Dream Theater's The Astonishing

Being Dream Theater, of course, this is no 'ordinary' double album. Instead, what you get is a 34-track, two-act, two-hour concept record set in a "retro-futurist, post-apocalyptic dystopia ruled by medieval style futurism". 

No beating around the bush, this album is fun, refreshingly bonkers and filled with the risk-taking that's missing in so much of today's vanilla music. However, this album won't mean anything to you on a single listen. You need to give this time, and soon it will grow on you and before you know it, you might just start humming one of its tracks as you go about your business.

With 'The Astonishing', Dream Theater has brought to fruition what they have said is their most ambitious project. 'The Astonishing' tells us a story about the importance of music through music, and what better story-tellers are suited to this task than Dream Theater? The band has given fans, old and new, an album which they will cherish for a long time.

Reviewed by Intisab Shahriyar