Falling Into Infinity is extremely underrated

[?]

FII is okay but IMO there's too much filler and not enough standout songs, it's my least favorite DT album excluding Systematic Chaos.

[Tomislav95]

It's underrated but it's too weak between Awake and Metropolis pt.2. Lines in the Sand and Trial of Tears are terrific but others are just ok.

[snapple]

Trial of Tears isn't good or great, it is God-tier. I find it much more enjoyable than some other DT songs of similar length.

[krands85]

I've grown to appreciate it more over time, especially ToT and LitS (though they have always been my favourites on the album). But it's still got 3 of the (very few) DT songs I don't really like and most of the other tracks are pretty average for me by their standards. Hell's Kitchen is cool though    Always wondered why they have rarely played that live 

[kirksnosehair]

"Anna Lee" is still my favorite Dream Theater ballad.

[BanksD]

"Anna Lee" is still my favorite Dream Theater ballad.

Anna Lee is the most criminally underrated DT song ever.


FII is my 5th favorite DT album, just below the "big 4" (SDOIT, SFAM, I&W, and Awake).

Trial Of Tears, Anna Lee, New Millennium, Peruvian Skies, and Lines In The Sand are amazing songs imo.

[KevShmev]

Definitely a damn fine album.  It has some of DT's best songs ever (Trial of Tears, Hell's Kitchen, Lines in the Sand and Peruvian Skies), a bunch of rock solid tunes, and really only one bad song (You Not Me).  Even several fairly average songs like Burning My Soul and Just Let Me Breathe have some really cool things going on, even if the chorus in Burning My Soul is boring, and that bridge in JLMB is icky.

[nikatapi]

One of the best DT albums. And one of the top 3 sound-wise for me.

[Lowdz]

The King's X guy (you know, the best rock singer on the damn planet) singing on "Lines In The Sand" is my favorite part of it.  I dig the whole album.

Err, not to these ears.

[lucky7]

Yeah, it's my 3rd favorite DT album.

I'd put it as:

Amazing: Lines In The Sand, Peruvian Skies, New Millennium, Trial Of Tears, Hell's Kitchen
Great: Take Away My Pain, Hollow Years, Anna Lee
Good: Just Let Me Breathe, Burning My Soul
Okay: You Not Me

Ditto for the above....may be my 4th Favourite though....Hell's Kitchen would be in my Top 10 of their catalogue.   

[FlyingBIZKIT]

Yeah, it's my 3rd favorite DT album.

I'd put it as:

Amazing: Lines In The Sand, Peruvian Skies, New Millennium, Trial Of Tears, Hell's Kitchen
Great: Take Away My Pain, Hollow Years, Anna Lee
Good: Just Let Me Breathe, Burning My Soul
Okay: You Not Me

Ditto for the above....may be my 4th Favourite though....Hell's Kitchen would be in my Top 10 of their catalogue.   

Lines In The Sand is a top 5 for me. I always put Hell's Kitchen with it though, because it flows well. 

[Jaq]

I actually think that, in the DT fanbase at least, that Falling Into Infinity tends to be highly overrated.

I suspect that a lot of people who love this album don't actually love it, they love the album that was supposed to be, the FII demos. I think that over the years, MP's declaration that FII was meant to be something better, coupled with the demos, created the perception that FII was a flawed masterpiece, a few things short of perfect.

It isn't.

I've never gotten the love for New Millennium, I just find it plodding and dull. I actually have ZERO problem with You Not Me, and scandalously enough prefer it to the demo version. Peruvian Skies is nice, although it wears the Pink Floyd meets Metallica influences a bit too much on its sleeves. Hollow Years is okay but lets face it,  what we really love is the Budokan version. Burning My Soul is dreadful, and taking Hell's Kitchen out of it was a good move. Lines In The Sand...well, personally I find it just good. Take Away My Pain is average. Just Let Me Breathe is horrible. Anna Lee is a lovely power ballad, and I have zero fault with Trial of Tears. FII is an average album, actually fairly low on my personal DT list. People who proclaim it DT's best album kind of amuse me.

[02T]

I don't know that I prefer any of the demo versions.  Having learned to take what MP says with a grain of salt, his proclamations haven't impacted me.  I just like the music.  Liked it since I first heard it.

[Zydar]

If anything, I think the demos are quite overrated.

[bosk1]

I heard FII for the first time in late 2001/early 2002.  Didn't like it at first, but came to like it a lot over a period of about a year.  I had no idea what Mike Portnoy's opinion of the album was at the time, so it had no influence on me whatsoever.  I had heart Burning My Soul on the radio when FII came out, and didn't like it, so I never bothered to pick up the album.  After hearing a couple of tracks from it on LSFNY, I picked it up.  I was immediately struck by how different it sounded, and didn't care for it.  But like I said, it grew on me.  I don't think it's underrated at all.  It's a very good album, and I a lot of fans recognize it as such.  As far as individual tracks:

-New Millenium:  I didn't know it existed until after I had heard Caught In A New Millenium on LSFNY.  I like the Caught version better, but the album version is still a terrific song.  Liked it from day 1.
-You Not Me:  I've never liked it.  Still don't.  You Or Me is slightly better, but I don't like that version either.
-Peruvian Skies:  Kind of a slow grower.  At first, I didn't love it; didn't hate it.  Now, I really like it.  Would love to see it live again.
-Hollow Years:  I have never liked this song one bit.  The extended versions they started playing from the TOT tour onward take it up a notch or two, but even then, I don't like it.
-Burning My Soul:  Didn't like it at first.  Now, it's okay.  It has some really cool parts and some parts I don't care for.   But I think it would be a great live tune, and I'm hoping they bring it out sometime.
-Hell's Kitchen:  It serves as an okay warm up intro to Lines In The Sand.  As a whole, I don't like it one bit.  Definitely my least favorite instrumental by DT (although Eve gives it a run for its money).
-Lines In The Sand:  Best song on the album.
-Take Away My Pain:  Demo version is better, but this is still a great song. 
-Just Let Me Breathe:  Not great, but very good.
-Anna Lee:  Very nice ballad.  This song is easy to overlook given the other ballads on the album, but very solid.
-Trial of Tears:  Took me a little while to warm up to completely, but I love it.  Second best song, closely behind LITS.

The other songs that didn't make the cut, which I didn't hear until years later, are hit and miss.  Some very good ones and some that are decent.

[seasonsinthesky]

"Trial of Tears," "Lines in the Sand," "Hell's Kitchen" and "New Millennium" aren't good or great, they are God-tier!

and some of the b-sides are really killer as well (even "The Way It Used to Be," or is that "The Way U2 Used to Be?!").

[TAC]

I was heavily into my DT fandom when FII came out. I still remember listening to it for the first time. First up was New Millenium. It didn't sit well with me. Sounded like a forced and contrived attempt to recreate another Metropolis. Then You Not Me came on, and I thought, "Well, that was quick!" (meaning that they had sold out so early into their career. My new favorite band had just mailed it in).
I ended up liking a few songs, as this album is really only good for 3 songs: Lines, Trial, and Peruvian Skies. That's it, that all I really like on this. It was funny to read the comments from MP on FII later on, as all of what he said was so very clear just by listening to the album, without the benefit of that knowledge.

I will say, however, that while the FII version of Hollow Years wouldn't make my DT Top 50, but the Live At Budokan version makes my DT Top 15!

[BlobVanDam]

I actually think that, in the DT fanbase at least, that Falling Into Infinity tends to be highly overrated.

I suspect that a lot of people who love this album don't actually love it, they love the album that was supposed to be, the FII demos. I think that over the years, MP's declaration that FII was meant to be something better, coupled with the demos, created the perception that FII was a flawed masterpiece, a few things short of perfect.

That generalization isn't at all fair to FII. I think the demos are overrated, and in almost every single case I think the final album version is an improvement over the demo. YOM? Just as bad as YNM. Hell's Kitchen is miles better separate. etc.
I fell in love with the album long before I knew what MP thought about it, or knew anything about the situation with the record company or the demos.
I mean, come on. When was the last time MP's opinion on something affected anyone?

[XB0BX]

Well, Hell's Kitchen makes a great addition to the instrumedly. And Lines in the Sand is really good.

That's as much praise as I can give this album, sorry.

[Elaitch]

It's not underrated, really. The album as a whole is in my book definitely their weakest, considering they were forced to turn You Or Me (the demo version) into a bastard version of itself and the fiasco of Burning My Soul (which is by far DTs most bland, flat and boring song to date in my opinion. They sound thoroughly uninspired in it). I'm convinced that this album would've been much, much better if they hadn't had the record company watching their every move, which is also a part in why I don't really like the album as a whole.

I do agree though that a few songs on the album is underrated, which is due to the worse songs on the album dragging it down, and thus the good songs with them. These songs are, I think, New Millennium, Lines in the Sand, Hell's Kitchen and to some degree Anna Lee, Take Away My Pain and Peruvian Skies. The rest is bad or meh compared to the rest of their discography.

[XB0BX]

For me it doesn't even feel like a Dream Theater album. There's nothing progressive, metal or even likeable about many of the songs. It would be a great non-DT album, but compared to I&W, Awake and Scenes, it feels like SUCH an outlier.

[a51502112]

FII is in my bottom 3. When it was released I ran home in such anticipation...
After the first few listens I thought to myself "WTF happened?"
So relieved when they released SFAM.

[MondayMorningLunatic]

I love it, and I DON'T GIVE A SHIT! NOOOOOOO!!!

[coffees for closers]

I don't love all the songs, But I do think it has much better sound/mix then Awake. All the intruments are extremely clear and upfront and John Myungs bass has never sounded better way more pronounced then it is even on the new album. I miss that and hope they continue to let him shine going forward.

[jammindude]

It gets a bad rap mostly because it was the worst Dream Theater album *at that time*...(with the exception of WDADU, of course).   

But there's more perspective now that we have SC and BCSL to compare it to.   

I always thought it was a *good* album that was simply overshadowed by the rest of their body of work that was very nearly flawless until SC came along. 

[ZirconBlue]

I actually think that, in the DT fanbase at least, that Falling Into Infinity tends to be highly overrated.

I suspect that a lot of people who love this album don't actually love it, they love the album that was supposed to be, the FII demos. I think that over the years, MP's declaration that FII was meant to be something better, coupled with the demos, created the perception that FII was a flawed masterpiece, a few things short of perfect.

It isn't.

I've never gotten the love for New Millennium, I just find it plodding and dull. I actually have ZERO problem with You Not Me, and scandalously enough prefer it to the demo version. Peruvian Skies is nice, although it wears the Pink Floyd meets Metallica influences a bit too much on its sleeves. Hollow Years is okay but lets face it,  what we really love is the Budokan version. Burning My Soul is dreadful, and taking Hell's Kitchen out of it was a good move. Lines In The Sand...well, personally I find it just good. Take Away My Pain is average. Just Let Me Breathe is horrible. Anna Lee is a lovely power ballad, and I have zero fault with Trial of Tears. FII is an average album, actually fairly low on my personal DT list. People who proclaim it DT's best album kind of amuse me.

I disagree with almost every word of this post. 

[FlamTap]

Indeed it is. I think it is a very solid CD. And I LOVE You Not Me

[skydivingninja]

I agree so very much.  BMS and YNM are two horrible stains on an otherwise very good record.  The "modern rock" feel in particular is great, with Trial of Tears being the obvious exception.  Very groovy album overall.  Its also their best sounding album ever, with maybe Octavarium or ADTOE coming in second place in that regard. 

[LTE3]

Agreed. Derek is all over this album and without him I don't think it would have been half as good as it is. I prefer this album to almost all JR albums with the exception of now ADToE.

I do love the sounds Derek gets from his Keys, 98 was the first year I saw them live and Derek was cool in concert. Check out his solo on Once in a live time. Many sounds that i thought were JP were actually Derek.

[reneranucci]

The album has many songs I really dislike and a few true gems. It definitely has a weird "personality", it feels like a quirky DT album, not very representative of their overall style, and that sets it apart from the rest of the albums. To me, it is the album that feels less like DT, along with Awake.

[The Letter M]

This album definitely went under-appreciated by me for the LONGEST time (along with Awake), but it wasn't until a couple years ago that it, and the B-Sides from 96-97 recording sessions, really clicked with me. However, I do substitute a couple tracks out for my own personal listening experience:
"You Or Me" (from the Hollow Years single) > "You Not Me"
"Take Away My Pain" (1996 demo) > "Take Away My Pain" (album version)

Other than that, the rest of the tracks, as they were on the album, sounds fantastic and it's been nice that the band has pulled out some of them on tour in the last few years, albeit the original demo versions (LITS and HY), but I'm glad they still played at least one song from that album each tour (so far it seems). I'd really like to hear some of the under-played tracks live on the next tour legs, just to hear them breathe new life in songs that have become underrated.

-Marc.

[Gadough]

Falling Into Infinity is much, much better than Awake. Just throwing that out there.

[Vivace]

Such diverse opinions. []

One thing I find interesting was just how much SFAM has fallen for me. When it came out I must have played it over 100 times. I was listening to everyday, same with Nine Inch Nails, The Fragile. But today, SFAM just isn't as interesting as their other albums and I know I'm in the minority, I actually prefer FII over SFAM. The reason being Derek 100%. Derek OWNS Falling Into Infinity much the same as Jordan owns A Dramatic Turn of Events. Derek is all over FII and the bag of tricks he used just never gets old. It's the same with Awake when Kevin moved more in a heavy direction with his sound although I bet he did it kicking and screaming. With Derek it was as natural as JP on the guitar. Over time the sound Jordan used on SFAM is also the same on every consecutive album up until ADTOE where I actually think we are now hearing the "real" Jordan and not the "let's put a round peg into a square hole" kinda thing. This has always been my largest complaint with Jordan and now I'm glad to be proven wrong by my initial opinion of him, but also frustrated that it took this long for DT to show this side of Jordan to me.

[Progmetty]

I disagree with the OP about FII but it's always cool to know that every DT album has it's fans.

[MirzekDT]

I don't think it's underrated on this forum at all. And I agree that it's great and enjoyable album.