It was third time lucky for US progressive metal band Dream Theatre. Twice Grammy nominated previously and missing out, they have now taken home the award for Best Metal Performance for The Alien from their 2021 release A View From The Top of The World.

That album feels even more aptly named now, given that after more than 30 years making music, they have finally been honoured with a Grammy. Fans of Dream Theatre, and fellow musicians alike feel the win is long overdue. When they were beaten by Foo Fighters after their first nomination, guitarist John Petrucci recalls Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl commenting that Dream Theatre should have won. 

There is no denying that Dream Theatre possesses technical skills far surpassing most other bands. Formed in New York in 1985, this is a group of musicians who have dedicated their lives to their art. 

Founding members John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, and drummer Mike Portnoy actually dropped out of Berklee College of Music to focus completely on their new band. Despite the line-up changes over the years, Petrucci and Myung have remained and the core that is Dream Theatre has remained unshaken.

The winning track, The Alien, landed in August last year. Petrucci explains:

"It's the first one we (the current Dream Theatre line-up) wrote together. It gives people a window into what it was like when we initially met up after all of those months off. It has the adventure, the untraditional structure, the heaviness, and the hooks. It really set the tone for the album. James (LaBrie, vocalist) wrote the lyrics about the idea of terraforming and looking beyond our Earth for alternative settlements. Since we're going beyond our planet, 'The Alien' turns out to be us. I thought it was a cool and creative lyric by James."

For their third Grammy nomination, they stood up against metal giants Deftones, Gojira, Mastodon, and the legendary Rob Zombie himself. But this time, they stood up, and won. Nobody was more surprised than the band themselves. Despite having such epic talent, Dream Theatre knows what the rest of us know. Progressive metal artists so rarely win these kind of accolades as they seem to struggle to hit full mainstream, the way so many other metal genres seem to be able to do almost effortlessly. 

Over 30 years of hard work has finally seen Dream Theatre achieve what many have thought was musically impossible. But this is a band that have set the standard for complexity in music, with seemingly insane time signature changes, speed, grace, and flawless compositions, impossible is clearly a word that does not daunt them.

Congratulations Dream Theatre on your well-deserved and long overdue Grammy win!

Author: Harley Houghton

Harley Houghton is a writer and blogger, based in Melbourne, Australia. Her passions include music, especially metal, gaming and comics. Check out her blog www.harleysmadhouse.com and follow her on Twitter.