Album Review: Dream Theater - Parasomnia

Parasomnias are sleep disturbances that get in the way of a proper period of rest. For fans of Dream Theater, the last fourteen years have felt like one long parasomnia. Mike Portnoy's departure from the band was an inflection point, where some fans were unable to comprehend their favorite band without its most vocal leader. Online discussion about this period is challenging, as there is a subset of the fan-base that doesn't want to admit the band carried on without Portnoy, or that the glory days weren't as glorious as they were made out to be.

The last few albums Dream Theater made before the split were controversial in their own right. Outside influences were becoming too blatant, the love of math as a selling point was too in-your-face, and the quality of the lyrics had descended into parody. Even if the lineup had stayed together, Dream Theater needed a reset to find a better way forward.

I am in that group who thinks they found such a reset, as not only is "A Dramatic Turn Of Events" what I consider the band's best album, but the albums that followed (minus "The Astonishing", which I think we all know was a mistake) featured a higher focus on melodic writing that did wonders for making Dream Theater a more engaging band for people who don't have music degrees as they do.

That means while so many of the fans are focused on Portnoy's return as a saving grace for the rest of the band's career, I'm looking at it more from the perspective of a parasomnia. Sleep paralysis is a terrifying phenomenon, and my greatest concern before listening to this album was that the band would find themselves picking up where they left off with Portnoy, and essentially considering the intervening years to be a bad dream where they were unable to get up and do what they really wanted.

The early singles for the record did little to dissuade that feeling, as they featured the band going back to their "Train Of Thought" era heaviness, their jigsaw puzzle song structuring, and lackluster melodies. In interviews, the band has talked many times about how they write the album instrumentally, and only then work on fitting vocals into the songs. I hate to say this, but it really shows.

The biggest difference between this Dream Theater and the one we had been listening to for the last decade is in songcraft. They are back to writing songs as if they are gluing random pieces together, having James LaBrie sing any old thing, and calling it a day if the theory behind it all excites them. Much like how "Octaviarium" being based on groups of eight didn't do a damn thing to make those songs interesting to listen to without a metronome, these songs could use stronger melodies and hooks to keep my mind from drifting when they are playing scales I don't recognize enough to be impressed.

I can't say this album feels like the band waking up from a long sleep, because in all honesty, it's still Dream Theater doing Dream Theater things. I happen to be one of those people for whom drums are the least important part of an album, so the switch from Mangini to Portnoy is not at all at the forefront of my mind. There will be people for whom that is the most important thing, but I cannot try to speak from their perspective. This record could have followed "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", yes, but it could have followed "Distance Over Time" just as easily.

I suppose that means the greatest disappointment of the album is that the huge narrative is a story that doesn't interest me. Much like how Opeth's recent album was dominated by talk about growled vocals, this album will be dominated by talk about Portnoy. Maybe that's for the best, because without that to sink our teeth into, I'm not sure there would be much else to say. Dream Theater are who they are, and it would be foolish to expect them to become something entirely new at this point.

We are talking in degrees, then. This album is solid enough Dream Theater music. So was "A View From The Top Of The World". Frankly, I don't think there's that much difference between the two, despite how I think the general consensus is going to play out. The news might make a few more people give Dream Theater another chance, but if they do, they'll find Dream Theater has been doing this all along. Sometimes even better.