Dream Theater’s new album Parasomnia arrived on February 7, 2025, and it brings with it an updated image of the veteran band. This is the sixteenth full album release since the band started in the ’80s, amidst their fortieth anniversary; it is one of many opportunities the band has used to define a unique direction for its sound. Certainly, something interesting is to follow when a band named Dream Theater releases a nightmare storytelling concept album.
Progressive Metal is an overly broad title that means the intersection between Heavy Metal and Progressive Rock. Prog Rock itself is a huge genre, but the additional label does a good job of refining the sounds and artists. Making it easier to track down what musicians are behind the sound of each genre. Regardless of this, the Prog Metal genre is always expanding, refusing to be labeled as anything more specific than energetic. One of the artists behind this expansion is the veteran band Dream Theater. They focus on utilizing the energy of Metal. Creating never-ending auras to encapsulate each of their songs.
Parasomnia, out through Inside Out Music/Sony Music, is best described as a collection of songs from a nightmarish world. The Metal backbone of the tracks is the offspring of Mike Portnoy and his drumming skills. He was a founding father of the band but went out of commission in 2009, returning in 2024 for a new album. Bringing back with him a wealth of knowledge about how to equalize and accentuate the sound of the band. His drums are a large part of what is needed to create the atmosphere of the songs in this album. The band – James LaBrie (vocals), John Petrucci (guitar), John Myung (bass), Jordan Rudess (keyboards), as well as Mike Portnoy (drums) – uses guitar, drums, bass, and keyboard as their language for storytelling. Creating a vignette of a world as they play.
This is best explored in the strange 20-minute-long final track: “The Shadow Man Incident.” A winding and dark journey of an otherworldly nightmare. The song flows inside of thrums of ever-increasing suspense by way of bass guitar and drumming. On top of this, John Petrucci’s guitar solo seems to have its own soul living inside of it, buried between layers of sentimental lyrics and dramatic keys. The song’s length indicates that public appeal was not the desire of this song. Instead, it exists as an enlarged heart for the album, a snapshot of the creative core behind the new release
With that explained, “The Shadow Man Incident” has a slower tempo than the rest of the album, but it can afford that with its extra dime of minutes to work with. The majority of the album has quicker build-ups, fewer intermissions, and generally louder guitar work. The emphasis stays on nightmares and dreams, and the band does plenty with that. They choose to interact with darkness by confronting it, leading to a lot of energetic yet suspenseful buildup in a full listen-through. The music interacts with the slowed-down and drained sound of a nightmarish world by juxtaposing it with intensity from a speeding guitar or soul from a jazzy keyboard.
There is a lot of emotion in the music, so much so that the sound feels like it could serve a greater purpose than existing on its own. It already works as the soundtrack to a Metal Gear or XenoSaga boss rush. There is plenty of over-the-top energy and fate-defining chord progressions here; someone just needs to work on the licensing deal. Jokes aside, the band does have some of their own unique visual art to accompany their music. The surrealism of their album art, merch, and logos borders on the chasm of Artificial Intelligence, but it is fun, and even though it is difficult to define what it is, the art definitely sends a message
Sonically, the music could do more for itself by interacting with silence in each of the songs. Resetting or reverting the sound to quiet mid-track builds a new “anti-sound” to interact with during the track. Functioning as a pseudo-narrative through the 8-19 minute pieces. But this is just a theory. One that seems to be asking for a Post-Rock approach to Heavy Metal Music. The seams fall apart when you remember that this is a band that is really good at shredding their instruments for three minutes straight.
To wrap up, here is a quick look at some of the best songs on the album: “In the Arms of Morpheus” has spellbinding drums that work as a great introduction. Then there is “Midnight Messiah,” which is topping the Metal charts and has some great core guitar work. Furthermore, the first single, “Night Terror,” has fear built into its backbone through its pace and lyrics, which play for 9 minutes and 55 seconds.
Overall, Parasomnia is a spooky release for the beginning of the year, but Dream Theater fans are probably all too thrilled about this early Valentine’s Day present. That is why Cryptic Rock gives this new album 4 out of 5 stars.
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