But I don't love it. And the length alone makes it an album that will likely start to fall off in terms of number/frequency of listening once the next album drops. As much as I am currently still enjoying it, my gut tells me it will not have strong staying power. I could see it being somewhere in the 7-10 range. Definitely above Black Clouds. But other than that, only time will tell.
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Oh, what the heck... Okay, here is the correct ranking:
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: Wonderful album. It does have one song I don't care for at all and skip every time. So from the standpoint of consistency, part of me feels like I should rank the much more consistent ADTOE or s/t above this one. But the title song is a wonderful beast of a masterpiece. And every song that is not named Blind Faith is up there among my favorites. With such a huge quantity of music that is so, so good, I can't not rank this one at the top.
2. Scenes from a Memory: I've said it before, and I'll say it again, although plenty of songs by themselves would be just "okay" by DT standards, this is definitely a case where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. The band hit it out of the park with this album.
3. A Dramatic Turn of Events: So consistently good from start to finish. Hardly a moment on this entire album that I don't thoroughly enjoy. I could easily rank this as my #1 for the consistent high quality. It's just that its highs don't reach quite as high as those from Six Degrees. But I am still astonished that the band could put out something this good so late in their career.
4. Dream Theater: And continuing my thoughts from ADTOE, this one is right behind it, and there are some days where I might like it just a bit more. Outstanding continuation. If only the drums were mixed better on these two albums.
5. Images & Words: This album is SO inconsistent. But more than half of it is amazing. And the highs on this album are among the best the band has ever done. This is the album that made me a fan back in 1992, and for good reason.
6. Awake: This one is close behind Images & Words, despite sounding so different. The band's heavier, darker side suited them well for this album. Scarred, The Mirror, and Lie are some of the best things the band has done.
7. Octavarium: Song for song, there are better albums that are ranked lower. But the title track is gorgeous. That, the overall concept, and strong songs TROAE, Panic Attack, and Sacrificed Sons really carry this album.
8. Systematic Chaos: Like Images & Words and Octavarium, a very inconsistent album. It is about 2/3 an album of amazing, and about 1/3 of an album that I never listen to. But the amazing parts get this album (in its abbreviated form) a LOT of spins from me.
9. Falling Into Infinity: This album was a slow grower. Songs like LITS and ToT take it over the top. Also has one of my favorite ballads, TAMP. Rounding that out with other quality songs like New Millennium, Peruvian Skies, Just Let Me Breathe, and Anna Lee, this is a fine album, even if it takes awhile to appreciate.
10. Black Clouds: So much promise. But, really, the only songs I can say I truly "love" and listen to with any regularity, ANTR, TSF, and TCOT, which is only half of the six songs on the album. That drags it down a bit. I still like it. And the covers disk is quite good as well. But having so much of the album be skipable drags this one down near the bottom of the discography.
11. Train of Thought: On any given day, this could rank ahead of BCSL and maybe even FII and SC as well. Lots to like here. But I just don't connect as strongly with this album as I do with others. And there are long musical passages in some of the songs that do not hold my interest. Still a solid album. But since I tend to favor dark and heavy, it is interesting that DT's two darkest and heaviest albums rank near the bottom of their discography.
12. WDADU: I'll give the standard criticisms: The production and the vocals really drag this one down for me. But just because the criticisms are standard doesn't mean they are wrong. Still, this album shows a lot of promise. There are some really good songs. And there are some really good moments in others. In a way, this album is typical of debut albums: It really shows a lot of the seeds of what would later make the band great, but it also shows that they were young and had not yet matured in the songwriting process. Still, good initial effort. I am thankful we have live versions of all these songs with James so that I can truly enjoy them.
Unranked: The Astonishing. Really hard to rank. I like it. A lot. But I don't love it. And the length alone makes it an album that will likely start to fall off in terms of number/frequency of listening once the next album drops. As much as I am currently still enjoying it, my gut tells me it will not have strong staying power. I could see it being somewhere in the 7-10 range. Definitely above Black Clouds. But other than that, only time will tell.
Nice write up! I love your explanations or why each album bad that spot. But why do you dislike Blind Faith? :(
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Bosk's is definitely more along the lines of being
correct impressive. I love that he put Six Degrees first. For me, the only thing that tops that album is Images and Words but it's by a narrow margin. I'm shocked to see ADTOE above Images. Interesting selection.
*Just as a rule, any list that has Falling Into Infinity higher than Images, Awake, Scenes, or Six Degrees is automatically disqualified.
*Any list that has WDADU above anything except Falling Into Infinity, Systematic Chaos, or Black Clouds is automatically disqualified.
*If at least three out of four of the follow (Images, Awake, Scenes, Six Degrees) aren't in the Top 5, the list is disqualified.
Of course, I'm just being facetious.
:metal
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Oh, what the heck... Okay, here is the correct ranking...
LOL NO
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I'm also quite new for Dream Theater so I can't say this is the final, but for now...
1. The Astonishing - The album that got me into Dream Theater. This rock opera flows very smoothly and there were unexpected turns like that moment Darius "killed" Faythe! DX
So dramatic.
2. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - I love Blind Faith a lot. :)
Six Degrees is a very emotional song. The ending brings me to tears and contains a lot of powerful songs.
3. Awake - Love the keyboard's throughout and it contains Space Dye Vest.
4. Metropolis Part 2 - I just realized it was a concept album and realized that there were more instrumental sections and longer songs than The Astonishing.
5. Images and Words - As my dad said, a Dream Theater classic.
6. Systematic Chaos - I love their first and last song a lot.
7. Black Clouds and Silver Linings - A really dark album, heart wrenching to listen to.....
9. A Dramatic Turn of Events - You know, this album is fantastic. I love Outcry to death and can possibly be my new favorite from this album. The ending, "Trapped in a kingdom of fear while our children die" and the outro just sends shockwaves throughout my body. Super song.
10. Falling into Infinity - Has one of my favorites Trial of Tears and Hell's Kitchen. Both have fantastic climaxes and ending.
11. Train of Thought - A very heavy album. Not that melodious as Awake though in my opinion.
12. Dream Theater 12 - Shorter songs while keeping that complexity. I always find myself being in awe of the songs ending and instrumental sections.
13. When Dream and Day Unite - Production slips it. Other than production, fantastic album.
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It took a few listens before The Astonishing clicked with me. That whole second disc is an emotional roller coaster.
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My tiers are like this:
Tier One: Images, Awake, Six Degrees, DT12
Tier Two: Octavarium, FII, Scenes
Tier Three: TOT, ADTOE
Tier Four: Chaos, Clouds
Tier Five: WDADU, Astonishing
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1: Images and Words
2: Awake
3: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4: Metropolis Part 2
5: Falling into Infinity
6: When Dream and Day Unite
7: Octavarium
8: Train of Thought
9: Systematic Chaos
10: The Astonishing
11: Black Clouds and Silver Linings
12: A Dramatic Turn of Events
13: Dream Theater
To be fair, I listened to the Astonishing and BC&SL once each. I've never listened to ADTOE or DT.
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3. A Dramatic Turn of Events: So consistently good from start to finish. Hardly a moment on this entire album that I don't thoroughly enjoy. I could easily rank this as my #1 for the consistent high quality. It's just that its highs don't reach quite as high as those from Six Degrees. But I am still astonished that the band could put out something this good so late in their career.
5. Images & Words: This album is SO inconsistent. But more than half of it is amazing. And the highs on this album are among the best the band has ever done. This is the album that made me a fan back in 1992, and for good reason.
This honestly boggles my mind. Opinions and such, but I find ADToE ridiculously uneven. Starts off good with Backs of Angels, but then three clunkers in a row. BMUBMD is easily a bottom five song, I liked Lost Not Forgotten better when it was called Under a Glass Moon, and while This is the Life is a nice song, it's a snoozer for me. Then they come in with the best song of the Mangini era, Bridges in the Sky. Outcry is another good one, but it had to grow on me. FFH is actually really good, but I don't listen to it that often. Breaking All Illusions is like the Scarred of this album; most people I hear absolutely adore this song, and I just don't see it, another snoozer. Then it ends pretty strong with Beneath the Surface. Very up and down album. The first half is so boring, and while the B-Side has a good amount of good songs, one of the longest songs is a complete snoozer.
On the other side, there's Images and Words. I don't mind the placement (#5 is a fine ranking), but the to say it's "SO inconsistent" is weird to me. I&W is one of the most consistently good albums I've ever heard. So much so, that literally every song on the album has been my favorite album track at one point or another.
But, again, opinions and stuff.
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1: Images and Words
2: Awake
3: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4: Metropolis Part 2
5: Falling into Infinity
6: When Dream and Day Unite
7: Octavarium
8: Train of Thought
10: Systematic Chaos
11: The Astonishing
12: Black Clouds and Silver Linings
13: A Dramatic Turn of Events
14: Dream Theater
To be fair, I listened to the Astonishing and BC&SL once each. I've never listened to ADTOE or DT.
Now this is a ranking I can get on board with. It has all the albums placed in the general area they should be....
Except there's no #9 :laugh:
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Except there's no #9 :laugh:
And it's a ranking based on never hearing two of the albums and only hearing two other albums once.
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I should say, I did make an attempt to listen to ADTOE. After about 8 minutes, I couldn't remember a single thing I'd just heard. That's how little it connected with me, so I turned it off. Rest assured though, if I did listen to them, in comparison to my feelings for all the other albums that have a lot more history for me, I can safely say they wouldn't move up the ranking any.
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Putting ADTOE and DT12 above I&W and Awake ... no.
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I should say, I did make an attempt to listen to ADTOE. After about 8 minutes, I couldn't remember a single thing I'd just heard. That's how little it connected with me, so I turned it off. Rest assured though, if I did listen to them, in comparison to my feelings for all the other albums that have a lot more history for me, I can safely say they wouldn't move up the ranking any.
Don't get me wrong, it doesn't matter to me what your rankings are or if you have heard all the albums or not. It just seemed weird to rank albums you've never heard. It also seems weird to assume a new album by DT couldn't top some of the older ones you love without listening to the album. I mean, if you listen to it and it's not your cup of tea, then yeah, that makes sense. But if you haven't listened, how would you possibly know?
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You're right, I should have said that I can safely say I suspect that they wouldn't move up the ranking any. I get what you're saying, and it's possible that I'd like them. But the older ones were such a huge part of the blueprint that made up my formative years as a guitar player, that DT could resurrect Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham, and John Entwistle, make a new album with them that had ten 4 minute and 30 second songs about drinking, f*cking, and partying, and only then would a new DT album have a chance at surpassing the classics, for me.
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You're right, I should have said that I can safely say I suspect that they wouldn't move up the ranking any. I get what you're saying, and it's possible that I'd like them. But the older ones were such a huge part of the blueprint that made up my formative years as a guitar player, that DT could resurrect Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham, and John Entwistle, make a new album with them that had ten 4 minute and 30 second songs about drinking, f*cking, and partying, and only then would a new DT album have a chance at surpassing the classics, for me.
:lol
I feel you dude. While I hold their recent output in higher regard than you seem to, I get it. I discovered DT in high school when I was absolutely obsessed with guitar and those first albums hold a special place in my heart. Funny enough for me, ToT was their new album when I became a fan, from there I went backwards to discover I&W, Awake, SFAM, SDOIT, etc...
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1. Scenes from a Memory
2. Images and Words
3. Awake
4. A Dramatic Turn of events
5. Falling into Infinity
6. Train of Thought
7. Systematic Chaos
8. Six Degrees of inner turbulence
9. Octavarium
10. Black Clouds & silver linings
11. The Astonishing
12. Dream Theater
13. When Dream and Day Unite
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01: Scenes From a Memory
02: Images and Words
03: Octavarium
04: The Astonishing
05: A Dramatic Turn of Events
06: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
07: Awake
08: Train of Thought
09: Black Clouds & Silver Linings
10: Dream Theater
11: When Dream and Day Unite
12: Systematic Chaos
13: Falling Into Infinity
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(https://66.media.tumblr.com/5a70ec4488f8d789a4013cd428990620/tumblr_o48n1wck1j1udh5n8o1_400.gif)
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I'll join in on the fun
1. Images and Words
2. Awake
3. A Dramatic Turn of Events
4. Scenes from a Memory
5. The Astonishing
6. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
7. Octavarium
8. Dream Theater
9. Train of Thought
10. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulance
11. Systematic Chaos
12. Falling Into Infinity
13. When Dream and Day Unite
It's a muddy middle though that could change based on mood and timing, but the tops and bottoms are pretty solid for me.
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Yeah, I'd rather listen to WDADU than the last two albums. :p
1. SDOIT
2. I&W
3. SFAM
4. Awake
5. FII
6. ToT
7. ADTOE
8. 8VM
9. SC
10. BC&SL
11. WDADU
12. DT12
13. TA
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The Astonishing worst :rollin
Nah opinions opinions.
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1- I&W
2- Awake
3- SFAM
4- SDOIT
5- FII
6- ToT
7- 8VM
8- ADTOE
9- BC&SL
10- SC
11- WDADU
12- DT12
13- TA
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Rankings? Eh, if you're forcing me to!
1. Awake
2. Six Degrees
3. Scenes
4. Images and Words
5. Falling into Infinity
6. TA
7. 8vm
8. WDADU
9. ADTOE
10. ToT
11. BCSL
12. SC
13. DT12
Most of those are subject to minor changes depending on my mood and whether or not I just ate at Chipotle.
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Album rankings again? Sure, why not..
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Awake
3. Images and Words
4. Scenes From a Memory
(A Change of Seasons EP)
5. Octavarium
6. Train of Thought
7. Systematic Chaos
8. Falling Into Infinity
9. A Dramatic Turn of Events
10. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
11. The Astonishing
12. When Dream and Day Unite
13. Dream Theater
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1. Awake
2. Images and Words
3. Scenes
4. Falling into Infinity
5. Six Degrees
6. ToT
7. TA
8. ADTOE
9. DT12
10. 8vm
11. WDADU
12. SC
13. BCSL
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Just out of curiosity - Octavarium is my favourite DT album - why do most people rate it so poorly ?
Is it primarily the simple songs ? I tend to judge a song by how good a song it is - not by how technical it is ...
Never Enough is a bit silly lyric wise sure but it's got good music.
I think The Answer Lies Within is my #2 ballad after Lines In The Sand. Root of all Evil is a great opener and Sacrificed Sons - Octavarium is probably the best closing two songs on a DT album.
And sonically it's nice and airy. Not boxy and stuffy like Systematic Chaos - which is almost Octavarium part 2.
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Even though the title track is the only song from it in my DT top 50, Octavarium is a very good album overall. Even the songs I am not as overly wild about sound good within the context of the album when listening to it from start to finish. I suspect it's "low" placement for some has more to do with how strong many of the other DT albums are, rather than an indictment of Octavarium. Octavarium is probably my 9th or 10th favorite DT record, and I cannot think of more than a few bands whose 9th or 10th best album is that good.
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Just out of curiosity - Octavarium is my favourite DT album - why do most people rate it so poorly ?
Is it primarily the simple songs ? I tend to judge a song by how good a song it is - not by how technical it is ...
Never Enough is a bit silly lyric wise sure but it's got good music.
I think The Answer Lies Within is my #2 ballad after Lines In The Sand. Root of all Evil is a great opener and Sacrificed Sons - Octavarium is probably the best closing two songs on a DT album.
And sonically it's nice and airy. Not boxy and stuffy like Systematic Chaos - which is almost Octavarium part 2.
I can't answer for everyone, but personally I hate the lack of technicallity. I want 56 time signature changes per song, and 89 solos.
Kidding.
Honestly, I don't like the production as much as you do, but that doesn't impact it so much. It's the songs. 8vm is a really good song, and I love TROAE and These Walls, but I don't really like the rest of the songs a whole lot. Panic Attack is probably in my bottom 5 DT songs. Never Enough isn't bad, but I never have a desire to listen to it, same with IWBY. Sacrificed Sons is a good once in a while song, but the instrumental section bores me. And I honestly just can't get into TALW what so ever.
Different strokes for different individuals.
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I know I've done this a few times already but the list is transient so let's see where everything lands this time.
1. Images and Words
2. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
3. Scenes From A Memory
4. Awake
5. A Dramatic Turn of Events
6. The Astonishing
7. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
8. DT12
9. Train of Thought
10. Octavarium
11. Systematic Chaos
12. Falling Into Infinity
13. When Dream and Day Unite
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I really like The Answer Lies Within. Seems most DT fans can't stand it...
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It's on the fence for me. I don't hate it but I don't love it. It's a pretty song but I feel like something is missing.
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The best thing about Octavarium is that I can play the first 4 songs on drums.
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I really like The Answer Lies Within. Seems most DT fans can't stand it...
I also like it quite a bit. As for Octavarium, it's overall a solid album. I don't really listen to These Walls, I Walk Beside You or Never Enough other than when I listen to the album in full, but they're still enjoyable songs for the most part. As for the other five songs, they're all awesome!
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TALW is a fantastic little song, I like at about as much as songs like WFS, AL, AFTR, BTS and even Disappear. I think the Score version is so good that they probably don't ever need to play it live again. Also Vacant/TALW is a great combo at that show.
Only 'ballads' I've never really been able to get on board with DT are Hollow Years, TAMP and SDV...
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I think The Answer Lies Within is my #2 ballad after Lines In The Sand.
Lines in the Sand is a ballad?
I like The Answer Lies Within, probably upper half or middle of the pack for DT ballads for me.
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Just out of curiosity - Octavarium is my favourite DT album - why do most people rate it so poorly ?
Is it primarily the simple songs ? I tend to judge a song by how good a song it is - not by how technical it is ...
Never Enough is a bit silly lyric wise sure but it's got good music.
I think The Answer Lies Within is my #2 ballad after Lines In The Sand. Root of all Evil is a great opener and Sacrificed Sons - Octavarium is probably the best closing two songs on a DT album.
And sonically it's nice and airy. Not boxy and stuffy like Systematic Chaos - which is almost Octavarium part 2.
Octavarium is one of my favorite album. I agree with what you are saying but Lines in the sand is not a ballad in my opinion.
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I think The Answer Lies Within is my #2 ballad after Lines In The Sand.
Lines in the Sand is a ballad?
Yeah that... WTF. Is Brexit getting to you again?
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The Mirror is my favorite DT ballad.
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Far From Heaven is my favorite epic.
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EoP is my favorite DT album.
B.Lee
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Lines In The Sand is mostly soft. The chorus is up and rocky but it's mostly clean guitars and downtempo.
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Only 'ballads' I've never really been able to get on board with DT are Hollow Years, TAMP and SDV...
Strange Deja Vu is not a ballad :neverusethis:
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By your standards it might be. :biggrin:
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Lines In The Sand is mostly soft. The chorus is up and rocky but it's mostly clean guitars and downtempo.
I don't think you understand what a ballad is.
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Lines In The Sand is mostly soft. The chorus is up and rocky but it's mostly clean guitars and downtempo.
I can't tell if this is sarcasm. :mehlin
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No, it's just Kotow being Kotow.
Can someone make a meme for that?
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It exists.
:emo:
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Half of Octavarium is mostly VERY soft, I guess it is a ballad. :p
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Let me see if I can get this right. My top five are mostly set in stone (2 and three occasionally swap), as are my bottom three, but everything else in the middle is very fluid.
1) Scenes From A Memory- Still probably my all-time favorite album from any band, and the record that turned me into a massive Dream Theater fan. Pretty much flawless from front to back.
2) Images & Words- I agonized over this vs my next entry on the list, but in the end I&W wins out by a hair. Metropolis is the quintessential Dream Theater song, and Wait for Sleep/Learning to Live is a phenomenal album close. I feel like Take the Time and Under A Glass Moon get overlooked sometimes for sharing an album with those tracks, but they're pretty great in their own right.
3) Awake- I actually prefer the darker, heavier vibe of Awake to Images and Words, but the heights of Awake (Voices, Scarred) are just short of the best I&W material, and Caught in a Web is much more of a filler track than anything else on these two albums. Lifting Shadows Off A Dream is a hidden gem.
4) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence- The first Dream Theater album I ever purchased, after someone on the Metallica forums wouldn't stop raving about this song called The Glass Prison. I popped this into my CD player, and right about when the double bass for TGP kicked in was pretty much a musical epiphany for me. I actually took a while to warm up to the rest of the album because I wanted everything else to be as heavy as The Glass Prison, but over time as my musical tastes expanded/matured beyond just "heavy", I came to love the rest of 6DOIT almost as much as the first track.
5) A Change of Seasons- With only one track of original material on here, I couldn't bring myself to rank this in the top four. That said, ACOS still stands up for me as the greatest song Dream Theater's ever recorded. The cover medleys are pretty cool as well, I've always been enamored with the transition they pull from Carry On Wayward Son to Bohemian Rhapsody.
6) Dream Theater- My favorite of the Mangini era albums. It doesn't quite reach the highs of ADTOE, but start to finish it's a stronger, more consistent album.
7) Octavarium- Gets here almost on the strength of the title track alone, though I do like the rest of the album as well, especially the first four tracks.
8) A Dramatic Turn of Events- While not an all-time classic Dream Theater album, a solid first offering from a band with a new drummer and writing chemistry following the departure of Mike Portnoy. Bridges in the Sky is a blast, and Breaking All Illusions is a great throwback to the Images and Words era DT sound and better than any song they had put out since Octavarium
9) The Astonishing- Still digesting this one to be honest, but I dig the change up in writing style and I love Labrie’s performance on this one. A little bit bloated though, and the actual story is laughably cheesy.
10) Falling Into Infinity- It pains me to rank this so low because of how strong I find Trial of Tears (top 10) and Lines in the Sand (top 15), but aside from these two and Peruvian Skies I very rarely find myself listening to this album at all (Hollow Years doesn’t count as I always go with the epic Budokan version).
11) Black Clouds and Silver Linings- I find this to be markedly better than its predecessor and so was a step in the right direction for the Portnoy version of the band, but still pretty unremarkable by Dream Theater standards.
12) Train of Thought- The first new release after I became a fan, and I was primarily into metal at the time it immediately endeared itself to me. Age has not been kind to it for me though, as I mostly only listen to it now when I’m working out and want some riffage and shredding. Way too one dimensional of an album.
13) Systematic Chaos- I probably spin this a little more than some of albums above this, but it's the Dream Theater equivalent of junk food for me, there's just not much of substance there.
14)When Dream And Day Unite- Probably the easiest spot on the list for me to fill in. Every now and then I'll listen to a live cut of The Killing Hand from a pre-food poisoning Labrie show, and I like to spin the Score version of Afterlife on occasion, but I couldn't tell you the last time I had the urge to listen to any of the WDADU studio tracks at all. This is basically a once every few years spin for me to see if my opinion has changed (spoiler: it hasn’t).
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Let me see if I can get this right. My top five are mostly set in stone (2 and three occasionally swap), as are my bottom three, but everything else in the middle is very fluid.
1) Scenes From A Memory- Still probably my all-time favorite album from any band, and the record that turned me into a massive Dream Theater fan. Pretty much flawless from front to back.
2) Images & Words- I agonized over this vs my next entry on the list, but in the end I&W wins out by a hair. Metropolis is the quintessential Dream Theater song, and Wait for Sleep/Learning to Live is a phenomenal album close. I feel like Take the Time and Under A Glass Moon get overlooked sometimes for sharing an album with those tracks, but they're pretty great in their own right.
3) Awake- I actually prefer the darker, heavier vibe of Awake to Images and Words, but the heights of Awake (Voices, Scarred) are just short of the best I&W material, and Caught in a Web is much more of a filler track than anything else on these two albums. Lifting Shadows Off A Dream is a hidden gem.
4) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence- The first Dream Theater album I ever purchased, after someone on the Metallica forums wouldn't stop raving about this song called The Glass Prison. I popped this into my CD player, and right about when the double bass for TGP kicked in was pretty much a musical epiphany for me. I actually took a while to warm up to the rest of the album because I wanted everything else to be as heavy as The Glass Prison, but over time as my musical tastes expanded/matured beyond just "heavy", I came to love the rest of 6DOIT almost as much as the first track.
5) A Change of Seasons- With only one track of original material on here, I couldn't bring myself to rank this in the top four. That said, ACOS still stands up for me as the greatest song Dream Theater's ever recorded. The cover medleys are pretty cool as well, I've always been enamored with the transition they pull from Carry On Wayward Son to Bohemian Rhapsody.
6) Dream Theater- My favorite of the Mangini era albums. It doesn't quite reach the highs of ADTOE, but start to finish it's a stronger, more consistent album.
7) Octavarium- Gets here almost on the strength of the title track alone, though I do like the rest of the album as well, especially the first four tracks.
8) A Dramatic Turn of Events- While not an all-time classic Dream Theater album, a solid first offering from a band with a new drummer and writing chemistry following the departure of Mike Portnoy. Bridges in the Sky is a blast, and Breaking All Illusions is a great throwback to the Images and Words era DT sound and better than any song they had put out since Octavarium
9) The Astonishing- Still digesting this one to be honest, but I dig the change up in writing style and I love Labrie’s performance on this one. A little bit bloated though, and the actual story is laughably cheesy.
10) Falling Into Infinity- It pains me to rank this so low because of how strong I find Trial of Tears (top 10) and Lines in the Sand (top 15), but aside from these two and Peruvian Skies I very rarely find myself listening to this album at all (Hollow Years doesn’t count as I always go with the epic Budokan version).
11) Black Clouds and Silver Linings- I find this to be markedly better than its predecessor and so was a step in the right direction for the Portnoy version of the band, but still pretty unremarkable by Dream Theater standards.
12) Train of Thought- The first new release after I became a fan, and I was primarily into metal at the time it immediately endeared itself to me. Age has not been kind to it for me though, as I mostly only listen to it now when I’m working out and want some riffage and shredding. Way too one dimensional of an album.
13) Systematic Chaos- I probably spin this a little more than some of albums above this, but it's the Dream Theater equivalent of junk food for me, there's just not much of substance there.
14)When Dream And Day Unite- Probably the easiest spot on the list for me to fill in. Every now and then I'll listen to a live cut of The Killing Hand from a pre-food poisoning Labrie show, and I like to spin the Score version of Afterlife on occasion, but I couldn't tell you the last time I had the urge to listen to any of the WDADU studio tracks at all. This is basically a once every few years spin for me to see if my opinion has changed (spoiler: it hasn’t).
Nice write up! I agree with the majority of your list, but I am just wondering, why is Systematic Chaos so low? What don't you like about that album? You said it lacked substance? How?
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Nice write up! I agree with the majority of your list, but I am just wondering, why is Systematic Chaos so low? What don't you like about that album? You said it lacked substance? How?
Honestly, for me, Systematic Chaos is great, but not as great as the other albums. First of all, ITPOE is awesome, but that is cancelled out to crap by The Dark Eternal Night and one of the songs that annoy me the most: Prophets of Fricking War. I could see where the band was trying to go with that song, but it is just hella poppy and the chanting does nothing to me. Also, Ministry has got to be one of Dt's most boring songs out there.
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*word vomit*
Nice write up! I agree with the majority of your list, but I am just wondering, why is Systematic Chaos so low? What don't you like about that album? You said it lacked substance? How?
For me there are a few songs that I enjoy listening to (ITPOE, Constant Motion, Dark Eternal Night) that are fun to listen to, but I don't find them to be particularly original/interesting. Also, I would agree with Scar that The Ministry of Lost Souls is an all time DT clunker for me.
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*word vomit*
Nice write up! I agree with the majority of your list, but I am just wondering, why is Systematic Chaos so low? What don't you like about that album? You said it lacked substance? How?
For me there are a few songs that I enjoy listening to (ITPOE, Constant Motion, Dark Eternal Night) that are fun to listen to, but I don't find them to be particularly original/interesting. Also, I would agree with Scar that The Ministry of Lost Souls is an all time DT clunker for me.
Yeah, that's about where I am as well. I would add Forsaken as one of the great songs on the album, add PoW to the major clunker list, and Repentence...either big hit or big miss depending on my mood. But editing it down and removing the clunkers, it is still one of my most listened to albums.
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No time (or real desire) for explanations, but here is a quick ranking:
1A. Awake
1B. Images & Words
03. Scenes From A Memory
04. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
05. A Dramatic Turn of Events
06. Train of Thought
07. Dream Theater
08. Falling Into Infinity
09. Systematic Chaos
10. Octavarium
11. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
12. When Dream And Day Unite
Hard for me to rank The Astonishing, but definitely in the top half.
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See, Hef knows how to do it.
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Yeah. I mean, even though I've seen better, it's not a bad ranking.
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Yeah. I mean, even though I've seen better, it's not a bad ranking.
Thanks, boss.
My main criteria is consistency.
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The Astonishing worst :rollin
Nah opinions opinions.
At least I ranked it. Some people here don't even know how to rank it. :lol
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The Astonishing worst :rollin
Nah opinions opinions.
At least I ranked it. Some people here don't even know how to rank it. :lol
It's the greatest album ever written by anyone ever and without a shadow of a doubt - Dream Theater's crowning achievement ( crown, majesty, geddit ??)
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:rollin The green text almost had me convinced.