Dream Theater

 

Even after hundreds of shows, 15 million records sold, three GRAMMY® Award nominations including one GRAMMY® Award win for Best Metal Performance in 2022, and almost four decades together, Dream Theater continue to look ahead. Their collective gaze never wavers from the future. Instead, the progressive metal trailblazers —James LaBrie (Vocals), John Petrucci (Guitars), Jordan Rudess (Keyboards), John Myung (Bass), and Mike Mangini (Drums)—consistently explore uncharted territory with the same spirit of sonic adventurousness. On their fifteenth album, A View from the Top of the World [Inside Out Music/Sony Music], the New York quintet rush forward at full speed again with seven tracks equally steeped in articulate arrangements, groove-laden guitars, and skyscraping melodies.

 

“We just love to play our instruments,” observes Petrucci. “That never goes away. I love to be creative, write, and exercise that part of my mind. We’ve been able to do this for a long time, and we don’t take it for granted. Whenever we get together, we know we can’t disappoint ourselves or our fans, so we manage to try even harder. Nobody is jaded. Nobody is tired of doing it. In the studio, we share pain, laughter, and enthusiasm. We’re on the same page, and that’s what enables us to push forward.”

 

“We approach every album like it’s our first,” adds LaBrie. “It’s been such a great ride, but we’re not going to stop. These guys are my brothers. We’ve been through ups, downs, and everything in between. To be able to experience this together is beyond words.”

 

Dream Theater’s presence quietly reverberates throughout music and culture. They’ve left their mark everywhere from the 2002 Winter Olympics where excerpts of A Change Of Seasons scored NBC’s coverage of Downhill Skiing to Broadway where they’ve sold out Radio City Music Hall twice. Rolling Stone included the gold-selling Images & Words on its “100 Greatest Metal Albums of All-Time,” and Guitar World ranked its successor Awake in the #1 spot on “Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994.” Fans championed Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory as the “Number One All-Time Progressive Rock Album” in a Rolling Stone poll. Classic Rock lauded it as the “15thGreatest Concept Album.” To date, they’ve earned three Top 10 debuts on the Billboard Top 200. Most recently, 2019’s Distance Over Time marked their fifth Top 25 bow on the Top 200, and it attracted widespread praise, even registering the band’s highest cumulative score on Metacritic. In an “A- ” review, Consequence of Sound raved, “the musicianship is flawless,” and Classic Rock hailed it as “superior thrash.” Perhaps, KERRANG! put it best, “Dream Theater at their most accessible, and they lose nothing for it.”