Your favourite 3 Dream Theater/Petrucci albums

[BetaCAM]

FII indeed is a great album musically that's well produced. Petrucci's solo on Lines in the sand is simply fantastic! my favorite solo on the album... and it's played on a Strat if I recall correctly... Great lead tones on the album...

The funny thing is that DT themselves aren't too fond of the FII as it was the label that dictated them what to do, that's what I remember. I think people hate it for no reason, sure it took time to get used to it, but I don't mind having some cool catchy songs like Hollow Years, or Take away my pain... and Trial of Tears is a GREAT song with Great guitar solo!

 

[eliot323]

I have to say I agree with FII being an under-rated DT album - I only wish that Raise the Knife had actually made it onto the album as, along with Hollow Years and Trial of Tears, it is a monster song...I kept playing it on the Score DVD over and over.

I can understand some of the ambivalence (understatement...) about this record, given its troubled gestation and the band's problems with "creative control", but I don't think DT have ever released a bad album. Plus, it's all down to personal taste in the end as there are no objective criteria for such questions.

I'm also really pleased to see Train of Thought getting so much support - it is such a heavy record but so melodic at the same time - awesome power!

I also like the intelligent songs they write in terms of the lyrics. 6 Degrees is such an excellent insight into mental health problems and Killing in the Name of God such a clever attack on religious extremism.

 

[CudBucket]

This is really tough for me since I'm a huge fan of DT and John. Number 1 is easy though:

1) Scenes From a Memory
2) Images And Words
3) 6 Degrees

But If I wanted to do a more "guitar" oriented list it would be...

1) Train Of Thought
2) Suspended Animation
3) Awake

 

[Random Hero]

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.

DT is my favourite band also, and although I picked 3 albums in my earlier post, I actually love all DT albums, plus LTE1 and 2. and Suspended Animation.

And to the guy who said he preferred JP's Mark IIC+ rig to his Road King rig... you're in luck with the Score DVD. He's back to the Mark tones for that. I personally hope he incorporates both amps into his rigs in the future. Plus the Mark IV...

 

[BetaCAM]

And to the guy who said he preferred JP's Mark IIC+ rig to his Road King rig... you're in luck with the Score DVD. He's back to the Mark tones for that. I personally hope he incorporates both amps into his rigs in the future. Plus the Mark IV...

I have the SCORE DVD... I didn't like the artificial stereo image of the guitars.. I'd prefer one side with guitar that has that crunchy rhythm tone... it would please me a lot more...

btw, if you haven't visited John Petrucci's Forum on his web site go there and look for the latest pictures of his amplifiers he uses for the new upcoming DT album, there's Mark2, Mark4 and some Robert Keely modified pedals including DS1 and Metal Zone... but generally speaking he's kind of returned to the Mark series amps... though he said he still has the Roadking for his use...

 

[Random Hero]

I have the SCORE DVD... I didn't like the artificial stereo image of the guitars.. I'd prefer one side with guitar that has that crunchy rhythm tone... it would please me a lot more...

btw, if you haven't visited John Petrucci's Forum on his web site go there and look for the latest pictures of his amplifiers he uses for the new upcoming DT album, there's Mark2, Mark4 and some Robert Keely modified pedals including DS1 and Metal Zone... but generally speaking he's kind of returned to the Mark series amps... though he said he still has the Roadking for his use...

Yeh, I saw that. Apparently it's IIC+ for rhythms, IV for leads, RK for single note stuff and LS for cleans. However, he's said in the past that he loves Rectos for leads too, so I imagine we'll hear that on the new disc too.

I personally prefer the tone and mix on Live at Budokan to Score, but I was just mentioning it because of the Mark tones.

 

[BetaCAM]

I agree with you about the DVD mix of Budokan and SCORE, it surprises me though, as DVD is supposed to be 24 Bits with 96Khz sample rate as opposed to CD which is only 16 Bits and 44.1Khz and quite frankly, when I listen to DT's life shows and then to the albums, I find that I don't like their sound live that much... maybe it sounds different on PA system when you actually watch them live, I sure hope to be in one of their shows... I haven't seen them live yet myself...

But what I mean is that the mix of the whole thing sounds pretty cold and small in the large spectrum of frequencies... not much Lows... very much presence, lots of mids, but the bass isn't there... whether it's the bass guitar or mike's bass drum...
I don't notice them much, except when I listen to it through my studio monitors and even there you can tell the sound image all together sounds small...

 

[eliot323]

I really like both the 5.1 mixes on Budokan and Score - to my ears you get to hear all the instruments clearly, including the orchestra on Score, and I think JP's live sound is beautiful - I tingle every time I hear the intro to the Spirit Carries On.

I also think the FII songs sound much better live than on the albums...but as I said earlier, it's all so personal.

 

[louisgtr]

My three favorite are:

Images and Words
Awake
Octavarium

Honorable Mention:

Falling Into Infinity
When Dream and Day Unite
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

 

[73h Nils]

1. Train of Thought. OMFG. My favourite album of all time.

2. Awake. Sonic Tapestries that amaze me every time; DT's best Prog album. (Whereas Train of Thought is shock and awe metal album, through and through.)

3. I'd say Suspended Animation. Mmmm, Lost Without You...

Couldn't really decide, but Score & Live at Budokan are mesmerizing albums, but I didn't include them because they're, well, live.

 

[chrisglancy]

NUMBER 1= AWAKE

NUMBER 2= Train of Thought

NUMBER 3= Falling into Infinity

 

[marduke]

1- Octavarium
2- Scenes From a Memory Prt 2
3- A Change Of Seasons

 

[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!

A year on, I would swap out 6DOIT for Awake.

1) Scenes from a Memory
2) Awake
3) Images and Words

But, I love all DT albums, so it's always changing

 

[lumberjack]

Man that's a tough one...

In no specific order

1. Images and words (the album that got me started)
2. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence
3. Systematic Chaos (really diggin' this one right now)

 

[Phazer]

1) metropolis pt 2 schenes from a memory
2) images and words
3) systematic chaos

 

[pepperman]

1. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (Their last album with original ideas)
2. A Change of Seasons (Technically not a full album, but has the greatest DT composition ever!)
3. Octavarium (A varied record with a nice concept and plenty of emotional content)

 

[leftyguitarblue]

I love everything they do. My least favorite would have to be Falling into Infinity. You can tell that the record company was pressuring them to be "more accessible" with shorter songs and more radio friendly stuff. Portnoy even said in an interview that he was ready to walk away at that point which is why there next record was a concept "one long song" album. Which might be my favorite. But enough of that, this is about favorites...

1. SFAM
2. Awake
3. Systematic Chaos

 

[rlarino]

1. Liquid Tension Experiment (the original one)
2. A Change of Seasons (this cd could be track 1 only for all I care and it would still be my fav DT ever)
3. Images and Words


I think Jordan Rudess is awesome but ever since he joined DT they haven't released an album that I loved from start to finish... I love parts but I also hate parts... something that I never felt about DT albums before (but it's not entirely JR's doing... they are all changing musically, I guess you can't expect them to stay the same forever)

 

[kissmyaxe]

1. Octavarium
2. Scenes From a Memory
3. Systamatic Chaos
But yeh I love them all, if you ever clicked on the link in my sig you would know!

 

[unclerico]

Scenes from a Memory
Systematic Chaos
LTE 1 or 2