3 years after the fabulous 'The Astonishing' (see review here) which stimulated much attention from the mucial reviewer, the Americans of 'Dream Theater' released a new album 'Distance Over Time' bringing their studio discography to 14 in thirty years which is a good average given the richness of each new album. At the first listening, I naturally tried to compare it to its predecessor which makes no sense because each album of 'Dream Theater' must be taken as something unique and this 'Distance Over Time' is simply a continuation in this melting pot of influences transformed into Progressive Music. Indeed, for this album, it is appropriate to take each title individually and not in a set as for a concept album because there is not really a common frame: 'Unthetered Angel' is a driving title with a construction filled with tempo breaks which already highlight 'Mike Mangini' in the rhythm section. 'Paralyzed' that follows is a mid-tempo slowly unfolding its melody in a rather heavy atmosphere and 'Fall Into The Light' is one of my favorite songs with a calm melodic part of the band a little like the style of 'Lanvall' from 'Edenbridge' which is sandwiched between two more powerful ones with a beautiful keyboard solo at the end of the title reminiscent of the golden age of hard rock in the 70s. With 'Barstool Warrior', it's is the typical example that shows the expanded influences of 'Dream Theater' because the calm and serene melody with melodic lines is reminiscent of 70/80 rock bands. With 'Room 137', a change of style with a catchy rhythmic that juxts a heavy mid-tempo part containing a nod to 'I'm The Walrus' of the 'Beatles' and in 'S2N', it's a mix of hard-rock with the bass that leads the dance and progressive passages where keyboards and guitar offer us beautiful solos. The end of the album scrolls a 'At Wit's End' with drawers and beautiful melodic passages, the beautiful ballad 'Out Of Reach' which gradually grows to fall on the end and finally, 'Pale Blue Dot' which is an epic piece of over 8 minutes that makes me say definitely that we can not limit' Dream Theater 'to a progressive metal tag, so they take us in multiple styles up to an instrumental section at the beginning of the 2nd part that flirts with contemporary music, and finally, 'Viper King' much more classic that brings us back to a hard rock close to 'Deep Purple'. In short, as you will understand, 'Distance Over Time' is still an album of great richness that is revealed slowly, listening after listening, and which shows all the creativity of this out of the ordinary group that surprises us with each release and which makes 'Dream Theater' one of the pretender for the podium of the leaders of progressive music... | |
