I am loving these stories!
As I recall, and it's a bit fuzzy, in 92/93 my friend gave me I&W. He was always trying to introduce me to new music (new meaning new to me, not necessarily hot off the presses). When grunge was taking over my part of the world, he was giving me King Crimson, Priest, Rush, and then DT to listen to. The way I remember it, I knew Pull Me Under from the radio without knowing who the artist was, so my first thought was "oh yeah, I know this song, finally I know who sings it!" The rest of the album blew my mind, and I listened to it incessantly. It represented everything about music I was getting in to at the time.
I thought this was their debut - I wasn't on any mailing lists, didn't read music magazines, I knew nothing about these guys that wasn't in the liner notes. When I saw they released a follow-up, I thought "there is no way they can top that last album." I was happily proven wrong.
I know DT did not start in the early 90s, but of all the "favorite" bands I've had in my life, they are the only one I've been with from the early stages.