Opening with the brilliant “The Alien” offers plenty of ingredient's fans crave – it’s fast-paced in spots, technically proficient and wonderfully melodic. It doesn’t offer any real surprises, but it certainly gets the job done. That’s a sentiment you could apply to much of the record, too – exceptionally well-played, with real attention to detail, albeit with precious little that diehards haven’t encountered before. Indeed it could be said of ‘Invisible Monster’, a reasonable mid-tempo cut with a key message about the effects of anxiety, that it is a touch... average... for their catalogue. Not poor, just bland in a brilliant musicianship kinda way. “Answering the Call” is a better song that still seems more simplified than most Dream Theater work, but not in a bad way. You then move into “Sleeping Giant” which resumes normality, filled with lots of guitar, drums and keyboard changes to really keep you guessing as to where the song is going. Petrucci in particular stars in this song. “Transcending Time” has been mentioned in dozens of reviews as being Dream Theater’s tribute to Rush. Apparently it was something the band wanted to attempt, a song with a major key structure without trying to sound too much like a pop song. I don’t know, I just read that in places. There are traces of 1980’s Rush if you listen hard, so maybe they succeeded on both fronts. “Awaken the Master” is another good song, while the closing title track feels like the Dream Theater of old, a 20 minute monster with three suites. Excellent stuff.
As always, all five members are awesome. James La Brie’s vocals continue to defy time, soaring in places as wonderful as he has ever done. Because of the pandemic he was unable to be with the band when they wrote the album, only able to tune in through Zoom calls, but his vocals on recording are still top shelf. Mike Mangini on drums continues to drive each song perfectly – does anyone think the band has missed Portnoy? Jordan Rudess on keys still defies the instrument at times with the effects and atmosphere he is able to create. John Myung still plays things on the bass guitar that defies any normal human from trying to replicate them, while John Petrucci remains at the top of the tree as a guitarist, even breaking out an eight string version on a couple of songs. I’d like to see him playing on that live, just once.
While I have been a fan of Dream Theater for quite some time now, I am the first to admit that when it comes to throwing on one of their albums for a casual listen... it doesn’t happen too often. As much as you can love their music and appreciate the amazing musicianship time and again, generally when I’m looking to grab something to listen to, I’m not just going to the D section and pulling out one of their 15 albums. Why? Because your mood dictates the music you want to listen to. And with Dream Theater, you need to be in the right mood to appreciate everything that is being thrown at you, because it is a (no pun intended) theatrical experience.
So for me, some Dream Theater albums miss the mark slightly, and while I still think they are great I just don’t ever think to drag them out for a listen. However, that wasn’t the case with their previous album Distance Over Time which I played for a lengthy period of time, and that also is not the case with A View From the Top of the World. I don’t deny I love the heavier periods of Dream Theater more than I do the progressive periods of the band. Most fans hail the awesomeness of Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory while I will always point towards Train of Thought as my favourite moment in their career. This new album doesn’t quite scale the same heights for me as that album did, but I have immensely enjoyed the past two efforts. Is there a reason behind this? Not one I can put my finger on, apart from the fact I think that despite the length of each song continues to be in the higher echelons as with most of their albums, the actual crafting of the songs feels right to me. Sometimes with Dream Theater it can feel as though they are just being too clever for themselves, and it is the song length rather than what is crafted that becomes the main artefact. Is it too much to say that sometimes that gets boring? Because in essence that is what it becomes. However, here on A View From the Top of the World I think they once again get that balance right, and that is what is important in getting into the album and being willing to get it back in the CD player and crank the stereo to get the most out of it.
Will you all enjoy it? Well no, because if you don’t enjoy long-winded progressive metal rock songs stretching out beyond the ten minute mark then this will probably become tired for you pretty quickly. On the other hand, those of you willing to give it a go and let the music flow around and through you, I think that you’ll find this is another excellent entry into the Dream Theater discography, and one that will find itself on rotation as it has done for me over the last couple of months.
No comments:
Post a Comment