Rockfreaks.net

Dream Theater have confirmed January 29th as the official release date for their humbly titled, 34-track concept album ”The Astonishing”, and made the first single ”The Gift of Music” available for streaming below. You can also view the artwork here.

Guitarist John Petrucci offered the following comments regarding the ambitious project:

The idea to do a concept album as a band felt right. The last one we did [1999’s “Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory”, ed.] was about 15 years ago, and it really felt like we were in a good place to do this. I knew that what needed to happen, first and foremost, is that we had to have a story to base this on, because the idea of basing an album off of a loose concept or something that was sort of arbitrary, that didn’t interest me at all. I wanted this not only to be a concept album, but really to write a full show. And to have all the elements in place, the story needs to drive that. We needed to have the storyline, a plot, places, characters, maps — you name it.

So that started about two and a half years ago; it took about a year for me to get that story done and ready to present to the guys. And I wanted to write from a place that was familiar to me, so I knew that music had to play a role in the story somehow. I’m a huge fan of the sci-fi and fantasy genres, so I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to go. But it was a matter of really diving into it and working on it, revising and revising again, and working on it every day until I had something solid.

Given the sheer magnitude of the undertaking, it is perhaps a good thing that the band's concert at DR Koncerthuset on March 08th next year will be a seated experience.

Tickets are priced between 595 and 695 DKK, and can be bought from Billetlugen.dk now. For the official Facebook event, click here.