Review by Adam M on April 30, 2019.

Dream Theater has gone through a number of changes, but they are in pretty good form on their new album Distance Over Time.  The music here is indulgent, but not to the point of being unlistenable, but features a streamlined aspect that has been improved over the years.  Having mostly heard Dream Theater’s old material, there is a similar need to be dynamic and interesting to albums like Scenes From A Memory and the songs are more clearly defined and constructed. 

The opening song of the album Untethered Angel is certainly a highlight and sets the tone for the rest of the album.  This album is pretty heavy and brings interesting guitar riffs to the table.  The songs take some time to develop, but are accessible enough with repeated listens.  This is still a meandering album at times, but the songs are kept in check by many memorable moments.  Since the band now has competition in the form of bands like Haken, lets see how they stack up.  The songs are more complex, but not as impactful as that act.  There are a number of shifts and changes within each song that makes them appealing and the melodic singing of James Labrie fits nicely over the top of the tracks.

This doesn’t quite equal some of the more intricate portions of their early material, but it is still quite complex.  Again, the songs are held in check by reasonably solid song-writing that crafts one of the more memorable progressive discs I’ve heard in some time.  The band is still a bit too meandering to be a perfect act, but they have constructed a very solid album with Distance Over Time.  Fans of the band’s past material looking for something new will be enamored with the songs here.  People who weren’t fans of the band before will have no reason to shift over..  Still, for a Dream Theater album, this is fairly solid stuff.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10