1. A View From The Top Of The World (8/10)
Pros: very solid album, great sounding record
Cons: a bit too much DT by the numbers, no top 10 or even top 20 song on here
2. Distance Over Time (7.8/10)
Pros: love the high energy, shorter song direction, a few outstanding songs like Pale Blue Dot, Barstool Warrior, Fall Into The Light, S2N and At Wit's End, plus one of the more memorable album covers as far as I'm concerned
Cons: over processed vocals, a few stale songs as well
3. A Dramatic Turn Of Events (7.5/10)
Pros: love Bridges In The Sky and Breaking All Illusions is my favorite Mangini era song
Cons: a bit too familiar at times, a bit too wankery at times and I don't really like On The Back Of Angels, Build Me Up, Break Me Down and the ballads, except for This Is The Life if you consider it a ballad
4. The Astonishing (7.3/10)
Pros: something different, the use of analogue instruments, great performance by LaBrie, some terrific melodic (guitar) playing
Cons: too long, often too cheesy, not a great story, sword fights and bag pipes?!
5. Dream Theater (6.5/10)
Pros: I like moments in songs like The Bigger Picture, Illumination Theory and The Enigma Machine, plus the wild guitar solo in Surrender To Reason is quite fun and a bit different
Cons: the sound/mix, poor songwriting as overall the songs are not too memorable, too little strong moments, might be my least favorite DT record overall