I was thinking today about how cool it is when the different members of Dream Theater work together to tell a story through lyrics. On Scenes From a Memory, it's really interesting to see how Mike, John, JMX, and James all focus on telling one story in their own voices. Likewise, on Octavarium John, James, and Mike interpret the theme differently through their respective lyrics but everything comes together in a convoluted way: John's is about a guy not liking his father and then suddenly coming to terms with him; James' is about not being able to remember who you are and trying to find out; Mike's is about tying the album's title track in with the album's theme and other tracks. They're all different, but work together extremely well in making the song and "story" dynamic. Everything feels really well done and fleshed out. Same goes for disc 2 of Six Degrees, with Mike and John trading off on the ifferent "degrees."
Whether it's a long song or a concept album, I'd like to see the DT lyricists working together on one lyrical "concept" again in the future.