“Invisible Monster” by Dream Theater
As explained by Dream Theater spokesman John Petrucci, the titular “invisible monster”, which is of course a metaphorical construct, is actually representative of anxiety and how it “plagues people”. And based on that understanding, there really isn’t any need to dive too deeply into the lyrics because first of all, they’re sorta terse.
Secondly, they do an effective job of getting the main point across, which is the highlighted feeling of dread being an unshakeable part of the victim’s persona, so to speak. And the band proceeds to get this point across by indeed depicting anxiety as a monster, i.e. an entity who literally ‘whispers in your ear’, in the name of making one fearful of threats which in reality don’t really exist.
So by the time all is said and done, the vocalist doesn’t actually present a remedy to this predicament. However, he does express a desire to “take back control” from the “invisible monster”. So all things considered, what the lyrics of this song are representative of is one’s struggles against the fears within.
Who are Dream Theater?
Dream Theater is a tenured metal band from Boston, boasting a discography dating back to the 1980s. In fact this particular tune is derived from their 15th studio album, 2021’s “A View from the Top of the World”.
This is a band who experienced their most chart success during the late-aughts to early-2010s. During that time, three of the studio albums all made it onto the top of the Billboard 200. The albums in question are:
- 2009’s “Black Clouds & Silver Linings”
- 2011’s “A Dramatic Turn of Events”
- 2013’s “Dream Theater”
Two founders of Dream Theater, bassist John Myung and guitarist John Petrucci, are still down with the band to date. Lead vocalist James LaBrie and keyboardist Jordan Rudess joined during the 1990s. And drummer Mike Mangini got down in 2010.
“Invisible Monster”
An indie label based in Germany called Inside Out Music made this song public on 22 September 2021 as the second single from the aforementioned album.
The aforementioned Myung, Petrucci, Rudess and Mangini are credited as the song’s writers. And John Petrucci is also the producer of the track.
The director of this song’s music video is one William “Wombat” Felch.
It has been alluded by a couple of websites that this track is relatively long, clocking at approximately six and-a-half minutes. However, it isn’t even in the top half of the longest tunes featured on the seven-track playlist of “A View from the Top of the World”. In fact the title track is listed as being over 20 minutes in length. And this may be because, according to Petrucci, Dream Theater is a band that ‘loves playing their instruments’.
