Parasomnia is Dream Theater’s first album with the return of Mike Portnoy after a his departure in 2009 after the midlding Black Clouds and Silver Linings album.
First – a little confession…..in my opinion, Dream Theater’s output after Mike left was at best average to disappointing. Especially The Astonishing. The only astonishing thing about it being how bad it is.
I didn’t bother buying Distance Over Time or A View From the Top of the World as the few tracks I heard seemed like it was all about playing fast and as many notes as possible per minute.
I admit I bought Parasomnia only due to the return of Portnoy to find out if it would get the band’s mojo back. And it most certainly has in a big way. This is progressive metal of the highest order.
Unmistakably a return to the high calibre stuff of the original Portnoy tenure.
The theme of the songs being around parasomnia (a sleep-related condition) works very well with the dark undertone appropriate.
All the songs are superbly written, arranged and performed. The seventy minute running time may give the impression of a spot of bloating here and there and elongated twiddly bits for the sake of it.
There’s none of that though. It’s all tight and cohesive with the whole band gelling without any self-indulgence.
Brooding style, heavy riffs and controlled soloing from John Petrucci all with great tone and feel. Wonderful styled keyboards and synths as ever from Jordan Rudess, John Myung’s bass keeps up with the guitar and James LaBrie sings up a storm. Power and range.
Oh: the Portnoy chap outdoes himself with his drumming. Fluid, technical, expansive, effortless jaw-dropping. A most huge welcome back Mike….!
The instrumental of In the Arms of Morpheus starts the ball rolling. Think something along the lines of Erotomania from Awake.
Night Terror is heavy and menacing. A Broken Man shows LaBrie’s vocal sensitives then Dead Asleep is a storming eleven minutes of proggy heaviness and a little unsettling with the lyrics. You may be able to guess what it’s about from the title.
Midnight Messiah another towering effort as it blazes away. Have a look at the video:
Ben the Clock more classic Dream Theater – then then the huge epic of The Shadow Man Incident. Is this the best song Dream Theater have written?
Thirty seconds shy of twenty minutes as it goes this way and that and back again. So much effort, power and nuance put in to that near twenty minutes it’s quite mind boggling how they came up with it.
I can’t think up enough adjectives to describe it adequately. Buy the album and listen to it for yourself.
Let me tell you, Parasomnia is proper Dream Theater and right up there with Images and Words, Scenes From a Memory and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. It is a monster of an album.
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