Dream Theater exhaust their armoury on A View From The Top Of The World

A View From The Top Of The World is the 15th studio album by veteran prog metallurgists Dream Theater

Dream Theater: A View From The Top Of The World cover art
(Image: © Insideoutmusic)

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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-tovideo sci-fi movie. They’ve lots of options in their musical armoury: maybe they should consider using fewer of them.

David Stubbs

David Stubbs is a music, film, TV and football journalist. He has written for The Guardian, NME, The Wire and Uncut, and has written books on Jimi Hendrix, Eminem, Electronic Music and the footballer Charlie Nicholas.