It seems to me like DT attract fans with very diverse musical tastes. It's very tough to gauge a DT album from other people's opinions...because everyone's will be different!
For me, SC is heavier than Octavarium, but still has more variety than ToT. I personally liked a few of the heavier tracks, but I got sick of them fast. It started to seem like DT is trying a bit TOO hard to be heavy, and it doesn't really suit them. Like they're too influenced by some of the other Roadrunner artists.
This has pretty much been a problem for ToT, 8v, and SC actually. With SC more than ever, I feel like DT have sort of lost their sound. I mean they've always borrowed pretty heavily from other artists (and they freely admit this!) but at least in their prime you could still feel the passion and intelligence.
Basically, when a band has put out as many awesome CDs as DT has, it's kind of hard to keep such a high level of quality and innovation going when you hit your 9th studio album (not to mention all the live ones too!).
