Best Album

[Jirpo]

I&W, closely followed by TOT and 6DOIT

[Ben_Jamin]

Well, 6DOIT is my favorite cd. But Awake is their best.

[skydivingninja]

Well, 6DOIT is my favorite cd. But Awake is their best.

I'm always in awe of people who say stuff like this.  It seems so weird to separate your own opinions of "the best" and "your favorite."  I mean, they're both subjective. 

I don't mean any offense towards you, I find it a bit odd though.

[Global Laziness]

I've updated my favourites since I first posted in this thread in May:

1   Awake
2   Images and Words
3   Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4   Black Clouds & Silver Linings
5   Scenes from a Memory
6   Train of Thought
7   When Dream and Day Unite
8   Systematic Chaos
9   Octavarium
10   Falling into Infinity

I used to have 3 and 4 switched and 9 and 10 switched.

[Tomislav95]

1 Awake
2 Images & Words
3 Metropolis pt.2: SFAM
4 Systematic Chaos
5 Octavarium
6 6DOIT
7 Falling into Infinity
8 Black Clouds & Silver Linings
9 Train of Thought
10 When Dream And Day Unite

This is my choice 

[darkshade]

Well, 6DOIT is my favorite cd. But Awake is their best.

I'm always in awe of people who say stuff like this.  It seems so weird to separate your own opinions of "the best" and "your favorite."  I mean, they're both subjective. 

I don't mean any offense towards you, I find it a bit odd though.

i do it sometimes, depending on the band. He may have an emotional attachment to SDoIT, but understands that Awake is the best album. I dont agree, but i know what he's sayin'

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

Well, 6DOIT is my favorite cd. But Awake is their best.

I'm always in awe of people who say stuff like this.  It seems so weird to separate your own opinions of "the best" and "your favorite."  I mean, they're both subjective. 

I don't mean any offense towards you, I find it a bit odd though.

Well I think I&W is their best, but it's my 5th favourite. I believe it's their best from an objective standpoint with the musicianship, lyrics, and melodies and whatnot. But it's only my 5th favourite because, admitedly, it's not really my style. Still, I like it a lot for the aforementioned reasons.

[FretMuppet]

I remember Labrie talking about how Awake was very poorly accepted by the fanbase at the time of release, but now its one of their most popular ones

[i am fabio]

6DOIT followed closely by I a W and BCSL

[dongringo]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who voted for Octavarium. 

[Ħ]

It's totally changed for me.

At first it was:

1.  Awake
2.  Images and Words
3.  Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4.  Black Clouds and Silver Linings
5.  Scenes From A Memory
6.  Octavarium
7.  Train of Thought
8.  Falling Into Infinity
9.  Systematic Chaos
10.  When Dream and Day Unite


But now it's like this:

1.  Images and Words
2.  Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
3.  Train of Thought
4.  Falling Into Infinity
5.  Scenes From A Memory
6.  Awake
7.  Octavarium
8.  Black Clouds and Silver Linings
9.  Systematic Chaos
10.  When Dream and Day Unite

[Jirpo]

It's totally changed for me.

At first it was:

1.  Awake
2.  Images and Words
3.  Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
4.  Black Clouds and Silver Linings
5.  Scenes From A Memory
6.  Octavarium
7.  Train of Thought
8.  Falling Into Infinity
9.  Systematic Chaos
10.  When Dream and Day Unite


But now it's like this:

1.  Images and Words
2.  Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
3.  Train of Thought
4.  Falling Into Infinity
5.  Scenes From A Memory
6.  Awake
7.  Octavarium
8.  Black Clouds and Silver Linings
9.  Systematic Chaos
10.  When Dream and Day Unite

Same top 3 as me!

[Tomislav95]

If you asked me about 6DOIT just 3 days ago, I should write it's bad, but now...Misunderstood is now one of my favourites with The Glass Prison, Blind Faith and of course whole 6DOIT song 

[The Presence of Frenemies]

Resurrecting this, because it's always fun to discuss.

I think I've got one of the weirder tastes in DT albums. I love I & W, followed by ToT and then maybe a tie between BCSL and SFAM. I doubt there are a lot of I & W fans who prefer ToT to awake, but hey, I can't help what I like.

That said, for me, I really find that just about every album (with the exception of FII, which I really don't care for, and WDADU, although the WDADU songs with JLB are great) has like 1-3 songs that really resonate with me, that really comprise what DT I tend to listen to. It goes something like this:

I & W: Learning To Live, Under a Glass Moon (I also enjoy the live versions of Take the Time with the extended guitar solo outro).
Awake: Voices, Lie, Scarred
ACoS
SFAM: Fatal Tragedy, Spirit Carries On (I usually go with the Score version though), Beyond This Life, Home
SDoIT: Glass Prison, and Disc 2 if I've got 45 minutes to kill
ToT: As I Am, In the Name of God
Octavarium: Octavarium, but that's pretty much it
SC: Ministry of Lost Souls, ITPOE
BCSL: ANTR, TBOT, TCOT

It strikes me as interesting how remarkably balanced DT has been that way, at least to my ears. They've gone so many different directions sonically, but never fail to deliver a classic song or two, but haven't ever made an album purely comprised of all-time DT classics, probably because they cover so many different styles on one album that something is bound to work great for almost every DT fan, and something is bound to be a bit less optimal. So every disc, I get about 20-35 minutes of stuff I'll never get tired of, and then 45-60 minutes of songs that I like but don't find particularly mind-blowing. I think the best example is the title track of Octavarium vs. the rest of the album.

For me, songs like Surrounded, SDV, SOC, half of Octavarium, Prophets of War, AROP, etc. seem to get in the way of DT making a bigtime album comprised entirely of classics. I think they tried to make one with BCSL (MP certainly sounded like it with that ridiculous quote about it being like their best songs), but TSF's endless quoting and AROP's rather by-the-numbers approach got in the way. Not to mention that Wither, while nice, isn't exactly ranking very high on most DT fans' lists.

So those are my thoughts--most of you probably disagree, but it's good for discussion, I think. I mean, seriously, who else has I & W and ToT as their top 2 DT albums? I'd be surprised if anyone else on DTF does (and if someone else does, that person is awesome!  )

[RuRoRul]

I think. I mean, seriously, who else has I & W and ToT as their top 2 DT albums?

Me.

Although a while ago I'd probably have said Train Of Thought then Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence, but I've been joining the I&W train more and more these past few months. Six Degrees is also an amazing album though.

1. Train Of Thought
2. Images and Words
3. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
4. Scenes From A Memory
5. Black Clouds And Silver Linings
6. Systematic Chaos
7. Falling Into Infinity
8. Octavarium
9. Awake
10. WDADU

Middle ones are pretty close, and there's not much in it between FII/ Awake / Octavarium. FII and Octavarium have a lot of average stuff (or just not very good stuff in the case of FII) but one or two of DT's absolute best, while Awake has a lot of decent songs but not many of their absolute best if I'm honest.

And the obligatory list as it was a few months ago:

1. ToT
2. SDOIT
3. BCSL
4. SC
5. I&W
6. SFAM
7. Octavarium
8. Awake
9. FII
10. WDADU

[The Presence of Frenemies]

I think. I mean, seriously, who else has I & W and ToT as their top 2 DT albums?

Me.

Win! 

My full list is probably something like this:

I & W/ToT
SFAM
BCSL/SC
SDoiT/Awake
Octavarium
WDADU
FII

[Dublagent66]

It's good to see that 6DOIT is in the top 4.   

[Amoniz]

For me it's either Awake or Six Degrees,

but for the sake of voting:  Awake

Awake is the album that 'depicts' DT in their most creative moments, music-wise, lyric-wise etc.
It has the dark synth tones, heavy riffs, yet at the same time the elevating sections. There's also LaBrie here, giving his best performance to date IMO.

An all time masterpiece IMHO.

[Ryzee]

My ranking would go something like:

1.Images & Words
2.Scenes From A Memory
3.Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
4.Awake
5.Falling Into Infinity
6.Black Clouds & Silver Linings
7.Octavarium
8.When Dream & Day Unite
9.Systematic Chaos
10.Train Of Thought

Whenever they try a little too hard to be more metal (SC, ToT) it usually doesn't work out too well.  However, they are my favorite band so I think every one of their albums is awesome in one way or another.

[darkshade]

i havent listened to DT in at least a month

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
2. Black Clouds & Silver Linings 
3. Awake
4. Images & Words
5. Scenes From A Memory
6. Octavarium
7. Systematic Chaos
8. Train of Thought
9. Falling Into Infinity
10. When Dream & Day Unite

[Pirate]

I&W














Awake




The rest

[j]

I&W
Awake

SDOIT
FII
WDADU
SFAM

BC&SL
Octavarium
ToT
SC

-J

[jjrock88]

I & W

[i_am_here_]

I can't decide between I&W, Awake, SFAM, and 6Degrees    But I voted 6degrees.

[PlaysLikeMyung]

Why is Awake not winning?

[STEVETHEATER]

It changes all the time... depending how I feel. But everytime I put on SFAM I get more excited....  I don't believe in perfection but this comes pretty close.

Steve

[Global Laziness]

Why is Awake not winning?

It actually was for a long time.

[LieLowTheWantedMan]

SFaM
Awake

SDoIT
SC

BCaSL
I&W
8V

WDaDU

ToT
FII

[voncorn]

-

[wjc]

Just leaving here the results so far from DT: The League. (These are just averages of the vote shares the individual songs got, they don't take into account the album as a whole)

1. Images and Words (70%)
2. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (68%)
3. Awake (60%)
4. Metropolis, Pt 2: Scenes from a Memory (59%)
5. Black Clouds & Silver Linings (53%)
6. Train of Thought (48%)
7. Octavarium (45%)
8. Falling into Infinity (41%)
9. Systematic Chaos (40%)
10. When Dream and Day Unite (31%)

[atmyne]

6DOIT ^ 9000

[The Degenerate]

1. Awake
2. I&W
3. 6DOIT
4. SFAM
5. FII
6. BC&SL
7. WDaDU
8. 8V
9. ToT
10. SC

[Kosmo]

It keeps changing but:

1.Scenes
2.Awake
3.Six Degrees
4.I&W
5.FII
6.ToT
7.WDADU
8.BC&SL
9.Octavarium
10.SC

[SeventhSon]

Images & Words
Scenes From a Memory
Awake
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
Octavarium
Falling into Infinity
Train of Thought
Black Clouds and Silver Linings
Systematic Chaos
When Dream and Day Unite

[wasteland]

Scenes From A Memory
Images and Wadz
Awake
Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
Falling Into Infinity
Black Clouds And Silver Linings
When Dream And Day Unite
Train Of Thought
Octavarium
Systematic Chaos

I dislike none of them, but i love only the first seven of the list.