Band:	Dream Theater
Album:	Parasomnia
Style:	Progressive metal
Release date:	February 07, 2025
A review by:	musclassia

01. In The Arms Of Morpheus
02. Night Terror
03. A Broken Man
04. Dead Asleep
05. Midnight Messiah
06. Are We Dreaming?
07. Bend The Clock
08. The Shadow Man Incident

The prodigal son returned just in time to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Dream Theater with a ‘comeback’ album. When listening to Parasomnia, it almost sounds as if Mike Portnoy never left, but this arguably indicates that the group’s difficulties in recent years have had to do with more than just the man behind the drumkit.

Portnoy’s departure in 2010 was quite the major event, and the band’s first release with replacement Mike Mangini, 2011’s A Dramatic Turn Of Events, met with a mixed reaction; however, despite its flaws and inconsistencies, this album arguably grew in reputation when accounting for what followed, particularly the disaster that was The Astonishing. 2019’s Distance Over Time was a relative breath of fresh air with its taut, lean and gripping writing, but even though this seemed to indicate that Mangini and the rest of the group were beginning to finally gel, only the arguably bloated A View From The Top Of The World followed before Mangini departed in 2023 to make room for Portnoy’s return. While Dream Theater’s legacy at the top of the prog-metal hierarchy is likely cemented forever, their relevancy in recent years has waned with a glut of emerging talent within the genre; the reunion of their most iconic line-up is as good an opportunity as any to reaffirm their status.

While I personally felt somewhat mixed towards the record, A View From The Top Of The World was the most suitable prelude to Portnoy’s return out of any of the Mangini records, as it returned to the quintessential latter-day Dream Theater template of long, technicality-driven songs capped off with an even longer closing track. Parasomnia offers more of the same on this front; it kicks off with the 5-minute instrumental “In The Arms Of Morpheus”, but after that, the tracklist (redundant interlude “Are We Dreaming?” aside) is comprised of songs over 7 minutes, with album closer “The Shadow Man Incident” clocking in just shy of 20 minutes.

In truth, the approach on both of these albums feels ‘safe’ for lack of a better word, which is understandable for the first album after a major line-up change, but it’s made to feel even safer by the ‘darker’ tone compared with its predecessor (intended to help convey the album’s focus on sleep disorders), which feels like a callback to Train Of Thought; it feels even more so like this when “Midnight Messiah” slips into a riff firmly reminiscent of the verse from “As I Am”. There’s other self-nods and references on the record, such as the nods to “Beyond This Life” in “Dead Asleep”. That being said, there are moments of surprise; the frantic, math-y opening to “A Broken Man” offers a satisfying jolt to the system (that said, this is written by someone whose own band recently featured a similar opening to one of their songs).

Parasomnia’s appeal isn’t going to rest on its novelties, however; instead, that will most likely come down to how accomplished the musicianship is (which, as always, is of the highest standard), and how well said musicianship translates into exciting and memorable moments. On that front, there are some to be found; on top of that frenetic opening, I find “A Broken Man” to generally be a standout cut from the record, from the brooding tom-driven atmospheres to some very effective interplay between the guitar and keyboards, especially a lovely little flourish after the first chorus. There’s also a nice return of the quasi-orchestrations from last album’s “Sleeping Giant” in a solid passage near the end of “Dead Asleep”. Furthermore, Petrucci’s solos continue to impress, and none more so than with a multi-minute epic in the closing minutes of “Bend The Clock” that encompasses technical skill, emotionality and delightful phrasing.

With that all being said, I’ve having to point out segments rather than full songs, and the fact of the matter is that, like with the last album, the songwriting at a macro level, when looking past how much skill it takes to perform, is just not that engaging. The major issue I have with the band pivoting back towards the heaviness of Train Of Thought is that Petrucci’s heavy riffs really lack bite or memorability, which means that every time a verse kicks in on the first few songs, proceedings turn very dry. “Night Terror” has its moments of excitement when it flexes its muscles, but as a complete entity I find it very forgettable, while not even the surges of speed in “Midnight Messiah” inject much life into it. “Bend The Clock” does bring some dynamism into the album with its softer approach, and I do find its verses more engaging than most on the record, but its value as a song for repeat listening rests almost entirely on the aforementioned solo.

Overall, Parasomnia feels very much like A View From The Top Of The World but heavier and with different drumming; for some, that will be more than satisfactory, particularly those more in tune with the intricacies of the respective drummers’ styles. I also feel like its own attempt at a super-long track is comparable in quality to its predecessor’s title track; “The Shadow Man Incident” is generally well-paced, builds with purpose, and the jazzy piano passage from the 13-minute mark and its segue into a guitar solo is probably second only to the solo in “Bend The Clock” when it comes to highlights on the album. It doesn’t rival the group’s earlier legacy of truly memorable closers, but it ends the album on a relatively high note.

Still, it’s a note that’s lower than at least I might’ve hoped for; my interest in Dream Theater has decreased over the years as I’ve delved further into prog, but they were a hugely important gateway for me into the genre that I listened to extensively in years gone by, and even their Mangini years have featured songs that demand revisits (think of the likes of “Breaking All Illusions”, “At Wit’s End” or “The Enemy Inside”). I feel that I’ve given Parasomnia enough airplay for any songs of that calibre to have made their presence clear by now, but for all of strengths of the band and the glimpses of greatness, I just can’t find enough in the record to make any further listens an act of enjoyment, rather than one of obligation.