Well, I figure I should introduce myself. I'm 425 and I'm new (obviously).
Basic background: Before around a year ago I wasn't into music at all. Eventually I allowed a friend to show me some of his music and I became hooked on heavy metal by way of Iron Maiden. Since then, I've been on a whole journey of discovery through the genre of metal which also made me a fan of prog through Rush. Around 6 months ago, the same friend recommended to me this band called Dream Theater, and the album Train of Thought. I quite liked it, but did not fall in love with it. It was enough to put Images and Words on my list, though, and I got that album around 6 weeks ago. That time, I did fall in love with Dream Theater, and I would say that right now they're on about equal footing with Iron Maiden as my favorite band.
Since then I have started buying the rest of Dream Theater's albums in something of chronological order. In addition to Train of Thought and Images and Words, I now have Awake and Scenes From a Memory (I decided to skip Falling Into Infinity for now since it seemed to be among the less popular albums). I've also ordered Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, but I don't actually have it yet.
So, yeah, that was the short version of my getting into Dream Theater. Just a few quick favorites in case someone oddly cares:
Favorite DT Album: Images and Words, though I've only listened to Scenes From a Memory once so far.
Favorite Non-DT Album: Iron Maiden - either The X Factor or The Final Frontier. I know, odd choice.
Favorite Bands (just listing 5): Iron Maiden, Dream Theater, Rush, Metallica, Megadeth
So, anyway, I always make these intro posts too long, so I'm just going to stop there.