I just scanned my digital library of Dream Theater music and wow, we already have 70 tracks of DT music since Mangini joined the band (including NOMAC tracks and the Christmas track). 71 if you include their cover of Xanadu. Almost 7 hours of music. What are your top 5 songs from this era?
Here is mine:
1. Breaking All Illusions - Loved this from my first listen. Basically the song that brought me back full time to Dream Theater. This is the quintessential musical journey. I love love love how the instrumental section built up to that final chorus. When James finally sang "Searching out...", I remember that I literally clapped because it felt so glorious. God, if there can only be a way to have this re-recorded with the production value of AVFTTOTW or even D/T, it would be perfect.
2. At Wit's End - This starts just as another great DT song. But then the solos ended. When James sang "Asked me to listen..." with just Jordan's piano accompanying him, I started to have goosebumps. Then John M and Mike came in, and I went "oh shit". Then John P came in playing a majestic solo on the top of the mountain with James singing "Don't leave me now" and next thing I know tears were falling down my eyes. WTF, this song.
3. Sleeping Giant - This showed the brilliance of Dream Theater in taking very simple musical ideas to interesting and fun directions. The initial riff was unremarkable but then it goes one way, then another way, and another, until a monster of a song was built from that simple idea. What catapulted this to my 3rd spot is the ending. Dream Theater really knows how to end a song. The climax to the final chorus is amazing. And then it throws an epic curveball when it shifted to The Astonishing mode in the "Standing under the eclipse..." section, that led to the final section which has one of the best drum fills heard in a DT song.
4. Answering the Call - One of the catchiest Dream Theater songs ever. Whenever I need my short DT fix this past week, this has become my go-to song. I kept on dancing and bobbing my head even though it is not freaking 4/4. This song deserves to be a big hit.
5. Illumination Theory - I am one of the few DT fans who do not really like much their very long songs. BAI is epic and it only needed 13 minutes or so to tell its story. Illumination Theory, though, is one of the exceptions because I just find structurally perfect. I posted my breakdown of this song in this forum quite a number of times already so I won't repeat it anymore.