PARASOMNIA

The "debut" album to Portnoy's return. Over the last decade and a half, Dream Theater has released several albums with Mangini. A Dramatic Turn of Events was a refreshing album, departing from the Avenged Sevenfold-esque directions of Systematic Chaotic and Black Clouds and Silver Linings. Still, the subsequent albums resulted in bland consistency to outright cringy and I dropped off listening to the band I had obsessed over in High School. When they announced the return of Portnoy, my interests peaked, especially when they said the style would be along the veins of the Scenes from a Memory to Black Clouds and Silver Linings. I was hopeful to get something similar to Six Degrees or Scenes, but the the album art released as a dark paranormal theme and I knew we were getting content more towards Portnoy's predeparture. I anticipated something good, but likely not to my personal tastes.

Therefore, I say this with regret, the album came as a disappointment to me. It contained the generic, bland compositions of the Mangini era splashed with Portnoy's drumming and gothic themes. This made the songs hollow and infused with cheesy lyrics. They heavier style does displace the last decade or so, but each song contains the same tone and pacing. The compositions still hold quality, so each song is distinguishable but they don't feel like they have their own identity. Night Terror through Midnight Messiah are more or less the same making the album feel like a slog, redeemed only by this band's incredible musicianship. In fact, the album was difficult to focus on until the last two songs, Bend the Clock and The Shadow Man Incident. Up until those songs I was ready to give this a 2-star rating and toss it in with the last four album releases. They are the only songs I enjoyed on the album. Bend the Clock had good emotion and musicianship that caught me from start to finish. Shadow Man Incident, though silly in lyrics, has playful compositions and fun progression only marred by some jarring synthesizer choices Rudess made in the first half; and yet, it still surpassed Count of Tuscany and In the Presence of Enemies.

The two songs saved the album for me, to a degree, but whenever I start it I get through the first song, sometimes halfway through the second, and move on to something else. If I listen to the album again in the future, I may skip to the final two songs, enjoy those, then call it good. I was hoping Portnoy would rejuvenate the blandness I felt from Dream Theater over the past decade and a half, but unfortunately, the album felt formulaic and emotionless. It's a decent addition to their discography, so hopefully with Portnoy back in the mix they will compose fresh, emotional, and creative content moving forward. I loved how from Scenes from a Memory through Octavarium each album had a theme, personality, and emotion making that my favorite era. Personally, I hope they move away from the gothic, occult, and paranormal content exhibited in Systematic Chaos, Dark Clouds and Silver Linings, and now this Parasomnia. Until then, Dream Theater is good enough to give a listen and find enjoyable, but if you pass over this album, I'd understand.

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