SHREDDING THE DISTANCE

Now is the best possible time to be a Dream Theater fan with a soft spot for nostalgia. Not only are the venerable Long Island prog-metallers celebrating four enormous milestones (30 years of When Dream And Day Unite, 25 of Awake, 20 of Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory and ten of Black Clouds & Silver Linings), but they’ve also got a scorching new set of solos and shred under their belts.

Their 14th album in total, Distance Over Time is a landmark release for Dream Theater in a way that, had it been any other band we were talking about, certainly wouldn’t be grounds for acclaim. After 30 years of upping the ante with their convalescent displays of prog-metal despotism and soul-tingling theatricality – peaking with 2016’s The Astonishing, a piously titled conceptual epic that spans a mammoth 130 minutes over two breathtakingly grandiose acts – the band have made the shock decision to step back from the narrative angle, go back to the loose ’n’ livid walls