Dream Theater

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I like the new album, but it's also a little too self-referential and slightly underwhelming. First listen thoughts:
  • This is the Portnoy and Petrucci show. They are easily the two most prominent on the record.
  • I've never heard Jordan play this conservatively on a DT metal album.
  • Myung is barely there.
  • Speaking of barely there, LaBrie feels pretty (smartly) inconsequential here. I have no issues with his voice on any song, but I also reckon that about 70% of the songs are instrumental.
  • Thank goodness for the last two tracks, as the first four actual songs basically sound like different versions of the same tune.
 
MrKnickerbocker said:
I like the new album, but it's also a little too self-referential and slightly underwhelming. First listen thoughts:
  • This is the Portnoy and Petrucci show. They are easily the two most prominent on the record.
  • I've never heard Jordan play this conservatively on a DT metal album.
  • Myung is barely there.
  • Speaking of barely there, LaBrie feels pretty (smartly) inconsequential here. I have no issues with his voice on any song, but I also reckon that about 70% of the songs are instrumental.
  • Thank goodness for the last two tracks, as the first four actual songs basically sound like different versions of the same tune.
Click to expand...
I agree with pretty much all of this.

Imo LaBrie is pretty well utilized here. We get to hear a lot of his raspier voice which I always really liked. I already overplayed all of the singles, and they really don't have much to offer after the initial few listens. The overture and interlude tracks don't interest me. Bend the Clock seems to be the fan favorite so far and I certainly agree with that sentiment. JP's solo is an all time great from him. Dead Asleep is pretty crushing and the long epic is pretty interesting too.
 
Short first impressions:

- This clears the very low bar of being better than any of the last three DT albums. Whether it beats out ADTOE/DT12 is still an open question. My first impression is no, but there's a lot of room for this album to grow.

- I'm glad they've gotten back to trying to build big overarching themes around their albums.

- JLB is a clear weak link. He's barely on the album and when he is there his vocal melodies are awkward and not particularly well performed. I'm not sure where the band goes from here - this is three albums in a row where the vocals just don't deliver due to a combination of his voice declining and a band that doesn't really know how to write to his strengths. I was hoping this was something Portnoy would be able to bring to the table, not so much that he is a better lyricist/vocal melody writer than Petrucci but maybe he would at least give a different perspective to this part of the process and at least on first pass I don't hear it.

- Hearing Portnoy and Petrucci jamming together again is awesome, but that is pretty much all you're getting with this album so your enjoyment is going to be heavily linked to where you stand on this. For me, it's mostly what I wanted from a DT album so I'm happy.
 
It’s going to need a few listens for it to grow on me. A couple of initial impressions from me.

  • Petrucci has run out of riffs and melodies. I swear I have heard must of these songs before.
  • That said, the riffing is outstanding.
  • LaBrie sounds like he always does. I would say that the keys are non-existent. Much like Train of Thought.
 
1st date of US tour last night.
They dropped an older song to add 1 new one.
Click and see song #11 to find out which new one.

www.setlist.fm

Dream Theater Setlist at Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia

Get the Dream Theater Setlist of the concert at Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia, PA, USA on February 7, 2025 from the 40th Anniversary Tour 2024-2025 Tour and other Dream Theater Setlists for free on setlist.fm!
www.setlist.fm www.setlist.fm

I will see the Houston show on Valentines Day
 
Some random stray thoughts after a first listen...

  • In the Arms of Morpheus is a solid overture, but I admit I should probably have paid more attention to it because I'm sure every melody in this shows up somewhere else and I wasn't listening intently, haha.
  • Night Terror is here and I kinda tuned it out because I've heard it too many times already.
  • Wow, A Broken Man works a lot better in the context of the album, but I kinda expected that.
  • Dead Asleep is really cool but I definitely need to hear it again before I can make any other judgement calls.
  • Midnight Messiah seems like it will be a killer live song. Both for the audience and for JLB's vocal abilities.
  • WHY DOES BEND THE CLOCK FADE OUT
  • I really need to listen to The Shadow Man Incident again to fully grasp everything. It feels a lot more compact than its 19:32 running time would suggest.
 
I see Parasomnia as a logical continuation from the previous album - quite a lot of similarities but also expanding and taking a more focused turn. More thoughts later.
 
Amazon has sent me another CD copy of the album and not charged me for it! Some of my maters still collect physical media but are firmly in the vinyl camp (I’m in both). Would anyone here like me to send you my spare copy? For free of course. Send me a message if you are interested. First person to message snags it :) UK only, please.
 
It's their best work in a decade or so. Whether that means it's any good or not is another question but I did enjoy my second listen more than the first.
 
First listen yesterday - I think it was an alright album. No outright gems, but no outright doozies either.
 
Only two listens so far but I've came to conclusion that the album is pretty safe - Petrucci and Portnoy know what fans want, know what are their capabilities are and delivered a decent album. I expected a continuation in vein of Black Clouds and Silver Linings and this is probably best album since then (although I have a soft spot for Distance Over Time) and I might say that as an album is better than Octavarium. Comparing to previous one - A View From the Top of the World had higher highs (as in memorable parts/lines etc) but much more lower lows, Parasomnia seems more compact.

This neither managed to be a concept album (but it did seem it will go in that direction) nor can each song stand by itself. It can especially be heard as some music motifs are repeated throughout the album but there is no story to follow it. Also, there are a lot of throwbacks, either lyrically or musical to previous album, even shouting names of the song (for the sake of me I can't remember if there is a nod to Mangini albums - I did not pay much attention to the lyrics). This definitely sounds like one of those albums where every song could be played live in coming tour(s). Speaking of that, I now saw I haven't wrote my gig review from October, might do it this week.
 
Much like Answering the Call, Midnight Messiah is the clear immediate earworm of this album. I’ve listened to the whole thing a few times now and it’s a solid album, but something’s missing. I find the lack of catchy choruses (outside of Night Terror and the “endless night” tail of Shadow Man) outright disturbing; the band knows how to write great choruses, so this is odd. For example, Dead Asleep’s chorus is painfully boring; it’s like LaBrie is on autopilot.

Maybe it needed one more track? I dunno.
 
Detective Beauregard said:
Much like Answering the Call, Midnight Messiah is the clear immediate earworm of this album. I’ve listened to the whole thing a few times now and it’s a solid album, but something’s missing. I find the lack of catchy choruses (outside of Night Terror and the “endless night” tail of Shadow Man) outright disturbing; the band knows how to write great choruses, so this is odd. For example, Dead Asleep’s chorus is painfully boring; it’s like LaBrie is on autopilot.

Maybe it needed one more track? I dunno.
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One less track would've been fine, too (A Broken Man).

LaBrie and Myung are on complete autopilot the whole album. They contribute literally nothing of significance. Rudess is laid back, but you can also hear him trying more textural elements (which is far preferable to his space monkey fucking noises).

Midnight Messiah is also easily my favorite and, shocker, Portnoy wrote the vocal parts. It's the only song with a single shred of catchiness in the vocals.
 
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