Dream Theater

Distance Over Time (InsideOut)

Mike Mangini and DT return with more notes for the willing.

Dream Theater have their “thing” down to a science three decades into a long and illustrious career, and while fans argue over which era is best, the prog-metal veterans keep trucking along. Now four records into his stint, Mike Mangini anchors the tunes with all the over-the-top fills and patterns he and the band are known for, this time with the added benefit of everyone having lived together and recorded in an upstate New York barn. That old-school vibe got the band members close and the music tight, with Mangini breaking up a 32nd-note snare roll between his kicks and splashes on ‘Fall into the Light’ and accenting his ride bell on the snakey riff intro in ‘Barstool Warrior’. There’s also some weighty thunder toms in the verses of ‘Room 137’ and incredible unison work between the drums and guitars in the instrumental section of ‘Pale Blue Dot’ that’s classic Dream Theater. Mangini grooves and supports epic solos with brilliance, but his greatest strength continues to be how he sounds like a machine, in the best sense of the word.

—Ilya Stemkovsky