Bonus question: How do you feel about The Astonishing?

My top three at this moment are:

1. Awake

2. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

3. Distance Over Time

And I think The Astonishing is excellent, if not as excellent as most of their other albums!

Awake

SDoIT

I know not many like SC but In The Presence of Enemies, Repentance, and Ministry of Lost Souls more than make up for the weaker parts of the record in my opinion.

As for the Astonishing.. well bleh, really don't like it at all and gave up with DT after that. It feels really overbloated and bland to me, and I dont think James trying to do the voices for all the characters really works. DT now seems very much like Petrucci's band... and I think as a whole they are sorely missing Portnoy - not necessarily for his drumming skills, but more for his arranging skills.

1= Six Degrees

3 Falling Into Infinity

My favourite DT release is A Change of Seasons, though.

Two Mangini releases are in my DT top five, so I’m with you. I still haven’t heard the latest album, but it seems to get near universally good reviews, so I’m hoping to enjoy it when I finally get around to it.

2. Images and Words

3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulance

Might also have listed Metropolis pt.2 and Falling into Infinity. I gave up on DT after a the self titled album. It's not that they make bad music, but to my ears it's a rehash of earlier work and sounding uninspired. I didn't care about The Astonishing.

When Dream And Day Unite

Cristi wrote: the Moore era

 agree

2. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory

3. Octavarium

1. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

2. Awake

3. Images & Words

About The Astonishing, I haven't checked it yet.

2. Metroplis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory

3. Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence

Cristi wrote: the Moore era

this!!

Awake and I&W second, post Kevin Moore DT never click on me

This is my list too, possibly in the same order...

For me, A View is a big grower. The first time I heard it I was very underwhelmed, especially after all the immediacy of DoT. However, every time I play it back I get sucked into a section I hadn't considered previously, and the production just keeps getting better and better. Mangini's best performance and best sounding drums to date.

Train Of Thought

Awake

Change Of Seasons

I was just going to post the top two only but had to mention this EP that really was the first Prog Metal album I ever heard. The title track blew me away but there was some pretty cool covers on there as well. These guys can play! A guy I work with has had James LaBrie sign some stuff, they live in the same town about 40 minutes from where I live. Kevin LaBrie is his real name and what those who grew up with him still call him.

Nice to see some love for Change of Seasons! The title track is still my favorite DT song of all time, and I've always been a big fan of the closing medley as well. Though to be honest, I've always been a bit surprised at some of the song selections... in the sense that I expected more proggy Kansas, Journey, or Genesis songs for them to cover  Well, still cool nonetheless 

1 - Distance Over Time

2 - Train of Thought

3 - A View From The Top of the world

Train of Thought is great and Distance Over Time was a great comeback after The Appalling, I mean The Astonishing. 

The new one is good, but I didn't get back to it after listening to it a few times. Gotta find some time and mood for it. 

Awake is my absolute favorite. The playing is heavier than I&W, which I dig, and the lyrics much more personal deal with struggling with one's religion, which is always a good topic to explore in my book.  The songs and the atmospheres feel more ethereal to me, like cascading waves of emotion and passing through various stages of a dream, rather than the very composed nature of much of I&W. However it still retains that early DT enthusiasm and willingness to try anything that was on I&W as well. Sure, there's no really long concept piece like on 6 Degrees or Scenes, and no 20 minute epic like Octavarium or The Count Of Tuscany, and it isn't nearly as bright and colorful as I&W... but it makes up for all that for me in its fascinating depth. It's the kind of easy to overlook record of DT's golden years, but it's got it where it counts. Voices. 6:00. Lie. Space-Dye Vest. This is the sound of a band reaching for something beyond the reach of any other group on the planet at the time.

Plus, it's probably James best performance on record. This was the last album he did before his major vocal injury, which did some level of permanent damage and affected the way he sings even to this day, certainly weakening his ability to hit high notes with great facility.  I find the work he's done on all subsequent DT albums to be admirable and often very moving, and indeed some of it does better his vocals here. But overall there's not another full album length of James' singing that's as killer as this album. He pushed himself to emote more, to use more distortion and aggression where it made sense, and also I think to annunciate things a little bit more clearly than I&W, and it makes all the difference to my ears.

great post 

My favorite DT album, loved it since it came out. 

I wish Kevin Moore would do some new music, in recent years he only guested on a few albums. 

It's better than 6 Degrees though 

Really? That is bizarre to me, as it has always been a fan favourite. For years it was my favourite DT album by far. Kevin Moore really brought something to the band that has never been replaced. That’s not to suggest other DT keyboard players are not as good, by any means. But they don’t fill the gap he left. Awake is the pinnacle of Kevin Moore DT for me. The only Kevin Moore release that would beat it, would have been if A Change of Seasons had been released when he were still part of the band. (A Change of Seasons has always been my absolute favourite DT release, and I doubt that will ever change.) Space Dye Vest is probably my favourite DT song. It’s such a perfect closer to Awake, and it’s really all down to Moore. The band has never even attempted a song like this since.

Basically, it comes down to preferences, and I don’t understand why you can not understand why Awake is liked so much, just because you don’t like it so much. You mention Metropolis 2. Well, that’s one of my least favourite DT albums, but I would never say I do not understand why it always is right up the top in any poll of discussion about DT’s album. You mention I&W, and actually it’s entirely reasonable that if I&W is up there, so will Awake be. It’s down to Kevin Moore again. The two releases are quite similar in sound, even if Awake is heavier. For me, I&W is a great album, that (to me) always seems to be on the precipice of something greater, but never quite gets there. It is full of latent potential, but never seems to realise it (despite having some absolute classic DT tracks). Awake realises that potential.

That I&W resonates with so many DT fans is probably why Dramatic Turn of Events is doing as well as it is here. After a series of disappointing albums for many (though still loved by others, as evidenced here), Dramatic Turn was really getting back to the I&W sound. It’s a top five album for me, because it is a modern take on that classic sound. I found the eponymous album that followed extremely disappointing (and it’s one of my least favourite DT releases), and I wonder how much of that is because after what felt like I&W 2, I was expecting Awake 2? 🤔🤷🏻‍♂️

But then, one of my favourite DT albums is The Astonishing, so you can probably disregard everything I have said…. 😜

I guess it's not in the poll because it's an EP. 

Sure it's a matter of preference but I think DT's new keyboardists and drummers have been awesome. Derek, Jordan, and Mike want to be a part of the creative process of DT, where Kevin didn't. 

it's from 2014, probably during the tour promoting their self-titled album. 

To quote the Wiki article:

Those three would have been my picks before the last two Dream Theater albums. However the last two are so good I would have them in the mix for the band's top three.

Despite how much A View has grown on me since it came out, I think I still wouldn't put it in that upper echelon. It comes down to melody for me, and A View just makes those strong, soaring DT melodies less of a thing, either by choice or perhaps because of James' aging vocal chords. DoT has some super catchy lead melodies, on pretty much every song too, even if many of them aren't too high. I will say this in favor of View though, it's the most perfect sounding DT album since, probably...Octavarium? Maybe Train Of Thought? ... honestly... thinking about it... it might just be their best sounding album period. The drums are exactly as heavy as they need to be to really pop out of the mix, without ever becoming distracting (like the snare on 6DOIT sometimes can be), the Jordan picks some absolutely killer tones for the keys. The guitars sit just right perfect in the mix (those first few solo guitar riffs of Sleeping Giant, panning form one channel to the other... mmm, so good), the bass is not only audible but has a bit more character than on many DT albums. And the vocals don't sound mixed back and drenched in effects like they sometimes do on DoT, plus the vocal harmonies (an area I'm not sure DT has never really prioritized until the past couple albums, which I've been enjoying hearing more of) are really cool in many places (Sleeping Giant again comes to mind). The whole mix is just really really pleasing, everything super tight and super punchy, but still warm and inviting and colorful. DoT sometimes felt cold.

1. Images and Words

2. Metropolis pt 2

3. Octavarium

These are my "desert island" albums

Amazingly, that's the same ranking order I would put them in too.