Dream Theater

A View From The Top Of The World (InsideOut Music)

Fifteenth studio album by veteran prog metallurgists.

Dream Theater had just completed their own studio complex when the pandemic struck; vocalist James LaBrie was forced to brave quarantine in New York to complete his vocals. A View... hardly sounds shoddy, mind. Despite the datedness of its content, it’s produced to a high 21st-century shine.

The band and their many gold discs might beg to differ but songs like ‘The Alien’ and ‘Sleeping Giant’ would benefit from a less ornate approach and more rigid adherence to their admirable riffery. The visions conjured by the likes of ‘Answering The Call’ are dully figurative – a more minimalist, abstract approach would be more cerebral. The epic title track sounds like excerpts from a straight-to-video sci-fi movie. They’ve lots of options in their musical armoury: maybe they should consider using fewer of them.

Rating: 5 out of 10 (Average)

—David Stubbs