GMD Poll: Dream Theater's Discography Ranked

[crimsonfloyd]

Directions: Rank Dream Theater's 14 albums. Order and number each album 1-14. Ties are OK. Your first place album earns 14 points, your second place album earns 13 points, etc.

Rules:

• You may rank as few as 8 albums. Lists with less than 8 albums will not be counted.
• If you list less than 14 albums, the first placed album will still get 8 points, the last placed album will still get 1 point, and the albums in between will have points distributed proportionately. The average points earned for albums that are not listed will not be impacted positively or negatively, so if you don't rank an album, you neither help it or hurt it.
• If you don't number your list then it will be assumed that it is in ranked order

At the end, the albums will be ranked based on their average number of points per vote.

You have until Friday October 25th at 4 PM PST to finalize your list, re-familiarize yourself albums you haven’t heard in awhile, familiarize yourself with albums you haven’t heard at all, lobby for any albums you think are underrated, and lobby against any albums you think are overrated.

When Dream and Day Unite (1989)
Images and Words (1992)
Awake (1994)
Falling into Infinity (1997)
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999)
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)
Train of Thought (2003)
Octavarium (2005)
Systematic Chaos (2007)
Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009)
A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011)
Dream Theater (2013)
The Astonishing (2016)
Distance over Time (2019)

 

[HamburgerBoy]

A Change of Seasons should be included imo.

First three probably won't change, after that things drop off a cliff and I'm not sure how much time I'll spend determining who tops the wreckage pile.

1. Awake - nearly every song stands out with great ideas yet the writing is generally efficient and succinct, one of the best examples of a modern/heavy production being pulled off perfectly, 9/10
2. Images and Words - the saxophone is extremely lame and I've never really been a fan of Metropolis, but the best moments are sappy flashy prog metal at its very best, 9/10
3. When Dream and Day Unite - weak production and a few less inspired songs hold back what was still a rather large leap forward for the genre, 7/10
Systematic Chaos - generally dismissed as one of their most generic/forgettable albums but at least the first song brings the old school tech-wanking
A Dramatic Turn of Events - very safe but also relatively consistent, ditching Portnoy seems to have at the least tightened their quality control
Train of Thought - their angsty uber-downtuned chugfest album, Honor Thy Father is a stain upon the planet but some of these songs are at least good for some background groove
Black Clouds & Silver Linings - I barely remember this album but I don't remember ever hating it
Octavarium - like Black Clouds only I'm certain I hate at least one song, just can't remember which
Falling into Infinity - a couple good songs and a lot of super gay radio pandering, the kind of album that makes Devin Townsend look good
Dream Theater - the best song is the retro-80s AOR song, otherwise this is Dream Theater autopilot with disgustingly brickwalled production
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory - some of the worst ideas in metal are here, a couple of the shorter songs are ok but holy shit are songs like Beyond This Life rancid
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - yeah it starts well enough by their standards I guess but the last 60 minutes of this 96 minute abortion are unlistenable, and The Great Debate has to be the most cowardly thing possible, where from the start you pick a cold-button issue like the ethics of cloning, but then rather than arguing a point you simply explain that the argument exists and that this argument is an argument to be taken seriously and respected because reasoned and informed debate is an essential foundation of our Western civilization before piping in Rush Limbaugh samples for five minutes, on the day of the rope every radical centrist will be thrown into an inescapable pit with this "song" playing on infinite repeat to symbolize the quagmire of their dialectic

Need to hear:

The Astonishing
Distance over Time

 

[The Ozzman]

Directions: Rank Razor’s 8 studio albums plus their debut EP

Uh..

A Change of Seasons should be included imo.

I guess

1) Train of Thought
2) Images and Words
3) When Day and Dream Unite
4) Awake
5) Falling Into Infinity
6) Systematic Chaos
7) Black Clouds and Silver Linings
8) Octavarium
9) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
10) Metropolis, Part 2: Scenes from a Memory

Don't really give a fuck about ranking anything after Portnoy left but their latest album is definitely the best thing they've released since Portnoy left. 6-10 are basically ranked by replay value to me. They could change on any given day. I have warmed to Awake significantly over the year. Not sure where ACOS would go if included.

 

[Baroque]

A Change of Seasons should be included imo.

This, it has enough original material to warrant listing it, and it's a great album maybe top 5

 

[Baroque]

1) Images and Words
2) Awake
3) A Change of Seasons
4) Train of Thought
5) Octavarium
6) Systematic Chaos
7) Metropolis Pt. 2
8) Black Clouds & Silver Linings
9) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
10) Dream Theater
11) Distance over Time
12) The Astonishing
13) Falling Into Infinity
14) A Dramatic Turn of Events

 

[Slammed]

1. Awake (1994)
2. Falling into Infinity (1997)
3. Distance over Time (2019)
4. A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011)
5. Images and Words (1992)
6. Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009)
7. Systematic Chaos (2007)
8. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999)
9. Octavarium (2005)
10. The Astonishing (2016)
11. When Dream and Day Unite (1989)
12. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)
13. Train of Thought (2003)
14. Dream Theater (2013)

 

[Allfader]

When it comes to Dream Theater, the amount of filler crap on their albums is the only truly astonishing thing about them. This said, the ranking goes like this:

1) Awake - Their most balanced album with definitely good songwriting on most songs, and the less good ones are still pretty decent. I'm not a fan of the pacing on the middle (The Silent Man doesn't fit well, but it doesn't suck), but it hits harder than the rest of their albums. This and the next 4 are the only ones I actually own btw, although I've heard them all.

2) A Change of Seasons - The title track is one of their best shit. If I&W was just Metropolis, A Change and Learning to Live, it would have been perfect. It can't get the first place due the covers.

3) Images and Words - It has 3 of their best songs ever, but the rest is just filler crap (including Pull me Under), Sorry guys, but the album is almost unlistenable as a whole.

4) Metropolis Pt. 2 - Similar thing, way too much filler but the first half of the album is more or less strong. Fatal Tragedy is excellent.

5) Train of Thought - Despite having some pedestrian shit on it, it's more or less coherent and solid.

6) Black Clouds & Silver Linings - The last time the band tried something new. Some songs are actually solid.

7) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. A fucking mess. Still, a couple of songs are decent and the production is good.

8) Falling Into Infinity. Mostly worthless, but some sections on it are decent.

Worthless:

9) Systematic Chaos
10) Octavarium.

No really redeemable factors on these 2 album. The intro of Panic Attack is kinda decent, I guess?

Absolutely Worthless Excrement, in order:

11) A Dramatic Turn of Events
12) Dream Theater
13) Distance over Time
14) The Astonishing

Man, WTF happened? they lost all the will to try anything. These albums are just excuses for tours, shirts and plastic waste to be sold. The Astonishing deserves a separate paragraph tho.

It's their most pathetic attempt at concept album and definitely the worst attempt at metal/rock/prog "opera" (in terms of structure at least) that I've heard. The way LaBrie attempts to make the different characters to stand out is simply embarassing. It's also incredibly slow, zero dynamics, horrible production... a total snoozefest and almost makes me puke.

Also, FUCK MANGINI. His kit sounds like shit, the live show he does sounds like shit, the studio albums he did are shit, his style is shit. There were so much better options to replace Portnoy, but they choose simply the worst. They offered Bobby Jarzombek a spot on their audition... WHY? he was far, far better than all the guys that went there, probably COMBINED. He of course, being the drummer of the far more respectable and quality act Fates Warning, politely declined.

 

[jimmy101]

There's so much DT out there that I haven't listened to. But if I were to submit a list it would also feature Awake at #1.

 

[challenge_everything]

Images and Words is clearly their best. Awake is OK. The rest is swill.

 

[challenge_everything]

on the day of the rope every radical centrist will be thrown into an inescapable pit with this "song" playing on infinite repeat to symbolize the quagmire of their dialectic

 

[The Ozzman]

Not sure how many votes we will get after this bump but whatever

 

[crimsonfloyd]

I’m gonna vote, but I’m still familiarizing myself with their four most recent albums. Need to go go back and check who voted for this thread, but even six or seven votes will get the job done, though it might make outlier votes more impactful.

 

[jimmy101]

As much as I respect what DT does, & feel they get a lot of unnecessary hate, I've only heard about 10% of their shit & am not really prepared to listen to the rest of their discog.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

It takes for fucking ever to process some of the albums because in addition to being complex, they're long as fuck.

 

[The Ozzman]

Is A Change of Seasons allowed to be included or nah?

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Fine, fine, we'll count it. I didn't want to since it has live songs and covers, but I get it. The main piece is a classic.

I'll be closing this next Saturday at 8 AM PST. I personally need another week to determine how I feel about The Astonishing and Distance Over Time. Overall, prepping this list has really made me grow into a bigger fan of theirs.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

1. Images and Words
2. Metropolis II: Dreams From a Memory
3. Octavarium
4. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
5. Train of Thought
6. The Astonishing
7. Systematic Chaos
8. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
9. Awake
10. Dream Theater
11. When Dream and Day Unite
12. Change of Seasons (This would probably be 6 or 7 if it were just an EP with the title track, but all the covers and mash ups drop it down significantly).
13. Distance Over Time
14. A Dramatic Turn of Events
15. Falling into Infinity

 

[crimsonfloyd]

@Vegard Pompey @zabu of nΩd

Are either of you still planning to vote in this?

 

[The Ozzman]

Friday October 25th at 4 PM PST

Today is 11/11. Are we going to close this or what? I don't think Grant or Vagrant are going to vote in this.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

Yeah I've been procrastinating. I'll start now.