Dream Theater album ranking and rating score

[Kyo]

Alright, I'll play:

WDADU - 5
Solid songs, but weak production and singer. Lacks true highlights.

I&W - 10
Groundbreaking and simply perfect. The drum sound doesn't bother me.

Awake - 6
I like a couple of songs, but the rest is rather dull, overall lacking melody and the seriously proggy bits I liked about I&W.

FII - 6
The long songs and Hell's Kitchen are outstanding. I also like Hollow Years. The rest is forgettable.

SfaM - 9
Some very good stuff, but these days some things that later became DT tropes and the bad audio drama bits bother me.

Six Degrees - 9
Love disc 1, though TGP doesn't keep my interest after the first 5 minutes. Disc 2 has its moments.

ToT - 5
Other than Honor Thy Father, this album doesn't do it for me. Vacant is nice, though. And the first five minutes of TDS and SoC are good, but then zzzzz...

Octavarium - 7
Love the variety, but in retrospect, the rather non-proggy tracks 2-4 are my favorites. Really like the second half of the title track, but the first half kinda bores me.

Systematic Chaos - 5
I like some bits here and there, but no song as a whole really does it for me.

Black Clouds - 6
Nightmare is almost great. The Count has some very good bits, but those lyrics... The rest, eh...

ADToE - 9
Very strong album from start to finish. Some of their most focused writing and some of their best ballads.

DT - 8
Some really good songwriting, much more concise and structurally inventive than in the years before. My main gripe is that I don't really care for the epic once it reaches the mellow section.  The CD sounds like ass, the Hi-Res mastering is OK.

The Astonishing - 7
I mostly really like this, though it's clearly needlessly long. My abridged version would be an 8, I guess.

DoT - 6
Nothing really bad here, but other than a couple of tracks, nothing really gets me overly excited, either.

View - 10
Yeah, baby! This is what I'd been hoping for after ADToE: DT pushing themselves again. Very strong songs, amazing drumming in particular.

Parasomnia - 8
I enjoy this more than I expected. Not as focused as the Mangini era, but some really good stuff here. Wish it had more variety, though.

[nobloodyname]

Turns out I've already contributed to this thread. Oh. Anyway, just ran all the albums through the ranking engine and this is what came out. Scores are relative to each other, that's all (eg I don't perceive The Astonishing as a 2/10 album).

1   Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (10) - showcases every aspect of the band. A complete package. My only regret is Jordan going feral in the piano break in Blind Faith when I finally saw the track live in the mid-00s. I don't wanna hear you improv at that point, you lunatic

2   Train of Thought (10) - not a single wasted second or note. I wouldn't want every one of their albums to be like this but it achieves exactly what it sets out to

3   Scenes From A Memory (10) - interesting story, fantastic diversity. Let down only slightly by the instrumental but even then, it's still a relative 10

4   Octavarium (9) - contains DT's second best song in the title track and I again love the diversity. The Answer Lies Within is criminally underrated, you horrible lot

5   Images And Words (9) - dated sound has started taking its toll. But I can't score an album containing DT's best song (Metropolis) any lower than a 9

6   A Dramatic Turn of Events (8) - a return to form even if they so clearly used Images & Words as their almost literal blueprint. Bridges in the Sky is the standout for me although Breaking All Illusions is pretty good, too. The album, overall, is let down a smidge by the horribly saccharine ballads

7   A View From the Top of the World (8) - no standout track but you know, this rocks from start to finish. I'd rank the epic second to last in DT's catalogue, though

8   Parasomnia (8) - should never have released three singles from it and I should never have listened to the first two! I agree with what I've read elsewhere here, it's a familiar and easy album to get into, but I think it's got far more in common with View (not talking about the drumming before some of you get wound up...) than Train of Thought despite its overall heaviness. On top of that, I've never been a big lyrics person but even I've noticed how bad they are on this one. And while I appreciate the reasoning behind the callbacks in Midnight Messiah, I think they make the song weaker

9   Black Clouds & Silver Linings (7) - For me, Nightmare and Count are both monstrous bookends, and most of the stuff in between is pretty good, too. And no, I wouldn't cut a single second of Nightmare

10   Systematic Chaos (6) - Always better than I remember it being. Shame the band was lightly encouraged along this route by their label at the time, and I think it was a serious misstep dividing the epic in two

11   Awake (5) - One of those rare albums when the sum is weaker than its parts. Some great stuff here but I find the album suffocatingly dense. And no, Train of Thought and Parasomnia don't feel that way to me. Humans, eh?

12   Falling Into Infinity (5) - Contains one of DT's best tracks in Trial of Tears. I do personally wish they'd write more songs like that and Lines in the Sand but that particular side of the band has long since gone

13   Distance Over Time (4) - I enjoyed this when it came out. Felt like a nice return after The Astonishing. Fall Into the Light has the best Metallica breakdown that Metallica never wrote but Pale Blue Dot was a disappointment (who cares if Mangini's twatting the cymbal thingy one-handed at the start? Plenty of people, it transpires, and that's fine, it just doesn't connect with me). I listened again yesterday to the vinyl, on headphones, following BarstoolWarrior's gushing review of it but I don't know, I just don't hear it the same way, possibly I'm not smart enough enough to understand what Mangini's doing from start to finish

14   When Dream And Day Unite (4) - Some fabulous writing here (Only a Matter of Time, Afterlife, The Killing Hand, A Fortune in Lies). But something's gotta be ranked towards the end, right?

15   Dream Theater (3) - Home, sadly, to their least enjoyable epic. And so-called Easter eggs need to die. Either put it in its own track or leave it out. (I feel similarly about the live from the floor piece following At Wits' End but that could have been fixed just by overlapping it at the end of the track. It's actually a beautiful sound.) I don't like the choice of guitar tones on this album and it all just merges into one for me

16   The Astonishing (2) - To be clear, this isn't a bad album; some of the texturing in the music is fabulous. But the story is risible, and it all starts dragging about two-thirds of the way through the first disc. A more concise version would have been welcome, and a version with all the characters played by different singers even more so

[Lonk]

I'm still not sure where this album lands, but if I had to rank it at the moment, I would put it somewhere in between 6 or 7. Maybe just below FII.


10. Scenes from a Memory
---------------------------------------
9. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
9. Images and Words
---------------------------------------
8. A Dramatic Turn of Events
---------------------------------------
7. Distance Over Time
7. Octavarium
7. Falling Into Infinity
7. Parasomnia
7. When Dream and Day Unite
--------------------------------------
6. Awake
6. The Astonishing
6. A View From the Top of the World
6. Train of Thoughts
6. Systematic Chaos
--------------------------------------
5. Black Clouds and Silver Lining
---------------------------------------
4. Dream Theater

[pg1067]

My rankings:

1. Metropolis Part 2: Scenes from a Memory - 10
2. Images and Words - 9.5
3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 8.5 (it would be an easy 10 if TGD and Disappear were removed)
4. Awake - 8.5
5. Octavarium - 8
6. Train of Thought - 8
7. Dream Theater - 8
8. A Dramatic Turn of Events - 7.5
9. When Dream and Day Unite - 7
10. Black Clouds & Silver Linings - 5.5
11. Distance over Time - 5
12. Falling Into Infinity - 3.5
13. A View from the Top of the World - 3.5
14. Systematic Chaos - 3
15. The Astonishing - 2.5

At the moment, I think Parasomnia will settle somewhere in the 7-10 range.  I don't see it cracking the top 6, but that's a testament to how good those albums are.

[birchbark]

Images and Words - 10/10 - Goated. Incredible album, even the ballads rip hard.

Awake - 9.5/10 - Would be a 10, but I don't really care for the Silent Man.

Scenes From a Memory - 9/10 - Seriously great album. However, potentially unpopular opinion: I don't really like The Spirit Carries On. This album still tells a great story and has some of my favorite DT musical moments.

A Change of Seasons - 9/10 - Generally very good, some parts are slightly repetitive.

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 8/10 - Generally a very good album, though there are a few bits on the first disc that aren't quite as good.

Octavarium - 8/10 - The title track pulls a lot of weight here...but this is a solid album even if a couple of the songs are kind of cheesy in my opinion.

Train of Thought - 7.5/10 - Generally very good, some parts are just a bit repetitive for me.

A Dramatic Turn of Events - 7/10 - This would probably be a 9/10 if some of the ballads were taken off of it. Generally really solid, and among my favorites of the Mangini era.

Black Clouds and Silver Linings - 7/10 - This would probably be an 8 if Wither wasn't on it.

Falling Into Infinity - 7/10 - There is a lot to like about this album, but there are also some undeniable stinkers in my opinion.

Dream Theater - 7/10 - Some of these songs are fantastic, like The Bigger Picture, The Looking Glass, and Surrender to Reason. Illumination Theory would have well-served by cutting a few minutes out of it.

Parasomnia - 7/10 - Based off a couple listens, I think a strong 7 is a fair score.

When Dream and Day Unite - 6.5/10 - I honestly love this album for what it is. There are some great riffs, musical ideas, and lyrics. Production is horrible. Vocals are hit and miss.

A View From the Top of the World - 6/10 - I've only listened to this one a couple times. Nothing really stuck to me, but nothing offended my ears, either.

Systematic Chaos - 5/10 - So much on this album is just not very memorable. Dark Eternal Night is great, Constant Motion is good, not much else sticks out in my mind.

The Astonishing - 3/10 - There are some really cool moments on this album. But it went too long, and couldn't grab my attention. I stopped listening to Dream Theater for years after this album.

Distance Over Time - ...... - I confess...I've never actually listened to this album all the way through 

[BeatriceNB]

Images and Words - 10/10 - Goated. Incredible album, even the ballads rip hard.

Awake - 9.5/10 - Would be a 10, but I don't really care for the Silent Man.

Scenes From a Memory - 9/10 - Seriously great album. However, potentially unpopular opinion: I don't really like The Spirit Carries On. This album still tells a great story and has some of my favorite DT musical moments.

A Change of Seasons - 9/10 - Generally very good, some parts are slightly repetitive.

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 8/10 - Generally a very good album, though there are a few bits on the first disc that aren't quite as good.

Octavarium - 8/10 - The title track pulls a lot of weight here...but this is a solid album even if a couple of the songs are kind of cheesy in my opinion.

Train of Thought - 7.5/10 - Generally very good, some parts are just a bit repetitive for me.

A Dramatic Turn of Events - 7/10 - This would probably be a 9/10 if some of the ballads were taken off of it. Generally really solid, and among my favorites of the Mangini era.

Black Clouds and Silver Linings - 7/10 - This would probably be an 8 if Wither wasn't on it.

Falling Into Infinity - 7/10 - There is a lot to like about this album, but there are also some undeniable stinkers in my opinion.

Dream Theater - 7/10 - Some of these songs are fantastic, like The Bigger Picture, The Looking Glass, and Surrender to Reason. Illumination Theory would have well-served by cutting a few minutes out of it.

Parasomnia - 7/10 - Based off a couple listens, I think a strong 7 is a fair score.

When Dream and Day Unite - 6.5/10 - I honestly love this album for what it is. There are some great riffs, musical ideas, and lyrics. Production is horrible. Vocals are hit and miss.

A View From the Top of the World - 6/10 - I've only listened to this one a couple times. Nothing really stuck to me, but nothing offended my ears, either.

Systematic Chaos - 5/10 - So much on this album is just not very memorable. Dark Eternal Night is great, Constant Motion is good, not much else sticks out in my mind.

The Astonishing - 3/10 - There are some really cool moments on this album. But it went too long, and couldn't grab my attention. I stopped listening to Dream Theater for years after this album.

Distance Over Time - ...... - I confess...I've never actually listened to this album all the way through 

Not missing anything, in my opinion

[TheOutlawXanadu]

Obligatory post-Parasomnia update:

10/10 - Masterpieces that I can listen to any time, anywhere: IAW, Scenes
9/10 - Masterpieces that I need to be in the mood for: Awake, SDOIT
8/10 - Awesome pretty much the whole way through: 8VM, ADTOE, DOT, View, PS
7/10 - Somewhat bumpy rides with high highs but low lows: FII, TOT
6/10 - Enjoyable but somewhat flat and/or something is missing: SC, BC&SL, DT12
?/10 - One of their best when I'm in the mood, one of their worst when I'm not - TA

[Mr.Mister]

Not missing anything, in my opinion

I think S2N and particularly At Wits End are worthwhile checking.

[BeatriceNB]

I think S2N and particularly At Wits End are worthwhile checking.

Out Of Reach is the only song I, still seldomly, return to, especially for that masterclass of a solo. I like the lyrics topic too, even if cheesy (though TA being my fav DT album, not really a problem ).

[CraftyCaleb2483]

1. Falling Into Infinity
2. Images And Words
3. Octavarium
4. Scenes From A Memory
5. Systematic Chaos
6. Black Clouds And Silver Linings
7. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
8. Parasomnia
9. DT12
10. Train Of Thought
11. Distance Over Time
12. Awake
13. The Astonishing
14. A View From The Top Of The World
15. When Dream And Day Unite
16. A Dramatic Turn Of Events

[svisser]

I keep working through where to put this album. As a result, I have moved things around. My top half never really changes though. 

    Images and Words 100%

    Awake 97%

    Scenes From a Memory 95%

    Octavarium 94%

    Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence 91%

    A View From the Top of the World 87%

    Black Clouds and Silver Linings 86%

    Train of Thought 85%

    Systematic Chaos 83%

    A Dramatic Turn of Events 80%

    Distance Over Time 78%

    DT 75%

    Parasomnia 74%

    When Dream and Day Unite 72%

    The Astonishing 70%

    Falling Into Infinity 65%

I also think I like Illumination Theory more than The Shadow Man Incident. I keep going back between the two and where to rank them.

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

Rank all of the transition albums (1st and last appearances of members)

1. I&W
2. ADTOE
3. View
4. SFAM
5. Awake
6. BCSL (changed my mind on how this ranks)
7. FII
8. Parasomnia
9. WDADU

[lightningbolt]

Parasomnia is too new for me to fairly rate and I haven't listened to it a ton yet.  That being said:

Scenes - 10
I&W - 10
Train of Thought - 9.5
Awake - 8.5
Octavarium - 8.5
6 Degrees - 8
Systematic Chaos - 7.5
Black Clouds - 7
DOT - 6.5
ADTOE - 6.5
FII - 6
DT - 6
The Astonishing - 5.5
AVFTTOTW - 4
WDADU - 3

[MarkFitDT]

View needs more love so here is my list. Just listening to the title track atm and its so far ahead of anything on Parasomnia to my ears even though I do love Bend the Clock.

1 Images and Words - 10
2 Scenes from a Memory - 10
3 A View from the Top of the World - 9.75
4 Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - 9.5
5 A Dramatic Turn of Events - 9
6 Awake - 8.75
7 Octavarium - 8.5
8 Distance over Time - 8.25
9 Dream Theater - 8
10 Train of Thought 7.75
11 The Astonishing 7.5
12 When Dream and Day Unite - 7.3
13 Parasomnia - 7.2 (early days yet so this could change)
14 Falling into Infinity - 7
16 Black Clouds and Silver Linings - 6.5
15 Systematic Chaos - 6