DREAM THEATER - A View From the Top of the World
A View Too Far Away
Written by: Rod Whitfield - Sense Music Media | Monday 18 October 2021
Up front (and I’ve probably said similar things in recent previous reviews), I consider, and will always consider DREAM THEATER one of my favourite bands on the planet. Their first seven to nine albums are close to flawless and utterly untouchable in the realms of progressive and technical heavy rock and metal, and their live show is immaculate and spectacular. I will always go to see them play when they journey Down Under. In fact, I would rate them as one of the greatest live bands in history.
The Review
Unfortunately, something has befallen this band that happens to so many of their broader ilk. They’ve become one of those bands that struggle a little to avoid their own cliches, and are reeling out their tropes with far less energy than they used to. Bands like these haven’t lost their ability to play like guns (DREAM THEATER sure haven’t) or write cohesive, listenable songs. But now, their music has lost much of the pep, pop and pizazz it used to possess. Much of that comes down to a loss of a far more indefinable, intangible trait, the concept of ‘raw hunger’. When bands get rich and happy, many of them lose their edge. I’m not begrudging them of this, good on them, they’ve worked extraordinarily hard and very much deserve any riches and comfort they’ve attained. But this, combined with the inevitable onset of age, means they struggle badly to live up to the glories of the past. Many bands probably don’t even realise it’s happening to them, it takes an outside perspective to recognise it.
DT run through the motions, they do what’s expected of them here, they dot the i’s and cross the t’s, as they have done for the last decade. The songs are long and involved, the instrumental sections are extravagant, Petrucci reels out some tastefully blistering lead work, and Messrs Myung, Rudess and LaBrie do their (ridiculously skilful) thing. This album will please the less discerning DT fan. To this long-term fan, however, there’s just something missing, something they used to have in spades upon spades, but have lost along the way.
Age and relative wealth are definite factors in the deterioration of many bands’ cutting edge. In DREAM THEATER’s case, the change of a key member, a good decade ago now, has contributed strongly too. Co-founder and former drummer Mike Portnoy was the blistering, hyperactive engine room of this band. He was replaced by someone clearly not up to his standard. Again, up front, Mike Mangini can play. You cannot be a member of DREAM THEATER and not be a champion on your instrument. It’s just that Mangini, relative to his predecessor, and within the framework of what DT’s music is, or should be, sounds lacklustre, sounds like he’s sitting there on auto pilot. Even his snare sound is weaker and less natural sounding than Portnoy’s (the snare sound on Images and Words notwithstanding). When Portnoy played with DT, the energy flowing from the drums was like a freight train’s engine. Comparatively, Mangini sounds like a wet fish, sounds like he should be back playing with EXTREME or something…
Another issue they have is a ‘quantity over quality’ problem. This band has pumped out an album virtually every two years for this entire century so far, which sounds great on the surface, but has actually contributed to a slow but certain deterioration in quality over the years. Especially when you consider their heavy between-album touring cycles. You might think a covid-reduced touring schedule might have resulted in somewhat of a return to form, but unfortunately it hasn’t. I’ve said for a long time now, if they took an extra six to twelve months on each album, the results might be better, especially considering the depth and complexity of their music. But they obviously have this helter-skelter schedule to keep up with (which was apparently a factor in the loss of Portnoy).
The Verdict
It kills me to say it, but by the standards of their overall career, this album is deadly dull. In the context of their last half-dozen or so albums, it’s pretty par for the course. A View From the Top of the World is stock-standard latter-day DREAM THEATER fare.
6/10
A View From the Top of the World is out on Friday 22 November through Sony Music
