Dream Theater

Dream Theater (RoadRunner)

Prog-metal mammoths, minus Portnoy, nail it.

Imitators? Oh, there’s been a few. But album number 12 for the Long Island lot proves why – few do technical prog-metal as appealingly as Dream Theater. After tensions and one (arguably) tentative album following Mike Portnoy’s departure, new guy Mike Mangini became a fully integrated member of the squad, and this offers the sound of a band settled into their tweaked line-up and ready to smash your face in with style.

Business commences with a galloping, neo-classical ‘False Awakening Suite’ that could signify the arrival of the horsemen of the apocalypse. Or the start of Pirates Of The Caribbean... This is followed, just as you catch your breath, by freaky time signatures with chomping distortion from John Petrucci on ‘The Enemy Inside’.

Naturally, the whole record is peppered with healthy lashings of eye-popping technicality, with enough melodic colour and depth to avoid becoming a beat-the-metronome exercise. Flashes of King Crimson pro give a quirky boost to the transportive likes of ‘Enigma Machine’, while Racer X-esque, super-hero metal puts a sideways smile on their grounding intensity.

Stellar 22-minute closer ‘Illumination Theory’ soars through beautiful strings, ferocious riffery, ambient tangents, proggy synths... A cinematic Dream Theater of old, flying high.

Rating: 8 out of 10 (Very Good)

—Polly Glass