Petrucci

[MusicManJP6]

don't forget to grab petrucci's solo album, and liquid tension experiment (which is basically dream theater without the vocals)

How could I forget to mention these! The LTE Live DVDs are AWESOME as is his solo album...

 

[fjk1138]

+1 on the solo album "Suspended Animation"

Got some killer playing on it.

 

[scottkahn]

Either of your two starting points should be Images & Words or Black Clouds & Silver Linings. Both capture the overall essence of Dream Theater's sound, while the stuff in between these sometimes varies a bit into one specific style a bit more than other albums. For example, Train of Thought was very Metallica-inspired metal. It gained the band a lot of new fans, but isn't a good representation of their overall sound. Personally, I love Falling Into Infinity. People say bad things about it because Mike Portnoy routinely dismisses it as the worst thing they ever did, where they let the label influence their direction too much. But as a melodic progressive hard rock album goes, it's really a great one with lots of catchy, melodic stuff. But it doesn't show off the band's technical dexterity as much as other CDs.

6 Degrees of Inner Turbulence would be another outstanding CD to check out. Disc 1 is "typical" Dream Theater Prog Metal, while Disc 2 is just one of the finest melodic progressive rock albums by any band, and it really shows off their classic 70s prog influences.

I've done some great features with the band in the past. Check out this Petrucci interview if you're really getting into him as we talked about their history quite a bit from a gear perspective:

http://www.musicplayers.com/features/guitars/2007/0607_John_Petrucci.php

Scott

 

[Geiri]

Dudes I'm not a big petrucci fan but don't forget six degrees of inner turbulence, some amazing guitar work there.

 

[MesaGod666]

Petrucci is God.

That is all.

 

[MrMarkIII]

God sucks.