On The Backs Of Angels – Dream Theater

They’re back.

Compare the image of a tightrope suspended over a rope. Just below emerges from the clouds the tail of a plane with their logo.

After two years since their last album, Dream Theater returns with the single “On The Backs Of Angels”, part of the album ”A Dramatic Turn of Events” expected for September 13th, 2011.

The Theatre of the Dreams is here, is solid and we can feel it. A guitar arpeggio introduces us in this new adventure. The keyboard of Jordan overlaps and begins to outline the melodies while the battery slowly creates the necessary tension. Mike Mangini seems at ease in his new role and, although not involved in the process of composing the album, is well placed in the band.

From this single, first glimpse of what lies ahead in September with the rest of the album, seems that John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess have been taken the lead of the compositional process. Petrucci’s riffs intersect with the unpredictable melodies (and sounds) of Jordan, reminding the Scenes From a Memory’s times.

At 5:52 min there is even a piano solo that found Jordan playing alone in the sudden silence created by the other instruments.

Dream Theater in this song show their progressive side, the one we have seen in Octavarium and Falling Into Infinity. A band that renews itself in every album, without losing its identity.

After the last world tour, the ups and downs following the departure of Mike Portnoy and the efforts spent in the studio for the creation of the new album, Dream Theater are finally back, ”On The Backs Of Angels”.