Parasomnia by Dream Theater, released in February 2025.
An album that marks Portnoy’s big return on drums.
It is a concept album about parasomnia, a disorder that includes a wide range of unusual and unwanted experiences and behaviors that people have during sleep, also known as disruptive sleep disorders.
The album’s atmospheres fit the purpose in my view, leaving the sense of a dreamlike, pressing unease. A dark album, with aggressive notes that often leave a feeling of tension. The goal of turning into music the feeling of a “diffuse sleep” is achieved, with the offering of a grey, rainy musical reality.
Good but not surprising. What you expect from this band, so excellent but not a masterpiece in my opinion.
Not above the band’s masterpieces recently reissued in new editions, but in my opinion (even if I haven’t gone deep, just listened on streaming, I admit it) better than the latest works.
Musically played to perfection as these monsters have gotten us used to, production also top-notch.
The tracks I prefer are “A Broken Man” and “Night Terror”: the most aggressive ones where Portnoy’s power is unleashed.
Very beautiful the ballad “Bend The Clock”, a “classic” Dream Theater sound with great acoustic guitar and an outstanding vocal part.
“The Shadow Man Incident”, which closes the album with its roughly twenty minutes, has great drive, a great piece.
The atmospheres are dark, “spectral” and soft-focus, with immersive sounds and elegant images, yet decidedly unsettling.
There’s no lack of jazzier moments and instrumental virtuosity, with the feeling it’s an attempt to please longtime fans while also searching for new sounds, a kind of effort to innovate but also to bring back the past, together.
I did find some clichés, something that reminds me of Rush or Kansas, some keyboard runs worthy of Genesis, vocals at times very 80s and a somewhat dated hard-prog sound, moments where the choruses are more scenic than complex—nice for me since I listen to prog nonstop—very prog and hard rock (sometimes old-school) alternated with gallops and syncopated patterns that are purely metal, and I didn’t expect it.
It happens, in my view, in many sections of the album. A plus? A flaw? I listened to it again several times and even if the album is enjoyable, I gladly listen to it, I confirm my initial judgment: it excels but doesn’t stand comparison with their masterpieces from the best years: Images and Words from 1992, Awake from 1994, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory from 1999, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence from 2002.
So, after those comes Parasomnia, therefore it’s an album you absolutely must have in your collection.
My Version
Label: Inside Out Music – IOM735, Sony Music – 19802843751
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, 180g
Country: UK & Europe
Released: 7 Feb 2025
Tracklist
1. In the Arms of Morpheus (5:22)
2. Night Terror (9:55)
3. A Broken Man (8:30)
4. Dead Asleep (11:06)
5. Midnight Messiah (7:58)
6. Are We Dreaming? (1:29)
7. Bend the Clock (7:25)
8. The Shadow Man Incident (19:32)
Length 71:17
Lineup
- James LaBrie - lead vocals
- John Petrucci - guitars, backing vocals
- Jordan Rudess - keyboards, backing vocals
- John Myung - bass, backing vocals
- Mike Portnoy - drums and percussion, backing vocals
