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Dream Theater => Dream Theater => Topic started by: Northern Lion on February 25, 2020, 09:28:38 AM
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With the other thread by this name suddently being brought back out of obscurity, I thought it would be appropriate to create a new and updated one for the following reasons:
1. DT has created 3 new albums since the last poll!
2. The old/outdated thread being brought back was really bugging me.
The last poll topic is VERY outdated and the poll data is probably inaccurate. So this is an upgraded 2.0 version :)
Here are my favs:
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
The Astonishing
With A Dramatic Turn of Events being a close runner up.
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Mine have not changed. In order:
1. Six Degrees
2. SFAM
3. ADTOE
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1 Scenes from a Memory
2.0 Awake
2.1 Images and Words
Nothing has changed and nothing will probably ever change up at the top.
Behind those three, I'd pick Octavarium.
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With the other thread by this name suddently being brought back out of obscurity, I thought it would be appropriate to create a new and updated one for the following reasons:
1. DT has created 3 new albums since the last poll!
2. The old/outdated thread being brought back was really bugging me.
I'll give you a third reason: grammar in the subject header.
I don't recall if I voted or responded in the other thread (EDIT: I did, and my votes now are the same as then), but my top three are pretty unassailable: I&W, SFAM and SDOIT.
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Nothing has changed for me:
SFAM
I&W
SDOIT
Giant Drop off to the next album.
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Mine haven't changed either. This time in order.
Six
Images
Scenes
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Mine has changed.
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. The Astonishing
3. Distance Over Time
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For me it's:
Scenes
Six
Train
...although not necessarily in that order.
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1. ADTOE
2. Scenes
I had a very hard time picking the third. It could be any one except for WDaDU and the self titled. I ended up with Octavarium because of that song, Root and SS being favorites with Octavarium #1.
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In Order:
1. Six Degrees
2. SFAM
3. I&W (this one is the one that hooked me forever)
I personally think that SFAM/6 Degrees/TOT is the 'sweet spot' for DT.....when they were just in a zone.....it's Prime DT. Not slighting anything before or after because it's all incredible to me but that three album run is just amazing.
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6D I&W 8V
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Still I&W, Awake, and SFAM for me.
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I&W, Awake, 8V
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Scenes, BC&SL, The Astonishing.
Scenes definitely at number 1, the other two perhaps interchangeable, mood-dependent...
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My top 3 hasn't changed either:
1. Images & Words
2. Train of Thought
3. A Dramatic Turn of Events
But, Scenes is now closer to ADTOE. It hasn't quite caught it though, as even though I feel like it's more consistent, it doesn't have any individual tracks that are among my real favourites.
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Bumping this one.
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This was easy.
Awake
Scenes
I&W
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In real time, it's I&W, Awake, and Scenes, and it's not even close. Those 3 albums impacted me and my musical journey in ways few albums have before or since.
To list my Top 3 now, it's still I&W and Awake by a noticeable margin, but it gets a lot tougher after that. It's probably Scenes, but ADToE is very, very close to being #3.
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This was easy.
Awake
Scenes
6DOIT
Yup!
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Images
Scenes
Distance
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Images & Words
Awake
Distance over Time (surprisingly)
These are the three records that I tend to listen to the most when I want to hear Dream Theater.
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There's been two surprises so far:
1. WDaDU got a vote
2. SC hasn't
I know SC doesn't get a lot of appreciation here, but I'm still a little surprised it hasn't gotten any votes yet. SC over all isn't a favorite of mine but I do like a lot of the songs, especially ItPoE and TMoLS.
Also, I think it's really great that D/T has Mangini erra albums have gotten several votes. I think that shows the consistant quality of music that DT writes even later in their career.
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1. Scenes From A Memory
2. Falling Into Infinity
3. The Astonishing
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There's been two surprises so far:
1. WDaDU got a vote
2. SC hasn't
I also wonder f the lone WDADU vote came from the same one who voted for Infinity.
I expected Awake to do a bit better... it's still fourth, but I would have expected it to at the very least go head on against Six Degrees.
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I almost voted SC as my third favourite, but given that I don't like CM and TDEN much, I went with 8VM instead.
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There's been two surprises so far:
1. WDaDU got a vote
2. SC hasn't
The former is surprising (and it's now two votes). The latter isn't.
I want to say it's surprising that FII has gotten a couple votes, but I suppose it really isn't given the many opinions I've seen expressed here. What is surprising is that each of WDADU and FII has gotten more votes than DT12.
I expected Awake to do a bit better... it's still fourth, but I would have expected it to at the very least go head on against Six Degrees.
In the first version of this thread, I&W, SFAM and SDOIT took the top three spots, with Awake coming in at fourth. It's not likely that things will change too much as far as those albums go relative to each other.
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If we are speaking only studio then:
I&W, Awake, SFAM
If not, then:
I&W, AWAKE, LSFNW
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I'm also surprised ADToE hasn't gotten more votes, I expected it would. And I didn't expect D/T to get as many as it has considering it's still reletively new. Although I do consider it an awesome album.
It will be interesting to see the numbers in a week.
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There's been two surprises so far:
1. WDaDU got a vote
2. SC hasn't
The former is surprising (and it's now two votes). The latter isn't.
After only 41 votes, I wouldn't say that anything is surprising. The sample size is far too small for anything to really have much meaning.
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Well, I consider surprising that after having asked just 40 people, we already found someone who likes the debut album a lot. I thought they'd be way rarer.
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Mine hasn't changed either.
1. Images
2. Scenes
3. Six Degrees
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It's difficult for me to pick only 3.
Awake
Metropolis Pt. 2
6DOIT
This top 3 changes with me, so it's not a solid 3. It's more fluid than anything. I would say Awake and SFAM are always in there. I&W, ADTOE, and 8V revolve in and out a lot.
I really like DOT but I can't quite put it in my top 3 for some reason.
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Where's all the love for Train of Thought? I can't believe DOT has more votes than it.
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Where's all the love for Train of Thought? I can't believe DOT has more votes than it.
My guess would be that recency bias is helping DOT. If I remember the many "rank the DT albums" lists, TOT is in most folks' top half but not as universally loved because it leans far toward the heavy side of things and not as much toward the prog side.
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Where's all the love for Train of Thought? I can't believe DOT has more votes than it.
My guess would be that recency bias is helping DOT. If I remember the many "rank the DT albums" lists, TOT is in most folks' top half but not as universally loved because it leans far toward the heavy side of things and not as much toward the prog side.
Yeah, you are probably right.
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Six Degrees
Awake
When Dream and Day Unite
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There's been two surprises so far:
1. WDaDU got a vote
2. SC hasn't
I also wonder f the lone WDADU vote came from the same one who voted for Infinity.
Nope. I was the first one to vote for WDaDU, and my other 2 choices were SFaM and SDoIT, just as they were in the previous thread. ;)
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For me it's:
Scenes
Six
Train
...although not necessarily in that order.
Ditto.
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Where's all the love for Train of Thought? I can't believe DOT has more votes than it.
Train of Thought was usually in my top 3. But I find myself going back to DOT more, since it's still a heavy record, but really feels like classic Dream Theater. I still love TOT though!
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1. Images and Words (not even close)
2. ADTOE
3. DT12
Still need to listen to DOT more than I have to figure out where that sits - suffice it to say that the Mangini era rekindled my interest which had waned from FII onwards.. If it was based on influence then WDADU and Awake would be 2/3 but I am working with the albums I would reach for these days.
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1. I&W
2. Awake
3. FII
with SFAM missing the mark ever so slightly.
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Mine hasn't changed and probably won't since I haven't really enjoyed their latest releases. I did like DT12 a lot when it came out but I rarely feel like visiting it.
1. SFAM
2. 6DOIT
3. I&W
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1. ADTOE
2. DOT
3. SC
It's funny because I think the best songs on SC aren't as good as the best songs on some other albums, but also I don't think there is a single song that isn't excellent on that album which I can't say for almost any other album.
Disc 1 of SDOIT would probably be my number 2 spot if disc 2 didn't weigh it down so much.
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Awesome man! You gave SC a vote. I was rooting for it :tup
There are really only 2 songs on SC that I don't care for all that much and that's Constant Motion and Repentance. The rest I like a lot.
I'm also glad to see that ADToE has gotten a few more.
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Images
Awake
SFaM
By a huuuuge margin
ADToE is an honorable mention.
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DT12
Octavarium
D/T
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ADTOE
The Astonishing
D/T
*mic drop*
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ADTOE
The Astonishing
D/T
*mic drop*
Good choices! :tup
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1. SFAM
2. I&W
3. 6DOIT
With Awake at a close fourth. I don't think this will ever change for me.
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ADTOE
The Astonishing
D/T
Love seeing this. The Mangini-era albums are so strong, it's good to see them represented in such a legendary back catalogue.
My own top 3 are:
Octavarium
Scenes From A Memory
Train of Thought
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ADTOE
The Astonishing
D/T
*mic drop*
:metal
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It looks like the top 4 are pretty clear by this point, and it's probably not a surprise to anyone. But 5th place looks like a very close race between Octavarium and ADToE. That I think is very interesting.
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1 - I&W
2 - SFAM
3 - 6DOIT
4 - ADTOE
14 - SC :biggrin:
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Well, Octavarium and ADToE are now tied for 5th favorite DT album. I wasn't going to bump this thread but considering that happened I thought it would be interesting to mention.
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I’ve been listening to DT for over twenty years and while I like every album and they’ve each had their moments, these are the ones I go back to the most.
Images and Words
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory
A Dramatic Turn of Events
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In this order:
6DOIT
SFAM
Awake
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This needs a follow up poll of top albums outside of the big four, those eat up 75% of the picks
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Agreed
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This needs a follow up poll of top albums outside of the big four, those eat up 75% of the picks
(https://i.stack.imgur.com/MNeE7.jpg)
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Images
Astonishing
Scenes
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This needs a follow up poll of top albums outside of the big four, those eat up 75% of the picks
(https://i.stack.imgur.com/MNeE7.jpg)
Sounds like a good idea. I'll do it.
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Awake
Images and Words
Six Degrees
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1.Images and words
2.When dream and day unite
3.Awake
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Awake
I&W
Scenes
...and that will probably never change, even though Six Degrees is not far behind.
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Right now:
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Awake
3. The Astonishing
Followed closely by Scenes from a Memory.
:-)
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Where's all the love for Train of Thought? I can't believe DOT has more votes than it.
The love is over here. Just voted SFAM, SDOIT en TOT.
Awake and I&W come close.
None of the albums after TOT does even come close to those five.
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Where's all the love for Train of Thought? I can't believe DOT has more votes than it.
The love is over here. Just voted SFAM, SDOIT en TOT.
Awake and I&W come close.
None of the albums after TOT does even come close to those five.
There was a companion thread, which I think asked folks to pick their favorite DT album other than I&W, Awake, SFAM and SDOIT (i.e., the "regular top 4"). While TOT doesn't rank in most folks' top 3, it seems to be commonly in the next tier for most folks.
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Mine haven’t changed:
1. SFAM
2. SDOIT
3. 8VM
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1 & 2 haven't changed.
1. Images & Words
2. Scenes From A Memory
For this poll, I bumped ADTOE over Awake for third place.
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SDOIT
SFAM
I&W
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For me it’s Six Degrees, A Dramatic Turn, and Awake.
I always struggle with where to put Train of Thought. I absolutely love Endless Sacrifice and ITNOG, and the rest of the album is no slouch either, but it’s one of the hardest albums for me to listen all the way through (maybe only SC and BCASL beating it in that regard). It’s just such a heavy handed album to sink into. Yeah Scenes is a long album too, but it has a great story and enough variety to keep things moving, with a tone that shifts around a bit. TOT has a lot of long, dark, heavy songs that kind of exhaust me after a while.
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1. Awake
2. I&W
3. 6DOIT
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The first two for me were easy:
1. Awake
2. I&W
Third place was much more difficult, between M2, 6DOIT, 8V, ADTOE and D/T
M2 got my vote but only just from probably ADTOE
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01. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
02. Awake
03. Octavarium
04. Scenes From A Memory
05. I&W
06. Train of Thought
07. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
08. Falling Into Infinity
09. Systematic Chaos
10. When Dream and Day Unite
11. A Dramatic Turn of Events
12. Distance Over Time
13. DT12
14. The Astonishing
ACOS is probably 4.5 or 5.5
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Top 3 are Images, Scenes and Awake in that order. It’s unlikely that will ever change unfortunately as, whilst Dream Theater continue to release remarkably consistent high quality albums, they’ve kind of reached a plateau for me in recent years. All very good albums but nothing that threatens the big 3.
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whilst Dream Theater continue to release remarkably consistent high quality albums, they’ve kind of reached a plateau for me in recent years. All very good albums but nothing that threatens the big 3.
Absolutely :tup
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1. Scenes
2. Six Degrees
3. Dream Theater
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The albums and what (I think) I like most about them:
1. Six Degrees: My favorite version of DT; experimental, virtuostic, melodic, lyrically meaningful, all players at their best pushing boundaries
2. Metropolis Pt 2: Melodic, catchy riffs, re-ocurring themes, each song can stand-alone or as a part of the whole just as well, song-writing at its most cohesive
3. A Dramatic Turn of Events: Fresh, invigorating, melodic (I like this side of them alot), improved with each song, vocals on point, fantastic shorter quiet songs weaved in.
* Train of Thought was a close 4 today. Depending on my mood, I&W or Awake could be in the 3rd spot too. There is no doubt about 1 & 2 for me though, ever.
-Tof
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1. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory
2. Images and Words
3. A Dramatic Turn of Events
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1. IaW
2. SFAM
3. Awake
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TOT
A
I&W
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This was easy.
Awake
Scenes
6DOIT
Yup!
:tup
(To Adami. Not Kev, who blew it royally.)
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This was easy.
Awake
Scenes
6DOIT
Yup!
:tup
(To Adami. Not Kev, who blew it royally.)
Bah. I will see your 6DOIT and raise you an Images and Words. :biggrin:
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Images and Words
Awake
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
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1. Images and Words
2. Awake
3. Train of Thought
FII would have been a very close 4th place behind these three though.
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1. Images and Words
2. Awake
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
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1. Distance Over Time
2. Awake
3. Dream Theater
I created a "double album" called We Are Dream Theater, combining D/T and DT. My favorite playlist.
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Hasn't changed at all throughout the years
Images and Words
Awake
Scenes from a Memory
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1. Distance Over Time
2. Awake
3. Dream Theater
I created a "double album" called We Are Dream Theater, combining D/T and DT. My favorite playlist.
ooh, that actually sounds pretty cool, I might have to give that a try. What is your combined playlist?
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1. Distance Over Time
2. Awake
3. Dream Theater
I created a "double album" called We Are Dream Theater, combining D/T and DT. My favorite playlist.
ooh, that actually sounds pretty cool, I might have to give that a try. What is your combined playlist?
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0VgeknO32RnkLOqXdIsNdL?si=GvWjyBsESmaO0GV7vDENjA
Just imagined PBD closing the first half and Viper King sort of like an intermission.
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1. Distance Over Time
2. Awake
3. Dream Theater
I created a "double album" called We Are Dream Theater, combining D/T and DT. My favorite playlist.
You must love ‘Breaking The Fourth Wall’.
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1. Distance Over Time
2. Awake
3. Dream Theater
I created a "double album" called We Are Dream Theater, combining D/T and DT. My favorite playlist.
ooh, that actually sounds pretty cool, I might have to give that a try. What is your combined playlist?
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0VgeknO32RnkLOqXdIsNdL?si=GvWjyBsESmaO0GV7vDENjA
Just imagined PBD closing the first half and Viper King sort of like an intermission.
I like your playlist. I think when I make my own there may be a few tracks from both albums that I'll omit. But I like your order.
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1. Distance Over Time
2. Awake
3. Dream Theater
I created a "double album" called We Are Dream Theater, combining D/T and DT. My favorite playlist.
You must love ‘Breaking The Fourth Wall’.
If only they had more of the strong songs from the self titled.
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TOX contributing nothing to the thread in 3... 2... 1...
I hate to say it, but as I get older, I find myself listening to individual songs more and whole albums less. This is especially the case with a band like Dream Theater, who are of course trying to make great albums, but are not taking the extremely album-centric Steven Wilson approach (with some obvious exceptions). At this point, I usually just listen to my three or four favorite songs off each record versus listening to the whole things. But if I had to choose three albums, I would probably pick I&W, Awake, and SFAM.
Unseasoned, I know. :hat
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Images and Words
Awake
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Honorary 4th: Scenes From A Memory
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1. - Images & Words
To me, this is still the best Dream Theater album ever made, IMHO. There is something very special about this album, it may have more to do with where my life was at when it was released, but this album was a massive impact on not only what I listened to but the kind of music I started writing after hearing it.
2. Metropolis Part II - Scenes From a Memory
Even though I think it really loses steam in the last 10 or so minutes, everything that comes before that is just brilliant. The way they took a song from I&W and expanded on all the best riffs from that song to make an entire album still blows my mind.
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
If it were not for the poor production values, A Dramatic Turn of Events would have taken this spot. I think it's a slightly stronger album than Six Degrees, but with that said, Six Degrees has some of the best Dream Theater songs ever written. Songs like The Glass Prison, The Great Debate, Misunderstood, The Test That Stumped Them All to me represent Dream Theater at their creative zenith.
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I&W
Awake
SFaM
3rd place could have been SDoIT or FII
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Awake
FII
I&W
Exact order subject to fluctuation.
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I don't remember what I voted last time...or if I voted.
1. Images & Words
2. Metropolis Part II: Scenes From A Memory
3. A Dramatic Turn of Events
It was tough choosing between Scenes & Six Degrees...not sure which one I really enjoy more. I absolutely fucking despise all the "news parts" of The Great Debate so that brings the album slightly down for me.
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3. Six Degrees
2. Images and Words
1. Awake