Dream Theater return in epic style with new song The Alien

Jon Petrucci wastes no time making his presence felt on Dream Theater's comeback song The Alien with a trademark riff and majestic lead break, signalling the opening song and first single from forthcoming album 15th studio album, A View From The Top Of The World. And just wait until you hear the solo sections. 

“It’s the first one we wrote together," says Petrucci. "It gives people a window into what it was like when we initially met up after all of those months off. It has the adventure, the untraditional structure, the heaviness, and the hooks. It really set the tone for the album,”

“James [LaBrie, vocals] wrote the lyrics about the idea of terraforming and looking beyond our Earth for alternative settlements. Since we’re going beyond our planet, The Alien turns out to be us. I thought it was a cool and creative lyric by James.”

Dream Theater

(Image credit: Rayon Richards)

The guitarist previously confirmed to MusicRadar this is the first album he's using an eight-string on.

“I looked at it like a piano with more keys," he told us. "There are more options for bass notes, rather than approaching it from a stylistic standpoint. So I looked at it from more of a compositional aspect, from the mindset of having more choices to play a riff in this key and then extend the range down and go below where I’m normally able to go. And I had a lot of fun doing it!”

A View From The Top Of The World is released on October 22

Dream Theater

(Image credit: Dream Theater)

Tracklisting: 

 

               1) The Alien (9:32)

               2) Answering The Call (7:35)

               3) Invisible Monster (6:31)

               4) Sleeping Giant (10:05)

               5) Transcending Time (6:25)

               6) Awaken The Master (9:47)

               7) A View From The Top Of The World (20:24)

To preorder 

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.