Official Dream Theater studio albums countdown thread! (number 1 revealed!)

[Stadler]

One of the other mistakes I felt the band made during this cycle was refusing to be a on nationally broadcast talk show because they wanted "Solitary Shell" played. My memory could be fuzzy, but I believe MP said that the band didn't want to "compromise who they were" by playing that track live. Which made no sense to me, because one, that song was very much a part of who DT was and is, and two, why in the world would you stupidly turn down that marketing? If I was the label, I would have been HOT. Talk about a missed crossover opportunity.

I'm not familiar with this..

Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I remember by memory, the real problem wasn't to play a ballad, but that the show wanted DT to play only as an acoustic trio (guitar, piano and vocals)?

Now THAT'S a different story. 

[The Realm]

Six Degrees - number 4 for me. A great album, that sounds amazing. I often return to disc 1, not as much to disc 2. I am not a huge fan of some of disc 2 including the overture, but I just think the highs far outweigh the lows on this album.

[Samsara]

One of the other mistakes I felt the band made during this cycle was refusing to be a on nationally broadcast talk show because they wanted "Solitary Shell" played. My memory could be fuzzy, but I believe MP said that the band didn't want to "compromise who they were" by playing that track live. Which made no sense to me, because one, that song was very much a part of who DT was and is, and two, why in the world would you stupidly turn down that marketing? If I was the label, I would have been HOT. Talk about a missed crossover opportunity.

I'm not familiar with this..

Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I remember by memory, the real problem wasn't to play a ballad, but that the show wanted DT to play only as an acoustic trio (guitar, piano and vocals)?

Now THAT'S a different story.

It would be in my mind as well. But I'm not sure that's correct. Again, memory is a little fuzzy, but I don't remember anything about an acoustic TRIO. I think they were asked as a band to PLAY acoustically.

[Dublagent66]

Poor Awake.

Here's my full list. Would it have helped Awake had I actually sent it?

1   Images and Words
2   Awake
3   Scenes from a Memory
4   Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
5   Falling into Infinity
6   Systematic Chaos
7   A Dramatic Turn of Events
8   Train of Thought
9   A View from the Top of the World
10   The Astonishing
11   Octavarium
12   When Dream and Day Unite
13   Distance over Time
14   Dream Theater
15   Black Clouds and Silver Linings

As long as I've been here, Awake has always done very well and it has always been in my top 5.

Probably not by much since it is usually in high regard anyway.

[Setlist Scotty]

One of the other mistakes I felt the band made during this cycle was refusing to be a on nationally broadcast talk show because they wanted "Solitary Shell" played. My memory could be fuzzy, but I believe MP said that the band didn't want to "compromise who they were" by playing that track live. Which made no sense to me, because one, that song was very much a part of who DT was and is, and two, why in the world would you stupidly turn down that marketing? If I was the label, I would have been HOT. Talk about a missed crossover opportunity.

I'm not familiar with this..

Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I remember by memory, the real problem wasn't to play a ballad, but that the show wanted DT to play only as an acoustic trio (guitar, piano and vocals)?

Now THAT'S a different story.

It would be in my mind as well. But I'm not sure that's correct. Again, memory is a little fuzzy, but I don't remember anything about an acoustic TRIO. I think they were asked as a band to PLAY acoustically.

Andre pretty much is spot on - they weren't going to allow the full band to perform, so that's why the passed on the opportunity.

[devieira73]

I just searched on Lifting Shadows book and there it isn't said anything about it. I think I remember it from the discussions on MP forum at the time.

[Samsara]

One of the other mistakes I felt the band made during this cycle was refusing to be a on nationally broadcast talk show because they wanted "Solitary Shell" played. My memory could be fuzzy, but I believe MP said that the band didn't want to "compromise who they were" by playing that track live. Which made no sense to me, because one, that song was very much a part of who DT was and is, and two, why in the world would you stupidly turn down that marketing? If I was the label, I would have been HOT. Talk about a missed crossover opportunity.

I'm not familiar with this..

Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I remember by memory, the real problem wasn't to play a ballad, but that the show wanted DT to play only as an acoustic trio (guitar, piano and vocals)?

Now THAT'S a different story.

It would be in my mind as well. But I'm not sure that's correct. Again, memory is a little fuzzy, but I don't remember anything about an acoustic TRIO. I think they were asked as a band to PLAY acoustically.

Andre pretty much is spot on - they weren't going to allow the full band to perform, so that's why the passed on the opportunity.

Thank you Scotty! I knew you'd remember. Ah, okay then. If it wasn't the whole band, but just a trio, I totally get that. I'm guessing that trio did not include MP? 

[Dream Team]

#4 for me. Their most experimental and risky album until The Astonishing. Love some of the soundscapes and I hope they try that style again at some point.

[SeRoX]

1- Awake
2-
3- Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4-
5- The Astonishing
6- Falling into Infinity
7- A View from the Top of the World
8- When Dream and Day Unite
9- Octavarium
10- Train of Thought
11- A Dramatic Turn of Events
12- Systematic Chaos
13- Distance over Time
14- Dream Theater
15- Black Clouds and Silver Linings

A great experimental album. The second dics has great tunes but disc one is just superior. I consider SFAM is their second milestone while SDOIT is their peak point at 2000's.

Favoruites
1- Disappear
2- The Glass Prison
3- Misunderstood

[Cool Chris]

No way it should be this high.

This album was so bi-polar with me when it was released. I listened to TGP, BF, M, and D all the time, never TGD or 6D. TGD is just a drag, and goddamn all the news audio clips. Enough already. I doubt I've listened to 6D all the way through more than 5 times in my life, probably less for the Score version. Agreeing with TAC (I believe), TGP is among the worst aged songs in their catalog.

1   Awake
2   
3   A Dramatic Turn of Events
4   
5   Train of Thought
6   A View from the Top of the World
7   Systematic Chaos
8   Octavarium
9   Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
10   Dream Theater
11   The Astonishing
12   Distance over Time
13   Black Clouds and Silver Linings
14   Falling into Infinity
15   When Dream and Day Unite

[TAC]

Agreeing with TAC (I believe), TGP is among the worst aged songs in their catalog.

Believe, Brother. Believe!

[geeeemo]

6 Degrees at #7.
I love it, and love the 6 ahead of it more. And the 8 after almost as much. 
This one ebbs and flows in how I feel about. I always enjoy it. I agree that Misunderstood goes on a tad much. But I really dig TGD, Disappear makes my heart weep, TGP rocks. 6 Degrees hurts me sometimes. Like another poster, I have a young adult child with mental illness (going on 5 years now), and sometimes its just too close. That's ok though and the song has all the DT facets. Beautiful music, metal, story, ballads and length.
I would love them to include one of the songs from disc one in a future tour.

[Ben_Jamin]

#03 - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (My Ranking: #01)

There's a lot I could say about this album that I am finding it a bit difficult trying to think of what to say about it.

What I like most about this album is the theme of dealing with mental struggles or situations that can test a persons sanity or mental state of mind, or test humanities state of mind. There's lots of great songs here.

The Glass Prison, while being my least favorite, is a fantastic song regardless. The intro with the static of the record playing with the bells, makes me imagine a drunken man wasted, passed out in front of the bar as the last call/church bells ring throughout the street. The mental struggle of dealing with addiction and coming to recognize it is a rough, personal choice for the better. I enjoy each of the sections, and really enjoy the short last section. I just picture the man, in front of the church, begging on his knees, as he sees the light in the door to escape the glass prison walls and walks on through. (I also find it great how it transitions into the next song of the series, and when I saw them live for Gigantour, they did this and I really didn't notice it changed until I heard the riff of This Dying Soul and said to my cousin, "I remember this from Budakon."

Blind Faith is a wonderful, beautiful song with some haunting atmosphere that represents that feeling and emotion of a religious/spiritual struggle of faith. This can really weigh a person down and cause one to go through some mental anguish when dealing with these type of situations. "And still life pushes on, with or without you...I am the believer who gives purpose onto you", these lyrics are the heart of the meaning of the song. Even though the spiritual leaders are not having faith, the people still have to carry on, strong in their faith and will. This theme does sort of relate to Misunderstood.

Misunderstood is a nice, slow, calm song that works well with it's lyrics. The music being calm and sort of laid-back in a way is a great background for a person questioning themselves. The gradual rise of intensity in the music presents that anguish well with feeling isolated, and not wanted by the people around you, when they are in fact showing gratitude and care for you. The ending represents that struggle even more to me.

The Great Debate transitions nicely from Misunderstood as the mental crisis continues, only this time, it's a mental crisis for Humanity as a whole, mixing both personal, spiritual mental anguish along with religious, collective mental anguish over what one considers right and wrong. It's amazing how this song really hit hard as well when the Pandemic hit, "Will we turn to our unearthly guide? Or to white-coat heroes, searching for a cure?" spoke to this, and this phrase is the main message and meaning of the song to me. It's about the mental struggle humanity faces when two opposing perceptions of life collide and there ends up being A Great Debate amongst us. I do not feel the influence of Tool and these type of lyrical message was a coincidence. Tool has very philosophical and spiritual lyrics, that TGD's lyrics do not seem to far fetched given that it is influenced by a song called 46&2.

I enjoy how the first disc all culminates to Disappear as it deals with the mental anguish of death. No one wants to lose a loved one, but it's a part of life, and all we humans can do is learn to cope, accept, and move on, be brave to face life without them here. JR's "circus" music parts I do not see as "circus" music. I see it as the music played on a merry-go-round that is gradually slowing in tempo and in turn dying. The merry-go-round being the metaphor for the cycle of life, how merry people become while it's running, and then the sadness involved when the ride comes to a halt. For the last set of lyrics, I prefer the vibe and tone of JLB's backing vocals more so than the lead vocals. They're really haunting and add that emotional aspect of calmly accepting the end, and I love when his vocals get more powerful and higher as the person begins to really show emotion when speaking to the person as they tell them to go into the light, "I gave you my hand, said "It's okay, letting go, time to leave here. And I'll carry on the best that I can without you here beside me."

The final song is the mega-epic about 6 different people and the mental situations they face. I love that happy/sad contrast going on in ATC and ATC(R) with the happy music with the sad lyrics. I love everything about these sections, and the music for each of them fits the lyrics, as well as the type of mental struggle the characters are dealing with. From the heavy, fast-paced, trauma of WIMH/TTTSTA, to the emotional, heartfelt, somber struggle of Post-partum, you feel that love of the mother to the child, and then the ending instrumental is that difficult struggle.

Overall, this will remain my favorite album as it deals with Mental struggles of humanity, and also presents them in a way that is relatable for many. The mix of each instrument is awesome, the production is also great, and the artwork has those great sketches and the way it's designed is awesome with showcasing the mental anguish and the topic of mental struggles humans face.

(I just decided to add my Favorite and Least Favorite songs onto my ranking thoughts, so they're now on my previous posts.)
Favorite: Blind Faith
Least: The Glass Prison


Ranking:
15. When Dream And Day Unite
14. Falling Into Infinity
13. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
12. A Dramatic Turn of Events
11. Dream Theater
10. Train of Thought
9. Systematic Chaos
8. Distance Over Time
7.
6. Awake
5. A View From The Top Of The World
4.
3. Octavarium
2. The Astonishing
1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

[Wim Kruithof]

This is my # 4.

It has a song that does nothing for me (The Great Debate) and another that doesn't do a whole lot (Misunderstood), but everything else is pretty much gold.  I also love the attitude of experimentation they took with this album.  Also, other than Falling Into Infinity, one of my favorite SOUNDING DT records.

Excellent, excellent, excellent.

I feel the exact same as you. Agree 100%

[Mladen]

One of the other mistakes I felt the band made during this cycle was refusing to be a on nationally broadcast talk show because they wanted "Solitary Shell" played. My memory could be fuzzy, but I believe MP said that the band didn't want to "compromise who they were" by playing that track live. Which made no sense to me, because one, that song was very much a part of who DT was and is, and two, why in the world would you stupidly turn down that marketing? If I was the label, I would have been HOT. Talk about a missed crossover opportunity.

I'm not familiar with this..

Maybe I'm wrong, but from what I remember by memory, the real problem wasn't to play a ballad, but that the show wanted DT to play only as an acoustic trio (guitar, piano and vocals)?

Now THAT'S a different story.

It would be in my mind as well. But I'm not sure that's correct. Again, memory is a little fuzzy, but I don't remember anything about an acoustic TRIO. I think they were asked as a band to PLAY acoustically.

Andre pretty much is spot on - they weren't going to allow the full band to perform, so that's why the passed on the opportunity.

Do we know which show it was? If it was Late night with Conan O'Brien, I'm disappointed. Slipknot and King Crimson managed to appear with gazillion band members, and yet Dream Theater got screwed?

[KevShmev]

02. Images and Words

Number 1 finishes: 18
Last place finishes: 0
Average finish: 3.4

On my list of course-changing albums in regards to my musical direction, this is very high on the list. I was never much of a fan of metal prior to hearing this record, and this album isn't even one of their most metal albums, but it was a bit heavier than what I normally liked.  The first three songs all received heavy airplay on KSHE here in St Louis and on MTV.  Funny as it sounds, my initial impression of them was that they were a much heavier Europe. I was a big fan of Europe in the latter 80s, and the use of keys combined with James LaBrie's voice really gave me a strong Europe vibe at first.  I would realize very quickly that those superficial similarities are where the comparisons ended, but it's funny for me to think about.  But anyway, I finally got into metal a little bit thanks to this record.  In short, one of my all-time favorite albums.  A masterpiece on all levels, musically, sonically and lyrically.  There is not a single thing I would change about this record. I ranked it 3rd.

My top 5 songs from the album:
1. Learning to Live
2. Metropolis
3. Take the Time
4. Surrounded
5. Another Day

[Deadeye21]

Ok, this was my number 3 choice, but I can see exactly why it’s number 2 here. I’m almost surprised this isn’t number one.

Pull Me Under is the greatest radio hit they ever had (I suppose The Alien is now more successful though), Take The Time is an immense song, Metropolis is the song that I would use to “define” DT in 9 minutes, Under A Glass Moon is one of if not Petrucci’s best solo and Learning to Live is my absolute favourite song the band has ever written. Tie into this Surrounded, which I think is a pretty great tune and you have a pretty great album. I’m not mad keen on Another Day and I pretty much only listen to Wait For Sleep as a part of LtL these days.

The production is pretty wonky though, thanks to the very janky drum triggers. But, mostly, this is great, I just have personal preferences for two albums.

Images and Words
My rank: 3rd of 15

Top 5
Learning to Live
Metropolis
Under A Glass Moon
Surrounded
Take the Time

My current standing
1.
2. Awake
3. Images and Words
4. Falling Into Infinity
5. Octavarium
6.  Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
7. A Dramatic Turn of Events
8. Distance Over Time
9. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
10. A View From the Top of the World
11. Systematic Chaos
12. Train of Thought
13. When Dream And Day Unite
14. Dream Theater
15. The Astonishing

[wolfking]

I can't believe this isn't number 1.  I'm genuinely shocked.....

.....can't complain though, I had this at 3 after TOT and Awake.

[T-ski]

#1

It’s the album that changed my musical life. When I first heard PMU I was flabbergasted, never heard anything like it. It combined almost everything I love in a song and then some. Then getting the album and hearing Metropolis Pt.1 and Learning to Live. Damn. 

15. Astonishing
14. Systematic Chaos
13. View From the Top of the World
12. Falling Into Infinity
11. Train of Thought
10. Distance Over Time
9. When Dream and Day Unite
8. Dramatic Turn of Events
7. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
6. Dream Theater
5. Octavarium
4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
3.
2. Awake
1 Images and Words

[TheCountOfNYC]

We knew what the top two was gonna be, it was just a question of what order they would be. For once, my opinion on which is better aligns with the forum. Make no mistake about it though, I adore Images and Words, and if it wasn’t for their 2005 album having my all time favorite song, this would be my number two as well.

[Podaar]

#7 for me. At the time this came out, it was a musical revelation. These days, I just don't reach for it that much and would rather listen to so much more of their catalog.

15   When Dream and Day Unite
14   Dream Theater
13   Black Clouds and Silver Linings
12   The Astonishing
11   Systematic Chaos
10   A View from the Top of the World
9   Distance over Time
8   Falling into Infinity
7   Images and Words
6   A Dramatic Turn of Events
5   Train of Thought
4   Octavarium
3   Awake
2   
1   Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

[Lonk]

15. Black Clouds and Silver Lining
14. Dream Theater
13. When Dream and Day Unite
12. Systematic Chaos
11. Train of Thought
10. Falling Into Infinity
9. A View From the Top of the World
8. The Astonishing
7. Octavarium
6. Distance Over Time
5. A Dramatic Turn of Events
4. Awake
3. Images and Words
2. Six Degrees of Inner Turburlence
1. Metropolis Pt. II - Scenes From a Memory

[Dream Team]

Number 1 for me, always has been despite being briefly threatened by Scenes and The Astonishing. They had YEARS to hone these amazing songs which really paid off.

[Deadeye21]

Too early to ask what’ll be next in these rankings, Kev? Not the DT ones, but like are we gonna do the Maiden and VH albums next?

[ReaperKK]

Just catching up on the last two posts

Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence : This was my first DT album I got into. It was their most recent release when I discovered them. I remember getting rocked by The Glass Prison, I must've spun it 6 times in a row before moving on. If the album was only disc 1 it'd be near perfect and would be ranking number 1 but unfortunately there is another disc. SDOIT is an absolute chore to get through, it's not particularly memorable and it doesn't work as a single song, or broken up into smaller tracks. It's because of this i rated SDOIT #3.

Images And Words: I think this album suffers from being overplayed. For a long time it was one of my favorite albums but I just got tired of the music on there. The album is solid if not a bit dated. DT starts it's trend of writing notsogreat ballads. I had this at #6

[devieira73]

2.   Images and Words (#2); grade (10.5/10)

Top “4” songs: (ACOS), Metropolis pt.1, Learning to Live and Take the Time.

It’s one of their more than perfect masterpieces, so it has to be a bit above the scale! hahaha. The first DT album that I’ve heard (in 93) and it was clear immediately that I found my favorite band of all time, that PMU intro just gave me automatic chills...

Just a quick comment about A Change of Seasons, "my" best DT song: I consider it as a part of my personal I&W complete experience, since I heard it for the first time in the The Dance of Eternity bootleg, from the I&W Tour, and before Awake was released. The amazing icing in the already glorious cake.

[Stadler]

Kev, you've been perfect on all these rankings so far, but you've clearly made a mistake.  I like how you released Number ONE first since by doing Number Two, we'd automatically know what's the number one. 

I'm in denial, that's all.  This is a game-changing, seminal record for me.  It's not my favorite record of all time - that's still Going For The One - and it's not even my favorite Portnoy record - that's Innocence and Danger - but it is my favorite Dream Theater record. SFMA is very, very close, but it's still sort of viewed and valued in comparison to I&W, which is the flagship, the blueprint, the operating agreement. This changed the game for me.  Everything I thought about music sort of changed with this.  I knew bands with high levels of skill and precision - I had already gotten into prog at this time - but most of what I was listening to was of a theme, was pretty well aligned and sort of not that far afield.   I hadn't really appreciated bands like Journey yet.  I hadn't really gotten to understand bands like Metallica. 

So everything was in terms of "Zeppelin" and "Beatles" and was based on that British rock hierarchy of Beck/Page/Blackmore.  Even the prog stuff had those kind of roots (Genesis:  basically came from the Beatles; Yes: basically came from the Hendrix/Page school of rock; Crimson was it's own animal, but I hadn't really gotten full on into them at that point).  This album change that; this was Rush meets Maiden with Steve Perry singing, and it was a revelation. 

I know this sounds sort of stupid now, in hindsight, but not then.  Not to a 23-year-old who was still finding his (musical) way.

1. IMAGES AND WORDS
2.
3. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
4. Awake
5. Octavarium
6. Dream Theater
7. Systematic Chaos
8. Distance Over Time
9. A View From The Top Of The World
10. Falling Into Infinity
11. A Dramatic Turn Of Events
12. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
13. Train Of Thought
14. The Astonishing
15. When Dream And Day Unite

[The Letter M]

01. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
02.
03. Images And Words
04. Octavarium
05. Awake
06. A View From The Top Of The World
07. A Dramatic Turn Of Events
08. Train Of Thought
09. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
10. Distance Over Time
11. Falling Into Infinity
12. Systematic Chaos
13. Dream Theater
14. When Dream And Day Unite
15. The Astonishing

I almost figured this would've been number one, but I guess not! Then again I had it at number 3, but that isn't to say it isn't good or even great. It is definitely a landmark album for the band, and for the genre itself, with some amazing compositions and performances. I just liked my top 2 more so.

-Marc.

[Adami]

1. Awake
2.
3. Images and Words
4. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
5. Octavarium
6. Falling Into Infinity
7. A Dramatic Turn of Events
8. Train of Thought
9. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
10. The Astonishing
11. Systematic Chaos
12. When Dream and Day Unite
13. Dream Theater
14. Distance Over Time
15. A View From the Top of the World

Don't have much to add that hasn't been said and overstated a billion times by now. It's a really good album with fantastic songwriting and performances. I'm surprised it didn't make number 1 but am happy it didn't. Obviously my top 3 are my own, but I really wish Awake as top 3. Other than that, and placing the last three albums anything above the bottom 3, it's a good list. Good job Kev!

[krands85]

I expected this to come out on top ahead of Scenes, up until the little hint that Kev gave a few days ago  After that, I thought it would probably be the other way round.

It's number one for me, has been for many years and I just can't see it being surpassed as my favourite album of all time any time soon. It did take me a little while to fully appreciate when I first started getting in to the band and the genre, but once I did, no other album has since come close.

Everyone is firing on all cylinders, James is at his peak, great songwriting and a great mix. All the instruments are given room to breathe and I've never had a problem with the triggered drums - I much prefer the sound of this album to the overly compressed, more guitar dominated production of most of their recent efforts.

15. When Dream and Day Unite
14. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
13. Falling Into Infinity
12. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
11. Dream Theater
10. The Astonishing
9. Systematic Chaos
8. A View from the Top of the World
7. Distance Over Time
6. Awake
5. Octavarium
4.
3. A Dramatic Turn of Events
2. Train of Thought
1. Images and Words

Every track is stellar, Learning to Live is my favourite song of all time, Metropolis (which was overtaken by LTL a few years back) is my number 2. Take the Time is probably 6th in my DT song rankings - featuring my favourite keyboard solo ever - and Under a Glass Moon completes my big 4 of the album, this time with one of my favourite guitar solos ever.

Pull Me Under is just iconic, a brilliant way to kick-start the new era of the band. It's not quite as strong as the previous 4, but still a great song and so important in the trajectory of the band. Perhaps unsurprisingly for me, the three shorter, softer songs are at the bottom of my rankings for the album, but they are three of the best examples of those types of songs in the bands catalogue. They're all still wonderful and I probably favour Another Day of the 3, with Wait for Sleep my least favourite, mainly just due to it's length.

What an album 

[Mladen]

I kind of knew Scenes would take the cake. Over the years, I've been seeing people on the board ranking I&W slightly lower, mostly due to its sound, whereas Scenes rarely ends up outside of top five on people's lists. Either way, both albums are tremendous. 

[Samsara]

Images and Words is #1 in my book.

I think Scenes beating it out for the top spot is a combination of a couple of things.

1. It's a great record, obviously.
2. With the Internet now at the disposal of almost everyone by a landslide in 1999/2000, things changed, and the hype for SFAM was very real, very online, and it brought a whole new level of exposure to Dream Theater. In essence, it grew to be the "entry point" for many, many fans. I'd argue even more than the commercial exposure I&W received.
3. It's a concept album, and people that appreciate the more intellectual side of hard rock and metal gravitate toward those things.

I can't argue with folks who put Scenes #1. I get it completely, and the whole "entry point" thing is very real.

Anyway, regarding Images and Words, there is nothing on the album, at all, that isn't absolutely great. It is a complete album listen from front to back, with nothing I'd change. Everyone sounds great, the record sounds really good (not really sure what the complaints are - it's not Empire from a sound perspective, but it's damn good, particularly for 1992), and the performance of JLB just takes it to a whole different level. A complete game changer. Just the perfect blend of Rush, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Queensryche, and Fates Warning. It took what QR, FW, and Crimson Glory really sort of molded here in the U.S., and took it up a notch from a technical perspective. Set the tone for so many bands to follow.

Suffice it to say, Images and Words is an absolute classic. And should be required listening for anyone with in an interest in progressive rock and metal.

[hefdaddy42]

On any given day, I&W and Awake are 1A and 1B for me.  Game changer.  This album literally changed my life.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Even though I have it ranked third as an album, I consider Images and Words to be the best collection of songs in Dream Theater’s discography. For me, Scenes From a Memory and Octavarium offer a better full album experience, but if we’re judging things by songs alone, Images and Words takes the cake. I remember when I did my first top 50 Dream Theater song list back when their self titled album came out, Images and Words was the only album with every song represented in my list.

[Stadler]

Images and Words is #1 in my book.

I think Scenes beating it out for the top spot is a combination of a couple of things.

1. It's a great record, obviously.
2. With the Internet now at the disposal of almost everyone by a landslide in 1999/2000, things changed, and the hype for SFAM was very real, very online, and it brought a whole new level of exposure to Dream Theater. In essence, it grew to be the "entry point" for many, many fans. I'd argue even more than the commercial exposure I&W received.
3. It's a concept album, and people that appreciate the more intellectual side of hard rock and metal gravitate toward those things.

I can't argue with folks who put Scenes #1. I get it completely, and the whole "entry point" thing is very real.

Anyway, regarding Images and Words, there is nothing on the album, at all, that isn't absolutely great. It is a complete album listen from front to back, with nothing I'd change. Everyone sounds great, the record sounds really good (not really sure what the complaints are - it's not Empire from a sound perspective, but it's damn good, particularly for 1992), and the performance of JLB just takes it to a whole different level. A complete game changer. Just the perfect blend of Rush, Metallica, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Queensryche, and Fates Warning. It took what QR, FW, and Crimson Glory really sort of molded here in the U.S., and took it up a notch from a technical perspective. Set the tone for so many bands to follow.

Suffice it to say, Images and Words is an absolute classic. And should be required listening for anyone with in an interest in progressive rock and metal.

And... 3... 2... 1... "Triggered drums discussion".    Which I for one think is a ridiculous discussion.  I do agree that Mike refined his sound later, for the better, but I find nothing off-putting about the sound of that record.   I love it as-is.