GMD Poll: Dream Theater's Discography Ranked

[crimsonfloyd]

7) Octavarium (2005)

Average points per vote: 8.6/15

First place votes: 1 ( @Vegard Pompey)

Octavarium is almost completely devoid of any nu-metal bullshit, and easily on par with the band's best work. The title track is probably the most prog thing theyve done.

Octavarium is the worst I've heard from them

Octavarium: Much better than the pervious two, but again, I no longer feel connected to the music like on earlier albums. From this album on (well, probably Tot on, I always listen to DT before buying, sadly).

 

[crimsonfloyd]

6) Systematic Chaos (2007)

Average points per vote: 9.1/15

Yeah muse influence is very obvious on Octavarium and Systematic Chaos, its a bit annoying at times, But I'm a big Muse fan so its all good.

I actually liked Systematic Chaos, specifically I found it quite interesting with the wankery with the Continuum on The Dark Eternal Night and The Ministry Of Lost Souls is a nice song. I hate the way they fuck up a song by wankery that is totally out of place and the same can be applied to that song.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

Wish I had remembered to vote in this poll because that is a laughably high placement for Black Clouds & Silver Linings.

 

[The Ozzman]

Imagine forgetting to post in a poll you voted to do

 

[Allfader]

It's weird that the debut is ranked below Black Clouds. Musically, the debut is absolutely superior.

 

[J.]

The 1st disc of Six Degrees is the best thing they ever did.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

5) Train of Thought (2003)

Average points per vote: 9.2/15

1st place votes: 1 (@The Ozzman)

Train of Thought. Probably their heaviest album

Train of Thought is their best by far IMO. they dumped shitloads of the cheesiness and usual prog cliches, and made a kick ass epic metal album

Train of Thought is the heaviest DT album I've ever heard. I'm sure there's heavier prog, but it's still a really heavy album for them.

 

[Vegard Pompey]

So the reason I missed the cutoff is that I was planning to do a thought-out list with blurbs and everything, but I was too occupied with school to ever get around to it. I'm a little bummed that I missed it because Dream Theater is actually a pretty important band to me. To be clear, I think their laughing stock status is 100% justified as they are consistently terrible songwriters across most of their discography. But I got into them when I was young and uncritical and today I mostly just find their bad qualities kind of endearing, with the exception of Jordan Rudess' synth tones which are a worse crime against humanity than the holocaust. Anyway, here's my list for the heck of it;

1. Octavarium
2. When Dream and Day Unite
3. Images and Words
4. Systematic Chaos
5. A Change of Seasons
6. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory
7. Distance Over Time
8. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
9. Awake
10. Train of Thought
11. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
12. The Astonishing
13. Falling Into Infinity
14. A Dramatic Turn of Events (needs reevaluation)
15. Dream Theater

 

[crimsonfloyd]

4) When Dream and Day United (1989)

Average points per vote: 9.5/15

I bought "When dream and day unite" just when it came out (in vinyl copy) and after few listenings it became one of my favourite albums.

Their debut, "When Dream and Day Unite," was musically spellbinding, with horrendous vocals. They didn't evolve to that certain level of sonic brilliance until Labrie joined, so I would probably explore that one last.

When Dream and Day Unite has more elegant composition than a lot of their later work, honestly.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

3) A Change of Seasons (1995)

Average points per vote: 10.3/15

A Change of Seasons slays hard. It should be included among their albums for obvious reasons

Images and Words and A Change of Seasons are their only discs with enough good on them to warrent a listen.

No additional attention towards Change of Seasons?

That EP is fucking solid. Granted, half of it isnt their material, but Covers of Elton John, Zepplin, Deep purple, and cannot forget The Big Medley with Kansas, Pink Floyd, Queen, Journey and Genesis all in one song. The transitions from one to another, and the sheer musicianship shown especially on that song, earned my respect.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

2) Awake (1994)

Average points per vote: 11.9/15

First place votes: 3 (@Allfader @Slammed @HamburgerBoy)

Awake is by far their darkest album, I think Kevin Moore was having problems with a girlfriend or something when some of those lyrics/music were written. Some quite angry stuff. Also, Space Die Vest is a very distraught tune. But I'm afraid if you are looking for dark and gloomy stuff...you better stick with doom metal, because Dream Theater isn't it.

The only Dream Theater cd I like any more is Awake. I haven't listened to all of their cds, but that one supposedly has the least amount of wankery.

I think that just about every single thing that Dream Theater has ever done is VERY memorable, yet TECHNICAL. This is the sign of a truly great band. They are perfectionists, especially live. I just wish more people would give "Awake" a few good spins on a good stereo system before bashing them & resorting to the "day masterbate s0 much i cant stand et" kind of false claims.

 

[crimsonfloyd]

1) Images and Words (1992)

Average points per vote: 13.4/15

First place votes: 2 (@Baroque @crimsonfloyd)

Yeah I think my favorite album of theirs from beginning to end is Images and Words.

I love Images and Words. For some reason that album just clicked with me immediately. It's got class.

Most of the stuff on Images And Words is brilliant as soon as LaBrie shuts up.

Images and Words is better than 99% of all metal albums

I'm not into the saxophone ballads anymore any I've never loved Metropolis tbh. The four remaining metal songs might all be 99th percentile, however.

 

[Baroque]

Couldn’t ask for a better top 4! Exactly as I ranked them haha

5 is so close also

[edit] wait what the debut mysteriously moved up during the countdown

 

[crimsonfloyd]

So the reason I missed the cutoff is that I was planning to do a thought-out list with blurbs and everything, but I was too occupied with school to ever get around to it. I'm a little bummed that I missed it because Dream Theater is actually a pretty important band to me. To be clear, I think their laughing stock status is 100% justified as they are consistently terrible songwriters across most of their discography. But I got into them when I was young and uncritical and today I mostly just find their bad qualities kind of endearing, with the exception of Jordan Rudess' synth tones which are a worse crime against humanity than the holocaust. Anyway, here's my list for the heck of it;

1. Octavarium
2. When Dream and Day Unite
3. Images and Words
4. Systematic Chaos
5. A Change of Seasons
6. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory
7. Distance Over Time
8. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
9. Awake
10. Train of Thought
11. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
12. The Astonishing
13. Falling Into Infinity
14. A Dramatic Turn of Events (needs reevaluation)
15. Dream Theater

I felt nice and since you did an easy to calculate full 15, I added your list.

It shifted things around a bit.

-A Dramatic Turn of Events dropped from 11 to 13
-Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence rose from 12 to 13
-Falling to Infinity dropped from 10 to 11
-Distance over Time rose from 12 to 10
-Metropolis dropped from 8 to 9
-Black Clouds and Silver Linings dropped from 6 to 8
-Octavarium rose from 9 to 7
-Systematic Chaos dropped from 5 to 6
-Train of Thought dropped from 4 to 5
-When Dream and Day Unite rose from 7 to 4

The top 3 stayed the same.

 

[jimmy101]

Interesting to see how this panned out. The top four I suppose are a lock really, the rest of the discog up until Portnoy's departure is up to personal preference really & just about all of the post-Portnoy stuff is comfortably their least inspired work.

 

[The Ozzman]

Top 5 is acceptable now

 

[zabu of nΩd]

I was really busy while this was open, sorry. Don't know if I could've endured most/all of the discography anyway - kudos to those who did.

Images and Words + Awake absolutely deserve to be #1 and #2, thank god that happened. The biggest error here is Metropolis pt. 2 being so low. It's mad uneven, but has some of their best songs. If an EP can make #3, then shit, just build your own EP from half of Metropolis and rank it that way.

 

[HamburgerBoy]

There aren't 5 minutes of music on Metropolis Pt 2 as good as the overall 20+ minutes of A Change of Season.

 

[The Ozzman]

If an EP can make #3, then shit, just build your own EP from half of Metropolis and rank it that way.

Imagine thinking you can just do that with how these polls work. Why not just make an EP from the best Destruction tracks and rank that #1 in the current poll?

There aren't 5 minutes of music on Metropolis Pt 2 as good as the overall 20+ minutes of A Change of Season.

I wouldn't go that far, but it is definitely the most overrated DT release by orders of magnitude.

 

[CiG]

If an EP can make #3, then shit, just build your own EP from half of Metropolis and rank it that way.

Dumb.