A VIEW FROM THE TOP OF THE WORLD

It seems that Dream Theater can't get out of their own web, the one they built so carefully over time, referencing themselves and repeating the formula several albums ago. The virtuosity they display seems to be the end in itself, rather than the means to transmit a proposal that can be sustained as its own entity. And it is like this, that since "A Train of Thought" of the very distant 2003, almost as if songs could be interchanged between albums and they would probably fit, beyond some obvious production nuances particular to each work.

And that is also the feeling transmitted by "A View from the Top of the World", an album that maintains the scheme of the sublime and machine-gunned guitars of John Petrucci, the overstimulated keyboards of Jordan Rudess, and the stubborn percussion of Mike Mangini. pacing, all at the speed of light.

But still, it's not a disposable album. In fact, any group in the genre would surely be very satisfied if they ever managed to generate a work like this. Only in the case of Dream Theater, this path has already been traveled back and forth several times. And I think something more can be expected from them, because of their unquestionable quality as musicians, and because they started the path of prog metal precisely by taking elements from different styles to create something different and innovative.

What could we highlight? Well, basically the festive "Transcending Time" and its airs of eighties Rush; the choruses, short but well achieved, of "Sleeping Giant"; and the delicate and deep middle section of the excessive suite that gives the album its title.

Dream Theater continues to be the standard bearer of the genre, without a doubt, but it would be nice to get out of the box to surprise us with something more transgressive from time to time. We are waiting.

3 stars