Ok, I'm super late on this but it's still July, right? 
I couldn't miss reviewing Images and Words because that's a phenomenal album! As I said earlier, I knew drums would catch my attention, but I want to say that in the end EVERYTHING caught my attention 
Starting with James LaBrie, the way he pass his emotions through his voice, and his interpretation totally shapes the music tone, also, his high notes are powerful and consistent, he really has the range 
I really loved piano too, specially on Wait For Sleep intro. Kevin Moore did an outstanding job and his playing is so soft that gives me a nice wave of peace when I hear it. 
Can't help but notice how bass is so present here too. To be fair, I'm not much of a technical person when talking about bass, but what I know is that it's such an underrated instrument, and John Myung made his bass totally noticeable on this record too. My favorite bass line it's on Metropolis - Part I: "The Miracle and the Sleeper" midsection, so memorable! 
John Petrucci is also a legend. His riffs are heavy, powered, his acoustic parts are complex and perfectly composed for each song. He does so much with his guitar and that's why there are so many memorable guitar parts in this album, and each one is so different and unique. If I had to choose the best ones, tho, it would be: Pull Me Under Intro, Under The Glass Moon Intro, and Learning to Live, middle part, but when the music it's almost reaching the finale. They're very catchy 
And finally, the drums. Mike Portnoy used a bunch of different rhythms and tempos, and his grooves are very well composed and performed. I loved a lot of his tom choices in the fills too. Drums on Under The Glass Moon are just WOW WOW WOW I'll never be able to do it in my life 
He's a beast and now hearing more of his work makes me admire him more than ever. 
Speaking of rhythms and tempos, I can't NOT acknowledge the fact that the band nails it completely. All the songs have a bunch of time variations that in my opinion are so hard to execute. Every single band member needs to build a strong sense of internal time and need to be in sync otherwise that would be a total chaos. I already struggle if a song is completely in other tempo than 4/4 so I can only imagine how confusing it is to change tempos in the middle of the song.
So, after all of this, my top 3 are:
Learning to Live
Wait For Sleep
Metropolis - Part I: "The Miracle and the Sleeper"
Images and Words by Dream Theater is an awesome album with awesome lyrics, by an awesome band, and I like the fact that even though they made some longer tracks, they're not repetitive, it's totally the opposite, they always surprise us in the middle of the song with unexpected elements, that's why I actually chose the 2 longer songs for my top 3, cause they really impressed me in every minute 
Thanks Syn for another rec. After this one I'll totally hear Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory when I have time too
