PARASOMNIA

I've been avoiding to many potential "sure-fire" metal albums to get my yearly top 100's more diversified, but this is a new year, and there are some bands I will make that exception for. Dream Theater was the band that got me into prog metal, and although they're not my favorite anymore, if they've got an album the fans like then I will check it out on the day of its release. And this is an event to look forward to for fans everywhere, and why? Simple...

Portnoy's back.

Since Dream Theater mastered the standard style early in their career, we must already deal with some sense of familiarity. So all that's left is how far they drive it. And they're driving it all the way from NY to CA. Some of these bits here are straight-up thrash metal with a strong edge backed up by some of their most clever riffs since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, and especially Portnoy's drumming. This is the album where he blew the mercury out of the meter. He outperforms everybody here without even thinking. Anything familiar or maybe even only decent about the songwriting is empowered by him. This is easily some of the best metal drumming I've ever heard, IMO.

As for the rest of it, the short story is that this is yet another "cool" entry into their catalog. Instead of choosing more meta concepts like the "octave," or telling another rock opera, they went right into a more conventional type of concept. Much like Metallica's Ride the Lightning covered various forms and themes concerning death, this album's all in the title. This is probably the perfect theme for Dream Theater of all people to tackle. I mean, if the band name didn't say it all, albums like Scenes from a Memory should tell you. Lyrically, they're doing everything they can to bring out the fear factor in each song, almost like we're hearing horror stories but we're supposed to pity the subjects rather than be scared for them. Instrumentally, even though their riffs aren't always the most original, they're effortlessly heavy and easier to get behind. Although, once again, Portnoy's masterful performance helps.

Parasomnia seems like a creative splurge for the band, but it doesn't get in the way of the style they developed for a single second. In fact, I could even say it makes the same mistake as Paramainomeni in the sense that all tracks are following the same goal, but every song shows them doing everything they can at that point to recall the classic era with something a little new. They never really stopped being relevant, but this feels kind of like a comeback album in a sense. Dream Theater, ever since Metropolis Pt. 2, has been the kind of prog metal band you need to immerse yourself in, much like a good old ambient album. And this is the album where they got that back. No overdoing metal themes like Octavarium, no 2112 knockoffs, just Dream Theater being dreamy and heavy.

Rounded: 9/10

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