Elite's top 50 albums v. - 3 Years Older: #1: love is the dance of eternity

[Elite]

No, it's none of those. Also, The Fall of Troy was already in this list, so it's not that. Furthermore, 'best' is subjective and not necessarily tied to 'favourite' or 'top X'. But that's semantics and maybe I was overthinking that write-up on Bilateral.

[Tomislav95]

No, it's none of those. Also, The Fall of Troy was already in this list, so it's not that. Furthermore, 'best' is subjective and not necessarily tied to 'favourite' or 'top X'. But that's semantics and maybe I was overthinking that write-up on Bilateral.

Oh, I thought you meant best as your favorite. Now I'm at the very beginning
Wait, did we see DT so far? No? It's DT.

[Elite]

Here's the worst write-up of the top 50.

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1. Dream Theater – Images & Words (1992)



Well, what a boring finish this is, isn’t it?

Seriously though, is this any surprise? It might be, though for me it wasn’t. I knew before I even started compiling the top 50 and putting other albums on the list, that this album would be #1. Like on my very first list, this album is my favourite album ever. Watch that word though, ‘favourite’, for it will play a part in this write-up. This write-up that will likely be very short compared to the rest of the top 11, for reasons that are obvious. If you’re on DTF and are reading this, yet have never heard ‘Images & Words’, get off and do so immediately.

That was not a typo, in the last paragraph, where I wrote “top 11”. Check the OP in this list; I have the entire top 50 typed out there, with a line break between #12 and #11. That is, because I felt that these 11 record stand out more than the 39 above it. You know how ten is a magic number and all that, for me there’s 11 favourite records. The top 11 was set from the get-go and #12-#50 fluctuated quite a lot until they landed in the spots they did and that’s how I started typing the write-ups. These 11 record are no coincidence, for they are not only my favourite records, but also the best records I have ever heard. Looking back on these other 10 albums, apart from ‘Images & Words’, I genuinely think that all those 10 albums are better albums than ‘Images & Words’. Seriously. Then why is this at the top? Allow me to explain.

Dream Theater were the band I listened to most throughout high school and the first one or two years of university. I don’t exactly know how it came to be like this, but I had to find something that was more interesting than Metallica at some point in my puberty and the same step-father that has been mentioned more often in this top 50 was a Dream Theater fan. My mother was one too, and this is how I got to know both ‘Images & Words’ and ‘Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory’, two albums that along with Shadow Gallery’s ‘Legacy (featured at #25) used to rotate in my mother’s car for quite some time.

Of course, this was a case of hearing the right album at the right time in my musical taste development, yet I would be inclined to say that without this album, I wouldn’t like the same music I do now. Of course, this is bullshit in some way, because sooner or later I would have found my way through the vast jungles of music genres regardless. Anyway, this album is fucking amazing in the sense that I enjoy every single thing on this album, it opened up the gates to all the music I listen to nowadays and it was influential to me, not only for the way I listened to music, but also for the way I played music. (Hell, my current  band started off playing DT covers; most of my guitar playing back in high-school was me trying to emulate Petrucci’s fantastic style.) Featuring 3 out of my top 5 Dream Theater songs (they would be Metropolis, Surrounded and Learning to Live, there is no doubt that this is my favourite DT album.

This album has also been extremely influential in helping build the progressive metal seen, as it’s often viewed as a highlight of the genre, or at least of the beginning days of the genre. With progressive metal being the core genre in my music tastes (even though the top 11 would disagree), it’s an obvious choice for my #1 album ever. Having said that, this album’s placement is mostly based on the feeling I have towards this album, not necessarily the music on it anymore. I like it, it’s very good, but I feel that all of the other 10 albums in the top 11 are more interesting musically. Can it be justified then, for me to place this album here? Of course, for this album has done much more for me. I have simply heard this album so ridiculously many times that I can literally play every single track in my head and know what’s going on. This is without a doubt the album I’ve heard most in my life.

Of course the progressive metal genre hadn’t been evolved to the point it could spawn albums like ‘Bilateral’ yet, but Dream Theater can truly be seen as visionaries in the respect that what they did on this record was new, sounded fresh and was delivered with amazing precision. In hindsight it might not be all that much (seriously, would we be impressed if random prog band X released I&W today?), but for the time being it was amazing. This album defined not only Dream Theater’s sound, but the sound of an entire genre. That, in itself, is mind-blowing. Fantastic song-writing, unrivalled virtuosity on all instruments, great differences between, but also within songs and to top it off: it’s memorable. Dream Theater’s magnum opus, but also the genre’s absolute highlight. If ‘Bilateral’ is the best progressive metal album ever written, then this is its badass father. And it’s my favourite. That’s all there is to it.

tl;dr. My favourite album ever, for reasons I can’t really explain properly.

Favourite song: Metropolis Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper
Other songs worth checking out: Surrounded, Learning to Live, Take the Time
Other stuff by this band: No comment .... Alright then, ‘Awake’ is my second favourite. Other good albums by this band are ‘Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory’ and ‘Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence’.

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I want to seriously thank everyone for following this list and commenting on it. I really, genuinely hope I have inspired some of you to actually go listen to some of the albums I have mentioned in this list. The write-ups took (for the most part) a damn long time to type out, so I would be very glad if some has stuck with you. I might throw in a couple of albums to close of, but I don't think I will. Along with the 60 albums in this list and the further suggestions to explore the artists in this list, there's more than enough music in this thread to last over a year. That said, if there's any questions about any artists, or anything at all with regards to list list, I can try and point you in the right direction.

I hope people who followed had as much fun reading the write-ups as I did working the thing out.

Thanks for staying with me and as I said in the OP, I won't be doing another list for quite a while. This will be my definite top 50 albums ever for the coming time. Check in the OP for direct links to specific albums by the way, and thanks again for reading.

So long!

[home]

That's a worthy number one Thanks for putting so much time in this! I really enjoyed reading the write-ups and you gave me tons of music to check out. Agent Fresco is by far my favourite recent 'discovery', I've been listening to Destrier quite a lot lately 

[Crow]

Awake is better

[Train of Naught]

I thought Awake was your #1 for some reason but I guess this makes sense. Last couple of months I've been listening to DT significantly less, but I still can't skip any of the songs on this album, not a single bad song on it.

If I had to do my list again (I had IaW at #3) it would maybe be a bit lower, but still easily in the top 10. That said, it's already higher than the #2 and #1 of that list.

Had a lot of fun following this list and thanks to it I finally came around to that Beardfish - Mammoth album

[jakepriest]

Nice way to end the list, even though I personally don't like I&W nearly as much as the average DT fan.
Learning to Live > Metropolis by a big shot though. 

I really enjoyed following the list (even though I didn't know like half of it ), so thank you for creating it and sticking to such a tight schedule. This is how top lists should be done. 

[Crow]

take the time is the best

[Kwyjibo]

As this is a Dream Theater forum there should be no surprise that there's a Dream Theater record on your list. Wouldn't have guessed seeing it at number one beforehand, but your reasoning makes sense. I&W would be high up in my list as well, so good choice there.

Thanks for sharing your list, a lot of great records, a lot records I don't know (but have heard of frequently) and probably some I will check out further.

[Prog Snob]

No complaints here!     I won't say where it ranks in my list because I'll be doing one soon, but it's definitely on there somewhere.

[Tomislav95]

Awesome album My 2nd favorite DT.

[425]

Can't argue with this at all. Even got the top three song choices right, even though you can really pick any three songs from this album and justify those being the top three. I'd have Wait for Sleep right at the same tier as Surrounded, and maybe at #3 instead of it, but still.

[Nihil-Morari]

Love the Godspeed Record (especially the vinyl version, with all the extras), I adore Grace (and bought Mystery White Boy today cause you guys said it was good), don't know #2 and I don't think I should check it out (  ) and I still really like Images and Words, I agree with that being the best DT album. Cool list Rich, thanks for doing this!

[Onno]

Well, that's a worthy #1. I think I&W was the second or third DT album I heard after getting into their music when I heard BC&SL. It's a definitive prog classic and one of DT's best, although my personal favourite would probably be SDOIT. Nice list!

[Zantera]

Meh, DT has better albums!

But overall, great job with the list! You've updated it frequently, and with the exception of the last week, you've really been on point with consistent updating, good write-ups, lengthy write-ups and just overall pretty much a class act when it comes to making a list like this. So... good job!

[Sacul]

Awake is better

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Yeah, I think Awake is my number one DT album.

But I&W is my number two, and it is still an amazing album, and highly deserving of this placement!

[Elite]

Thanks for all the comments I'm out, so I can't comment on all individual posts, but I will do that at some point in the near future.

[Fluffy Lothario]

If I was to do a list where albums which were the biggest deal to me at various points of my life were given weight over those which are current favourites, SFAM would sit VERY highly on the list, so I don't see anything wrong with putting IAW at the top based heavily on that criteria.

Your list was cool though, there were a bunch of albums on there that seeing them ranked highly yet again gives them another nudge towards me checking them out sooner, which is one of the main things I hope to get out of these lists, more perspective on music I need to check out. So nice stuff!

[Mladen]

That's one good album.

Nice list overall, Elite, it was fun following it.

[Nihil-Morari]

Elite, I'm listening to B. Dolan's The Failure right now, I remember you being impressed with the track Kate on your roulette. Just using this thread so that it can be in your top 50 next year. (Aka: listen to it!)

[Elite]

That one is still on the list to try out. Damn, that track was amazing! I'll fire it up soon, first I have to sing Verdi's Requiem tomorrow for Dodenherdenking.

I'm not doing another one of these lists anytime soon though, but I'm glad people liked following!

[Zantera]

Bumping because we talked about this album earlier, but Flenser just posted an update that alongside the new Kayo Dot album, it looks like there will be pre-orders for a repress of Deathconsciousness tomorrow. I already own it on vinyl, but just putting it out there in case anyone here doesn't have it.

[Elite]

Thanks for thr heads-up. I'll see if I'm fast enough in about 3 hours

[Zantera]

Did you get it?

[Elite]

Yes, I did! For some reason I had the idea that the album would sell out really fast, so I was behind the computer the moment the pre-order came online and got myself a copy. Turned out I didn't need to rush after all, they're still available. Thanks for the heads-up! Come september when this pre-order gets shipped, I own a physical copy of every record in the top 50

[Zantera]

Nice! Yeah I think a lot of people got it when the last reissue happened (last year?) so the rush to get it this time is probably slightly lower. Still, a great album to own! I got the Kayo Dot pre-order myself.