The Astonishing review

Dream Theater

30 years in, 34 tracks on one Dream Theater album

Rating: 4 out of 5

It’s been five years since Mike Mangini joined Dream Theater in the wake of Portnoy’s departure, and the band’s 13th album (Mangini’s third) is a confident and epic drum performance with his own drum style more firmly rooted within the songwriting than ever. The album tells the story of a dystopian future, as imagined by guitarist John Petrucci, and grand lyrical and musical themes abound – but it’s the size of the project that astonishes. There are 34 tracks, with a running time of over two hours (ha, lightweights – 70s proggers would have made that last two days). Rhythm was given a preview of just nine tracks, which makes it hard to put them into context. ‘Dystopian Overture’ – most likely Petrucci’s idea of a national anthem for his imagined society – is a bit of a mess, out on its own. But there’s enough of an idea to be gleaned from the rest. ‘The Gift Of Music’ is a galloping track that sets up the story proper, ‘Lord Nafaryus’ is an operatically structured piece, through which Mangini’s drums dance like a five-limbed robot in a jazzercise class. For ‘Savior In The Square’ Mangini sits back behind his enormous kit to just tickle his metals with restrained percussity as the guitars soar. The epic ‘Chosen’ steers a path as straight as they come. with Mike’s drums huge in sound if not in scope; ‘Moment Of Betrayal’ returns to thunderous beats, huge fills and double-bass bluster. But this is just a taste, we can only predict that the rest of this hugely ambitious record will set the bar very high for modern prog to follow. It takes a planet-sized dollop of self-aggrandisement to make music like this – in a form such as this – but 30 years in, we suppose Dream Theater have earned the right. (CBu)

Download: ‘Moment Of Betrayal’