I had A View at 8. Didn’t put it higher since it is still kinda new, but I can actually see this moving up the list a bit over time. It is a great return to form (as hef said) for DT. I liked D/T a lot more in the first few months after it’s release, but after about a year or so the “new car smell” wore off and I ultimately stopped listening to it much. That affect still hasn’t happened on A View, even after playing it extensively since it’s release and even still to this day. For a band’s 15th album, it is remarkably consistent and awesome. The Alien is a top 20 DT song for me at this point. It embodies everything I love about DT, consolidates it allinto 9 jam packed minutes with not a single wasted second, and the melodic solo at the beginning and end is one of my favorite JP Melodie’s of all time. So glad that was the song to win them the Grammy!
Answering the Call, Sleeping Giant and Transcending Time are great songs (and that includes the awesome solo on TT. It may be a *little* jarring for that song, but I can’t believe the amount of hate that solo gets, it’s out of place feeling makes it so cool!). AVFTTOTW was the biggest surprise of the album. It is a very unique epic, and I was very happy with how different it feels from other DT epics. Where Illumination Theory felt like they tried to copy the 8VM format and didn’t quite hit the highest highs of that song (even though I still love IT), this song was a completely new take on a DT epic. Lots of cool ideas and melodies throughout, and the ending is outstanding, especially live. The winner of the whole album Mangini, who put out probably the best drum performance in DT history for me. Outrageous drumming on every song.
The only song that hasn’t aged well for me is Awaken the Master. The intro is excellent, but once it gets into the first verse all of that momentum is lost and the rest of the song (besides a couple fun moments) is largely a slug to get through and ultimately a disappointing effort for their first 8 string song. I hope JP continues to experiment with it, would love to see what else he comes up with.
I had ToT at #5. I’ve always been a huge fan of the heavier side of DT, and this album fucking slays. Honor Thy Father is actually the song that got me into DT, and I’ve always been disappointed in the amount of flack that song gets. This Dying Soul is top 20 DT for me. The 00000 00 00|00000 00 00 riff is one of my favorite DT riffs of all time, the verses are awesome, and the intro, outro, and reprisal of the riff from part 2 of The Glass Prison are all top tier heavy DT. It’s a pretty perfect song to me. And In the Name of God is overall fantastic. The riffs on this are excellent, and the outro solo from JP live is quintessential DT.
The album should’ve been like 5 min shorter though. The first half of Endless Sacrifice drags a little too much, and Stream of Consciousness is entirely too long (I wish the whole middle section was left out honestly). But overall, it’s an excellent album, and one I listen to pretty heavily to this day.
So far:
My rankings so far:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5. Train of Thought
6. Dream Theater
7.
8.
9.
10. Systematic Chaos
11. Falling Into Infinity
12. Black Clouds and Silver Linings
13. The Astonishing
14. When Dream And Day Unite
15. Distance Over Time