To join in the chorus of voices, I'm not a particularly big fan of Dream Theater either. Whoo.
I've got three of their albums (Images and Words, Awake and Octavarium), and I don't really get much urge to listen to any of them... Hell, I can barely remember anything on Awake! I pretty much agree with the consensus here, and the sheer amount of technical flash crammed into their songs and the pompousness just makes my skin crawl. Ugh.
That being said, I remember enjoying a fair bit of Images and Words, and there's a few songs on Octavarium that I thought were pretty good, when they reined themselves in a bit. (These Walls in particular). In terms of ballads, I would say that Wait for Sleep is fairly tasteful (though maybe I'm not paying enough attention), though Another Day's ultra-dramatic bridge makes me wince.
Oh, and is it just me, or does the keyboard line at the very beginning of Surrounded (also on Images and Words) remind anyone else of the start of Bad English's When I See You Smile?