OK, here's the deal ... during DT week, I busy with other stuff; when not busy, I was sick with a terrible cold. I never did get around to posting about DT the way I wanted to. So here's my DT album reviews, from best album to worst album...
1. Images And Words, 1992
When a band is hungry and has a couple of years to write songs and refine their sound, the result is often brilliant. This is why so many bands have great debut albums, and then never match that achievement. I&W was technically not DT's debut (that would be WDADU, see below) but it was their major-label debut, and they had a couple of years to get it right. It paid off: not a weak song on the album. "Pull Me Under" is a great rocking opener, even if the meaning of the lyrics isn't entirely clear without help (hint: it's about Hamlet). "Another Day" is a ballad that should have been a hit, but MTV refused to play the video (IIRC). "Take The Time" is a song which continues to grow on me as the years go by. It has a superb keyboard part, a trait it shares with the next song: "Surrounded" (my favorite DT song of all time). "Surrounded" is the perfect example of what DT can do in a pure prog rock vein (that is, rock and not prog metal). Brilliant melodies and lyrics, plus great use of dynamics and atmosphere. Then you've got "Metropolis Pt. 1", a mind-blowing eargasmic epic, which is probably the quintessential DT song. The long instrumental section can sometimes seem to drag on - but not always, if you're in the right mood for it. The music is great, but the highlight is LaBrie's singing here, especially at the end. "Under A Glass Moon", like the other songs, is most notable for its great melodies played over intricate rhythms. "Wait For Sleep" is OK, and the album's weakest point - but when understood as the intro to "Learning To Live", it fits. LTL is the first of DT's great album-closing epics, a long prog rock workout with more awesome keyboards. Overall, this is one of the greatest prog rock records ever - again, I emphasize prog rock and not prog metal. In 1992, DT were leaning in the metal direction, but on this album they really embraced traditional prog rock with astounding results.
1 and a half: A Change Of Seasons, 1995
A 25-minute epic released on an EP. That's why it's not part of the usual album ranking, but it would fall just under I&W. This monster of a song is brain-meltingly superb from the first note to the last. Written at the same time as the I&W songs, it continues their high standard of excellence. While no section disappoints, the first few minutes in particular are not to be missed.
2. Scenes From A Memory, 1999
A concept album like this takes some time to absorb. It really benefits from listening to it all the way through, instead of just a few songs. In fact, some songs here sound great in the context of the album but awkward on their own; some prime examples of this are "Regression", "Through My Words", "Through Her Eyes", "The Dance Of Eternity" and "One Last Time". They're all superb in context and disappointing out of it. But many of the other songs do hold up on their own. "Overture 1928" is a great little instrumental, full of melody. It works on its own, but is best followed by "Strange Deja Vu", which features another great LaBrie vocal performance. "Fatal Tragedy" is only average during the verses, but is redeemed by a wild instrumental section. "Beyond This Life" is one of my favorites, using a 5/4 meter to keep the listener on their toes before it throws a string of brilliant solos at you. In context at this point, "Through Her Eyes" is probably DT's best ballad when measured by the yardstick of emotional impact. "Home" is the centerpiece of the album. Lyrically, it describes the crux of the story, and why the murder happens later. It also contains the most references to "Metropolis Pt. 1" from I&W. "The Dance Of Eternity" is DT's most extreme instrumental wankfest. It's good here, but if you want something that stands well alone, seek out the "Instrumedley" from
Live At Budokan, which contains most of TDOE. "The Spirit Carries On" is another one of my favorites. Even if the lyrics express beliefs that I disagree with, they have a great impact in this song. "Finally Free" is only average for DT. I understand why they had to end the album with this song in order to complete the story, but TSCO is really the climax of the album. The verdict: listen to this album as one complete package and it rocks, though the weaknesses are exposed if you hear most of the songs individually.
3. Black Clouds & Silver Linings, 2009
I reviewed this in some detail above, so I'll be brief here. "A Nightmare To Remember" is above average, with one superb section ("beautiful agony") and one WTF section ("Everyone survived! HUUUAAARRRR!") "The Shattered Fortress" has some flaws, but is a great end to the 12-step saga - perhaps it is better heard in that context than as part of this album. "The Count Of Tuscany" is another great album-closing epic which my brain is still digesting. Some have said the lyrics are silly ("may I introduce... MY BROTHER!") but I like them anyway, and the closing section ("wait a minute, man...") is amazing. The real winner is "The Best Of Times"; from start to finish, one of DT's best songs, and this album is worth buying for TBOT and TCOT alone.
4. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence, 2002
This one starts with the first (and best) song of the 12-step saga, "The Glass Prison". This may be the single greatest progressive metal song ever written. 13 minutes of skull-pounding riffage that ought to make all other metal bands bow down and worship. The rest of the first disc has some interesting moments, but nothing exceptional. This lack of awesome is entirely ended on disc 2, which contains one song: the 42-minute title track, about six types of mental illness. Only "Goodnight Kiss" is weak on this disc; the rest is a clinic on how to effectively mix melodic prog rock ("About To Crash", "Solitary Shell") with bruising prog metal ("War Inside My Head", "The Test That Stumped Them All"). Overall, you've got an album with only two excellent songs, but those two are so great that all the other average music is easily forgiven.
5. Awake, 1994
In the sense of being more consistently great, this album may be better than 6DOIT, even if it almost never reaches the quality of "The Glass Prison". A bunch of solid, well-above-average rockers hold this album together: "Caught In A Web", "The Mirror" and especially "Lie" bring the metal for the metalheads. For the prog-nerds like me, "Scarred" is a good song and "Voices" is an
outstanding song (the best on the album). But this album gets taken down by a couple of real stinkers: the ballad "The Silent Man" and the weird-ass closing epic "Space-Dye Vest". Remove these two mistakes and you've got a DT album that would probably rank #4 instead of #5. A very good album, but not one for DT beginners.
6. Octavarium, 2005
This is a good album, but only a few songs rise to the level of 'great'. "I Walk Beside You" and "The Answer Lies Within" are melodic, LaBrie-driven songs: pleasant, but not as inspiring as (I suspect) the band hoped. "The Root Of All Evil" is the third song of the 12-step saga - not as good as the previous two, but still strong. "These Walls" is a masterpice. On a lesser album, it would be regarded as the best song. But this album contains the 24-minute title epic, a song with so many hidden gems that every listen is a deeply rewarding experience. This is DT's #2 best epic (only "A Change Of Seasons" is better). That's why this album is the 'best of the rest' (i.e. top of the bottom half): it's not a consistently great album, but it has 2 songs that show DT at their best, with one of those being so good that no DT fan should miss it.
7. Train Of Thought, 2003
The reason I advised Albie to start with this album is not because it's great by DT standards (though it's not bad, either) ... it's because I know Albie is a metalhead, and this is DT at their most metallic. It was definitely intentional: the band has stated many times that they deliberately went metal on this album. The experiment worked well - except for "Vacant", which didn't impress me. "As I Am" is straightforward by DT standards: the (relative) lack of complications and rocking riffs invite comparisons to "Pull Me Under". (Don't compare too closely; PMU is still better.) "This Dying Soul" is part 2 of the 12-step saga, with great riffs and melodies. "Endless Sacrifice" and "Honor Thy Father" are a bit less good than the first 2 songs, but still heavy as a ton of bricks and worth some listens. But the highlight here is the last 2 songs. Penultimately, "Stream Of Consciousness" is the band's best instrumental - they finally rely on melody instead of speed and wankery, and it remains compelling through all 11 minutes. The closing epic is the 14-minute "In The Name Of God", one of my favorite DT songs with brilliant lyrics about the hypocrisy of some religious people. Heavy killer riffs reminiscent of "Home" (from
SFAM) and wild guitar/keyboard unison solo which few humans can play. This album is not a place to start if you're more into pure prog rock (Shadow, I'm looking at you
) but I suspect many on this forum will like it.
8. Systematic Chaos, 2007
It's a strange thing about this album... when I listen to it, it always sounds good. Yet, when the album is done, no songs have stood out and impressed me. It's mostly heavy like
Train Of Thought, so you might be interested in this if you liked that. The strong points for me are "Forsaken" and "The Dark Eternal Night", though it's only fair to say that many DT fans think "In The Presence Of Enemies" is the best song. The weakest song is "Repentance" (4th song in the 12-step saga), which really drags the album down. This album makes good background music, but is really just average at best.
9. When Dream And Day Unite, 1989
The songs on DT's first album are mostly just average. "The Killing Hand" is probably the best of the normal songs, and "Ytse Jam" is an entertaining instrumental that has been called DT's answer to "YYZ". Now, I can forgive average songs; DT was just starting out, and most prog bands require some time to get it right. But I just can't stand the sound of Charlie Dominici's voice on this album. He doesn't fit DT's music at all, which is why he was eventually fired. Dominici is great within the context of his own solo music; he just didn't work here. If you want to hear this album sounding
right, seek out
When Dream And Day Re-Unite. That's a live performance of this entire album by the current DT lineup (done in 2004 for the album's 15th anniversary). Dominici joins DT onstage for 2 songs (oddly, neither are from
WDADU) and time has been good to him: he finally sounds good with DT!
10. Falling Into Infinity, 1997
When this album gets good, it gets ... average. "New Millenium", "Lines In The Sand" and "Trial Of Tears" are the highlights, but they can't stand up against the classic songs of other albums. And when this album gets bad, it gets horrendously, terribly, 'turn off that shit!' bad. Let me give you a tip: when "New Millenium" has ended, skip ahead to "Hell's Kitchen" and save yourself from the unadulterated crap in between. With all due respect for Derek Sherinian, who is an amazing talent and who makes mind-blowing solo albums, he didn't work for DT. He could sure play, and even wrote some good stuff ("Anna Lee" was mostly his), but somehow he didn't seem to fire up the inspiration in his bandmates like Kevin Moore or Jordan Rudess did. Or maybe Derek isn't at fault - DT was having many problems at this time, including record company hassles and Mike Portnoy's worsening alcoholism. But whatever it is, this album just didn't have it.
10, Part II. Falling Into Infinity Demos, 1996
Released by Mike Portnoy several years after FII, this shows what FII could have been without record company interference. Most of the songs are mostly the same, but the production is actually much
better than Kevin Shirley's work on the real FII album. (This is why DT started producing their own albums after FII.) And with the songs being freshly written, they have an energy lacking on the 'official' album. In fact, this demo could rank better than the real FII - but I think hearing FII and knowing how bad it is makes one appreciate the demo more than if you start there. Plus, this contains "Metropolis Pt. 2" - the genesis of the
Scenes From A Memory album, and a real treat for
SFAM fans.
