Six years is an unusually long time for fans to wait for a new Dream Theater live album, but this one has ‘major doozy’ written all over it from the start.
The prog-metal titans’ last world tour was doubly celebratory, as they celebrated the 20th anniversary of one of their most loved records (Metropolis Part 2 – Scenes From A Memory) and the near-universal acclaim received for recent return-to-form Distance Over Time.
As a result, while no one could ever accuse Dream Theater of slacking on previous live records, Distant Memories: Live In London is notable for its skull-shattering levels of exuberance and heavy metal thunder.
The new songs are as vital and memorable as any the band have written, with Pale Blue Dot standing out as an epic for the ages, while a full run-through of Metropolis Part 2 is both immaculate (natch) and far feistier than it should be two decades on.
Frankly, this is the sound of Dream Theater rediscovering their collective mojo and having an absolutely brilliant time in front of an adoring audience. Available in all manner of formats, it might be exactly what diehard admirers need to get them through a grim winter.
