The "Masterpiece Method" of ranking Dream Theater albums

[commanderbob]

I thought that this would be a fun and different way of ranking DT Albums. It certainly provided a few surprises for me, and I wanted to see what others came up with. Here's how it works: count the number of songs on each album that you would consider a masterpiece in whatever way you determine that appellation, then rank the albums by that number. Tiebreakers are ordered by your overall album preference.

Here's how mine turned out:

#14 - WDADU
Masterpiece count: 1 (Ytse Jam).  Production and Charlie's voice drag everything down.

#13 - The Astonishing
Masterpiece count: 1 (Life Left Behind). There are many moment of mastery in this album, but they are either short snippets or the silly story lyrics get in the way. I wish this didn't exist.

#12 TOT
Masterpiece Count: 1 (ITNOG). This ranking surprises me, since I regard the album as a whole a lot higher than this.

#11 Black Clouds
Masterpiece Count: 2 (Nightmare and The Count). Not many tracks, and some of their weakest stuff.

#10 ADTOE
Masterpiece Count: 2 (BITS and BAI ). Most of the album is fine but a little flat, other than these 2 gems.

#9 Systematic Chaos
Masterpiece Count: 2 (ITPOE 1 and 2). OK stuff all around, but not many masterpieces.

#8 Octavarium
Masterpiece Count: 2 (Octavarium and Panic Attack). LOL Octavarium should count as 5 masterpieces.

#7 - FII
Masterpiece Count: 4 (Peruvian Skies, HK, LITS and Trial). Makes sense. Middle of the road DT.

#6 DoT
Masterpiece Count: 4 (Unthethered Angel, FITL, Barstool Warrior, Wit's End). I couldn't put PBD on there, too many noodley "Jordan Sections" that drive me nuts. These 4 new songs are some of my favorite that they have ever done, though.

#5  - 6DOIT
Masterpiece Count: 5 (Everything except Disappear). This would be higher if 6DOIT wasn't one song. It would be 8. Which surprises me, since I don't regard this as my tippy-top fav albums.

#4 DT13
Masterpiece Count: 5 (Looking Glass, Enigma, Bigger Picture, Along For the Ride and IT). An appropriate ranking for one of my top 3 DT Albums. Great return to form after ADTOE. It tries to fight it's way to my #1 DT album.

#3 Scenes
Masterpiece Count: 6 (Overture 1929, Strange Deja Vu, Fatal Tragedy, BTL, Home, TSCO). Shocking, since I think of this as mid-pack.

#2 - I&W
Masterpiece Count: 6 (PMU, Surrounded, Met1, UAGM, WFS and LTL). Yup. Too many classics to not be this high.

#1 - Awake
Masterpiece Count: 7 (6:00, Erotomania, Voices, Mirror, Lie, Scarred and SDV). Yup. My fave album ever. By anyone.

How did yours turn out? Did it differ much from your actual rankings?

[Ninjabait]

Sure why not.

01. The Astonishing: 16 (The Answer, The Gift of Music, Three Days, Lord Nafaryus, Ravenskill, Moment of Betrayal, When Your Time Has Come, A Saviour in the Square, Our New World, Hymn of a Thousand Voices, Heaven's Cove, The X Aspect, Chosen, Brother Can You Hear Me?, A New Beginning, The Walking Shadow)
02. Scenes from a Memory: 6 (Spirit Carries On, Fatal Tragedy, Dance of Eternity, Finally Free, Beyond this Life, Strange Deja Vu)
03. A Dramatic Turn of Events: 6 (On the Backs of Angels, Lost Not Forgotten, This is the Life, Bridges in the Sky, Outcry, Far from Heaven)
04. Octavarium: 4 (These Walls, Panic Attack, Sacrificed Sons, Octavarium)
05. Train of Thought: 4 (This Dying Soul, Endless Sacrifice, Vacant, Stream of Consciousness)
06. Distance Over Time: 4 (At Wit's End, S2N, Room 137, Fall into the Light)
07. Falling Into Infinity: 4 (New Millenium, Hell's Kitchen, Trial of Tears, Hollow Years)
08. SDoIT: 3 (Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, The Glass Prison, Blind Faith)
09. Images & Words: 2 (Take the Time, Metropolis pt 1)
10. Systematic Chaos: 2 (In the Presence of Enemies, Constant Motion)
11. Black Clouds & Silver Linings: 1 (The Count of Tuscany)
12. Dream Theater: 1 (The Bigger Picture)
13. Awake: 1 (6:00)
14. WD&DU: 0

Compared to my actual rankings and how much they gained and lost in ranking with this method:

01. The Astonishing (=0)
02. Scenes from a Memory (=0)
03. Octavarium (-1)
04. A Dramatic Turn of Events (+1)
05. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (-3)
06. Train of Thought (+1)
07. Distance Over Time (+2)
08. Images & Words (-1)
09. Falling Into Infinity (+2)
10. Black Clouds & Silver Linings (-1)
11. Dream Theater (-1)
12. Systematic Chaos (+2)
13. Awake (=0)
14. When Dream & Day Unite (=0)

Most of the changes happened in the middle ground albums and with the songs with fewer tracks like BC&SL and SDoIT

[zappafrank2112]

#14 - WDADU
...Production and Charlie's voice drag everything down.

Except when it doesn't.  Which is the entire album save that awkward note in the Killing Hand.

[commanderbob]

Sure why not.

Most of the changes happened in the middle ground albums and with the songs with fewer tracks like BC&SL and SDoIT

Nice! Like the way you compared the 2. I may go back and add that.

[commanderbob]

Except when it doesn't.  Which is the entire album save that awkward note in the Killing Hand.

Cool. Glad there is more DT for you to relish than I have.

[bosk1]

Interesting.  Overall, I think my rankings for MOST of my albums will still be pretty closely aligned because I tend to sort of subconsciously do this as a main factor in ranking albums anyway.  But one album that is going to suffer GREATLY by doing it this way is SFAM, which I currently would rank as my #2, but which has a very small number of "masterpiece" songs.  I consider it a masterpiece album because it has a lot of really good songs, and because of the concept, and because the whole is greater than the sum of the parts in the way it all works together.  But rank it simply by virtue of how many masterpiece songs it has?  Eesh.  It's going to fall pretty low.  The Astonishing, suprisingly, gets a huge bump UP.

1.  The Astonishing: 7 (The Gift of Music, A Better Life, Lord Nefaryus, A Savior in the Square, Ravenskill, Chosen, Moment of Betrayal)

2.  Distance Over Time:  6 (Paralyzed, Barstool Warrior, S2N, At Wit's End, Out of Reach, Pale Blue Dot)

3.  Six Degrees:  4 (The Glass Prison, Misunderstood, Disappear, Six Degrees)
   I&W:  4 (Pull Me Under, Metropolis, Wait for Sleep, Learning To Live)
   DT12:  4 (The Bigger Picture, Behind the Veil, Surrender To Reason, Along for the Ride)
   Falling Into Infinity:  4 (Lines in the Sand, Take Away My Pain, Trial of Tears)

7.  ADTOE:  3 (Bridges in the Sky, Outcry, Beneath the Surface)
   Awake:  3 (Voices, the Mirror, Scarred)

9.  Scenes from a Memory:  2 (Home, The Spirit Carries On)
   Octavarium:  2 (Panic Attack, Octavarium)
   Systematic Chaos:  2 (Constant Motion, In the Presence of Enemies)
   Train of Thought:  2 (Stream of Consciousness, In the Name of God)

13.  WDADU:  1 (The Killing Hand)

14.  Black Clouds:  0 (but ANTR was close)

[bosk1]

#14 - WDADU
...Production and Charlie's voice drag everything down.

Except when it doesn't.  Which is the entire album save that awkward note in the Killing Hand.

No, they definitely do, for pretty much the whole album.

[Cool Chris]

It's pretty rare I'll rate a song a masterpiece. Like Bosk will tend to look at an album as the whole versus the sum of its parts so much easier to consider albums that way than individual songs. The Wall is a masterpiece, but I wouldn't consider any song on it close to Masterpiece level. Images and Words is a masterpiece. Scenes falls short by the width of an eyelash. Awake by maybe the width of a fingernail. They all have 1) the best collection of individual songs of any DT album, 2) the best overall quality of songs (meaning now highs and lows), 3) the best vibe, songwriting, musicianship, and whatever it is that makes an album worthy of considering it a masterpiece.

[krands85]

I've played about with the definition of 'masterpiece' here a bit - personally I'd say that I'd only like to call maybe 15 or so of their songs that, but I've relaxed the definition a bit to make it a bit more fun.

Images and Words: 5 - Learning to Live, Metropolis, Take the Time, Under a Glass Moon, Pull Me Under

Train of Thought: 4 - In the Name of God, Endless Sacrifice, This Dying Soul, As I Am
A Dramatic Turn of Events: 4 - Breaking All Illusions, Bridges in the Sky, On the Backs of Angels, Outcry
Octavarium: 4 - Octavarium, Sacrificed Sons, The Root of All Evil, Panic Attack
Scenes From a Memory: 4 - Fatal Tragedy, Beyond this Life, Home, Finally Free
The Astonishing: 4 - A New Beginning, The Gift of Music, The Path that Divides, Moment of Betrayal

DT12: 3 - Illumination Theory, The Enemy Inside, Surrender to Reason
Distance Over Time: 3 - At Wit's End, Pale Blue Dot, Untethered Angel
Awake: 3 - Voices, Scarred, The Mirror

Systematic Chaos: 2/3 (depending on if you count ITPOE as 1 or 2 tracks) - In the Presence of Enemies, The Ministry of Lost Souls

Falling Into Infinity: 2 - Trial of Tears, Lines in the Sand
Black Clouds and Silver Linings: 2 - The Count of Tuscany, A Nightmare to Remember

6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence: 1 - The Glass Prison

When Dream and Day Unite: 0

I've grouped those with the same number together, but tried to organise them based just on the quality of the listed tracks. It's worked out pretty similar to my actual rankings, DT12 and The Astonishing have had the biggest jump, going above D/T, Awake and SC. 8VM has leapfrogged SFAM, and BC&SL leapfrogged 6DOIT.

[bosk1]

...I've relaxed the definition a bit to make it a bit more fun.

Yeah, same here.

[The Walrus]

There are only 3 Dream Theater albums with songs that I consider 'masterpieces' and those are 6D, I&W, and 8V, in that order.

[pg1067]

I thought that this would be a fun and different way of ranking DT Albums. It certainly provided a few surprises for me, and I wanted to see what others came up with. Here's how it works: count the number of songs on each album that you would consider a masterpiece in whatever way you determine that appellation, then rank the albums by that number. Tiebreakers are ordered by your overall album preference.

Sure...why not (although the result is pretty much exactly how I normally rank the albums).

SFAM - 3 (Fatal Tragedy, Beyond This Life and Home)

I&W - 2 (Metropolis and LTL)
SDOIT - 2 (Blind Faith and SDOIT)
Awake - 2 (Voices and Scarred)
TOT - 2 (Stream of Consciousness and ITNOG)

8VA - 1 (8VA)
DT12 - 1 (Illumination Theory)
ADTOE - 1 (BAI)

WDADU - 0 (The Killing Hand, as performed by James on Live at the Marquee could be considered a "masterpiece," but the Charlie version on WDADU isn't)
BC&SL - 0
FII - 0
SC - 0
TA - 0

DOT - It's too early.

[hefdaddy42]

#14 - WDADU
...Production and Charlie's voice drag everything down.

Except when it doesn't.  Which is the entire album save that awkward note in the Killing Hand.

Not sure what you're listening to.

[zappafrank2112]

Always interesting how much I differ in my preferences from others.

I wouldn't change a thing about WDADU and feel like it gets way too unfairly maligned, almost like people are "too good" for it after having been with JLB for so long.

Nothing on either DoT or The Astonishing is a masterpiece to me.

ITNOG was listed as a ToT masterpiece, and I find that song to be way too representative of their slogging-and-drudging-along-at-too-slow-a-pace style they bust out every so often (see also Sacrificed Sons, Misunderstood, much of Voices and much of The Ministry of Lost Souls... ugh, *so* can't stand it when they use this style).

[The Walrus]

Ministry is pretty slow but ITNOG isn't... interesting. I quite love Ministry (it's aged like a fine wine unlike the rest of that album) but boy WDADU is a hot mess

[CharlesPL]

14. DoT - 0
14. SC - 0
14. ADToE - 0
11. TA - 1 (The Path That Divides)
11. DT12 - 1 (Illumination Theory)
11. BC&SL - 1 (TCoT)
11. ToT - 1 (ItNoG)
11. 8V - 1 (8V)
______________________
6. FII - 2 (HK, ToT)
6. WDaDU - 2 (TKH, LFaGA)
4. SDoIT - 3 (M, TGD, SDoIT)
3. Awake - 3 (TM, Lie, Scarred)
2. SFAM - 4 (FT, Home, TSCO, FF)
1. IaW - 8

[commanderbob]

I'm loving how differently everyone thinks about this stuff, especially how the high the bar on defining "masterpiece" is for some. I'm so emotional with music that by bar seems lower than most 

[pg1067]

Always interesting how much I differ in my preferences from others.

I wouldn't change a thing about WDADU and feel like it gets way too unfairly maligned, almost like people are "too good" for it after having been with JLB for so long.

What exactly does all this mean?

Would I "change a thing about WDADU"?  No, because it was the first step that one of my favorite bands took in producing 30 years of mostly exceptional music (importantly, DT's career started at a time when my #1 all time band's (Rush) was diminishing in quality).  That said, it's a very raw and immature album produced on a relative shoestring budget.  Others have commented about production value, which isn't an issue for me.  In fact, the prominence of the bass on WDADU is one of its strongest points for me.  Is the album maligned?  Sure.  Is some of the criticism unfair?  Maybe, but lots of it is perfectly reasonable and fair.  Why do you think it's "way too unfairly maligned"?  As far as people being "'too good' for it after having been with JLB for so long," if you're fond of Charlie's performance, that's fine, but the band fired Charlie for a reason, which is basically the same reason that folks "malign" his performance.  His voice didn't suit the band's intended style terribly well.

Ministry is pretty slow but ITNOG isn't.

The tempo of most of ITNOG is about 106 BPM (and the choruses are significantly slower).  That's rather slow for a heavy metal song, but it's not all that uncommon for DT to play at slower tempos while playing complicated 16th and 32nd note passages.

[Jaffa]

-Tier One: 5 Masterpieces-

1. Images and Words (Take the Time, Surrounded, Metropolis, Under a Glass Moon, Learning to Live)
2. The Astonishing (Lord Nafaryus, Three Days, A Life Left Behind, A New Beginning, Our New World)

Tier Two: 4 Masterpieces

3. Scenes from a Memory (Overture 1928, Strange Deja Vu, Home, Finally Free)

Tier Three: 3 Masterpieces

4. Train of Thought (As I Am, Stream of Consciousness, In The Name of God)
5.  Awake (Caught in a Web, Voices, Scarred)
6. A Dramatic Turn of Events (Bridges in the Sky, Breaking All Illusions, Beneath the Surface)
7. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (The Glass Prison, Misunderstood, Six Degrees)
8. Distance Over Time (Barstool Warrior, S2N, Pale Blue Dot)
9. Dream Theater (The Enemy Inside, Surrender to Reason, Illumination Theory)

Tier Four: 2 Masterpieces

10. Systematic Chaos (In the Presence of Enemies pt 1, The Dark Eternal Night)
11. Falling Into Infinity (Lines in the Sand, Trial of Tears)
12.  Octavarium (Panic Attack, Octavarium)
13.When Dream and Day Unite (Afterlife, Only a Matter of Time)

Tier Five: 1 Masterpiece

14. Black Clouds and Silver Linings (The Count of Tuscany)


This isn't too far off from my 'regular' album rankings.  The only real outlier is The Astonishing, which is, as a whole, one of my least favorites.  The rest are within a space or two of where I would normally rank them.

However, as others have said, I did have to sort of relax my definition of 'masterpiece' in order to make this vaguely interesting.  I normally take the word pretty seriously.  In this case, I substituted it with 'really fantastic song'.  If I were to count only songs that I legitimately classify as masterpieces, it would look a bit more like this:


Images and Words: 3 (Take the Time, Metropolis, Learning to Live)
Scenes from a Memory: 3 (Overture 1928, Strange Deja Vu, Home)
Train of Thought: 2 (Stream of Consciousness, In The Name of God)
Awake: 2 (Voices, Scarred)
A Dramatic Turn of Events: 2 (Bridges in the Sky, Beneath the Surface)
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: 1 (Misunderstood)
Systematic Chaos: 1 (In the Presence of Enemies pt 1)
Falling Into Infinity: 1 (Lines in the Sand)
Octavarium: 1 (Octavarium)
Black Clouds and Silver Linings: 1 (The Count of Tuscany)
The Astonishing: 1 (Our New World)
Dream Theater: 0
Distance Over Time: 0
When Dream and Day Unite: 0

[Elite]

Images & Words: 2 masterpieces
A Change of Seasons: 1 masterpiece

what the hell constitutes a masterpiece though?

[TheCountOfNYC]

I’m basing this off of the songs in my top 50, so with two of those songs not on an album (To Live Forever, A Change of Seasons), 48 songs will be included in this little experiment. Tiebreakers go to the album with the highest ranked song (my top ranked song on each album will be bolded).

01) Images and Words: 8 (Pull Me Under, Another Day, Take the Time, Surrounded, Metropolis, Under a Glass Moon, Wait for Sleep, Learning to Live)
02) Scenes From a Memory: 8 (Overture 1928, Strange Deja Vu, Fatal Tragedy, Beyond This Life, Home, The Dance of Eternity, The Spirit Carries On, Finally Free)
03) Octavarium: 4 (These Walls, Panic Attack, Never Enough, Octavarium)
04) A Dramatic Turn of Events: 3 (Bridges in the Sky, Breaking All Illusions, Beneath the Surface)
05) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence: 3 (Blind Faith, Disappear, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence)
06) Falling Into Infinity: 3 (Hell’s Kitchen, Lines in the Sand, Trial of Tears)
07) Train of Thought: 3 (Vacant, Stream of Consciousness, In the Name of God)
08) Distance Over Time: 3 (S2N, At Wit’s End, Pale Blue Dot)
09) The Astonishing: 3 (Dystopian Overture, A New Beginning, Our New World)
10) Black Clouds & Silver Linings: 2 (The Best of Times, The Count of Tuscany)
11) Systematic Chaos: 2 (Constant Motion, In the Presence of Enemies)
12) Dream Theater: 2 (Surrender to Reason, Illumination Theory)
13) When Dream and Day Unite: 2 (Afterlife, Only a Matter of Time)
14) Awake: 1 (Scarred)

And let’s see how it differs from my actual album ranking.

01) Scenes From a Memory (-1)
02) Octavarium (-1)
03) Images and Words (+2)
04) Distance Over Time (-4)
05) A Dramatic Turn of Events (+1)
06) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (+1)
07) Awake (-7)
08) Train of Thought (+1)
09) Black Clouds & Silver Linings (-1)
10) Dream Theater (-2)
11) The Astonishing (+2)
12) When Dream and Day Unite (-1)
13) Systematic Chaos (+2)
14) Falling Into Infinity (+8)

[RoeDent]

What differentiates a song you like, or even love, from a "masterpiece"? To me, they're one and the same thing. And it's hard to separate what I personally love, from what I know are the established god-tier masterpieces of DT fandom. We have our established Big Five: Metropolis, Learning to Live, A Change of Seasons, Octavarium and Breaking All Illusions. Others will disagree, but the general consensus seems to fall towards these five.

I am having a think about this, but if I had no boundaries, I would just stick every song except those on WDADU as masterpieces, but that's not the way the game works.

[commanderbob]

what the hell constitutes a masterpiece though?

songs on each album that you would consider a masterpiece in whatever way you determine that appellation

[commanderbob]

if I had no boundaries, I would just stick every song except those on WDADU as masterpieces, but that's not the way the game works.

It can be if you want, but then it would then morph into a traditional album ranking. And I thought I was free with the use of masterpiece 

[efx]

Fun idea for a thread, here is mine

Upon ranking them I find that for me their masterpieces are sometimes far and few in between but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy the albums. As some of them share the same number I'll rank them then based on which containing album I like better.
I&W - 6 (PMU, TTT, MET, UAGM, WFS, LTL)
AWAKE - 3 (6:00, Scarred, SDV)
D/T - 3 (BW, 137, S2N)
FII - 3 (HK, LITS, TOT)
BCSL - 2 (Wither, TCOT)
ADTOE - 2 (OTBOA, BAI)
OCTAVARIUM - 2 (TROAE, These Walls)
DT - 2 (TLG, IT)
WDADU - 2 (Afterlife, OAMOT)
SFAM - 1 (Ouverture 1928)
TOT - 1 (ITNOG)
6DOIT - 0 (none)
SC - 0 (none)
TA - 0 (none)

My favorite album list from best to least favorite:

I&W
AWAKE
D/T
FII
BCSL
ADTOE
OCTAVARIUM
SFAM
DT
TOT
6DOIT
WDADU
SC
TA

So basically, the stacked ones go to the top but there's some shuffling around when it comes to the lower numbers.

[fluojn]

Ok, I'll play. I consider the song being a masterpiece, when I always listen to it from start to finish when I play a particular album.
Tie breaker win goes to the one which has the better songs picked

1) The Astonishing, 8
(The Gift of Music, Lord Nafaryus, A Savior in the Square, When Your Time Has Come, Three Days, Chosen, The X Aspect, A New Beginning)

2) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, 4
Blind Faith, Misunderstood, Disappear, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence)

3) Metropolis Pt.2: Scenes from a Memory, 4
(Strange Deja Vu, Home, The Dance of Eternity, The Spirit Carries On)

4) Images and Words, 4
(Another Day, Surrounded, Metropolis, Learning to Live)

5) Distance Over Time, 3
(Barstool Warrior, At Wit's End, Pale Blue Dot)

6) Falling into Infinity, 3
(Hollow Years, Hell's Kitchen, Trial of Tears)

7) Dream Theater, 3
(The Looking Glass, Surrender to Reason, Illumination Theory)

8) Awake, 3
(Innocence Faded, Erotomania, Voices)

9) Black Clouds & Silver Linings, 2
(The Best of Times, The Count of Tuscany)

10) Systematic Chaos, 2
(In the Presence of Enemies Part 1 + Part 2)

11) Train of Thought, 2
(Honor Thy Father, In the Name of God)

12) When Dream and Day Unite, 2
(The Killing Hand, Only a Matter of Time)

13) A Dramatic Turn of Events, 1
(Breaking All Illusions)

14) Octavarium, 1
(Octavarium)

The Astonishing is way too high, but it having so many great tunes, this method gives it an advantage 

[Jaffa]

The Astonishing is an oddball for this thread.  I think it's going to be a bit of an outlier for a lot of people, just because of how many tracks it has.  I picked five masterpieces on that album, which is roughly one seventh of the album.  Meanwhile, I picked three masterpieces for Train of Thought, which is three sevenths of the album.  In terms of percentages, a much greater piece of ToT is a masterpiece for me, but in terms of track count, TA wins. 

By contrast, if we were to rank albums based on the 'Filler Method' - that is to say, counting the number of tracks on each album that we don't really care about - Astonishing would rank dead last for me by a fair margin. 

Not complaining, by the way!  This thread is very interesting to me, and it's a cool way of looking at things.  I'm just kinda tickled by how much this method skews my ranking of this album in particular. 

[Elite]

Ok, I'll play. I consider the song being a masterpiece, when I always listen to it from start to finish when I play a particular album.

Since I always play albums from start to finish without skipping stuff, this makes absolutely no sense to me.

[pg1067]

Ok, I'll play. I consider the song being a masterpiece, when I always listen to it from start to finish when I play a particular album.

Since I always play albums from start to finish without skipping stuff, this makes absolutely no sense to me.

I rarely, if ever, play albums from start to finish (at least not in a single sitting), but the notion of a song being a "masterpiece" because someone "always listens to [the song] from start to finish" is a bit bizarre.  If you're not going to play a song from start to finish, why even start it (unless it's something like "Misunderstood" that has an easily skippable outro)?

The Astonishing is an oddball for this thread.  I think it's going to be a bit of an outlier for a lot of people, just because of how many tracks it has.  I picked five masterpieces on that album, which is roughly one seventh of the album.  Meanwhile, I picked three masterpieces for Train of Thought, which is three sevenths of the album.  In terms of percentages, a much greater piece of ToT is a masterpiece for me, but in terms of track count, TA wins.

Thus the inherent flaw in this "masterpiece method" for a band that has songs that range from 4 minutes to 42 minutes.  In the case of SDOIT (the album), one song takes up 43.65% of the album's run time, but it's still only one song

[senecadawg2]

SFAM 4 (Spirit Carries On, Fatal Tragedy, Home, Beyond This Life)
I&W 3 (Surrounded, Metropolis, Learning to Live)
Awake 2 (Scarred, Space Dye Vest)
FII 2 (Lines in the Sand, Trial of Tears)
ADTOE 2 (Breaking All Illusions, Bridges in the Sky)
SDOIT 2 (Misunderstood, Disappear)
BC&SL 1 (The Count of Tuscany)
D/T 1 (At Wit's End)

+ACOS

Plenty of great songs on these albums, I just don't consider any of them masterpieces:

Octavarium
Systematic Chaos
Train of Thought
Dream Theater
The Astonishing
WDADU

[BeatriceNB]

1. TA: 24 (DO, TGOM, LN, WYTH, AOF, TD, BCYHM?, ALLB, Ravenskill, Chosen, ATO, TXA, ANB, MOB, HC, BA, TPTD, TWS, MLF, LF, HOTV, ONW, Astonishing) [#3 on my favourites ranking]

2. Awake: 11 (whole album) [#1 on my favs ranking]

3. WDADU: 8 (whole album) [#8 on my favs ranking]

4. ADTOE: 8 (OTBOA, LNF, TITL, BITS, Outcry, FFH, BAI, BTS) [#6 on my favs ranking]

5. I&W: 7 (from Another Day to LTL) [#2 on my favs ranking]

6. FII: 6 (NM, HY, HK, LITS, TAMP, TOT) [#9 on my favs ranking]

7. DT12: 6 (TEI, EM, TBP, BTV, STR, IT) [#7 on my favs ranking]

8. SDOIT: 5 (TGP, BF, Misunderstood, Disappear, 6DOIT) [#5 on my favs ranking]

9. SFAM: 3 (THE, TSCO, FF) [#10 on my favs ranking]

10. D/T: 3 (UA, AWE, OOR) [#11 on my favs ranking]

11. TOT: 3 (Vacant, SOC, ITNOG) [#13 on my favs ranking]

12. SC: 3 (Repentance, TMOLS, ITPOE)  [#14 on my favs ranking]

13. Octavarium: 2 (SS, Octavarium) [#4 on my favs ranking]

14. BC&SL: 2 (TSF, TCOT) [#12 on my favs ranking]

[pg1067]

1. TA: 24 (DO, TGOM, LN, WYTH, AOF, TD, BCYHM?, ALLB, Ravenskill, Chosen, ATO, TXA, ANB, MOB, HC, BA, TPTD, TWS, MLF, LF, HOTV, ONW, Astonishing) [#3 on my favourites ranking]

. . .

I gotta ask:  what is your definition of a "masterpiece"?  Given the numbers you mentioned, it seems like it's a pretty low bar.

[BeatriceNB]

1. TA: 24 (DO, TGOM, LN, WYTH, AOF, TD, BCYHM?, ALLB, Ravenskill, Chosen, ATO, TXA, ANB, MOB, HC, BA, TPTD, TWS, MLF, LF, HOTV, ONW, Astonishing) [#3 on my favourites ranking]

. . .

I gotta ask:  what is your definition of a "masterpiece"?  Given the numbers you mentioned, it seems like it's a pretty low bar.

TA, to me, is a masterpiece on its own, made out of masterpieces; the tracks that aren't there are tracks that have a storytelling purpose, but don't work on their own (like Road To Revolution or The Answer, or the NOMACs tracks, which I like). The Astonishing isn't an album I can listen on any mood, otherwise it would be my favourite, no doubt about that.

[commanderbob]

The Astonishing isn't an album I can listen

I agree. Bums me out tho.

[54_diplomats]

Sounds like fun.

Awake: 10 (almost the full album, Lie is the weak spot)
SFAM: 9 (Overture, SDV, BTL, Through Her Eyes, entirety of Act 2)
I&W: 8 (whole album)
ToT: 4 (As I Am, TDS, Endless Sacrifice, In the Name of God)
6DOIT: 4 (TGP, BF, Disappear, 6DOIT)
8VM: 4 (TROAE, These Walls, Panic Attack, 8VM)
FII: 3 (HK, LitS, ToT)
WDADU: 3 (TKH, AFIL, Status Seeker)
ADTOE: 3 (BitS, Outcry, BAI)
DT12: 2 (The Enemy Inside, The Looking Glass, Illumination Theory)
SC: 1 or 2 depending on how you view it (ITPOE 1+2)
BC&SL: 1 (TCOT)
DoT: 1 (Viper King)
Astonishing: 0

Pretty close to my album rankings.