Misunderstood is meh, I don't really get Disappear because they had just done a song about death on the previous album, The Spirit Carries On, but other than that the rest is brilliant.
Misunderstood and Disappear have their moods (the climax of the latter is amazing), but otherwise the other three tracks from that disc definitely overshadow them. Blind Faith has some great melodies and riffs, I love the lyrical theme of Great Debate (which the Tool-ish music fits perfectly), and Glass Prison speaks for itself.
What these rankings prove is the VAST range of Dream Theater fandom. For example, I used to HATE Octaviarium and it is now in my top 5, absolutely love it, it just grew on me. Also, I am SHOCKED at the high ratings for Train of Thought. It is a good album and I really liked it when it first came out, but upon repeated listens it is pretty boring and unimaginative except for Stream of Consciousness. The line between "tribute" and "copycat" are very blurred and it is not enough Dream Theater and too Metallica/Megadeth for my taste. I think Systematic Chaos is one of their more solid efforts, but agree more or less with the rest of the rankings.
I could never really get into Octavarium. I thought the concept was interesting (ending where it began, raising key signatures every song, etc.) but most of the songs themselves are lackluster. There's some nice riffs here and there, and some of the poppy songs work, but overall it was underwhelming to me. The title track is so inconsistent that it hurts to listen to; the song doesn't actually pick up until Myung's bass groove like eight minutes in or something, and then it's just lyrical gibberish until that awesome "Trapped inside this octavarium!" part. Plus that filler ambient intro... ugh. And aside from the chorus, the opening song is pure stock filler. I can't believe they would continue the awesomeness that was Glass Prison and This Dying Soul with
that, a song chock full of elementary-level riffs.
Stream of Consciousness is probably the highest point of Train of Thought, or at least pretty close. I've always been partial to Honor Thy Father, but that's like their heaviest song. When that album came out I was obsessed with it, but that was a different time (when I was a metal-obsessed teenager). There are weak points: some of the instrumental parts in This Dying Soul and (especially) Endless Sacrifice drag the songs down a bit.
Systematic Chaos is an album I've learned to appreciate more and more through time. I love Forsaken, Constant Motion sets a mood perfectly matched by the lyrics, Dark Eternal Night has crunchiness, Repentance sounds like Opeth, and Prophets and Ministry contain a lot of feeling in them. The epic track is also one of their better long songs in my opinion. Only the obnoxious and mostly unnecessary instrumental interludes in Dark Eternal Night and (particularly) Ministry drag this album down.
Octavarium...is just boring and lifeless to me. If we're talking copycatting, I'd say that Octavarium through BC&SL are the most overtly copycat albums. The number of times I hear different U2, Muse, Metallica, and Megadeth songs on those albums is shocking
I think Octavarium has some emotion on it; it's just that this band has done emotion
so much better in the past. It also contains arguably the worst DT song in the past decade, Never Enough. Not even the sweet intro to Panic Attack could save that album. And could they write a less emotional song about one of the most catastrophic events of the last 20 years with Sacrificed Sons?
Honestly, I think my ranking for A Dramatic Turn of Events is so high just because it's the first of four albums that doesn't sound like mathletes reciting equations while getting beat up by some college bro's in a locker room while CNN plays in the background.
Here's an equation for you:
DT - MP = interesting again
And your description does describe select sections of Outcry and Lost Not Forgotten, just minus the CNN.
