Dream Theater are finally back! And when I say back I mean finally back to form. Back at what they do best: Progressive, in your face, melodic heavy metal. For the first time since Mike Portnoy left Dream Theater finally seem to be finding themselves again. The two new tracks, ‘Untethered Angel’ and ‘Fall Into the Light’ from the upcoming ‘Distance Over Time’ album are smashing.
It’s been a bit of journey for Dream Theater to finally come around full circle again. There’s been some missteps. The biggest being 2016’s ‘The Astonishing.’ A two plus hour concept album that sounds like Andrew Lloyd Weber pathetically trying out heavy music. And after losing a fair amount of their fan base with that and an at times bland self titled album, the band has come together to give the fans what they want. A perfect blend of straight forward heavy metal mixed with syncopated time changes, quality jams, sing along vocal hooks and bad ass riffs. Needless to say, I haven’t been this excited about Dream Theater since ‘A Dramatic Turn of Events.’ Which I would consider to be their last great album.
The first single out is a classic Dream Theater slammer complete with killer vocal melodies and one of the best jams they’ve done in a long time. And it’s condensed. Something they’ve been working on since 2013 is how to condense the Dream Theater formula into a six to eight min piece instead of an eleven to fifteen. And it seems like they’ve figured it out on this track. It opens with the a classic Petrucci acoustic melody. Followed by and booming syncopated metal riff before settling into a sick, heavy groove. Then of course, there’s the epic James LaBrie chorus which you can’t help but sing along with. But what makes this track mega strong is the jam. It’s more Dream Theater than Dream Theater in the best way. Opening with their choppy, circus like prog before sliding into a nasty groove heavy jam that turn into a cut time metal jam. Petrucci and Rudess trade off solos like the good ole’ days.
The second track to be released, ‘Fall Into the Light,’ is just as strong. With an excellent lyrical contribution from bassist John Myung. The song starts out with one of Petrucci’s catchiest heavy riffs before Mike Mangini’s drums come in with thunderous force. I mean, the snare is so phat it sits around the house. The second half of the intro gets heavy as hell. A real throw down riff and thrash beat. One of DT’s best in a while. Then the first verse comes in with standard James LaBrie vocal melodies combined with heavy rhythms and textures instrumentally. The bridge slows down into Dream Theater ballad mode. What they’ve done in this song is really condense everything they’re about in a seven minute song. At first I was a little skeptical that they weren’t doing a lot of ten plus min songs. But it seems to really be working. The chorus is another classic sing along epic and the final jam is sheer perfection. But it’s Petrucci’s guitar work at the very end that displays how he’s taking his playing to yet another level.
All in all if these two songs are any indication of how the album is going to be; I’d say we’re in for a treat. The new album, ‘Distance Over Time’ drops on February 22. Followed by an extensive world tour. The band will also be celebrating 20 years of Metropolis Pt 2 (Scenes From A Memory) and will be playing the album in it’s entirety on the tour.
