GMD Poll: Dream Theater's Discography Ranked

[zabu of nΩd]

Why not just make an EP from the best Destruction tracks and rank that #1 in the current poll?

Cause I wasn't talking about mixing and matching tracks from multiple albums?

Dumb.

No u

 

[zabu of nΩd]

Well I couldn't let this thread go without my due diligence. DT is one of my favorite bands after all, based on their 90s work. Jesus fuck this discog is torture though.

1. Images and Words (1992) - The only truly great album from end to end. I skip tracks on all others.
2. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999) - Most underrated in the poll. Some classic songs amid the crap.
3. Awake (1994)
4. Octavarium (2005) - An impressive if flawed self-reinvention. Muse was a good influence to draw from. "Panic Attack" is the last classic they ever penned.
5. Distance Over Time (2019) - I had to listen a few times before I got over my 2011-16 era fatigue and realized how damn solid this is. Based on its low polling, I'm guessing most of you were not as patient. Never count these guys out, they know how to evolve.
6. When Dream and Day Unite (1989) - The youthful energy is fun, but dynamics are a key part of DT's signature sound, and the dynamics on this are generally too clumsy/thin for me to vibe to.
7. A Change of Seasons (1995) - Some beautiful moments in the title track, though the sprawl and lack of song structure leave me a bit short on satisfaction for only 23 minutes. The covers are mostly ridiculous.
   
8. Train of Thought (2003)
9. Black Clouds and Silver Linings (2009)
10. Systematic Chaos (2007) - How did this make #6? By straying from their circle of competence to dabble in pseudo-thrash? It's not bad ("The Ministry of Lost Souls" is rather epic actually), but calling it one of their better albums kinda misses the point.
11. Falling into Infinity (1997) - The first major yawnfest, though "Trial of Tears" is rather pretty.
12. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)
13. A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011)
14. Dream Theater (2013) - The sound gets decidedly "lusher" and more emotionally resonant. Sometimes it works, more often it's just too soft and saccharine. They also seem to do a lot of emulating other bands without differentiating themselves much.
15. The Astonishing (2016) - Agonizingly tedious example of how not to do a concept album. Hard to believe they could go this much further off the deep end of self-indulgence after the prior two decades, but goddamn did they pull it off.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

I agree with you on Distance Over Time and think it's their first good album since Systematic Chaos. Not sure I'd consider it an evolution of their sound exactly but it's nice to see them rein themselves in and deliver an album that's actually kind of tight instead of the usual bloatfest.

 

[EspaDa]

A Dramatic Turn of Events was a good album, though. I could never decide which one I like better: that or the self-titled one. Their weakest work to date is and will always be The Astonishing. That is one piece of crap with overlong and sappy songs that lead to nowhere.