Your favourite 3 Dream Theater/Petrucci albums

[eliot323]

Hi there
I thought it was a (little) while since we'd focussed on the work on one of EBMM's greatest endorsees: Mr John Petrucci.

So...all you DT/JP fans please let us know your favourite 3 albums (as opposed to EPs, DVDs or other formats) - side projects can be included.

My favourite 3 are:

1. Scenes from a memory Part 2 - the perfect DT album?
2. Train of thought - so heavy
3. Six degrees of inner turbulence - so varied and thought provoking

but Octavarium almost made it. As you can see, they are all Rudess-era albums: I like the way he has added his own virtuosity and compositional skills to the band and I think his synergy with John is amazing.

 

[Random Hero]

For me it's...

1) Scenes from a Memory - Plain awesome. Has everything.
2) Images and Words - So many classic Dream Theater songs.
3) Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - I love both discs, and this has The Glass Prison - one of my favourite DT songs. AWESOME tones too.

Awake and Train of Thought were very close... especially ToT since I LOVE the tones, but I love all DT albums!

 

[robelinda2]

Awake
Suspended Animation
Octavarium

 

[joe web]

wow, hard to decide!

suspended animation is defnetly a great album!

as far as DT albums, SFAM is my favorite, the next ist TOT and since a few weeks i discovered the FII album again - perfect songs on it.

i also love the octavarium as well as I&W and since i got the When Dream And Day REunite (YTSE-Jam) CD i really got into this stuff.

what can i say, i love them all.

 

[nocluejimbo]

ToT got me hooked on DT, as I came from a fairly metal background.
IaW introduced me to the complexity and original songwriting they are known for.
SFAM destroyed everything I thought I knew about music.

If we're counting live stuff, discs 1-3 of Live Scenes from New York will do it for me. Probably their greatest performance to date.

 

[jeffrey]

I don't have three, but I have one.

Liquid Tension Experiment 2.

Easily my favorite.

 

[Plaschkes]

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence - I just love both of them, plain awesome.
ToT - Sooo god-damn heavy!
Awake - Too many great songs on one album. Caught in a web, Erotomania, Voices, The Mirror+Lie, Scarred...

 

[Colin]

The DVD is great, and JP's solo record...

 

[Bungo]

Rudess era fan here too. Mine would be:-

1) 6 Degrees

- My favourite 2 DT shows were on this tour when they did 2 nights in London and played the whole of 6 degress the first night and the whole of Number Of The Beast the second night. Magic! Oh and it's got The Glass Prison and The Great Debate - can't go wrong!

2) Scenes From A Memory

- More ideas and tunes on one album than many bands manage in a career. Plus seeing Theresa Thompson singing Spirit Carries On with them last tour was absolutely fantastic!

3) Train Of Thought

- If I was Lars or James I'd be wishing I could make Metallica albums sound that good!


Octavarium close for Root, Sacrificed Sons and the title track, but lose interest a bit through all the Muse-like bits.

Roll on the next one!

 

[roburado]

In no order of preference really:
Whatever is the latest release
ToT
IAW

But...I spend a lot of time listening to stuff off of other albums...almost as much as I spend listening to any of the above. Really depends on my mood.

 

[eliot323]

Interesting to see the choices - all the albums have their merits and I'm starting to get into Liquid Tension Experiment 2 in a big way.

The other thing I've noticed is how much DT fans rely on abbreviations - it took me ages to get the hang of them...sometimes, on the DT forum I had no idea what people were talking about.

But then, I can't read an imperial tape measure...

 

[BetaCAM]

Well. my 3 top choices would be:

1) Awake - To me it's Dream Theater at their best... I love all the songs there and I can listen to each one of them without given order, or time of the day... it always sounds wonderful.

2) I have to say 6 degrees of inner turbulence - I haven't seriously listened to it till the last few weeks and I seriously like it, Obviously nothing can touch Scenes From a Memory as far as Rudess Time line started, but this is my second choice.
I actually liked the songs on the second CD of Six degrees rather than the first. But songs like The Glass Prison, Blind Faith, Disappear definitely rock!

3) I wanted to say JP's solo album which I own, but I only like 2 or 3 songs out of there... so I'd go for Images and Words... well... you know... pull me under, metroplois pt.1 , Under a glass moon... these are winners.

 

[rrhea]

3) I wanted to say JP's solo album which I own, but I only like 2 or 3 songs out of there... so I'd go for Images and Words... well... you know... pull me under, metroplois pt.1 , Under a glass moon... these are winners.

I was going to ask about the solo album, as I have not heard it yet. Can you elaborate on the rest fo the album and why you didn't like it as much as those three songs?

I have a hard time listening to regular DT stuff. Just can't get past the singer. (But, then again I am not really a prog rock fan, for the most part. About as far as I go into that realm is Queenschryche). However, I am a huge Petrucci fan so I have been interested in the solo album, but haven't had the chance to pick it up yet.

Ryan

 

[BetaCAM]

The Three songs on JP's solo album are: Damage Control, Glasgow Kiss and Lost without you... these are my favorite tracks.

I like the older Petrucci era, that's LTE2 era... And that being said I still admire this person and great musician, he's one of my biggest influences as musician more than a guitar player actually.

I liked his older rigs, especially the 3 Mark2c+ heads rig, and sounds more than his current setup but that's me, I always prefer simple tones that just go out in the mix and stay there with consistency.

and as a guitar player I liked his sound reproduction from his fingers from the Awake ala SFAM days... I think he changed a lot... and there has been too many debates about this subject so I won't go there now.

As for the album itself, I really think he can compose better pieces that would show more of his composition abilities which he absolutely has!
But I really love Glasgow Kiss... it's a beautiful piece... so as Damage Control... Beautiful piece! really complex and well built. top notch arrangement there.

As for Lost without you. I have on my computer a live version of it which was recorded in his early days with his Ibanez where I think he pretty much showed his best performance ever to my taste... very tasteful playing and so much emotion... I really felt like he's going over the top there...

I sometimes don't like Labrie's singing but I've learned to ignore that if I feel that's getting over me...

 

[francric]

1. Scenes from a memory Part 2 - the perfect DT album?
2. Train of thought - so heavy
3. Six degrees of inner turbulence - so varied and thought provoking

Those are my three favorite too......but my order would be 3,2,1

 

[Knox]

Scenes
Octavarium
Awake

 

[Ponch]

awake
suspended animation
scenes from a memories

extra stuff : both of the LTE Cd's !!! lol

 

[Pablo]

In no particular order:

LTE - This thing simply rocks big time!!! I have a hard time comming to terms with the fact that JP got those tones out of a TriAxis.

Images and Words - The album that got me into Dream Theater in general and Petrucci in particular. Brilliant compositions excellent musicianship... oh, and that solo in "Under a Glass Moon" really seals the deal for me.

Scenes from a Memory - Possibly the most well rounded of all DT's albums - there simply isn't a bad track on there! Though I am more into Kevin Moore and (shock horror) Dereck Sherinian than Rudess, there is no arguing that the guy is a monster on his instrument.

Honorable mentions:

Falling into Infinity: IMHO much better than people give it credit for - the guitar tones on this disc are simply the best JP has ever put on record. Paired with amazing production overall, I think many a DT fan would be very possitively surpriced if they ever (in an act of drunken lunacy) were to put this disc on and actually listened to it.

Awake: Brilliant album, great production, the low-down oomph that got me interested in 7-strings and the most spine tingling closer of ANY DT record... just a few too many weak tracks for it to make it into my top 3.

Explorers Club: Though not a JP/DT project per se, the solo Petrucci delivers on "Fading Fast" is just about as close to perfection as it gets. Trent Gardner really made the album of his life with this one - even if you're not into Magellan, odds are you'll like this amazing disc.
if you don't allready own the first Explorers Club... GET IT NOW!!!

Cheers

Eske

 

[Zaarin]

DT is my favorite band and I've loved every release so far. I don't know if I could pick my three favorite albums, they're all so good.

And yes FII is a great album, I don't understand the hate for it.

 

[gui7ars]

Suspended Animation
LTE 2
SFAM