Dream Theater singer James LeBrie was recently interviewed by Jimmy Kay and Alex Dixon from Canada's The Metal Voice, During the chat, which can be heard below, LaBrie talked about the band's new album, the postponed North American tour, and his opportunity with Iron Maiden in the past. An excerpt has been transcribed as follows:

When asked about A View From The Top Of The World:

"I think we always stood true to ourselves first and foremost. So there is an identity, there is a familiarity there so when people spin any given Dream Theater album you can identify with it, immediately. A lot of fans that have heard any snippet of the new album,  have said, 'Wow it seems to be reminiscent of some older classic Dream Theater.' We definitely reached back into our roots. We knew before going into the studio we wanted to write an epic, everyone was on board for that. So when you know you are going to do something like that, it opens up all the possibilities for the rest of the album to unfold as such. This album was like, let's get back to not having any parameters that we need to be concerned with consciously and just let's write what we feel to create a classic Dream Theater album and I think it really does stand on it's own."

Dream Theater's new album, A View From The Top Of The World, is set for release on October 22.

Dream Theater - comprised of James LaBrie, John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess, John Myung and Mike Mangini - was in the middle of a sold-out world tour in support of their last release Distance Over Time, and the 20th anniversary of Scenes From A Memory, when a Global Pandemic brought the world to a stop. The musicians found themselves at home with LaBrie in Canada and the rest of the group in the States. As fate would have it, they’d just finished construction on DTHQ (Dream Theater Headquarters) - a combination live recording studio, rehearsal space, control room, equipment storage, and creative hive. With LaBrie in Canada, he initially wrote with the band via ZOOM on a monitor in DTHQ. In March 2021, he flew down to New York, quarantined, and recorded his vocals face-to-face with Petrucci. The album ultimately threaded together lean and uncompromising hooks with tried-and-true technical proficiency.

“We just love to play our instruments,” observes Petrucci. “That never goes away. I love to be creative, write, and exercise that part of my mind. We’ve been able to do this for a long time, and we don’t take it for granted. Whenever we get together, we know we can’t disappoint ourselves or our fans, so we manage to try even harder.”

“We approach every album like it’s our first,” adds LaBrie. “It’s been such a great ride, but we’re not going to stop.”

A View From The Top Of The World tracklisting:

"The Alien" (9:32)
"Answering The Call" (7:35)
"Invisible Monster" (6:31)
"Sleeping Giant" (10:05)
"Transcending Time" (6:25)
"Awaken The Master" (9:47)
"A View From The Top Of The World" (20:24)

"Invisible Monster" video:

“The Alien” video:

Deluxe Box Set trailer:

(Photo - Rayon Richards)