DREAM THEATER — A View from the Top of the World (review)

DREAM THEATER — A View from the Top of the World album cover

Album · 2021 · Progressive Metal

3.5/5 · 2022-01-25
UMUR

"A View From the Top of the World" is the 15th full-length studio album by US progressive metal act Dream Theater. The album was released through InsideOut Music in October 2021. It´s the successor to "Distance Over Time" from February 2019. Most of the band´s touring plans for "Distance Over Time" (2019) were cancelled as a consequence of the COVID-19 lockdown and travelling restrictions, and therefore the band opted to start writing and recording a new album a bit sooner than they normally would. "A View From the Top of the World" is the first Dream Theater album recorded at the band´s newly constructed DTHQ (Dream Theater Headquarters). A combined live recording studio, rehearsal space, control room, and equipment storage in New York. The four instrumentalists in the band worked on the new material together at DTHQ with lead vocalist James LaBrie contributing to the songwriting through Zoom from his Canada home. LaBrie flew to New York in March 2021 to record his vocal tracks.

Stylistically "A View From the Top of the World" is unmistakably and through and through the sound of Dream Theater and if you´re familiar with the band´s preceding releases, "A View From the Top of the World" is not an album featuring many surprises. It´s technically well played (often virtuosic) progressive metal with a powerful and creative rhythm section, keyboard- and guitar wizardry of various kinds (heavy riffs, fast-riffs, keyboard/guitar solos and harmonies, and all sorts of keyboard/synth sounds), and LaBrie´s distinct sounding voice and melodic delivery in front. Everything is delivered with great skill and the album features high class performances by all involved. While the band´s incredible skillset shouldn´t be ignored, we´ve come to expect high level musical performances from them, so although it´s maybe a bit unfair, my jaw doesn´t drop as often as it used to when listning to a new Dream Theater release.

"A View From the Top of the World" features 7 tracks and a total playing time of 70:19 minutes, which is a considerably longer playing time than the 56:57 minutes that "Distance Over Time" (2019) lasted. While the musical styles of the two albums are pretty similar, "A View From the Top of the World" generally features more longer tracks than the predecessor, including the 20:24 minutes long closing title track. The title track is among the highlights of the album, but most of the material are the sound of Dream Theater playing it safe. The only standout track where they try something a little different and unexpected is "Transcending Time", which sounds like a track Rush wrote but left off "Hemispheres" (1978). The dominant synths are a nice touch on that one, and Mike Mangini also gets to shine a bit on the drums.

The album features a detailed, powerful, and well sounding production. Guitarist John Petrucci is credited as producer and Andy Sneap (Nevermore, Kreator, Accept, Judas Priest...etc.) is responsible for the mastering and the mixing of the album. Upon conclusion "A View From the Top of the World" is yet another high quality progressive metal release by Dream Theater, and their rights to the progressive metal throne are still not contested, but to my ears it´s all getting a bit too predictable and safe, and while I don´t hope for a new "The Astonishing (2016)", it would still be great to soon hear them try something a bit different. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.