The progressive rock gods are back with their first single, “The Alien”, from their upcoming album “A View from the Top of the World”, with a new heavier edge and clear progression from their latest effort “Distance Over Time”. 

This single could honestly be shown as an introductory track to someone new to Dream Theater, because it encompasses so many of both their old style, but also shows the new direction the band has taken. That’s something that Dream Theater has always practiced wonderfully – each and every album sounds different than the last and all other ones before. Sure, they have common elements that are present through their entire discography, such as mind-blowing guitar solos, complex time signatures, and soaring vocals from James LaBrie, but that’s what makes the band what they are, and this single is a wonderful showcase of that. As a longtime fan of Dream Theater, I can hear influences from their 1994 album Awake all the way to albums such as 2011’s A Dramatic Turn of Events, and even 2019’s Distance Over Time.

The Alien takes no time to get into the sauce – it immediately jumps into an irregular time signature with intricate melodies, sounding heavier than their normal sound. While many consider Dream Theater a prog rock band, as I’ve referred to them in the introduction, this song is undoubtedly a metal track through and through. The band makes sure of this by the secondary section when they break into a groove metal-esque groove that’ll make even death metal fans bob their heads in rhythm. It takes a little more than two minutes for James LaBrie to kick in, singing a very daring melody that almost sounds jazzy out of context of the instrumentation. The chorus makes James shine the brightest with catchy melodies and hypnotizing harmonies. This isn’t his greatest performance by far, as the song doesn’t challenge his voice as much as some of their previous material does, but the singer still does an absolutely beautiful job conveying the emotion and the performance the tracks deserves. There are multiple instrumental breaks, in which the band breaks into the technical prowess they are (in)famous for, with gorgeous solos from John Petrucci, masterful leads by Jordan Rudess, punchy grooves by John Myung and unreal fills and beats by Mike Mangini.

As I mentioned before, this song is both everything Dream Theater is known for, and a continuation of the ideas that have started with 1989’s When Dream And Day Unites all the way to today. It’s a wonderful window into their newest project, which has already proven itself through this single to be an album for the ages.

Author: Nicholas Gaudet

Music producer and writer from Dieppe, Canada.