Official DT Top 50 Thread Mark II (bss4life15 up now - starting page 79)

[Scorpion]

Overrated. Good, but overrated, and it wouldn't make my Top 20.

Still, I enjoyed your list, and the tempo was ok as well, I think. It also sucks if you post so fast that no-one can comment.

[hefdaddy42]

Good job, man.

theseoafs, you're up.

[iamtheeviltwin]

Great list and I enjoyed the write-ups like Mora said, they are what make the lists interesting.

The Floydian intro to Octavarium is one of the greatest parts of the song in my mind, but Floyd was the musical group that got me past 80s pop and opened my eyes to the world of good rock so they always hold a special place in my heart.

[jonny108]

Great list dude! My number 1 too, although I do enjoy the Pink Floyd intro. I don't why people are moaning it's just a bit of fun! At the end of the day it's a list and nothing to get uptight about Looking forward to the next one.

[mike099]

I enjoyed your write ups very much and appreciate the effort you put forth.  I am in the process of listening to Octavarium and SOC again.  On first listen I did not care for them very much.  I agree that the pink floyd intro is kind of long.

Again, great job.

[Ben_Jamin]

Excellent song to choose. I'm not complaining about the pace the list moves, but I wouldn't mind 2 threads. I dont remember when I signed up think it was when MP left and my turn was up after the album was out. If anything, i think if you take too long to post like a week, then you forfeit your turn.

Anyways...looking fowards to the next list. Make the writeups great.

[JayOctavarium]

Hef... Add me to the list?

[theseoafs]

Good job, man.

theseoafs, you're up.

Ah! Well it looks like you've caught me in the middle of finals week.  If the thread would be willing to wait until Friday evening for me to churn out a first update, that would be awesome.  (If that's not acceptable, I could let a single person in front of me in the queue.)

[hefdaddy42]

Hef... Add me to the list?

Sure.

Good job, man.

theseoafs, you're up.

Ah! Well it looks like you've caught me in the middle of finals week.  If the thread would be willing to wait until Friday evening for me to churn out a first update, that would be awesome.  (If that's not acceptable, I could let a single person in front of me in the queue.)

Fine with me either way.  If anyone else has a strong objection to him waiting until Friday, post it here.

[Scorpion]

Good job, man.

theseoafs, you're up.

Ah! Well it looks like you've caught me in the middle of finals week.  If the thread would be willing to wait until Friday evening for me to churn out a first update, that would be awesome.  (If that's not acceptable, I could let a single person in front of me in the queue.)

Fine with me either way.  If anyone else has a strong objection to him waiting until Friday, post it here.

[BlackInk]

FUN FACT #1

Counting from the first top 50 list to include songs from ADToE (to give all songs a chance), there are six songs that are on everyones lists:

Scarred - 17,7 average position
Finally Free - 14,5 average position
Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper - 13,1 average position
Octavarium - 11,4 average position
Learning to Live - 9,3 average position
A Change of Seasons - 8,4 average position

[Ħ]

Do you have a huge chart or something?

[SomeoneLikeHim]

FUN FACT #1

Counting from the first top 50 list to include songs from ADToE (to give all songs a chance), there are six songs that are on everyones lists:

Scarred - 17,7 average position
Finally Free - 14,5 average position
Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper - 13,1 average position
Octavarium - 11,4 average position
Learning to Live - 9,3 average position
A Change of Seasons - 8,4 average position

The next fun fact: how many of them would make Blob's top 50?

[BlobVanDam]

FUN FACT #1

Counting from the first top 50 list to include songs from ADToE (to give all songs a chance), there are six songs that are on everyones lists:

Scarred - 17,7 average position
Finally Free - 14,5 average position
Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper - 13,1 average position
Octavarium - 11,4 average position
Learning to Live - 9,3 average position
A Change of Seasons - 8,4 average position

The next fun fact: how many of them would make Blob's top 50?

Octavarium and Metropolis would be pretty high up, and Finally Free might be on there (I love it, I'm just not sure how many others would beat it), but Scarred, LTL and ACOS wouldn't make the cut.

[theseoafs]

Aaaaaaand here we go!  My top 50 isn't awfully traditional, so expect to see songs in higher/lower places than you'd usually expect them.  So you guys know, I omitted WDADU from the rankings; the poor production coupled with the fact that I rarely listen to it would make it difficult to fairly judge any WDADU song against any other song in DT's catalog, so I just didn't worry about it.  Is that cool?  Cool.

50. One Last Time

One Last Time just barely made it into the top 50, but not because there's necessarily something wrong with it; in fact, I find everything in the tune perfectly pleasant.  The opening piano solo is wonderful, the verse is suitably atmospheric, the chorus is catchy and haunting, and the guitar solo is funky, unexpected, and cool.  The problem OLT has -- which is certainly unique among songs in DT's catalog -- is that it's so short that few of the ideas are suitably fleshed out by the time the song's finished.  By the time the song's over, you've heard a few nice riffs, but nothing really sticks with you.  This is fine in the context of the album, but by itself, OLT is only just strong enough to grab the 50th spot.

49. Honor thy Father

Ah, yes, DT's infamous "hate song".  This one is obviously a product of Train of Thought: it's very heavy, very bloated, and very repetitive.  There are a lot of cool moments in this song (I'm sure I enjoy the rap verse more than most DT fans), but overall it's not consistently interesting enough to warrant a higher rank.

48. Sacrificed Sons

I love two-thirds of this song, those two-thirds being everything except the instrumental section.  I'm one of those guys who cares whether the mid-song instrumental sections "fit", and the breakdown never really made any sense to me in the song's greater context.  The vocal sections are suitably majestic, with the outro being particularly incredible, but the instrumental section always seemed to me to be uninspired, irrelevant, and indeed rather lame.

47. Peruvian Skies

An interesting tune, this one.  I get the Metallica thing they were going for here, but on the whole, I guess I never really "got" this one.  It's certainly fine, but there's nothing extremely excellent or notable about it.

46. A Nightmare to Remember

Now, the period from the opening cracks of thunder to the end of the so-called "Beautiful Agony" section is some of the best music DT's ever recorded, and I mean that honestly.  The heavy verses are so well-done, and they segue perfectly into the wonderful, softer, atmospheric verses of "Agony".  If DT had found a satisfying way to quickly wrap things up from there, Nightmare could have been top 10 material, but, alas, something goes horribly wrong the moment BA ends.  The solo tradeoffs go on two minutes longer than they should, and then there's the awful "Day after day" verse, and then there's a few more minutes of directionless instrumental before the imperative chorus reprise and a further few minutes of wankery.  DT had a lot of musical ideas for the latter half of this song (blast beats, ultra-heavy gothic chords, faux-growling verse, polyrhythmic interpretation of the main riff), but was entirely unable to package them in a consistently strong, interesting, and sensible way, thereby sabotaging the quality displayed by the first 8 minutes.  Beautiful agony, indeed.

[SeRoX]

This is a good start. Aside from HTF other ones would make my top 50. Completely agreed your thoughts about ANTR.

[Ħ]

Will be following because theseoafs is my best friend.

Great picks so far! But based on the write-ups, you don't think those songs are that great. :/ Oh well, keep 'em coming!

[wasteland]

Yes, it's a good start! Aside from Peruvian Skies, which I would place fairly higher, I agree on all you wrote. Your opinion on ANTR closely resemble mine. I would only have added that "Day After Day" is so awful that it's bloody funny. It's so bad that it's actually good. 

[BlackInk]

One Last Time is great, and I'd put both Honor Thy Father and Sacrificed Sons much higher than that.

Do you have a huge chart or something?

Nope, just a slow friday evening, a pen and some paper..

[hefdaddy42]

Great start, although you have ANTR ranked much too high for me.

And lol Blob.

[Sycsa]

46. A Nightmare to Remember
and then there's the awful "Day after day" verse

I actually like "Day after day".

[Nekov]

ANTR is about right in that place. The rest I'm not sure would make my top 50

[Elite]

From that batch only One Last Time and Peruvian Skies made mine and the latter was much higher. The rest doesn't even has a chance of being in my list. You said you'd be non-traditional though, so let's see where that takes us.

[BlobVanDam]

All good songs, and I'd place ANTR much higher.
A bit strange to see such negative reviews for songs that made your top 50.

[Onno]

Good batch of songs, love ANTR!

[theseoafs]

Will be following because theseoafs is my best friend.

A bit strange to see such negative reviews for songs that made your top 50.

Well, they're only negative reviews in the context of DT's catalog, which I find to be inordinately strong compared to the catalogs of other bands.  All these songs are good, but they're nothing special compared to some of DT's other songs, which fuck up the curve for songs like Honor Thy Father and Peruvian Skies.

Anyway, glad to see a positive reception so far. The next update will come tonight.

[Rattlehead]

Nice start to your list  Looking forward to following the rest.

[robwebster]

FUN FACT #1

Counting from the first top 50 list to include songs from ADToE (to give all songs a chance), there are six songs that are on everyones lists:

Scarred - 17,7 average position
Finally Free - 14,5 average position
Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper - 13,1 average position
Octavarium - 11,4 average position
Learning to Live - 9,3 average position
A Change of Seasons - 8,4 average position

The next fun fact: how many of them would make Blob's top 50?

Octavarium and Metropolis would be pretty high up, and Finally Free might be on there (I love it, I'm just not sure how many others would beat it), but Scarred, LTL and ACOS wouldn't make the cut.

I've checked, and two of the six are in my top fifty. Octavarium and Learning to Live. Both pretty high up.

Three? God, you're mainstream.



It's unusual, this part of a top fifty. All the songs have done quite well to get here, a top fifty represents about half of the discography, but it's always all about what's so iffy that they're not higher, as opposed to what's so good that they got here at all.

It makes sense. "Why is this only number fifty?" is absolutely the question to pre-empt. It is weird, though.

[BlobVanDam]

I've checked, and two of the six are in my top fifty. Octavarium and Learning to Live. Both pretty high up.

Three? God, you're mainstream.

To originality!

(because nothing is more validating than having rob back you up )

[wasteland]

You don't have Metropolis in your top 50, rob? 

[Rattlehead]

Isn't Scarred one of the most controversial songs on DTF according to survivor results a while back? 

Great song though, it would probably be in my top 15 or 20.

[Ben_Jamin]

Non-traditional Top50's are the reason I enjoy this thread.

[theseoafs]

Pressing forward:

45. I Walk Beside You

This song gets a bit more hate than it deserves, I think, because it's poppy.  There's nothing wrong with that, in my opinion.  I say, pop is fine.  I say, let them eat pop.

44. The Root of All Evil

A worthy entry in the 12-step suite.  I really like the direction they took on this one -- that is, the piece is more hard rock than the blistering metal of the previous two songs.  The groove is excellent, the chorus is catchy, the riff is stellar.  Quite a bit to like here.

43. Wither

I believe this is the second-to-last BCSL song we'll be seeing on this countdown -- rather surprising that half of BCSL's tracks made it into the top 50, given that I don't care much for the album.  Wither is a rather simple ballad, but it's a good one, as far as simple ballads go.  Guitar solo kicks ass.  Lyrics aren't great, but they're better than much of BCSL's lyrics, so I'll take them.

42. This Dying Soul

Here's a controversial one.  I actually really like TDS; it puts forward a lot of really brave musical ideas, and pays homage to TGP while coining a startling number of iconic musical themes itself.  The "I can feel your body breaking" chorus is so unbelievably cool it makes me angry, and I applaud DT for taking a risk with the pseudo-rap verses.  (This is the second-to-last 12-step song we'll be seeing here, by the way.)

41. Erotomania

Here's our first instrumental. Legend has it that this song was initially written as something of a "parody", and it certainly shows; the main riff and the "carnival" riff are so unconventional that they never fail to make me smile.  I particularly enjoy the neo-classical-esque riff at 4:31, and, of course, DAT SOLO.  Oh, god, that solo.  Take me now, JP.

[Rattlehead]

Nice choices, those would all make my top 50 except I Walk Beside You.

I think Wither is very underrated here and I definitely agree with your writeup. Looking forward to seeing the next batch 

[Scorpion]

Good choices (aside from I Walk Beside You, which is a pleasant listen in the context of 8VM, but not a lot more), and I really enjoy the style of your write-ups. Especially your Erotomania one is both spot-on and quite entertaining.

Also, the remaining 12SS-song is Repentance and the final BC&SL song is TCOT. You heard it here first.