"Their best since Images and Words" has no bearing to me because I fell in love with DT when I first heard that album in 1996, but when I heard Awake a few months after, I&W was quickly toppled.
Closest a DT album came to my love for Awake was Dream Theater self-titled and The Astonishing, but Distance Over Time finally broke Awake's stranglehold and is now currently my favorite DT album. So in my case, it would be the expectations "best album since Distance Over Time" that I have to manage.
I really really love The Alien now, have listened to it at least twice a day since its release. And while I was initially lukewarm to Invisible Monster, I have grown to love it and even sing it when I played it not as a single but as part of a playlist following The Alien and The Dark Eternal Night.
Addendum: Kyo, since bosk sort of slipped earlier of there being a Rush-inspired tune in this album, and I guess that is Transcending Time based on the snippets, can you tease us with what Rush song it sort of sounds like?