Djang0
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Soundoffs 52
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Last Active 08-31-21 12:03 am
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12.20.25 Dream Theater - A Comprehensive Ranking08.29.20 The Correct Leprous Album Ranking
07.19.19 Opeth Albums Ranked07.14.19 Albums about the apocalypse/end of the
10.04.18 Your Lowest Rated 5’s09.22.18 Sputnik album ratings vs. what they act
10.29.17 St. Vincent Ranked07.18.17 Vespertine Ranked
07.12.17 Maudlin of the Well/Kayo Dot/Toby Drive07.12.17 King Crimson Ranked

Dream Theater - A Comprehensive Ranking

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but I've been getting more into writing lately and wanted to get something out there. I’ve been a fan of Dream Theater’s music since the late 2000’s. I’ve experienced their album cycles since the release of ADTOE, and have seen them live 4 times as of writing this. Creating a ranking like this is simultaneously the easiest and hardest thing ever, but I’d only feel the need to create a list after so long if I felt like I had something to say and some actually interesting takes. This is not a ranking of objectivity, but more so one of my personal enjoyment when listening to the albums of one of my favorite bands of all time. I hope you find some entertainment in this list. Buckle in:
16Dream Theater
When Dream And Day Unite

Starting off with the coldest take of all time. I actually think this album gets a tad over-hated and should have a fair shake. I think there is a good amount of nostalgia for the album and it is looked back on fondly in some regards. Charlie Domenici, as strong a singer as he is, doesn’t bring as strong of a character to the DT sound as James Labrie, and there are some pretty half-baked cuts here. But, we will have more to say going forward…
15Dream Theater
Falling Into Infinity

I think Falling Into Infinity had the potential to be something much greater than the sum of its parts, but as any fan of the band knows, the time period surrounding this album’s creation was rife with record label issues, resulting in the cutting of over an hour of material, and a near break up of the band. What resulted was a strangely one-foot-in one-foot-out “prog” rock album with radio friendly sensibilities… and some seriously tepid and underwhelming songs. Even its epics Lines in the Sand and Trial of Tears struggle to give the entire album much a reason to revisit. The stellar production and mixing job this album has to offer makes it a smoother listen I guess. To this day, the b-sides to this album remain better than the album in itself. What I can appreciate this album for is its crisp sound, sonic diversity, and being rather difficult to define - an important stepping stone for the band.
14Dream Theater
Distance Over Time

What is often considered the band’s hard-hitting Mangini-era comeback has always struck me as safe, un-ambitious, and tired sounding. Surely, on release, there was nothing more refreshing than a 50-minute album of hard hitting tracks after an album like The Astonishing, but between this claustrophobic tracklisting, brick-walled production, and songs that sound like the band is rushing to get through them, I’m hard pressed to find a reason to spin it, or place it much higher than this. Thankfully, sparkles of the band’s creativity remain in the form of the impeccable Pale Blue Dot and At Wit’s End, and the band is clearly trying to have fun on this one.
13Dream Theater
The Astonishing

To die on the hill of supporting this album is a fate I don't mind, but we are still in the bottom 25% of albums here. The Astonishing had unbelievable hype behind it - what went wrong? You’ll see cited: overly long, too maybe ballads (where’s the prog?), slow and uninteresting, a Disney-level storyline, etc.

But what went right?

I think TA contains some of the band’s most heartfelt writing in their 2010’s era, and above all, is honestly just a kind of fun journey. The concept is not particularly unique or novel, but it has enough to latch onto and invest in, and gives some of the otherwise generic sounding songs here a reason to shine. A piece of praise I never see, but will also levy at this album, is that this is the band at their most tasteful, by far. They really try to serve the music here, with very few moments of wankery and riff-soup. I have an altered track-list of this album that cuts it to 80-90 minutes which might color my perception, but oh well
12Dream Theater
Octavarium

Octavarium sees the band righting the wrongs of Falling Into Infinity, in a way. By far their 2nd most radio-friendly album by comparison, but this time the band has better control over their intentions, the concept, and the execution. The production is clean, the songs are tight, and this album marks the end of their four-album long meta-conceptual album cycle. What potential! The final track on this album, the title track, is the band’s best crowning achievement (but that’s a ranking for another day), and the album features some of the band’s most popular songs (Panic Attack was my introduction to the band). Why so low though? No matter how you spin it, every other track on this album is simply… fine. The 00’s DT “cringe” is painted on songs like Never Enough, Sacrificed Sons, and I can humor saccharine cuts like The Answer Lies Within and I Walk Beside You, for a while.
11Dream Theater
Systematic Chaos

I simply don’t ever know where to rank this album - it’s so good and so bad at the same time, in all of the best ways. I think the ways in which the band was trying something new here with the rougher and more stripped back production and instrumentation really grants it a unique sound and vibe. They do throw some headscratchers at you, but when this album soars, it really soars - the longer tracks have some of the band's most “epic” listening experiences that transport you to another world. Similar issue to Octavarium where the shorter deep cuts are simply too hit or miss (The Dark Eternal Night in particular tows that bad/good line perfectly and encapsulates what is so wrong and right about this album). Props for being more daring though!
10Dream Theater
A View From The Top Of The World

The band’s final album with drummer Mangini could quite possibly be considered the very best from the era (‘11-’21), and is beloved by many fans. I grapple with my thoughts on this one but I’ll try to express them here. You can hear that DT is really trying here with explosive proggy passages, impressive synchronicity between instruments, a -slight- attempt at a better produced and mixed album (there’s more space here than on DoT, thank god), and the introduction of 8 string guitars. But we’re missing some tension and heart..The more meta life-talk topics of each song is… productive? What is the title-track even about, pushing your limits? My commentary here is not with the goal of belittling the lyrical content but to highlight how much heavy lifting the “prog” is doing here. Sleeping Giant is the closest they have gotten to a strong emotional resonance in their music in a long time. We are missing some grit, some push and pull, some Portnoy…
9Dream Theater
Parasomnia

The old-school DT fan’s wet dream has come true with (checks notes) 1. The return of Mike Portnoy 2. A darker, heavier album 3. A somewhat-conceptual album! 4. AI-generated artwork (maybe not that one). When you imagined a Dream Theater album in 2025 with the “original” lineup, what did you picture? Parasomnia is, by most metrics, an absolute triumph for this now 40 year-old band. Few bands can still rock this hard and be this creative 16 albums in - but did we really need another groove-metal rocker like Midnight Messiah in the DT catalogue? Regardless, Parasomnia is a breath of fresh air - it’s more artful, more thoughtful, it sounds like it’s really going for something. There is an epic feeling to the composition and production that reminds me of the 00’s era classics. Past the glitter and shine, there are some fairly floppy moments throughout, mainly in the middle of the album (Dead Asleep is right). But Bend The Clock and The Shadow Man Incident are just sublime, at least.
8Dream Theater
Black Clouds and Silver Linings

Black Clouds used to be a bottom 4 album for me - when you get past its crowning prog metal epics, it’s a drab lyrical offering, and unbalanced as a whole. Revisiting it now, I appreciate it for something else. This album, if nothing else, really does have heart. However silly the topics or lyrics can be, they are talking ABOUT something, and there is a concerted effort for the music to provide the imagery for it in an evocative way. No matter how dramatic A Nightmare to Remember, or silly The Count of Tuscany may be, it feels genuine. The Best of Times is the most positive example of this as a crushingly realistic and heartwrenching ode to Mike Portnoy’s father who passed. You can laugh at, or with, some of this album, but if you open up to it, you might cry too. But how’s the music? I’d say this is their best sounding late 00’s era album. It’s clean, clear, and expressive. The “wankiness” serves the music better here than other albums as well. Good prog.
7Dream Theater
Dream Theater

I think my “hot takes” will mostly end here, but I’ll try to keep this short. This is the first album fully written and involved with new drummer Mike Mangini, and the pressure was immense. Thankfully, the band felt that as well, as Dream Theater’s self-titled album is hungry, visceral, and unabashedly dramatic and epic. The songs are shorter, the production is brick-walled to hell, and they are trying to tell us something with that. The criticisms I levy against something like Distance Over Time, I personally believe are this album’s strengths. However derivative the song structures or half-baked some of the ideas are, you have to admit that this album is just oozing with passion. Is there another song like The Bigger Picture in their catalog? I owe my appreciation for this album greatly to being a teenager in my formative years, but on revisiting it later, it still evokes something a bit deeper
6Dream Theater
Train of Thought

Dream Theater’s answer to the increasing rise and popularity of metal bands of the prog, djent, and hardcore varieties led us to their darkest, heaviest, and most brutal album. I’ve never been one to fully peg Dream Theater as solely a “metal” band, but man did they have something to prove on Train of Thought. 7 tracks, each one nearly 10-minutes in length, filled with hard riffage, blistering solos, and winding, progressive song structures. Not to mention, the production job here is stellar (where did this level of mixing and production go on future albums…?). ToT really does TAKE you on a journey, and it’s a journey not for the faint of heart. We are missing some diversity and that little artistic “push” to bring it to the next level, but my appreciation for this album only grows over time.
5Dream Theater
A Dramatic Turn of Events

Perseverance; not just to keep writing, to keep touring, to keep recording, but to continue bringing a sensitivity and vulnerability to the world of metal and prog, even in the face of a nearly career ending “turn of events.” ADTOE brings this front and forward, following the departure of original member and drummer Mike Portnoy. This album doesn’t have the heaviest riffs, the most insane keyboard/guitar solos, and they aren’t trying to prove anything other than the fact that they exist, and we exist, and those facts remain unchanged. This collection of songs is heartfelt, direct, and lets you feel with it; there is a strange sense of melancholy on this album. The prog remains - Outcry is immense, and Breaking All Illusions is their best attempt at creating that “Images and Words” sound. But when you reach the end of Beneath The Surface and wonder “wait… have they ever ended an album like that before?”, you’ll realize this one is something special.
4Dream Theater
Awake

I want to stress that from here on out, any album in the top 4 can make argument for being the band’s best. There’s a reason this run of albums from 1992-2002 (ignoring FI, sorry) is considered “the big four,” and has something for every listener.

Awake is the band at its rawest, most organic, and most visceral. The atmosphere is thick, and the songwriting is tight enough to make diamonds. Small nitpicks may include: the rough aesthetic might not be for everyone, and the 75 minute run-time can be a bit much for what’s offered, but every song is a gem. Big, unabashed, energetic, and possibly Labrie’s best vocal performances can be found here. I want to live in this album’s aesthetic.
3Dream Theater
Images And Words

The impressive achievement of creating such a stellar sophomore release like Images and Words after a debut like WDADU should be studied. It is perhaps one of the biggest jumps in quality from debut to sophomore in rock music. Performances? Impeccable. The songwriting? Unmatched. Production/mixing? Well, in my opinion, perfect for what they’re going for. There is a strong 80’s prog vibe to the sound here (triggered drums, lushly cheesy synths), that may turn some off. I think it results in a sound that is so full, lush, theatrical, and quintessential to what “Dream Theater” is, where they haven’t really been able to recreate it since. Labrie here is operatic, passionate, and angelic. I&W won’t have everything for everyone, but it will surely have something for anyone (I’ll workshop that).
2Dream Theater
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory

The main reason for not putting this album at #1 (besides subverting expectations) is going to be fairly subjective, but Metropolis Pt. 2 has everything you could want from a progressive rock/metal concept album. Ink has been spilled about this record so there isn’t much to say, but I want to emphasize actually how well written, realized, and put together the concept of this record is. It’s truly a fascinating story that hits on fantastic emotional notes, and the music is perfectly fitting (a feat they only partially succeed in their next full concept album in The Astonishing). Dream Theater, as a band, are in full form with a surprising amount of tasteful and heartfelt moments, prog exuberance, and hard hitting epics. It’s hard to put fully into words what this album has that others don’t, but they manage to strike a perfect balance between theatrics, taste, and strong songs front to back.
1Dream Theater
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

So, for what hair-splitting reasons is SDOIT the #1 Dream Theater album? Let me ask this: what does it mean to be progressive?
The way DT pushed the envelope of what prog-metal could be in the early 2000’s is still forward thinking and more ambitious than what you see from prog-metal acts in 2025. It isn’t about making a 90+ minute album or slapping 42-minute song on the end and calling it “prog” - they aren’t the first or last to do this. It’s about creating a cohesive experience that challenges you, pulls you in, captivates you to listen and be taken on a genuinely thought provoking journey (uncharacteristically for the genre). We can check boxes: 10+ minute songs and extended instrumental passages, check; theatrical and passionate performances, check; commentary on mental health, disorders, societal and social struggles, alcoholism, ethical politics, che-... wait,what? Now make each song display a different approach to “prog” with a diverse sound palette throughout. /1000
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