Re: Deadeye Deep Dives: Dream Theater (A View from the Top of the World)

[Deadeye21]

With 3 or 4 sized font, how do you follow along with the story when you couldn't read the lyrics in the CD booklet?

If this one is for me, the blind guy, I actually have the box set that came with the "script" of the lyrics.

[DragonAttack]

It was directed at their management and QC

[Deadeye21]

Distance Over Time – 2019
Tracklist: 1. Untethered Angel. 2. Paralyzed. 3. Fall Into the Light. 4. Barstool Warrior. 5. Room 137. 6. S2N. 7. At Wit's End. 8. Out of Reach. 9. Pale Blue Dot. 10. Viper King (bonus track)

Distance Over Streaming - I'm running out of decent puns here guys, thank god I only have one more!

For many people, The Astonishing may have been a step too far, and the supporting tour which started out with the album being played in full with no classics to support it really alienated a lot of fans. This wasn't the Dream Theater they wanted to see. 2017 went some way towards helping things to settle a little, with the band opting to instead shine a light on the 25th anniversary of Images and Words, with a great setlist supporting it, including the return of A Change of Seasons. I was there in Melbourne. I got to do meet and greet with the band, I went to the afterparty with Jordan, and then I never got to see Dream Theater again because that was the last time they ever came to Australia and probably always will be now.

2018 seemed very quiet in comparison to everything that had happened in the last 9 years. There were no shows, and not a lot to really get fans excited for the moment. Dream Theater had signed a new longterm contract with InsideOut Records in December of 2017, where they remain to this day. However, behind the scenes, the band were finding themselves in a cabin in upstate New York working on new material together. Written in 18 days between June and July, then recorded into early September, this new album was almost a direct response to The Astonishing, seeing the band once again aim for the shorter and more concise style of writing. Distance Over Time would be announced on December 7th, 2018, alongside the album's opening track and lead single, Untethered Angel, and would then release on February 22nd, 2019.

Let's start with that opening single, shall we? Untethered Angel opens with a haunting clean guitar passage before opening into a full-on auditory assault. This is probably the most solid lead single that Dream Theater has released in my opinion, giving off so much of the quintessential DT sound and identity in a condensed six-minute package. We've got some strong vocals from James LaBrie, a strong hooking riff from JP, great sounding drums and even a bit more clarity from JM's bass than we've had in a little while. The instrumental section is great, featuring some fun trading solos between John and Jordan. Untethered Angel is about what fear can do to rob us of reaching our full potential, but how liberating it can be to give up yourself and embrace all of life's possibilities. Great intro to the album thematically, I must say!

Paralyzed is not a song that really held my attention that much since it's release. When it first released as the third single from Distance Over Time, I thought it was cool, but I've since grown to not like very much. This just feels weak compared to everything else on the album. Supposedly, the musical ideas were first brought in by Mike Mangini, and I do give him kudos for a cool riff, and then further developed into the song we all know once JP and the rest of the band put their touches onto it. John wrote these lyrics about feeling like you're in opposition with your partner in a relationship. Honestly, it's a short song, it's got a decent riff, and the breakdown and solo are awesome, but this song just never really grabbed me. Sorry to everyone I've probably just offended deeply.

Fall Into the Light is one of the big ones for me, opening with a riff that reminds me of Readymade by Red Hot Chili Peppers

and then keeping a great deal of intensity throughout the opening verses and choruses. Written by John Myung about the never-ending search for enlightenment, the lyrics here do feel a little abstract (as all great Myung lyrics d0). I must say though, the highlight of this song is definitely the guitar solo from JP. This is a bit of a self-contained piece housed within the middle of the song, but it just adds so much to it in my ears. Jordan has a pretty rocking keyboard solo, and I love what Mangini does on the drums in those transition sections. Really solid piece for everyone here.

Barstool Warrior is up next and I think it's safe to say this is a big highlight for pretty much everyone. The "main theme" lead reminds me of Six Degrees in a big way, and this may be one of the only tracks on Distance Over Time I'd call generally upbeat, despite its lyrical content. Barstool Warrior has a look at two different characters in unfavourable situations, first being the titular character who is a down on his luck type, and the other being a woman in an abusive relationship. It's not clear to me if they're together or if these are two unrelated characters, though Petrucci has hinted that they are just two unrelated people. The back half of the song points at the idea that there is no points making excuses and trying to dodge the responsibility for not taking control of your own situation. The climax does seem to lead towards a hopeful future for these characters, and I have to say the way that James sings "I won't look back" does make me think of the voice he gave to Faythe. All that said, this is such a great song and a real highlight of the full Mangini era for me. All spoilers aside, I'm really glad this is one that Portnoy chose to revisit upon his return to the band.

Room 137 has the distinction of being the first and only song to feature lyrics by Mike Mangini. The lyrics here are inspired by mathematician Wolfgang Pauli, who developed a bit of an obsession with the number 137, only to ironically spend his final days in a hospital room with that number. This is not a favourite for me, and I don't think the lyrics are particularly well written. However, I do like the bridge a lot. I love the effect on James' voice for it, and I really like the math behind it. Each line of the bridge is seven syllables long, and by adding the first and second instance of the bridge there are three lines that occur three times, plus one extra line that ends off each of these bridges. Not as cool math as Tool's Lateralus, but not bad. Sorry to say it, but Mangini is not the superior Mike in the lyric writing business. On the other hand, JP's solo is pretty cool, and I really like the bluesy refrain towards the end of it.

S2N is one of my favourites. This song reminded me of Just Let Me Breathe when I first heard it, and to an extent it's more jam-oriented style still does give me feelings of that FII track. S2N stands for Signal To Noise (which honestly would've been a cool title in and of itself). The lyrics by Myung and Petrucci paint the picture of a world at risk from war, racism, starvation, climate change and natural disaster, and takes the stance that the good intentions of man (positive reaction) is being blocked out by the noise (negative action). Even without digging too far into the lyrics, this remains one of my favourite songs on the album. Just such a great vibe here. There is a great little easter egg of Owen Wilson saying "wow" during a brief pause which actually reminds me of Rush's By-Tor and the Snow Dog in structure. This "wow" could be a reference to the famous "wow signal", which is a radio signal that was intercepted in 1977 that supports the theory of extraterrestrial life. This went off for 72 seconds  and was never heard again, seeming to blend in with all other regular radio waves. Another cool little Easter egg.

At Wit's End is the longest track on Distance Over Time at 9 minutes and 20 seconds. I'm pretty sure all of us Dream Theater fans know that's always gonna mean good news, and At Wit's End definitely delivers with an emotional gut punch. While I had always interpreted this song as being about Alzheimer's disease and having a patient start to lose themselves to the disease while their family watches them slowly suffers, James LaBrie has revealed that his lyric is about something far bleaker. This is the after-effect and trauma of being a sexual assault victim. The one at wit's end is the woman, while her husband tries to help her "recover" and salvage whatever they can. This is a huge song, with so many great musical moments. While the opening frenetic riffs are absolutely stellar, it's the closing melody and solo by JP that really brings it on home. I feel it every time that final melody kicks in. The weird thing with this song is that it fades out on the solo (goddammit, I hate when that happens), but then fades in sometime later with the band still jamming, picked up by just the room mics to give the song it's final ending chord, which sounds amazing but is just such an odd moment to me. Another big highlight of the whole era for me, and a huge win on this album.

Out of Reach is the ballad for Distance Over Time. This is a really nice break between the chaos of At Wit's End and the coming Pale Blue Dot, but unfortunately, it's another one of those songs that I can really relate to. James' lyrics here deal with a guy who's fallen in love with a woman but can never find the words to relate with her and ultimately watches her fade away from him because of it. Can DT stop writing songs that are so damn relatable when it's about the negative stuff? I swear, my top 3 most relatable tracks are These Walls, Beneath the Surface and Out of Reach and it kinda sucks! This is a good atmospheric track, and I like it. I wouldn't say it's "forgettable", but I will say it's one that gets a bit buried between the two songs either side of it.

Pale Blue Dot is the last song on the standard version of the album. Opening with one of the greatest atmospheric intros that the band has ever made before kicking into a killer drum groove from Mangini, Pale Blue Dot is a song inspired by Carl Sagan's famous speech in 1994. While the speech is not presented here for reasons of copyright, I believe they may have used it to introduce the song live at numerous shows on the Distance Over Time tour (just not on nights when they were recording like Berlin and London). This is a really heavy song for Dream Theater lyrically, making the plight of humanity feel so small in comparison to the almost infinite expanse of the cosmos, but also instrumentally with some riffs feeling close to Djent. I have to say, right before the vocals come in, am I the only one who gets a bit of an Imperial March vibe? There is a lot to love about this song, with Mangini even getting a bit of a drum solo in the middle of the chaotic instrumental section. JP's final solo is a great ending for the main body of Distance Over Time, and this song is a huge one to end it all off on.

But then, there's Viper King. A very atypical song for Dream Theater which I think was inspired by the likes of Deep Purple and maybe even a bit of Rush with Red Barchetta, all about driving a Dodge Viper. This is a short fun song that really doesn't fit on the album, but is a nice break from the overall dark themes of Distance Over Time. This is the only time that Dream Theater have featured a bonus track on an album to the best of my knowledge, but it's cool that they did. I think most copies of the album did feature this song, so I'd say the "bonus track" moniker is only really there to denote it being more of them having fun than a serious track after the likes of Pale Blue Dot. I'm all for it, especially when the solo kicks as much ass as this one does, and I do like James using the line "losing my ass end". So the band had fun for a change, good for them!

And that's Distance Over Time, the second shortest Dream Theater album to date. I'm a big fan of this one. It was such a refreshing take on the band's sound after The Astonishing, focussing on making a more easily digestible album with their signature sound. While definitely nowhere near as varied as the self-titled, I think they pull off a lot of great things here. Not every album needs to be as grandiose as what they'd just come off of, but this is a recharge to the battery and shows that they never lost their edge. I think many of us put this closer to the top of our Mangini album rankings, and it's no different with me. I'm just trying to work out where it fits in opposed to A Dramatic Turn of Events and the self-titled, as I still really like those albums.

Over to you guys. We only have one last deep dive to go before the release of Parasomnia!

[Awaken]

At Wit's End is one of my favorites from the band in general, and the highlight of D/T for me.  The opening frantic guitar riff juxtaposed with Jordan's piano starts to paint the picture for the heavy lyrical content.  I love that intro as much as the outro, a 10/10 for me

[Zydar]

After not being won over by The Astonishing, I was glad that they returned to form with a more traditional sounding DT album here. My big favourite is Fall Into The Light, one of their best songs not only from the MM era but of all time. That instrumental section gets me every time. I was hoping MP would pick that one for the 40th tour but Barstool Warrior was a fine choice as well. At Wit's End is a fine standout too.

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

Nice one!

DOT is filled with excellent concise songs. While it built on the style they presented in DT12, it has its own identity. Plenty of great riffs and solos that sound fresh (UA, R137, BSW, AWE, PBD are my highlights)  -  not simply reheated ideas from their older pieces.

A wise forum member (TAC) once said PBD is the bridge to the next album. That's exactly right. We get a taste of a new songwriter finally being more integrated and it's makes for a classic DT song that has no parallels. PBD is dense, eerie, and full of awesome melodic and rhythmic ideas. That musical bridges explodes into the very next single we hear from the band...

[TheOutlawXanadu]

Distance over Time is one of those albums I kind of forget about, but when I do give it a spin, it's a great time. It has a bit of a rock n' roll vibe to it that the band doesn't break out often. And I love the idea of Pale Blue Dot being a bridge to the next album. Honestly, if someone asked me for a good "intro to Dream Theater" album, I may pick this one.

[The Curious Orange]

It is interesting to me though how JP in his book note explains that the album is ambitious and would require a lot from not just the band and record label, but from the fans. What I think he means is that the fans would need to listen to this album in a different light, to understand this album is like a play, it's structure is not a typical concept album made by a band.

Oh, I get it, I really do, and there's a lot on that album that's very clever and hugely ambitious. I just don't think the execution matches the ambition, and while the album has it's highspots, there are also places where it descends into a confused mess. I know music is highly subjective, but for me what put the nail in the coffin of The Astonishing was when I heard Transitus by Ayreon - it's a remarkably similar thing - a daft and over complex story told over 2 discs with lots of quite short songs - yet it somehow works in a way that The Astonishing doesn't. 

[BeatriceNB]

I took part in the ARG for that album, fun times. I'm pretty sure I enjoyed my hype for the album more than the album itself; I tried to know as much as possible about the music, and I tried to imagine what the songs would sound like. That probably destroyed any realistic expectations I could have.
Listened to the album a lot at release, and I used to think it was a good and concise self-referential album.
It's been 6 years since release and I never wanted to listen to it again since then. And in my mind, A View released after The Astonishing, I just forget about D/T everytime.

If I ever wanted to revisit it, it will be just for Mangini, because he's really great throughout the album.
I quite dislike the production on D/T, as the dichotomy of hearing a huge sound coming from very few layers and instruments is off-putting. And it's just all Reverb Town.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the obvious influence in Fall Into The Light: Metallica. The riff is Hetfield af, and the bridge is straight out of Suicide & Redemption or To Live Is To Die, and even Mangini is channeling Lars with those snare rolls. But it's probably too obvious of an influence to mention.

My favourite moment and only thing I revisit is the solo in Out Of Reach; it reminds me of YouTube Petrucci influenced guitarists, like TheDooo, Stel Andre or Dhalif Ali. Beautiful short solo.
I don't think much of the song itself, it's nice, but if I'm craving for a DT moody ballad in Bb minor, Wither is there and I love that one (a bit of a joke statement, but really, OOR always reminded me of Wither, and the times I revisited it, I ended up switching to Wither before I made it to the end of the song).

A wise forum member (TAC) once said PBD is the bridge to the next album. That's exactly right. We get a taste of a new songwriter finally being more integrated and it's makes for a classic DT song that has no parallels. PBD is dense, eerie, and full of awesome melodic and rhythmic ideas. That musical bridges explodes into the very next single we hear from the band...

And funnily, the very first song of A View is space themed too.

[devieira73]

Amazing album, the best of the Mangini era. Strangely, in terms of overall vibe, I think it's the DT album that sounds closest to IaW. The only track I find a little forgettable is Paralyzed. I've always really liked Room 137, Out of Reach and Viper King, which always seem to get forgotten. S2N, besides being a killer song, has the hungriest and most spontaneous Mangini drumming I've ever heard. It also doesn't seem to get enough appreciation from the fans IMO.

[NoFred]

Love D/T, total riff fest and succinct change of pace for the band. The demos are good listen too.

[Deadeye21]

A View from the Top of the World – 2021
Tracklist: 1. The Alien. 2. Answering the Call. 3. Invisible Monster. 4. Sleeping Giant. 5. Transcending Time. 6. Awaken the Master. 7. A View from the Top of the World.

A Stream from the Top of the World

Hey guys. We're here. This is the final deep dive for now. Obviously, we'll come back in a few weeks and celebrate the release of Parasomnia once you've all had some time to enjoy it, but for right now, this is the end of the line. Thanks for being here with me,

So, between Distance Over Time and A View from the Top of the World, a major event happened. Dream Theater built their own studio, DTHQ, in Long Island. Oh and that whole COVID thing, which prevented James LaBrie from actually being in the room to contribute to writing sessions in person. There was a lot of later stage touring for Distance Over Time that didn't happen because of the disease, I know because I should have been at the Melbourne show which was rescheduled at least twice before finally being refunded mid-way through the View tour, only for DT to never be seen down under again. There were other exciting developments, such as John Petrucci getting his own signature eight-string guitar and more synth app development from Jordan, which we will get to in the respective songs.

For me though, this album came at a particularly low point in my life. And I don't know if that has something to do with the way I feel about this album overall. I'm maybe the most interested in this deep dive as a means of getting myself to listen to this album again and seeing what I do and don't like about it. Let's cast our minds back to October 22nd, 2021, and deep dive through A View from the Top of the World.

Opening with a killer drum fill by Mike Mangini, The Alien is a pretty stellar intro to the album. In the opening two minutes, we hear a lot of what this album is about. We get frantic riffing and inspiring melodies alike before James makes his entrance. If we consider Pale Blue Dot as the true closer of Distance Over Time, it almost serves as a gateway into this album, with The Alien sharing a very similar theme. The Alien's lyrics, written by James, deals with the idea of terraforming a new world to colonise it in our own image as a result of what humanity has done to a now dying Earth. This is a great song, pretty typical of the usual Dream Theater formula, and pushing close to that ten minute mark for the first time in a fair while. This was released as the first single from the album, continuing a pattern that has been held since Mangini joined the band that the first full song of the album would be the opening single.  Gotta say, it's a pretty great start to the album all up. This song won Dream Theater their first Grammy award in April of 2022, and I think it deserved it.

Answering the Call is a banger, straight and simple. This is a much heavier song, but one with some great hooks. I really love the pre-chorus here, I think it may be one of the best on the whole album. James' lyrics here are more about personal stakes, dealing with choosing to forget a darker past and instead embracing a brighter path ahead, choosing to embrace love and peace for the betterment of all. The band is in fine form here, with a great example of this being found in the unison section that caps off some great soloing from JP and Jordan. This song also has a killer bass tone for John Myung, who has been buried in the mix for so long that I haven't really been able to mention him. Myung and Mangini both hand in stellar performances throughout the entire album, but both really shine here,

Invisible Monster is quite easily my least favourite single the band has ever produced. Oh yeah, that's gonna shake the apple cart for sure. I like the clean tone, it sets up a really cool air of mystery, but the main body of the song never clicked with me at all. I can see that a lot of people would like this, and to be fair there is some cool riffing from JP, especially in the pre-choruses. But, I don't know, it just never grabbed me. This is a John Petrucci lyric about anxiety and fear that plague a person's life. I really like the instrumental section with the reintroduction of the intro into an absolutely stunning solo by JP. But all up, this is a song that has a lot of great elements but never masters any of them to me. The riff that happens under the second pre-chorus should be an absolute favourite, but I don't know if it's the way that James sings it or what, but it's entirely forgettable to me. Sorry Invisible Monster fans, but I won't be joining your ranks today. That said, I'm enjoying this more than other dark shadows from other albums, so I'm starting to come around on it, just very slowly.

Sleeping Giant is the first song over 10 minutes since Illumination Theory. Let that sink in when we consider we're talking about Dream Theater, a band so well known for their sprawling epics. To me, the instrumental of Sleeping Giant very much feels like a holdover from Liquid Tension Experiment's third album the year before. That said, the vocal melodies are strong with this one. I really like the chorus, even if some of the lyrics themselves do sound a little undercooked. This song involves a lot of the Carl Jung philosophy of everyone's dark side. "No tree, it is said, can reach to heaven if it's roots aren't buried in hell." This is all about light and dark, what drives a person, and it's honestly a great lyric overall. This song even invokes a bit of the ragtime piano from The Dance of Eternity, which is very welcome. There is a lot to love about this song, and yet it's one I'd kinda forgotten about. The last solo is probably one of my favourite moments on this whole album, as there's just such a vibe to it that I can't go past. The same can be said about the vocal outro, which starts with an almost Astonishing vibe in my ear. What a banger!

Transcending Time brings back the Rush vibe big time. This is one of my absolute favourites from the Mangini era, and yet also serves as the only song from the album not to be played live to date (oi, Portnoy, fix this!) This whole song has a certain quality to it that makes me think of the self-titled album, though with better production. Actually, I really need to shout out Andy Sneap who mixed and mastered this album. This is one of the best sounding Dream Theater albums since Scenes From a Memory by a long way. Transcending Time is one that I can't really pull the most meaning from, but I love it because it's so upbeat. The only thing I can put past it as a negative is that the solo section is maybe a little out of place with the rest of the song, but it doesn't matter too much here because it's a great section in an already great song. The whole song ends with a cool singalong section that I think would have been extended a fair ways if it had been played live. It ends with the band fading into a great piano melody from Jordan, though one that doesn't fully resolve at the end. Fantastic song.

Here comes Petrucci's new eight-string. Awaken the Master opens like something out of a Doom soundtrack. Potentially the most savage riffing put into a Dream Theater song to date. The first melodic section is also really captivating to me. This one is a Myung lyric about the pull between darkness and light and finding the balance in "what has been all along". I have to say, Awaken the Master has never been a favourite of mine, but on this listenthrough, the song has really taken off for me. The chorus on this one is maybe one of the best over the last few albums, I'd say just behind standouts like Barstool Warrior, At Wit's End and maybe Breaking All Illusions. This song was the last written, and pretty much just an excuse for JP to get to use his new toy, but it ended up being one of the coolest ones out of the lot. I wonder if, with JP bringing back the eight-string for at least one song on Parasomnia, this might be on it's way back to the setlist soon. I do find it funny that, being one of the last songs written for the album, the song ends with the lines "remember hereafter, the end of a chapter, awaken the master". Obviously just written because it's a great line, but knowing what we do now, it's a funny line to think about.

A View from the Top of the World is the final song of the Mangini era, and what a great way to end it all, kicking off with an amazing intro and opening into a solo from JP before settling into the verse groove. This is the strongest performance from everyone across the board on the whole album, and definitely deserving of being the title track. This song is a testament to personal strength and endurance. The third and fourth verse are led by John Myung with an insanely cool riff and an immense bass tone. The first movement, entitled The Crowning Glory, passes all too quickly with almost a rush of adrenaline. James' vocals are at their apex strength, and the instrumental chaos that leads into the quieter middle third of the song is what we live for in Dream Theater. Then it all plateaus with the song's second movement, Rapture of the Deep, This features a beautiful cello solo, which is actually Jordan playing with a new app he had developed not long prior to the recording of this album. This movement does feel like it drags just a little between the crushing heaviness of what surrounds it, but I still really enjoy what's here. Admittedly, I don't find it to be anywhere near the apex of the instrumental section that begins movement three, aptly named The Driving Force. This is easily one of my favourite Dream Theater riffs and the drum fill that kicks it all into motion may be one of my top Mangini moments overall. The whole band absolutely brings it in this instrumental section, doing what Dream Theater does best! The final verses really define the full course of the album, and I'd be so bold as to say that if this had been the final album the band ever released, it ended with the perfect line. "Self-belief will build a life of legacy". It is, perhaps, a bit of a shame that the final chord progression that repeats to the end of the song is maybe the weakest part of the song. I think this song is so strong until the end just kinda peters out. This is an insane epic, and in my opinion such a great song to encapsulate and end an era for the band.

Ok, so I've just come out of this album for the first time feeling completely different about it. This used to be my least favourite Dream Theater album of them all.  Why? Because despite them making some decent innovations, I had always believed this album didn't take any real risks. It always felt like it was just there for me. And yet, finishing this album again now, I'm left with a feeling that I've grossly misjudged it. Much of A View from the Top of the World has gotten lost in the mix for me when compared to every other album that the band has released. But to build our way here and actually stop to appreciate everything that this album does right is an awesome feeling. It still has Invisible Monster, and it's still my least favourite single the band has released, but I'm starting to appreciate that it didn't have to be if certain cards had been played differently.

The whole Mangini era has grown on me in the last few weeks, especially so in the cases of The Astonishing and View. When I dived into Six Degrees back in November, I made my ranking at that point in time. Now, I'd like to share with you the two different lists.

November rankings: 1. Awake. 2. Images and Words. 3. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. 4. Scenes From a Memory. 5. A Dramatic Turn of Events. 6. Distance Over Time. 7. Dream Theater. 8. Falling Into Infinity. 9. When Dream and Day Unite. 10. Train of Thought. 11. Octavarium. 12. Black Clouds and Silver Linings. 13. Systematic Chaos. 14. A View From the Top of the World. 15. The Astonishing.

Compare that to today's ranking: 1. Awake, 2. Images and Words. 3. Scenes From a Memory. 4. Black Clouds and Silver Linings. 5. Falling Into Infinity. 6. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. 7. Systematic Chaos. 8. Distance Over Time. 9. A View from the Top of the World. 10. Octavarium. 11. The Astonishing. 12. Dream Theater. 13. A Dramatic Turn of Events. 14. Train of Thought. 15. When Dream and Day Unite.

And you know what? It'll all be different again next week.

But if you haven't worked it out by now, I'm Deadeye21. These are my opinions and my opinions alone. Yours are going to be massively different and that's exactly how it should be. I've loved writing these for you all, I hope you've enjoyed them. I'm going to come back and deep dive Parasomnia on the 14th of March, giving us some time to get the album into our ears and form some opinions on it.

Until then guys, stay safe and stay wonderful.

-Cael McLeish

[The Curious Orange]

I have to say I agree with you about View. I've been in quite a bad place coming out of the pandemic, I think I listened to this album once when it came out, decided I didn't like it, and didn't listen to it again. I was struggling to listen to music of any kind at the time.

But when I did re-discover it - Man, I love it. I could talk about why this album is so great, but you seem to have said it all above.

I'm not sure these albums have the first track as the lead single as you suggest, so much as have the lead single as the first track. I always play ADTOE with Bridges in the Sky as the first song, and D/T with Pale Blue Dot first, they make better openers. But The Alien does work as an opener, even if I tend to sequence Awaken The Master first.

And that's my only issue with this album, albeit a small one. I don't know it it's my CD player or the disc, but it does seem to feature a very short blast of the next song in the last second of each track. makes it hard to play on shuffle or programmed in a different sequence. A minor quibble, but one of not heard mentioned. It's a very unrelenting album, and when I play it I do tend to skip one or two tracks each time, and this is really noticeable. Anyone else have this problem?

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

Nice one deadeye! I don't really hear the resemblance between LTE and SG but I share similar feelings about other things you said.

One cool detail about the ending of the title track (after the final lyric) is that the band is playing the melody they opened the song with. However, this time it comes back in a very different form. John is stretching it out with a new guitar riff. Jordan's patches are playing variants of it. Mike is messing with it rhythmically - playing various rhythms that collide with the guitars and make it hard to find 1.

[TheOutlawXanadu]

Thanks for the great series, Deadeye!

View is an album that I continue to grow more and more appreciative of. It sounds great. The band let their hair down a bit after three consecutive albums of tighter compositions. It has a nice theme tying everything together. And Mangini really shines.

Overall, View is just an awesome, fun, rock solid Dream Theater album. My top four Dream Theater albums are pretty solidified, but there are a handful of records vying for that number five spot for me, and View is one of them.

[devieira73]

Amazing deep dives as always, Cael, thanks a lot for doing these! I have a very similar opinion about this album, including Invisible Monster, surely a bottom 10 DT song for me (keeping in mind that I honestly think DT have never recorded a bad song), mostly because that boring chorus. Almost always I listen to this album excluding IM and it's really great. Maybe, it's hard to be sure, but I think this album has the best drums/bass combined performance of any DT album.