Dream Theater

Honestly, after the debut I think most of their albums sound fantastic. The production problems started to appear on a couple of albums after Portnoy left.
 
KidInTheDark666 said:
Honestly, after the debut I think most of their albums sound fantastic. The production problems started to appear on a couple of albums after Portnoy left.
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I agree. All albums of the Portnoy era have a distinct likeable sound character. Even the ones that get more criticism, like Falling Into Infinity, are pleasant in their own right. But it’s SFaM especially that is so balanced and cozy.
 
Scenes, Awake and Images are all absolutely monster albums in my eyes. Although I will say Train of Thought and Black Clouds & Silver Linings also deserve the same recognition. Although frankly, Images & Words to A Dramatic Turn of Events is a run any band should be jealous of.
 
Indeed, even after Portnoy left, they are able to release absolutely supreme stuff - ADTOE and the last album are both great, IMHO - but they somehow can't achieve the previous consistency, with DT12 and D/T being a decidedly "lesser" stars and Astonishing being a crazyass experiment which I'm to this day, six years later, not sure whether I like, esteem or hate.

My favourite is still Systematic Chaos, btw, with the rest of the '99-'11 albums being so close to each other it doesn't make sense to differentiate it... and I still don't love Awake or Images as much as everybody - and I definitely prefer FII to them (yep, ever the contrarian).
 
Still true, in fact this one-two punch has become my most replayed DT stuff in general.

JudasMyGuide said:
My most replayed Metropolis songs have been Fatal Tragedy + Beyond This Life for quite some time now, by the way. The way the former ends with that awesome "wanking" gallop and how it transitions into that massive BTL riff (cuts off, the pulsating piano, the spoken word and then suddenly you have this dudebro (or, well, "ladbloke") of a riff that's looking forward to stomp on your books and take your girlfriend)...
I don't think I'm gonna ever tire of that.
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So much legendary stuff packed into one song. 03:25 and 07:10 are just super fun, the clean passages are beautiful, the solos are chock full of energy - this song has everything.
 
Diesel 11 said:
I’m no Dream Theater fan, but The Astonishing being anywhere except last place, let ALONE in the Top 3, seems like an incredibly controversial opinion. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say something positive about it.
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It has its fans, I'd say that the percentage of DT fans that rate The Astonishing in the top 5 is a little bit higher than the percentage of Maiden fans that rate either of the Blaze albums in the top 5. To me The Astonishing is at the bottom and it's not even close.
 
I have to disagree, Black Clouds is somewhere in the top 6-8 range for me. Nothing weak about it whatsoever, other than a couple of cringy Portnoy vocal moments. And The Count of Tuscany is one of their best epics, easily.

Edit: I find the lack of respect for the debut quite surprising actually. I've grown to really enjoy it a lot apart from a track or two. Sure, the production is subpar and Charlie is obviously not on the same tier as James, but songs like The Killing Hand, Afterlife, and The Ones Who Help to Set the Sun are rock solid. A Fortune in Lies is a classic too. I'd only remove Light Fuse and Get Away.
 
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I think The Shattered Fortress is pretty bad, it's basically just a rehash of the 12SS (obviously, what they went for, but musically it's not interesting to me). A Rite of Passage is a decent song slaughtered by whatever the fuck that instrumental section is.

The debut has it's moments, A Fortune in Lies is good, Status Seeker is catchy, and The Killing Hand is one of their best songs. Really don't care for the other songs, bottom of the barrel stuff. Honestly, the Majesty stuff is better. Another Won, Vital Star and A Vision are great and should have been there. Great bass on the album though.
 
Yeah, I definitely agree that Another Won should've been included. As for A Rite of Passage, I've always loved that song. The solo section definitely sounds like a litter of kittens was wrestling on Jordan's keyboard though.
 
Diesel 11 said:
I’m no Dream Theater fan, but The Astonishing being anywhere except last place, let ALONE in the Top 3, seems like an incredibly controversial opinion. I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say something positive about it.
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I'll do you one better - it's actually my favourite DT album. The only other album of theirs I find as consistently entertaining is Metropolis, which would be second mainly because the bridge in Home really annoys me.
 
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