i guess its late for me but i recently bought images and words and i gotta say these guys are freakin great, but i want to get into their stuff what albums do you the more familiar with this band fans recommend?

To be honest, Images and Words is the ONLY DT album that I really like. The others have a couple good songs sprinkled on them here and there, but they never clicked for me.

Awake and Metropolis prt II: Scenes from a Memory along whit Images & Words are of the best DT almbums out there, their other stuff is hard to get in unless you're a fanboy, like miself

Check out their album after Images and Words, "Awake". Its a lot heavier but equally as good. These are the two really essential Dream Theater albums, the rest are mixed.

You should also check out When Dream and Day Unite. It may be very different from their other albums, but you might end up loving it.

I'm not a major DT fan, I don't like most of their generally best-thought-of stuff. I do like Train of Thought, and to a lesser extent Systematic Chaos and Octavarium.

I have their "Greatest Hit" compilation, I'm a big fan of Peruvian Skies and As I Am in particular from disc 1, and most of the softer songs from disc 2 (Silent Man is genius). I used to ignore Dream Theater, dismissed them as an over-technical instrument-wank-festival sort of band with too many songs that drift along a huge path of z's. In particular, the Metropolis pt. 1 track I found really off-putting when I first tried out Dream Theater. So I went for the middle-ground - the compilation showcases their proggy stuff and acoustic tunes without the overbearing 15+ minute material (which I like in other bands, but DT... not yet, at least... I'll try my hand at 'em again sometime). Overall, I'd say they're very talented (was always a Portnoy and Petrucci fan before getting into DT), very catchy, and worth anyone's time to try out.

I like Moore-era DT best, I know saying that tends to annoy the fans a lot and I can well understand where they'd be coming from, but hey what can I do, his keyboard work and compositions really appealed to me. I also preferred their then approach of introducing fusion jazz - like workouts in longish metal songs to their later long epics oriented approach. La Brie also sounds much better on the early albums.

I used to essentially jizz all over everything DT touched. And while it's undoubtable that they collectively possess a lot of knowledge and know how to put that knowledge to use to create well-structured progressive ditties, it doesn't do much for me lately.

I still acknowledge that Images and Words as well as Awake and Scenes from a Memory are class. They have their fair share of wank, but the songwriting is still in tact. Parts of Falling Into Infinity were also excellent. Parts of Six Degrees also excellent (some great songwriting here, but it's horribly cheesy a good deal of the time and the great music isn't held together that well with certain lame sections). The last 3 albums had decent songs. Personally, even great songs.

But, having said that, most of DT's catalogue does nothing for me anymore. I admire their skill and songwriting abilities. But, emotionally, their music does nothing for me now. It's not that there is no emotional input in the albums. I've just grown a little tired of it.

I'm actually on the fence about DT right now since I have so many mixed feelings and have had my ups and down with them - with discovering, rediscovering and having an on-phase and off-phase many, many times with them, like an on again, off again girlfriend. Now, I can't reall cohesively put all those thoughts into it. It's like...they're good....but....I just don't really care that much anymore, other than play Scenes Part II stuff on guitar for fun and take little songwriting ideas and apply it to music I think is much more emotional, spiritual and from the heart. And again, I know DT isn't just wank wank's sake, but lately it feels like either heavy for heavy's sake, prog for prog's sake or both. And with the prog, it tends to feel like epic for epic's sake, which while not a bad idea, brings out the cheese (see: The Dark Eternal Night).

And there I go off on a rant....might as well end it here.

Just now I learned that LaBrie ruptured his vocal cords vomiting. I do have to say that it's a pretty embarrassing to lose your singing voice. But then he continued singing afterwards, so he sort of put it on himself.

Everything post-Awake is annoying, in my opinion. Check out Awake, and then check out any album after that one.

I really think they started down the wrong direction with Train of Thought and Octavarium I liked the last album a lot better, because, despite suffering from some of the same problems as the previous two, on Systematic Chaos they actually sound like they're having fun making music. "In the Presence of Enemies" is one of their best songs.

They've always had fun making music. Systematic Chaos gets a giant meh from me now. IMHO, Pain of Salvation is the way prog really should be.

fuck i feel like a horrible fan boy here, i like nearly all of them... so im just gonna give my favorites and decide if u like them or not...
When Dream and Day Unite - i honestly have never even seen a copy of this.
Images and Words - Thudding drums, great songs
Awake - good keyboard and great riffs (Lie, The Mirror)
Falling into infinity - meh...
Scenes From a Memory - so corny, so pretentious, SO BRILLIANT
SDOIT - Sweet epic songs, especially the title track
Train Of Thought - pretty damn heavy and a total shred fest
Octavarium - not really a favorite, but the title track is awesome
Systematic Chaos - Pretty damn epic and a lot of variety in the songs

When was this, before the release of the debut?

Because LaBrie's ALWAYS had a terrible-sounding voice. He's really the biggest reason I dislike Dream Theater. His falsettos sound absolutely horrendous, he's got that annoying nasal quality to his regular voice, and he just lacks power all around. If DT had a half-decent vocalist, I could get around their absurd prog-wankery, but LaBrie only serves to point out just how cheesy it all is.

He lost it around 1994 or so, you can hear the difference right away on Falling Into Infinity. While I dislike his singing in general except for a few songs here and there, he definitely sounded better on Images & Words and Awake than say on Scenes from a Memory.