Dream Theater

Like many people It was Images and Words. I was/am a huge Yngwie fan, my brother heard Pull Me Under on the radio, thought I'd like the guitar work so he bought the cassette for me.

After hearing Pull Me Under, I thought sure it was a good song, but Petrucci is no Yngwie. Then I proceeded to listen to the rest of the album, when I heard the solo to Under a Glass Moon, I was hooked!

A friend gave me a tape of WDADU in 1989 and I was sold after the first listen.

After hearing Images & Words i went to see them at Manchester students union (upstairs), a real small venue. They just blew me away. I remember that along with the usual songs of that time, they played a version of the Mission Impossible theme tune. That was back around 1992/1993. And still the best band in the universe today.

I bought Awake back in 1998 after reading about the band in a metal magazine and was intrigued so I bought the album and have never looked back as it blew me away because they sounded soo different to to anything else out there.

I heard Pull me Under in the early 90's, loved it, but always had this unwritten "rule" about liking two songs before I'd buy the record (CD by that time)...I'd been burned too many times by crappy one-hit-wonder groups. I mistakenly made the assumption that the guys were just that as I never heard another of their songs get radio airplay.

About three years ago, my then 18 y/o son broke out Images and Words on his iPod and, wow!...there's Pull me Under again! We were in the midst of a 1 1/2 hour drive to New Hampshire so we listened to the whole album, then started Live Scenes from New York and that was it...I was completely hooked! I can't even pick a favorite as each album touches me differently...depends on my mood or what I need at the time.

I had heard about the band and their mixture of symphonic-progressive rock with metal, which was exactly what I was looking for, so in December 1995, out of curiosity, I bought Live at the Marquee. Metropolis Pt. I totally blew me away!!! I thought I had found a perfect band, and I was hooked from there on to this day.

It was back in 93 or 94... I was reading an interview with Bruce Dickinson where he mentioned several times this band - DT. That was it. I mean from that moment I began searching for their albums and the first album that I bought was Awake on an audio cassette and then I managed to find a CD; and I've listened to that album for several months continuosly. And the tale goes on and on and on ;-).....

gosh - it was late 90s or early 00s by the time i became a fanatic.

i was a guitar player in a lame cover band when an acquaintance of mine let me hear a sample of what his band was doing. then, he loaned me his inspiration - images and words. i heard metropols pt. 1, and that was it for me. i think i then picked up a change of seasons and awake. seasons was awesome, but those covers are phenomanal. awake is still one of my all-time favorites.

A friend played me Images and I was blown away by the sheer musicality especially the fluid meter changes. I was even more amazed to watch them do it all live.

I have my guitar teacher to thank for introducing me to Dream Theater. going by the bands i was into when began my lessons, he guessed right, that i would appreciate Dream Theater's music.
The first album i heard was Systematic Chaos, as it was then, the latest one out, and from that i went and bought the rest of their back catalogue from the beginning.
I bought WD&DU, I&W and Awake all in one hit from Amazon, the first thing i noticed before even listening to the music was the hair.