The story of Mike Portnoy’s return to Dream Theater is pretty well known in most metal circles at this point. What was intended to be a brief hiatus in 2010 turned into a thirteen year absence while his bandmates continued on without him. Slowly but surely though, Portnoy began rekindling relationships with his brothers in Dream Theater: playing and touring on guitarist John Petrucci’s 2020 solo album; putting out a third Liquid Tension Experiment record with Petrucci and keyboardist Jordan Rudess; and lastly, burying the hatchet with lead singer James LaBrie before a fateful 2022 Dream Theater show at the Beacon Theatre. With all of this momentum gained towards a reunion of their most celebrated lineup, the band took full advantage with their 40th anniversary as a group looming large.
The time was right...We had finished the last album and tour cycle, and we were about to go back into the studio. If it was ever going to happen, it had to happen when we could do it at the start of another record. We’ve been personally intertwined with Portnoy since we were teenagers. We were in each other’s wedding parties, and we even had kids at the same time. Our families are completely connected. We’ve known one another for so long, and it was a natural conversation. - John Petrucci
The natural conversation Petrucci spoke of has now led to one of the most anticipated releases of 2025. Dream Theater’s sixteenth studio album, Parasomnia, was written and recorded last year with the classic lineup reunited, and will finally be released on February 7th through InsideOut Music. Though not an out-and-out concept record, all of the songs on the album are connected by a lyrical thread and theme. Petrucci elaborates:
Parasomnia is a term for disruptive, sleep-related disturbances including sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, and night terrors… since our band name is literally a theater that plays while you’re dreaming, it’s crazy we didn’t think of this sooner.
According to lead singer James LaBrie, Petrucci came to the other band members with the theme for the record, and everyone ran with it in the direction lyrically that was most interesting to them. Being a band that share lyric writing duty amongst most of its members, the topic of sleep and sleep-related disturbances produced incredibly varied ideas and realizations of that theme when interpreted by each lyricist.
And in typical Dream Theater fashion, the results are spectacular. Though the band’s discography hardly took a hit over the five albums when Mike Mangini replaced Portnoy, as they even went on to win their first ever Grammy Award in 2022 for “The Alien,” the group seems reinvigorated on Parasomnia in a way that hasn’t been seen in years. The dark subject matter also produced a haunting and heavy tone that permeates throughout the record’s 72 minutes.
The album opens with an instrumental, “Into the Arms of Morpheus,” that serves as a representation of the listener falling into a dream state, with different ambient noises introducing the track before giving way to musical themes that will make appearances later to the record. Dream Theater have used this approach before, the most notable example being “Overture 1928” on their 1999 masterpiece Scenes from a Memory, and it serves as a fitting introduction to the journey the listener is about to take.
The first single from Parasomnia, “Night Terror,” serves as our first real look at the reunited lineup in full force. It’s a classic Dream Theater epic full of looming keyboard from Rudess, thrashing riffs from Petrucci, with Portnoy’s galloping drums accentuated perfectly by John Myung’s bass with LaBrie’s vocals soar overhead – like nothing had ever changed. “A Broken Man” follows with a frantic opening and rarely lets down throughout, save a jazzy breakdown towards the end, as LaBrie contemplates the perspective of a combat veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.
Perhaps the darkest lyrical content on the album emerges in “Dead Asleep,” which recounts the true story of a man who killed his wife while he was sleepwalking. Clocking in at over 11 minutes, it’s an emotional musical journey that conjures Dream Theater epics of yesteryear. “Metal Messiah,” Portnoy’s first lyrical contribution to the group since 2009, kicks in with a crawling, heavy riff before exploding into a galloping chorus accentuated perfectly by Rudess’ Deep Purple-esque keyboard strokes. The founding drummer also sneaks in a few Easter egg references to older Dream Theater songs in his lyrics, which revolve around “a person who became alive and felt the most powerful inside of a dream.”
After a brief interlude of haunting voices meant to mime the blurred line between dreams and real life (“Are We Dreaming?”), the pace relents for a moment with the thoughtful ballad “Bend the Clock.” Boasting bittersweet lyrics that lament the protagonist’s inability to overcome these night time struggles, while wondering how much better life would be if they could get a decent night’s rest - a very relatable sentiment. The final track, “The Shadow Man Incident,” closes the album in classic Dream Theater fashion - with a nearly 20-minute epic track in the vein of "Octavarium" and "A Change of Seasons," though slightly shorter than those comparables. Rife with unconventional chords, distinct musical movements, huge orchestration, and an epic breakdown, "The Shadow Man Incident" emphatically punctuates Parasomnia and informs the listener that this reunited lineup still has its fastball.
Parasomnia is yet another incredibly challenging and rewarding project undertaken by some of the finest musicians to ever perform progressive metal. The reunion of Dream Theater’s most celebrated lineup, outside of being a boon for fans worldwide for their 40th Anniversary Tour, is a gift to any fan of progressive metal music. For a band to produce a record at the level of Parasomnia forty years into their existence is as much a testament to their acumen and skill as is it to their ambition and creativity in taking these incredibly artistic concepts and turning them into such a beautiful, haunting reality.
Overall Rating: 8.5/10 Majesty logos
Recommendation: As James LaBrie's last vocal line on Parasomnia says, "maybe leave a light on tonight" when giving the album a spin.
Dream Theater's sixteenth studio album, Parasomnia, is due out on Friday, February 7th through InsideOut Music. You can find pre-order information below.
The band is also also kicking off the North American leg of their 40th Anniversary Tour on February 7th at The Met in Philadelphia. You can find ticket information below.
For more on Parasomnia, Dream Theater's 40th Anniversary Tour, and much more, check out my recent interview with lead singer James LaBrie below:
