Dream Theater/YMMV

DT is one of the most polarizing bands in Prog Rock. They're either the best musicians performing today, writing some of the best music out there, or they ramble through overly technical, endless solos. Or they may be both. That's left to your choice.

See also:

• Awesome Music - Dream Theater
• Moment of Awesome - Dream Theater
• Tear Jerker - Dream Theater

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• Ascended Meme:
  • In a magazine interview, John Petrucci said he thought the Psycho Exercises Gag Dub videos were hilarious. On the extra material of their last tour DVD, he imitated them.
  • There was also a show in Perth, Australia that had to be moved to a new venue, among other complications, so a fan created a parody of The Fall. Portnoy saw it, thought it was hilarious and proceeded to have it played before the first song at the show.
• Big No: Mike Portnoy leaving the band.
• Broken Base: Generally in the form of Older Stuff vs. Newer Stuff. The line dividing both parts is pretty unclear.
• Face of the Band: Mike Portnoy was pretty much the face of the band. He acted as the spokesman and did the bulk of the interviews and other things, and interacted with the fans more than any of the others. Petrucci is a sort of second in command. Jordan also does a lot of face stuff, but usually in the context of a solo artist. John Myung mostly stays out of the limelight. Labrie himself was only going to be a guy who did vocals for them, rather than being a full on member who worked on songs.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Just about every fan ignores a few albums. Falling into Infinity is the receptor of most of the flak, but also Systematic Chaos can be a victim of this.
  • Images and Words and Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory seem to have the most immunity to this, being accepted by most fans and considered the defining sound of Dream Theater, but the rest of the albums are often ignored by various fans.
  • Awake is also generally well received, although debating whether it's better than the two aforementioned albums is a great way to kick off a Broken Base.
• Funny Moments: The commentaries the band do for their DVDs are hilarious. Also any time Derek Sherinian is on screen during the 5 Years In A Livetime DVD. What's he doing? "Making history! And you?"
  • James LaBrie rapping about being Canadian.
• Growing The Beards: As one might tell by the plural, played literally, too. Their breakthrough, Images and Words, was released in 1992 and peaked at #61 in the United States. Nobody had any facial hair. Compare that to 2007's Systematic Chaos, their first Top 20 album (#19) and 2009's Black Clouds & Silver Linings, their first Top 10 (#6) which by then, everyone except Myung is more often seen with big beards and other facial hair.
• Heartwarming Moments:
  • "The Spirit Carries On".
  • The finale of "Finally Free" ( before the ending kills the mood) from Metropolis, pt 2. "We'll meet again my friend...someday soon..."
• Large Ham: The Black Clouds & Silver Linings album treats us to thunder, dissonant piano, heavy guitars, choirs, and organs. Oh, and that's just in the first minute of over an hour of music.
• Memetic Badass: John Petrucci, likely due in large part to the Psycho Exercises videos mentioned above. Most videos on YouTube featuring Petrucci either performing or just talking about his rig, music, etc. have a number of comments referencing absolute world-dominating awesomeness, usually in ways obviously influenced by Chuck Norris Facts.
• Memetic Mutation: John Petrucci's Psycho Exercises. You suck if you can't play five million notes a second like he can. Made funnier by him actually imitating the videos on the bonus features of one of their DVDs, seen here.
• Moral Event Horizon: Edward in Metropolis, Pt. 2 crosses it when he kills Victoria and Julian.
• Narm Charm:
  • The lyrics on the song "The Count of Tuscany", from Black Clouds & Silver Linings, are some of the most ridiculous in the band's history. LaBrie sings this like it's the most sinister and creepy thing in the world. The lyrics are undeniably cheesy:

COME AND HAVE A TASTE!!!
A RARE VINTAGE!!!
ALL THE FINEST WINES!!!
IMPROVE WITH AGE!!!

• • Another example:

Let me introduce-
My brother
A bearded gentleman
HISTORIAN!!!

• Nightmare Fuel:
  • "Caught in a Web" can really inspire this sort of thing.
  • Their cover of "Flick of the Wrist" by Queen on the special edition of Black Clouds & Silver Linings too, specifically the way James LaBrie sings the verses.
  • Open your eyes, Nicholas. AHH! *record scratch* *static*
• Replacement Scrappy: Ex-keyboardist Derek Sherinian, who replaced original keyboardist Kevin Moore. Sherinian's own replacement, Jordan Rudess, was better received.
• Ruined FOREVER: The inevitable response from a chunk of the fanbase when Mike Portnoy announced he was leaving the band.
• The Scrappy:
  • Charlie Dominici
  • Derek Sherinian
  • James LaBrie, as far as metal is concerned.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks:
  • Kevin Moore's departure from the band.
  • Subverted by LaBrie, who replaced Dominici. This was immediately followed by the release of Images and Words, their biggest mainstream success.
  • Subverted again with Derek Sherinian, who replaced Kevin Moore before they released "A Change of Seasons", widely regarded as their best song to date.
  • And once again subverted by Jordan Rudess, wh replaced Derek Sherinian. after it, they released Scenes from a Memory, which is regarded by many fans as their absolute greatest album.