DT album ranking

[erwinrafael]

Because of the impending new album launch, I relistened through all the studio albums chronologically again. And I had a large change of heart with respect to WDADU because the songs finally clicked with me. Must be because I have been listening a lot to Afterlife last year after I made a playlist based on their 30th anniversary set.

So, my new rankings:

Very heavy rotation:
Awake
Dream Theater
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Scenes from a Memory

Regular rotation:
Train of Thought
Images and Words
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Falling into Infinity

Every other rotation cycle:
Octavarium
When Dream and Day Unite

Once in a blue moon:
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Systematic Chaos

[thosava]

It will be interesting to see where people rank The Astonishing after only hearing it a few times! Will it rise or drop in the future?
My ranking:

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Scenes From a Memory
3. The Astonishing
4. Images and Words

5. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
6. Train of Thought
7. Awake
8. Dream Theater

9. Systematic Chaos
10. A Dramatic Turn of Events
11. Octavarium
12. Falling Into Infinity

13. When Dream and Day Unite

[MacClaus]

Awake
Images and Words
Scenes from a Memory
Falling into Infinity
Six Degrees
Train of Thoughts
A Dramatic Turn of Event
Systematic Chaos
Octavarium
When Dream and Day Unite
Black Clouds
Dream Theater
The Astonishing

[Viking of the Sagas]

The Astonishing
...
...
...
I&W
...
the rest

[haceeb]

1. The Astonishing
1. Dream Theater
1. Scenes From a Memory
1. Awake

2. A Dramatic Turn of Events
2. Octavarium
2. Images and Words

3. Falling Into Infinity
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

4. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
4. Train of Thought

5. Systematic Chaos
5. When Dream and Day Unite

[splent]

1. Images and Words
2. Scenes
3. The Astonishing
4. Six Degrees
5. Awake
6. Octavarium
7. Dream Theater
8. When Dream and Day Unite
9. A Dramatic Turn of Events
10. Train of Thought
11. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
12. Systematic Chaos
13. Falling Into Infinity

[Lucien]

1: The Astonishing

2: Images and Words

3: Scenes from a Memory

4: Octavarium

5: A Dramatic Turn of Events

6: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

7: Dream Theater

8: Awake

9: Falling into Infinity

10: Black Clouds and Silver Linings

11: Systematic Chaos

12: When Dream and Day Unite

13: Train of Thought

Yeah, that seems about right.

[Nearmyth]

It's so hard for me to even rank this among DT's other albums, it feels like something completely different all together.

But for what its worth, this is probably the most enjoyment I have gotten out of a DT release yet.

[54_diplomats]

Subject to change since I need more time to digest the new album. Top 4 are pretty much untouchable though.

Awake
Images and Words
Scenes From a Memory
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Octavarium
Train of Thought
Falling Into Infinity
When Dream and Day Unite

A Dramatic Turn of Events
The Astonishing

Dream Theater
Systematic Chaos

Black Clouds and Silver Linings

[BlobVanDam]

No offense intended to anyone, but I can only laugh at people already ranking the new album. If you think it's the greatest thing ever, at least wait until the new car smell has worn off, or if you hate it, at least wait until you've had enough time with it to conclusively say it's not going to grow on you.

[lovethedrake]

I see some potential for The Astonishing to dethrone Awake(still unlikely though)  but I fear that the "big 3" are 100% safe from The Astonishing.

1. SFAM
2. I&W
3. SDOIT

4.Awake
5.The Astonishing
6. Falling Into Infinity

7.TOT
8. DT
9.WDADU






The Rest

[Crow]

1. The Astonishing

2-13. The Rest

14. The Astonishing

[Progmetty]

Ridiculously early to integrate The Astonishing into any type of list, seriously..

[erwinrafael]

No offense intended to anyone, but I can only laugh at people already ranking the new album. If you think it's the greatest thing ever, at least wait until the new car smell has worn off, or if you hate it, at least wait until you've had enough time with it to conclusively say it's not going to grow on you.

but I have listened to it in ten times and in shortened playlists much more than that. 

[BlobVanDam]

No offense intended to anyone, but I can only laugh at people already ranking the new album. If you think it's the greatest thing ever, at least wait until the new car smell has worn off, or if you hate it, at least wait until you've had enough time with it to conclusively say it's not going to grow on you.

but I have listened to it in ten times and in shortened playlists much more than that. 

But maybe give it more than the couple of days most people have had it.

[thosava]

It's interesting to see where it ranks now, versus in a month or more.

[erwinrafael]

No offense intended to anyone, but I can only laugh at people already ranking the new album. If you think it's the greatest thing ever, at least wait until the new car smell has worn off, or if you hate it, at least wait until you've had enough time with it to conclusively say it's not going to grow on you.

but I have listened to it in ten times and in shortened playlists much more than that. 

But maybe give it more than the couple of days most people have had it.

I will be back next week then.

[BlobVanDam]

It will be at least a few months before I take any TA rankings seriously, probably more. It's always interesting seeing how the ratings change after a year or two.

[PixelDream]

Classics, all pretty close in their genius:

1. Awake
2. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
3. Images & Words
4. Scenes from a Memory
5. Train of Thought

Near classics:

6. Falling Into Infinity
7. Octavarium

Very good albums:

8. Systematic Chaos
9. Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Good to decent albums:

10. A Dramatic Turn of Events
11. Dream Theater

Flawed albums:

12. When Dream and Day Unite
13. The Astonishing

As you can see, I don't like the new album at all. But I wasn't too big on the other MM era albums anyway. You could say I'm an MP fan, and yeah, his drumming was full of personality and he had a knack for clever, yet very cool rhythms. I miss that so much nowadays.

[Enigmachine]

It's probably a bit too soon to rank the albums including TA but meh, I've never done a ranking before so I'll do one now including it.

13. When Dream and Day Unite
12. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
11. Falling Into Infinity
10. The Astonishing (1st Listen)
9. Systematic Chaos
8. Octavarium
7. Train of Thought
6. A Dramatic Turn of Events
5. Dream Theater
4. Scenes from a Memory
3. Images and Words
2. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
1. Awake

REALLY rough ranking though and I like all of the albums.

[erciccio]

I REALLY struggle to rank this album, and not only because it's too early...

If I had to rank it as a simple "rock music CD", it would probably be below DT12 and many many other albums...

But if I take it as "an emotional piece of art", well, it's probably very close to the top...

I think that if they had "built" a traditional CD with this level of inspiration and quality it would have been a ground-breaking masterpiece in the category...but that't not the case.
 

[darkshade]

This is based on one listen through The Astonishing, which is a lot of new music to take in, and I haven't listened to much DT leading up to the release date of TA. I predict that the new album will move up the ranks a few notches after more listens because there were a lot of good parts.

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Images & Words
Awake
Scenes From A Memory
Octavarium
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Train of Thought
Black Clouds & Silver Linings
The Astonishing
Falling Into Infinity
Systematic Chaos
Dream Theater
When Dream & Day Unite

[craig1928]

It will be at least a few months before I take any TA rankings seriously, probably more. It's always interesting seeing how the ratings change after a year or two.

indeed, I ranked DT12 very highly when it came out, dropped like a stone after that

[arkdtmp]

1. Octavarium
2.Train of Thought
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4. Systematic Chaos
5. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
6. Scenes from a Memory
7. Awake
8. Images & Words
9. The Astonishing
10. Falling into Infinity
11. A Dramatic Turn of Events
12.When Dream And Day Unite
13. Dream Theater

[chaossystem]

No offense intended to anyone, but I can only laugh at people already ranking the new album. If you think it's the greatest thing ever, at least wait until the new car smell has worn off, or if you hate it, at least wait until you've had enough time with it to conclusively say it's not going to grow on you.

Thank you, Blob! I couldn't have said it better myself! I haven't had a chance to get my own copy of it yet, but it HAS been posted on YouTube, so I did spend most of the late afternoon and early evening today listening to it all the way through for the first time, and I haven't BEGUN to make up my mind about where it ranks, or how I feel about it overall. There's obviously a lot of good music on these two discs, and it does, for the most part, sound like Dream Theater, as I'm sure it's SUPPOSED to. However, there is a clear lack of both balls-to-the-wall METAL tracks, and over-ten-minute EPICS, so in that it is different from most of their other albums. The "flow" is somewhat similar to The Who's Tommy, and while I was expecting the story and the music to be similar to both Rush 's 2112 AND Hemispheres, I didn't hear that NEARLY as much as I expected to.

So for now, I have to say that we should all just listen to it a few more times before deciding if it's the best thing ST has ever done, if they SHOULDN'T have done it at ALL, if it's better than SFaM, Tommy, Operation:MindCrime, The Wall, etc., or doesn't even DESERVE to be mentioned in the same BREATH as all those other great classic concept albums.

[splent]

I think once I sit down and listen to the whole thing in one sitting while reading the lyrics and have it soak in I'll probably be updating my ranking.

That said, it may go down on my list, but even after one listen I already know I like it better than ToT or SC, so I know it's not going to be last like some people are already putting it.

[Outcrier]

Great
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Metropolis part 2: Scenes from a Memory
3. Images and Words
4. Awake

Good/Very solid
5. Train of Thought
6. Octavarium

Decent
7. A Dramatic Turn of Events
8. When a Day and Dream REunite
9. Falling into Infinity

Mediocre
10. The Astonishing
11. Dream Theater
12. Systematic Chaos
13. Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Poor
14. When a Day and Dream Unite



TA could have been a decent album but, as long as it is and with all the fillers, i can't mention it in the same breath as ADTOE, REunite or FII.

[metrojam]

1. Scenes from a Memory               
2. Images & Words             
3. Octavarium             
4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
5. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
6. Awake
7. A Dramatic Turn of Events
8. Train of Thought
9. Falling into Infinity
10. The Astonishing
11. When Dream And Day Unite
12. Systematic Chaos
13. Dream Theater

[Polarbear]

As some have stated here, it's just way too early to rank The Astonishing. Wait at the very least a couple of months and let's see what the verdict is then.

I have listened the album twice, and i think i'm going to wait 1-2 months before i spin it again. I'm going to put The Astonishing out of my mind and listen something totally different. After a certain amount of time has passed, i can have a "Fresh" listening experience again and really get into the small details in the music.

After 2 listens The Astonishing falls somewhere in the middle in my DT- rankings. I have no idea what's it going to be after 2 months. It could rise or it could fall, we'll see!

[palmeiras]

1 scenes
2 astonishing
3 six degrees
4 Images and words
5 train of thought
6 black claud
7 dream theater
8 adote
9 Awake
10 octavarium
11 Systemathic
12 falling in to infinity

[BlackInk]

Probably

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Train of Thought
3. Octavarium
4. Metropolis - Part 2: Scenes From a Memory
5. Systematic Chaos
6. Images & Words
7. The Astonishing
8. A Dramatic Turn of Events
9. Awake
10. Falling Into Infinity
11. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
12. Dream Theater
13. When Dream & Day Unite

[Jaffa]

I'm not going to try to rank the new album yet, but I will say this: there are a few moments on it that remind me of how I felt when I was listening to Images and Words for the first time.  That's pretty promising. 

[ResultsMayVary]

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
The Astonishing
Scenes From A Memory
Octavarium
Images and Words
Awake
Dream Theater
Falling Into Infinity
Train of Thought
A Dramatic Turn of Events
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Systematic Chaos
When Dream and Day Unite

[erciccio]

Ok, let's try....but I have to split SDOIT in the 2 discs, because Disc 2 IMHO is the only comparable to TA, and I like TA much more..
(But if I add up the 2 s SDOITs, the overall ranking would be higher....even if I don't like disc 1. Oh my god, I hate rankings..)

01) Images And Words
02) Scenes From A Memory
03) A Dramatic Turn Of Events
04) Awake
05) Dream Theater
06) The Astonishing
07) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence disc 2
08) Black Clouds & Silver Linings
09) Train Of Thought
10) Octavarium
11) Falling Into Infinity
12) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence disc 1
13) Systematic Chaos
14) When Dream And Day Unite

Another couple of thoughts:
 - SFAM without The Spirit and Finally Free would probably be much much lower in the ranking..
 - If I were Aragorn and the quality and level of inspiration of The Astonishing had been condensed in a "normal" CD, it would probably rank just below I&W

[Metropolis Pt. II]

Been a fan since 2004, just for context.

Top 3:
1. SFAM
2. Awake
3. I&W

I would be excited to listen to any of these:
WDADU
FII
SDOIT (Especially Disc One)
TOT
ADTOE

I love parts of these albums, but they don't generally excite me:
8VM
SC
BC&SL

To me, these albums are pretty "meh":
DT12
The Astonishing

I know it's early to judge The Astonishing, but after 4 full listens, that's my opinion so far.