i generally wouldn't touch Dream Theater, with anything, really

about the only song i find remotely tolerable by them is "Pull Me Under"

James Labrie’s high pitched vocals really get on my nerves, though I probably wouldn’t like them anyways since I’m not a fan of that sort of mindless wankery in the first place..

An exception is "Another Day" which is kind of odd since it's one of their mellower, un-metal songs...

Don't worry Above I also like Dream Theater and own several of their albums. All the insults on here towards them, are to me just like water off a duck's back.:)

you forget Rudress' keyboard wankings, which sound like some Japanese RPG battle scene soundtrack

^^ this times a thousand. However, how can Dream Theater receive criticism for such a sound when there are many power metal fans on this site? I mean, if you compare swiss and cheddar you come to find that, although different, they are both extremely cheesy.

power metal revel in their "cheesiness" and the sound is often quite poppish and pleasant, with little wanking (unless you're Dragonforce)

DT takes themselves way too seriously and turns simple songs into bloated pretentious displays of ego

There's not that many power metal fans on this site, just myself really, The Batlord and Howie Il Duck, but I'm the only one of the three that really likes Dream Theater. But then again I view Dream Theater different to most on here. As a huge fan of North American AOR and pomp/prog rock of the 1970s and 1980s I see the huge Dream Theater link to those styles, Dream Theater themselves have labelled Kansas, Journey and Toto etc as huge influences and those influences are obvious on their earlier albums. Dream Theater just added a metal element to the sound to differ and appeal to a metal audience that were into stuff like Yngwie Malmsteen.

I'm a Dream Theater fan, but they're not my favorite. I enjoy Liquid Tension Experiment over Dream Th. so I guess what I dislike most is James LaBrie and his vocals. I love Portnoy. I respect Rudess and Petrucci. They have a bassist? :P He's pretty solid too.

Petrucci is fine with me, i can't get past Rudress and LaBrie

i am more on classic rock or AOR fan.. i recommend the style of firehouse, survivor, journey, skidrow... cheers.