Dream Theater unveil epic new 9-minute single The Alien

Dream Theater have premiered a new video for The Alien, the first single to be taken from the band’s 15th studio album, A View From The Top Of The World.

The video, which premiered earlier today in front of an online audience of more than 10,000, is a distinctly sci-fi-tinged blast through hyperspace, seeming to pull together visual inspirations from the likes Doctor Who and Interstellar. 

The nine-minute track forms the opener for the band's forthcoming album and sees frontman James LaBrie pondering life on earth from an extraterrestrial point of view. Guitarist John Petrucci, meanwhile, makes the most of the arrangement’s epic scope to weave in some killer lead work.

The band wrote and recorded the album at their own Dream Theater Headquarters (DTHQ), which was fortunately completed just prior to the lockdowns and touring halts brought about by the pandemic, meaning they were able to use the time to create new music in relative isolation.

Dream Theater release A View From The Top Of The World on October 22, 2021, before embarking on a US tour later that month.

For a full list of tour dates, head over to the Dream Theater official website.

The forthcoming album is set to mark John Petrucci's first-ever use of an eight-string guitar on record.

“When I got my seven-string, I had never played one before and I didn't know what to expect,” he said of playing the instrument. “The way I approached it was that it was just an extension of the range of the guitar.

“It doesn't sound like I'm trying to mimic a style or a genre or anything like that. I'm just playing it in my own way, with my own approach. That's the way I did it. It was so comfortable.”