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

[Deadeye21]

What the hell happened? Distance Over Time was pretty well liked in 2019. Even Room 137. DT have way way way way WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY worse songs like the absolute fucking monstrosity that is Just Let Me Breathe. That is the worst DT song in existence. Must be newbies who have come in here and skewed the reception of D/T.

And you lot calling the ambient section of IT "not music" can go to hell as well.

Must disagree with two points you’ve made here. Firstly, Just Let Me Breathe is a great grooving rocker, even better with the extra jam on the OiaL version. Secondly, no, the ambient section is technically not music. It’s a soundscape, a pretty impressive one at that, but it really isn’t music in the strictest terms. The orchestra kicks in, it’s music again. If you want to say “people who dislike the ambient section can go to hell”, I can support that. But technically speaking, they’re correct.

Also, Room 137 is not the worst song off Distance Over Time imo. I have changed my mind from my previous post on the matter. However, I’m pretty sure I’ll get even more destroyed for what I think is worse.

[wolfking]

What the hell happened? Distance Over Time was pretty well liked in 2019. Even Room 137. DT have way way way way WAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY worse songs like the absolute fucking monstrosity that is Just Let Me Breathe. That is the worst DT song in existence. Must be newbies who have come in here and skewed the reception of D/T.

And you lot calling the ambient section of IT "not music" can go to hell as well.

While this post is a little but more aggressive than it needs to be, I kind of agree.  I'm a little surprised too at the negativity and thought there was a little more positivity towards the album when it came out.

[KevShmev]

I think it is important to point out that some albums age better than others.  Not saying Distance over Time is not aging well, but time and the new car smell wearing off allows us to give a more fair and accurate assessment, based off our own personal tastes of course.  Heck, there is still an album to come that had a lot of negativity around it online immediately after its release, yet it will rank in the top 8 here, so you just never know.

[Mladen]

I was not blown away by Distance over time, but I was even less impressed by A View. However, that's not to say A View won't surpass Distance on my list in the coming years. Nowadays I'm not too sure which one was better.

[KevShmev]

8. A View from the Top of the World

Number 1 finishes: 0
Last place finishes: 1
Average finish: 8.6

Not sure where I will rank this one in a few years, as it still feels the new car smell is on it a bit, but for now I ranked it 9th, which seems about right.  I feel this album is extremely consistent, and my favorites here likely rank among my favorite songs from the Mangini era.  And this is by far their best sounding album since probably Six Degrees. There are several albums that I can say with absolutely certainty would have rated quite a bit higher for me if they sounded as good as this one.

My top 5 songs from the album:
1. Transcending Time
2. Awaken the Master
3. Answering the Call
4. The Alien
5. A View from the Top of the World

[KevShmev]

I was not blown away by Distance over time, but I was even less impressed by A View. However, that's not to say A View won't surpass Distance on my list in the coming years. Nowadays I'm not too sure which one was better.

I ranked D/T higher (8th, while View was 9th) simply because I think Fall into the Light and At Wit's End are the best songs from either album, but there is nothing on View as mediocre, IMO, as Untethered Angel or Paralyzed.  I didn't like Invisible Monster at first, but I can enjoy it now, which is more than I can say for the first two songs from D/T.  D/T has some amazing highs, though.

[javidt]

I listened to D/T a lot when it was released too and I thought it was a good album but I rarely listen to it now a days and my favourite song (PBD) is already in two live albums so I don't have any need to revisit it. Plus, for me, UA and FITL are boring song for the DT standard.

Ranked it #12

Regarding AVFTTOTW. #5

I enjoy any song any day. ATM and AVFTTOTW specially. The weakest track for me is Sleeping Giant, but I don't need to skip it.

TT was a great surprise (despite of the guitar solo)

[SwedishGoose]

After D/T failed to impress me I had little hope for the next one but was pleasantly surprised.

In my ears soo much better than it's predecessor but still not nearly up there with the classics.

It ended up as nr 7 in my ranking

Will have to wait and see if it passes the test of time


15. Distance Over Time
14. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
13. When Dream and Day Unite
12. Systematic Chaos
11. Dream Theater
10.
9. Falling Into Infinity
8.
7. A View From the Top Of the World
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1. The Astonishing

[ReaperKK]

Doing a little bit of a catchup:

Falling Into Infinity: I didn't think this album would place so low on my list but using the ranking engine this is how it shook out and it kind of makes sense. FII is probably the last album that I can think of that has a good variety of songs, not only is the album good but the demos are kickass too. If I were to go back 10 years ago this album would've been close to my favorite if not my favorite but my tastes have changed. That said FII has one of my two most disliked DT songs, "New Millennium" and "Just Let Me Breathe".

Distance Over Time: I loved this album from the start and my enjoyment has only grown. To me DT did what I thought was impossible and that was make a consistently good record that was true to form for their modern style, similar to Hardwired by Metallica. I get that DT will never go back to being as experimental as they were pre-ToT days but since MM joined the band I felt that DT was stumbling to find a way to sound fresh in the modern era and they were finally able to achieve that here.

A View From The Top Of The World: I think this is a solid album that does a good job at carrying the momentum of DoT but never really achieving it's highs.


1. Systematic Chaos
2. Distance Over Time
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. A View From The Top Of The World
8. Falling Into Infinity
9.
10. Black Clouds And Silver Linings
11.
12.
13. Dream Theater
14. When Dream And Day Unite
15. The Astonishing

[devieira73]

8.   A View from the Top of the World (#6 to me); grade (9.0/10)

Top 3 songs:    The Alien, Awaken the Master and AVFTTOTW.
Only song not great (and just average): Invisible monster

Best Mangini era album (and ideed best sounding too) and I think with this one DT truly managed to bring back the spark from its golden era (I&W to 8V).

[SeRoX]

1-
2-
3-
4-
5- The Astonishing
6- Falling into Infinity
7- A View from the Top of the World
8- When Dream and Day Unite
9-
10-
11-
12- Systematic Chaos
13- Distance over Time
14- Dream Theater
15- Black Clouds and Silver Linings


After DoT that album gives me a great run. No filler song. At first I didn't like The Alien but it's a grower. Self titled is a great epic song and I like the ending. James sounds so young and energic. Post production is best among MM era albums and possibly all of them.

The only negativity is some songs sound samey. And DT needs to get outsider producer.

1- Transcending Time
2- AVFTTOW
3- Answering The Call
4- Sleeping Giant
5- Awaken The Master

[Podaar]

Number 10 for me. Another one that probably deserves a better ranking from me since I quite enjoy it.

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   
6   
5   
4   
3   
2   
1   

[Lonk]

15. Black Clouds and Silver Lining
14. Dream Theater
13. When Dream and Day Unite
12. Systematic Chaos
11. ??
10. Falling Into Infinity
9. A View From the Top of the World
8. The Astonishing
7. ??
6. Distance Over Time
5. ??
4. ??
3. ??
2. ??
1. ??

Good album with good songs. There still 1 song that hasn't click for me, but the rest is enjoyable.

[DragonAttack]

A VIEW  #11
It didn't grab me instantly as D/T did, and still hasn't.  It's a damn good album, but I'm still waiting for that 'moment' when the light clicks on.  Or, maybe
I'm just getting old.  

Great all around sound production on a Mangini era release (finally).

[Zydar]

I had this album at #11. A solid album but there's nothing outstanding here to me, not even the epic title track managed to impress me much. My favourite track here is easily Transcending Time, but I like The Alien and Invisible Monster as well. It's cool that they won the Grammy for The Alien, well deserved.

15. The Astonishing
14. Black Clouds And Silver Linings
13. When Dream And Day Unite
12. Systematic Chaos
11. A View From The Top Of The World
10. Dream Theater
09. Distance Over Time
08. ??
07. ??
06. ??
05. Falling Into Infinity
04. ??
03. ??
02. ??
01. ??

[Adami]

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. Falling Into Infinity
7.
8.
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

Guess I was the one person to rank it last. This is actually the first and thus far only DT album I never bought. After buying and really failing to connect with DoT, I wanted to listen to this a few times (legally) before I bought it and at no point did I feel anything for this album. I just really really don't connect at all with their song writing. If their next album continues in this direction, I'm sure it'll be a big success that I also won't buy. Sucks, but I'm glad they're doing what speaks to them and so many others, even if it doesn't speak to me.

[Dream Team]

So the guy that keeps saying this is the greatest album of all time didn't rank it #1? 

[jammindude]

I had View at #8. Just a huge step up from D/T for me. In fact this and the self titled are the only two Mangini albums I still consistently listen to. Nothing on either one makes me want to hit the skip button.

[Mladen]

15. Falling into infinity
14. A View from the top of the world
13. When Dream and Day Unite
12. Dream Theater
11. Distance over time
10.
9.
8. Black clouds & silver linings
7. Systematic Chaos
6.
5. The Astonishing
4.
3.
2.
1.

Yeah, I was not impressed by it. It's not bad, but man, Dream Theater really has set some high standards.

[Stadler]

I suppose my list says "D/T is better than AVFTTOTW", but for me, these albums are interchangeable.  Some good songs - Fall Into The Light and At Wit's End from D/T and Transcending Time and the title track from AVFTTOTW - but also some duds - Room 137 and Invisible Monster.  No masterpieces to be found here, but if I was stuck in the car and all I had was these two albums, I'd find music to enjoy for sure (and I REALLY like the live stuff I've heard from both disks).  I don't know; this tells me that DT has settled into a groove; they are past the stage where each album is an entity to itself, a snapshot in time with a particular point of view, and settled into the "we're Dream Theater, this is what we are" phase.  Kind of like Aerosmith pre-1978 and post-1984. 


1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6. Dream Theater
7. Systematic Chaos
8. Distance Over Time
9. A View From The Top Of The World
10. Falling Into Infinity
11.
12. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
13.
14. The Astonishing
15. When Dream And Day Unite

[krands85]

I have it in 8th, though as I said yesterday it was close between it and D/T and I definitely group these two together as similar. Just another really solid and consistent album, once again just lacking the real highs to elevate it much higher - I really like all but one track, but none break in to my top tier DT songs. It does get bonus points for the improved production though!

15. When Dream and Day Unite
14. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
13. Falling Into Infinity
12.
11. Dream Theater
10. The Astonishing
9. Systematic Chaos
8. A View from the Top of the World
7. Distance Over Time
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.

Unsurprisingly, the epic title track is my favourite, though it doesn't quite reach the same level as their others. I do really like it, but the ending just falls a little flat for me. The Alien is probably my second favourite, a great high energy way to kick off the album, with brilliant instrumentation all round and I was delighted for the band to earn a Grammy from it. Awaken the Master is pretty close behind and it has one of my favourite passages on the album with the instrumental section towards the end that leads back into the final vocal part.

Answering the Call and Sleeping Giant come next in my rankings, though I don't have much to say - just really enjoyable tracks, but which I don't find quite as musically interesting as some of the others.

Invisible Monster I find similar to Paralyzed from the last album, in that it felt fairly boring at first but it's grown on me a fair bit to be a pretty catchy tune. Transcending Time is easily at the bottom of my rankings, one of my least favourite Mangini era songs. Not really sure why, there's just something about the sound of it that doesn't appeal to me. I don't skip it or anything though and that's the beauty of DT - I can still listen to pretty much any of their songs and still get enjoyment from them.

[nobloodyname]

So the guy that keeps saying this is the greatest album of all time didn't rank it #1? 

The one who said it belongs in the canon of western music? Maybe they didn't take part.

I ranked this album seventh. But as others have said, the mid-spots (7-10) could be in any order, really.

[The Letter M]

01.
02.
03.
04.
05.
06. A View From The Top Of The World
07.
08.
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've got AVFTTOTW at the top of my middle-five, as I feel it's probably their best effort overall since ADTOE, and I think I may even like it more than that, and so it's possibly my favorite Mangini-era album so far.

Maybe I'm still in the honeymoon phase with it but I still really enjoy it every time I put it on. It could slip down my rankings in the future, especially since I haven't really done a full discography re-listen in a long time, so my feelings on AVFTTOTW are being weighed against my memories of feelings of their older albums.

At any rate, there's some strong material on here and I could see how folks would praise it and rate it highly, but it's definitely not for everyone. Definitely a good "middle of the pack" DT album.

-Marc.

[T-ski]

#13

Too many songs that are below average for me. I don’t consider any one song to be great. Ask me again in a couple of years though.

15. Astonishing
14. Systematic Chaos
13. View From the Top of the World
12. Falling Into Infinity
11.
10. Distance Over Time
9. When Dream and Day Unite
8.
7. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
6. Dream Theater
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.

[pg1067]

8. A View from the Top of the World

My rankings:

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7. Dream Theater
8.
9. When Dream and Day Unite
10. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
11. Distance over Time
12. Falling Into Infinity
13. A View from the Top of the World
14. Systematic Chaos
15. The Astonishing


Although I have View at #13, I don't think that's an entirely fair or permanent ranking.  Although the album's nearly a year old, I still don't feel like I've settled anywhere with it.  That said, it feels a lot like DOT Part 2.  I like the title track, but it doesn't blow me away.  Didn't really like Awaken the Master, but it's not bad.  Transcending Time was the song that most resonated with me, but I've yet to feel compelled to listen on repeat.  Everything else is just...yeah...heavy and fast/complex.

[hefdaddy42]

I really like AVFTTOTW.  For me, it's a bit of a return to form for what I like most about the band.  I liked DoT, but I definitely prefer AVFTTOTW, so I'm glad it snuck in higher.

[Deadeye21]

My god, I don’t think I’ve ever been more divided on a Dream Theater album. I mean, for starters, it has told audacity to feature one of the worst songs in the entire DT Discography (and yet has one of the coolest solos on the album) as a single. Thank god that didn’t win the Grammy or we’d be stuck with it! But then it also ends in a solid epic, just it’s kinda middle of the pack for DT epics. I don’t know, it does a lot right, but it’s all in ways that I feel have been di be better before.

A View From the Top of the World
My rank: 10th of 15

Top 5:
Transcending Time
A View From the Top of the World
Alien
Answering the Call
Sleeping Giant

My current standing:
1.
2.
3.
4. Falling Into Infinity
5.
6.
7.
8. Distance Over Time
9. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
10. A View From the Top of the World
11. Systematic Chaos
12.
13. When Dream And Day Unite
14. Dream Theater
15. The Astonishing

I think I almost need to put in the disclaimer that I do not hate the Mangini era. Each of these albums have songs that I absolutely cherish (BAI, BtV, Ravenskill, AWE and TT amongst many more). However, my rankings are indicative of how I feel about these albums as a collective whole, which I don’t think any of these albums have fully nailed as yet. 

[Dublagent66]

15  When Dream and Day Unite
14  Dream Theater
13  The Astonishing
12 A View from the Top of the World
11  Distance over Time
10  Black Clouds and Silver Linings
  9  Systematic Chaos
  8  Falling into Infinity
  7   
  6   
  5   
  4   
  3   
  2   
  1   

[Lethean]

I ranked it #9, so it's close.  I think I do need more time with it to truly place it, but then again my rankings in the middle probably move around a lot anyway.

[The Letter M]

My god, I don’t think I’ve ever been more divided on a Dream Theater album. I mean, for starters, it has told audacity to feature one of the worst songs in the entire DT Discography (and yet has one of the coolest solos on the album) as a single. Thank god that didn’t win the Grammy or we’d be stuck with it! But then it also ends in a solid epic, just it’s kinda middle of the pack for DT epics. I don’t know, it does a lot right, but it’s all in ways that I feel have been di be better before.

You don't mean "The Alien", right? Because that DID win the Grammy for Best Metal Performance earlier this year.

-Marc.

[Animal]

The order in which you discover a band's albums matters a lot and for me, A View is a great example of that. I stopped paying attention to what DT were doing after SC so I didn't listen to any of their post-SC albums upon their release. My love for DT and other prog and metal was rekindled again almost 15 years later (I wanted to prevent a burnout so instead of listening to audiobooks when driving, I started doing what normal people do and began listening to music - so revisiting my beloved records of old such as Awake, Scenes, Blackwater Park came naturally).

Long story short, when A View was released, I was once again as enthusiastic about DT as ever. And I kept reading more and more positive reviews so I thought "Why don't I give it a try?" I did and liked it a lot. A View sounded so different to the DT albums from "the golden era" (which were the only ones I knew at that point, plus Systematic Chaos) and because I had missed out on all the previous Mangini era albums (plus Black Clouds), it felt like a wholy new and interesting direction in their music. Songwriting was more than solid too.

It was a bit like "I don't expect to like it - after all, DT are supposed to be boring academic musicians - but I do like it. A lot." And thanks to The View, I gave fresh listen to all the other albums I had missed out on. And I liked all of them better than Systematic Chaos but that is not saying much - actually, I love one of them (yet to be revealed) and like all the others quite a lot (except TA, which contains some great moments but Petrucci should have taken some guidance form Lucassen about how to make a rock opera work).

I believe that if I had been listening to new DT records as they were being released, I may not have ranked A View so high. I could see that a lot of what felt fresh and new about it had been done on previous records as well - I just didn't know these when I listened to AVFTTOTW for the first dozen of times or so. In a way, it is a kind of nostalgia that makes me rank it relatively high - although it is a new album. But it was the first album of the DT era which I had ignored but which later gave me a lot of joy and great musical moments.

[Elite]

So far:

1   
2   
3   
4   
5   Falling into Infinity
6   Systematic Chaos
7   
8   
9   A View from the Top of the World
10   The Astonishing
11   
12   When Dream and Day Unite
13   Distance over Time
14   Dream Theater
15   Black Clouds and Silver Linings

[Ben_Jamin]

#09 - Distance Over Time (My Ranking: #8)

This being only the 2nd album where Mangini gets his full involvement, it is great to see his songwriting and lyrical contributions on a song. For the entire album, this is a nice next step from the self-titled album. I enjoyed where they went with blending the heaviness with the prog, and how they incorporated softer moments in songs like The Bigger Picture and Surrender to Reason. I am glad that the band decided to explore more of those type of song structures because those two songs are ones that I really enjoy from the Mangini era of the band.

Barstool Warrior is amazing from start to finish. The music and the message of the lyrics fit perfectly, and it also has one of JP's great emotional solo's. JLB's vocals soar as well and I like how they continue that ending structure reminiscent of the outro to The Bigger Picture. At Wit's End is the other song that really expanded upon what I liked from all 3 Mangini albums so far.

I am one that doesn't mind Room 137 at all. It's a nice groove, with a heavy riff, that requries heavy lyrics. I find the lyrics do fit the music, and I also like how they incorporated that number into the music itself with the Tempo being set to 137. I just wonder how many backing vocals will be in the mix live. 

The rest of the songs I really enjoy and will jam out to them when they come on. I grew to love Paralyzed after I saw it live, I felt it had more of an impact live, which some songs tend to do when played live. Fall Into The Light has the amazing middle section, I really like how they took inspiration from Metallica's Unforgiven, I like that intro guitar, so the band expanding on that motif and adding an amazing solo to boot.

Overall, I really enjoyed when the album was released and the tour. I actually went to see a show on the 2nd leg just because they were playing At Wit's End, that's how much I really adore that song. That song is a reason why I continue to listen to this band and will continue to listen to their albums, and try and catch them live.


Favorite: At Wit's End
Least: Untethered Angel

[Ben_Jamin]

#08 - A View From The Top Of The World (My Ranking: #05)

This album, has a lot going on with it, and also is among my top 5 DT albums.

Starting off the album with a Mangini drum-fill before going into a full band onslaught the band is best known for was the best way to begin this album. Showcasing the mix and production of the drum sound showed us listeners that they have heard the cries for Mangini's drums to have justice in the mixing. For myself, this album is the cumulative Mangini era album.

While The Alien doesn't have the best verses in the vocal department for me, JP's guitar solo's are what drew me into this song. The outro solo behind the bass and drum groove, in that progression, really made me think of those classic days. Being followed by Answering The Call, in the same vein how This Dying Soul followed As I Am, just adds more intensity to the energy of the album. I really hope they pull it out soon, it will slay live for sure.

One thing I will say is I enjoy the songwriting a lot for these songs. The chord progressions, and the grooves, are pretty intricate and seem to be what they focused on. Even on the title track, it's structure is related to the topic at hand, and I like how the music describes that feeling of being in that moment. Not only is it about being at the top of the world, but also being at the depths of the unknown sea, which is facing that fear and taunting death.

The theme of facing the fears, facing death, and that feeling humans get from it, being the central theme of the album is why I really enjoy this album. I also like how the outro of title track is the summarization of this theme lyrically, and the ending not being epic makes sense to me. It's like "Alright, I accomplished this...bring on the next challenge."


Favorite: Answering The Call
Least: Invisible Monster

[The Realm]

A View From The Top of The World - #12 for me. A couple of great tracks and some really good production but another album I already don't revisit.

I really like Animal's post above, I agree that some times the 'order of things' matters and as a very long time fan I just think my love of the DT style is a bit burnt out these days and the last few albums, while having some really great stuff also have lots of songs that don't offer me anything new or anything I really connect with. If I want that from DT I will reach for one of the albums still yet to be revealed, as that is where my love for DT came from and what I still connect with the most.