Bass Magazine – Issue 4 2019

22 BASS MAGAZINE ; ISSUE 4 ; bassmagazine.com

“W

ith all of these songs,

there’s definitely bal-

ance, in terms of con-

cise ideas, without

going off on tangents too much,” explains

Dream Theater’s John Myung. “I think it’s a

new balance that we’ve found, in terms of cre-

ating a record that’s commercially viable, but

doesn’t sacrifice anything creatively. Every-

thing is more concise and to the point, which

is cool, because it allows us to get to different

types of ideas on our record. The result is a re-

ally diverse album that breathes. It’s cool that

we were able to go in that direction.”

Myung is referencing the material on

Dream Theater’s latest opus, Distance Over

Time, released earlier this year and once

again produced by DT guitarist John Petruc-

ci. Recorded at Yonderbarn Studio in Mon-

ticello, New York, it’s the band’s 14th studio

album — and it’s one of their most fine-tuned

to date, featuring a more “back-to-basics”

approach than their previous efforts, partic-

ularly the 34-song, hour-and-a-half concept

album The Astonishing [2016, Roadrunner].

Distance Over Time finds DT challenging the

notion of what it means to be, perhaps, the

preeminent progressive-metal band on the

planet. New tunes like “Untethered Angel,”

“Barstool Warrior,” and “S2N” are a testa-

ment to songcraft, with their more condensed

and “concise” formulas. These otherworldly

prog-metal tunes still feature signature musi-

cal virtuosity on the parts of Myung, Petruc-

ci, and their cohorts, drummer Mike Mangini

and keyboardist Jordan Rudess, but the vo-

cal melodies are intoxicatingly catchy, even

commercial. James LaBrie’s vocal hooks are

easily memorable, and the songs themselves

are surprisingly short. Clocking in at just un-

der an hour, Distance Over Time is only DT’s

third album not to feature any song longer

than ten minutes.

Myung has been with DT since its 1985

inception, when he, Petrucci, and original

drummer Mike Portnoy were students at

Boston’s Berklee College of Music. Original-

ly called Majesty, they would cycle through

Dream Theater

JOHN

MYUNG

Balancing Act

By Freddy Villano