DREAM THEATER ALBUMS SURVIVOR 2017: Results -> Images & Words wins!

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  • Total voters
    9
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Top 14
01.
02.
03. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
04. Awake
05. Train Of Thought
06. A Dramatic Turn Of Events
07. Falling Into Infinity
08. Octavarium
09. Black Clouds & Silver Linings
10. Dream Theater
11. Systematic Chaos
12. A Change Of Seasons
13. The Astonishing
14. When Dream & Day Unite
 
Train of Thought is far from flawless. A great album and the best one besides the holy tetralogy, but has the same flaws that are found on the other 00s albums.

I would give 5 of the 8 songs a 10. Pull Me Under and Wait For Sleep would get 9's. Another Day would get a 7.
 
holy tetralogy = I&W, Awake, Scenes, Six Degrees

As for flaws, they rarely drag the album down but you start to hear them on this album. It's just enough to keep the album a notch below the top 4, but not enough to drag it any further than #5 in my personal rankings.

  • Bloated songs with instrumental sections that feel uninspired and unexciting. I'm mostly thinking This Dying Soul here, although almost every song on the album could use some trimming here and there, but nothing too major. The only song where this hinders my enjoyment is This Dying Soul. What mostly helps this is that JP really brings it on this album, playing some of his best solos to date. A song like Endless Sacrifice is a little bloated but the riff underneath the solos is so catchy and Petrucci plays some really incredible solos over it. Even JR's solos are pretty decent. Compare that to some of the stuff on BC&SL where it's uninspired riffs under a phoned in solo. Anyway, it's not an issue on Train Of Thought for the most part, but it begins to take shape here. The epics are no longer meticulously crafted and structured pieces, but almost more like jams. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it doesn't wow me the way something like the instrumental for Metropolis does.
  • Also songs that are trying too hard to be heavy. Again, this works in the album's favor more than it works against it, and I do love the concept of an album that is heavy from top to bottom. However, as good as it is, I think DT's prog side is stronger than their metal side. Especially with JR as a main songwriter, who clearly doesn't listen to Metal and feels like a fish out of water on this album. As enjoyable as ToT is, it doesn't reach the heights of their proggier efforts, such as I&W.
But again, I want to stress that I love ToT and it's in my top 5. More that I'd give this album a 9 where I'd give the top 4 10's.
 
Mosh said:
holy tetralogy = I&W, Awake, Scenes, Six Degrees

As for flaws, they rarely drag the album down but you start to hear them on this album. It's just enough to keep the album a notch below the top 4, but not enough to drag it any further than #5 in my personal rankings.

  • Bloated songs with instrumental sections that feel uninspired and unexciting. I'm mostly thinking This Dying Soul here, although almost every song on the album could use some trimming here and there, but nothing too major. The only song where this hinders my enjoyment is This Dying Soul. What mostly helps this is that JP really brings it on this album, playing some of his best solos to date. A song like Endless Sacrifice is a little bloated but the riff underneath the solos is so catchy and Petrucci plays some really incredible solos over it. Even JR's solos are pretty decent. Compare that to some of the stuff on BC&SL where it's uninspired riffs under a phoned in solo. Anyway, it's not an issue on Train Of Thought for the most part, but it begins to take shape here. The epics are no longer meticulously crafted and structured pieces, but almost more like jams. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it doesn't wow me the way something like the instrumental for Metropolis does.
  • Also songs that are trying too hard to be heavy. Again, this works in the album's favor more than it works against it, and I do love the concept of an album that is heavy from top to bottom. However, as good as it is, I think DT's prog side is stronger than their metal side. Especially with JR as a main songwriter, who clearly doesn't listen to Metal and feels like a fish out of water on this album. As enjoyable as ToT is, it doesn't reach the heights of their proggier efforts, such as I&W.
But again, I want to stress that I love ToT and it's in my top 5. More that I'd give this album a 9 where I'd give the top 4 10's.
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This Dying Soul has such a badass instrumental section. The riff @6:30 that gets developed is essential heavy DT. But I know what you mean in general. As for solos, I would not call any one of them my favourite by JP, but he shows off some otherworldly skill here. Most of the solos are downright disgustingly fast.
 
The only part of Train of Thought that I dislike is the central instrumental section of Endless Sacrifice. It starts with a cool riff, and the end bit with the unison is great, but the two-plus minutes in between of nothing but wanking solos and Jordan's carnival of noise crap does nothing but detract from the atmosphere and lyrics of the song.
 
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