GREATEST HIT (...AND 21 OTHER PRETTY COOL SONGS)

How can I, someone who has declared DT his favorite band in all prog-metal, be giving this Greatest Hits compilation a bad rating? A collection of DT's should be every fan's dream, shouldn't it?

How can I even rate this album if I haven't heard it and haven't even bought it?

Well, the two points are actually connected. If I haven't bought or even heard the album, it's because I don't need to. There's absolutely NO reason for a fan who has all the albums to have this other than to presume of a perfect collection. As I'm a fan of DT's own music, not of their cover versions, I think it's enough for me to have only all of their albums. And this compilation doesn't add ONE SONG to my catalogue ("To Live Forever"? Please...). So, as I've heard all of these before, I think I can comment, as I did with SHADOW GALLERY's "Prime Cuts" a while ago, in the quality of the song selection.

Ok, I forgot: we get a couple of remixes here. Well, if you really crave for that new mix where you can listen to the hi-hat one decibel higher than in the album, rush ahead and go buy this collection. The original albums were all pretty well-produced in the first place so there's really no need for new mixes (something that, curiously, would have added at least something of interest to SHADOW GALLERY's compilation, at least for the songs coming from the poorly-recorded "Shadow Gallery").

- First off, where is "Ytse Jam"? If there's a song that had to be here is that one. Label issues aside, I'm sure it could be done. And they couldn't even have argued that they didn't want any Dominici-sung track in the compilation, as that one is an instrumental. It's awful that there;s not ONE song from the band's first album on this record.

- From one of their masterpieces, "Images and Words", they chose, well, their only actual "hit" ("Pull me Under") which makes the title of this album coherent; they chose a great song like "Take the Time", and "Another Day". I love every song in that record. But I just can't forgive that "Metropolis" isn't here. It's just ridiculous. That's one of the seminal DT songs.

- From "Awake" they chose "Lie", which had a video but it's not the best track in the album, they chose "Silent Man" and "Lifting Shadows off a Dream". Where's "The Mirror" or, even more, "Erotomania" and "Voices"? Bad selection. If they wanted to spotlight less-known tracks, they could've gone with the great "Scarred" instead.

- "Falling into Infinity" has no better luck. "Peruvian Skies" is good and "Hollow years" is very pretty, but really, for a true taste of DT, where are "Trial of Tears", or the amazing combo "Hell's Kitchen-Lines in the sand"? Terrible picks (these are not bad songs per se, the're just awful as selections for a greatest hits album).

- "Scenes from a Memory" should never be cut. Period. At least they chose some of the greatest moments of an album that doesn't have many weak moments so it isn't so big an achievement.

- "6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence" receives the usual treatment. They don't include fan-favorite "The Glass Prison" (which I don't like at all, but most fans love) and prefer the good "Misunderstood" and the forgettable "Disappear." And again, they cut the only really great part of that album, the title-track, and utterly kill it. They include the "radio edit" of "Solitary Shell". What "radio" are we talking about? Again, if your band isn't mainstream, please include what the fans love, so that newbies can have a better sample of your music. Not a RADIO EDIT that no radio has ever aired anyway.

- "Train of Thought" is butchered as we expected, with the horrendous "As I Am" and the decent "Endless Sacrifice" as choices.

- They did a good job of choosing the songs of "Octavarium." To include the title-track would've been a good idea, but it's a long song. And time had to be saved for...

... wait...

...no, there's no "A Change of Seasons" in any of the two discs!

And yes,there is enough room in the discs to include the legendary 23 minute track.

After I've said that, I guess the rating I'm giving this compilation should come as no surprise.

As compilations go, this is atrocious. If this was an album of new songs, it would be a great one. But knowing every record of the band, and thinking on what they should've chosen to really attract new fans (which I guess is the objective of compilations -other that making money for the record label, which this collection won't do either-, to give people who don't want to buy 9 albums and one EP a good sample of what the band's music is about), these 2 discs are in my view a waste of time and resources.

You know, for a band that has only ONE radio-"kind-of"-hit ("Pull Me Under"), they should've gone with what their fans love the most, not what the band or the label think are their greatest hits, because this kind of band rarely has ANY HIT, so their real "hits" or the closest to that would be those songs that their fans think are a better sample of DT for newcomers. But DREAM THEATER won't gain any new fans with this horrendous song selection.

Why this compilation was released is makes me scratch my head in confusion and frustration. Before you ask, yes I am a fan of the band indeed, but can I give this compilation a good rating? No, not even close to a good rating.

Before any self respecting Dream Theater fan even gives this a whirl, I would think they would see some obvious flaws in the execution of this compilation. First off, there is a not a single song, yes not a SINGLE SONG from When Dream and Day Unite. This is the point where you realize this wasn't really aimed at fans of Dream Theater who really know the band, because so many fans love Ytse Jam yet it's notably absent from this album. A big reason why is that the song selection is taken from 1991 to 2005, which also means songs from Systematic Chaos are not included here, and given SC has some serious fan favorites like In The Presence Of Enemies, things are only looking worse this this compilation.

It is divided into a two disc compilation, disc one called One (The Dark Side), which contains the more metal and heavy songs from Dream Theater and Two (The Light Side) which as you might guess contains the softer and generally more melodic songs. We have 3 songs from Images and Words, an album which I love to bits, but the lack of Metropolis Pt.1: The Miracle and the Sleeper is just cringe worthy and means that new comers the band buying this album wont be hearing one of the best DT songs, which is a shame.

From Awake we have Lie, Lifting Shadows Off A Dream and The Silent Man, great songs, but for a compilation album not the best picks to be honest, I think Space Dye Vest and Erotomania would have been better picks.

For the Falling into Infinity tracks, I think in their place Trial Of Tears and Hell's Kitchen would have been better fits

Scenes From A Memory on any non live album, has no place in having no less than all it's songs present. Songs from SFAM should just have been left off the album

The tracks Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence could have been left off and in it's place all that was needed is big time fan favorite The Glass Prison.

Root of All Evil and Sacrified Song were the only songs needed to be honest from Octavarium, I think the other songs are not great representations of Dream Theater, although perhaps for some fans.

What else do I think is wrong with it? Even if they didn't remove any tracks off the album, there is still space for the amazing A Change Of Seasons. 2007 songs should have made it to the compilation as I noted before, particularly IPOE. Now for the various edits/remixes you say. The Pull Me Under, Take the Time and Another Day remixes are nothing short of atrocious. When I listen to the clean guitar parts of Pull Me Under, compared to the original which has great dynamics, the dynamics get washed out and makes Petrucci's playing sound almost amateurish and the compression in general is just mind numbingly awful. The various single/radio edits on here, not needed here at all. Either the full song, or nothing IMO.

Dream Theater only had one hit song as such, which to my mind makes this compilation even more useless. If you want to know what Dream Theater's greatest hit/s are, here's what I think: the studio album you buy and fall in love with, will be your personal Dream Theater greatest hits. A prog metal band really don't have hit songs, they just have songs the fans absolutely adore which should be enough for most bands. Whether you're a fan of the band or not Just go out and buy their studio albums, there is zero need for this compilation at all.

The idea of this complitation makes me confused. Sure I get that it was SUPPOSED to get newcomers interested, but as a fan there's no reason to buy it, and even if you are just getting into DT, get the original albums first. The problem isn't the music. The music's all great (with the exception of a few cuts), but somehow the complitation isn't good. I love DT (probably one of my favorite bands), but for newcomers, really look away. It's obvious that fans shouldn't buy, but for newcomers you should really start with IMAGES AND WORDS, OCTAVARIUM, or SIX DEGREES OF INNER TURBULENCE. It's all for the simple reason that after listening to this you'll buy them anyway, or use the actual albums to say you don't like DT. I guess you could just say that I hate complitations, but from DT I was expecting an exception to the rule. Music: 5/5, Overall package: 1/5, Overall Score: 2/5.

'Greatest Hit (...and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs)' - Dream Theater (Compilation)

This is what you get when you infuse a relatively non-commercial band with an incredibly profit-based compilation. Dream Theater is a band where the concept of a Best Of compilation would receive flak and criticism regardless of how effective the compilation actually was at encapsulating the work ... Read moreof this band's great career. However, the compilators fail so greatly at doing the band justice, this disc should not, and cannot get more then one star.

Dream Theaters fanbase is quite hardcore in nature, and devoted. Therefore, naturally everyone would have differing opinions about which songs are worthy of being 'the best.' Obviously in accordance with the disc's title, Dream Theaters single hit 'Pull Me Under' would definately need to be in here somewhere. But where are the songs that are widely considered to be their true greats? Songs such as 'Ytse Jam,' 'Metropolis Pt. I,' and 'Learning to Live' should be here. Are they? Nope.

What you get is a smattering of Dream Theater's most commercial songs. In my personal opinion, as far as the song choice goes, alot of these are ironically some of their worst songs. If theres enough room to put remixes and radio edits (radio edit, haha!) on the two discs, I'm sure they could have found a way to put some of the longer, more memorable tracks on here.

Instead of selling out and shamelessly fulfilling uninspired contracts, they could have put their most brilliant, loved moments onto some CDs and gained alot of fresh fans in the process.

In the matter of 30 seconds, I could have made a Dream Theater compilation that I'm sure could widely be considered much, much better than the official release, and much more representative of Dream Theater's actual talent.

For a group as amazing and creative as Dream Theater, I think a much better compilation should have been made. There was definate potential; Mike Portnoy even stated that there was going to be a 3rd disc called 'the Epic Side' consisting of the band's progressive material. However, what we are truly left with is a halfhearted attempt to gain more fans, and make money off of those so attached to the band as to buy whatever this band releases. Shameless.

1 Greatest Hit and 1 Great Flounder...coming right up.

This is one of the oddest collections I have ever seen from a band. Normally, a compilation is released for one of two groups of people: either 1) for the diehard fans or 2) for newcomers to the band. And quite frankly, this collection doesn't seem to appeal to either group of people. In fact, I would say that it detracts both groups of listeners. If I happened to listen to this compilation when I first discovered Dream Theater, I would have personally been turned off immediately.

The weakness lies right in the song choices that were made for this album. Granted, having Pull Me Under as the first song helps to make the album title clever, but I fail to see how so many of the songs on this collection are either subpar or average choices. While I don't mind there not being anything from the band's debut on here, the fact that at least Ytse Jam is absent is very disappointing. And not seeing Metropolis Part 1 as one of the three songs is a major disappointment as well.

The songs from Awake on here are Lie, Lifting Shadows Off a Dream, and The Silent Man. I find those three songs to be very good, but I'm not sure if a compilation album is a good place for them. For the Falling Into Infinity material, I would have gone with any of the following two: Peruvian Skies, Lines in the Sand, and Trial of Tears. The fact that only a couple of songs from SFAM are on here and that nothing from Systematic Chaos is on this album seems criminal to me. I agree with Harry in that if SFAM is going to be put on this album, ALL of the songs should be present. I would have replaced all the SFAM songs and put some material from SC on here.

The sections on here from 6 Degrees title track also suffer from the same problem as the SFAM tracks. Again, if you're including parts of that song, you had better include every part of it. A song like The Glass Prison would make more sense with it being a fan favorite at least. And lastly, for Octavarium, Root of All Evil might be the only pick that I find okay on this entire compilation, but Sacrificed Sons?! Give me a break. The title track on here would improve this compilation to 3 stars alone for me. Either that or their other fabulous epic, A Change of Seasons, would have had much better results in my opinion.

So like I said, I can't recommend this album to Dream Theater fans or those interested in checking them out. Having the studio albums instead would be so much more worthwhile, plus you'd get much better song selection that you could hope to find on here. I'm almost glad to give this atrocious piece of garbage (I don't like referring to most music as that but this compilation almost deserves it) a single star. Get the studio albums if you don't have any or all of them yet and avoid this like the plague.

Dream Theater - GreateSt HIT

Review by ProgKidJoel

Reading the other reviews for this compilation, I'm not sure why it has such incredibly bad reviews - Its NOT made for Dream Theater fans, its made for newcomers to the band, and as such, it isn't really meant to add any B-Sides or material unavailable on their full studio albums. As an impartial listener of Dream Theater, I picked this up as my first CD from the band to sample their sound and style...

Although I found out Dream Theater wasn't a band I would follow completely, these discs did give me a great sample of the various genres this band has played, and gave me a lot of understanding of why some people do love DT.

There are no bad tracks on this compilation, but at the same time, there are no tracks which make me genuinely "wow"... It is a good compilation, although it was foolish for the band to exclude their fan-favourite "In The Presence Of Enemies", or for that matter, any material from Systematic Chaos, considering this set was released one full year after SC.

Until next time, keep proggin'

-Joel

Nope, even if you're desperate enough and wanna find how Dream Theater sounds like, beware the mistake I did and avoid this album at all costs. If you want to start with Dream Theater, start with Scenes from a Memory, or with Images & Words, or even with Black Clouds, but for prog's sake, Greatest Hit(s) ? The most innovative and interesting thing about this album is its name. Because if you'll start with this, you won't get much fun. Or maybe I'm too influenced by this band, but how one came to some band that he know is favourite, good and well known, but he don't know anything about it ? Charts somewhere, friends recommendations or maybe last.fm chart - still, he will start with some of albums I've mentioned. No, he won't made a mistake to start with Systematic Chaos, or something like that.

2(+), because still, they are DT songs, even it's useless album. Take this review's opinion as that it is absolutely not important album, but if you stumble over it and don't have any other DT albums, you'll be maybe pleased. A little bit, because you won't witness true experience as you would have with real albums.

People giving this a low score simply because they say they have no need to own it are being ridiculous. I'm sorry, but as I was browsing through here, I came across this and saw how low of a score it's been getting. Then when I actually read the reviews and got the reasoning behind the low score, I laughed out out.

So, apparently it's escaped the brilliant minds of a lot of folks here that a compilation disc isn't meant for definitive listening experiences. It's meant to introduce newcomers to the band, and in this case, you won't find a better collection. It's a greatest hits disc that has been completely overseen by the band members themselves. So what you'll find here is nothing but the best. Every song on this disc is great.

If you're new to Dream Theater, and want to get an idea of how varied and eclectic they have the potential to be, look no further than 'Greatest Hit'. You won't be disappointed. If you already own every studio album by this band, then no, don't get it. But I would have thought that was obvious. I guess it wasn't. Nothing new is on this disc, but what is there certainly isn't bad. I don't really know why such people even bothered reviewing this, since they weren't the target audience of this release in the first place. It's meant only for newcomers to the band who want to digest the catalogue quickly and efficiently. This definitely serves that purpose quite well.

3.5 Stars.

NOTE: This is a compilation album from a band of which I own every album.

One must remember sometimes what the point of a compilation album is. A compilation album is an album that compiles popular tracks from a band's discography as to attract prospective fans. So, it is nearly impossible for a compilation album to be more than 3 stars, but it is also improbable to say that a compilation album is 1 stars, seeing as the songs on it were most likely off of the band's better albums. This album actually introduced a good friend of mine to Dream Theater, and now he owns three studio albums and loves the music. The album does a spectacular job at... at what you ask?.... at compiling Dream Theater's more popular tracks as to cater to future or prospective fans. Songs like Pull me Under, Lie, Hollow Years, I Walk Beside You or Through Her Eyes are perfect songs to tell the average music fan, hey, these guys are pretty good. So yes, compilation albums are essentially a marketing scheme, but heck, we all need money don't we?

Initially I was going to say 1 star, but I realized that I can't review this album through a dedicated fan's eyes who owns every album and lives and breathes Dream Theater, but through the eyes of someone who is just starting out on the road to Dream Theater, and this is a very good release. 3- stars.

Keep in mind the the title of this is called "Greatest Hit (and 21 other pretty cool songs)".

This is a 2-disc set with "Pull Me Under" and 21 "pretty cool" songs. Not GREAT songs. "Pretty cool songs". Obviously this is not a compilation.

Compilations are collections of a band's best work. There are some great songs on here, no doubt, but, in all intensive purposes, every true Dream Theater fan has all their albums (even the mildly mediocre "Falling Into Infinity" and, yes, even the dreaded "When Dream And Day Unite"). What need is there for a compilation?

Well, best guesses serve to point to the media and the radio. DT's only spotlight of fame was when MTV showed a video of Pull Me Under in 1992 (back when they still showed music videos). Nothing since. Frankly, not only is this one of the few bands in history that shows variations in their albums, yet every fan has all of them, but this is also one of the few bands that does not need the radio (or radio edits for that matter) to make s***loads of money and achieve fame.

Regardless, this is really only for newcomers of the band, or better yet, for your smoking hot girlfriend to introduce the band to so that you both have the same musical interests which can only intensify the relationship.

Hell, that's definitely worth the price of $14.