Dream Theater share first new music since Mike Portnoy's return with nine-minute plus Night Terror

· louder

By Jerry Ewing
( Prog )
published 10 October 2024

Parasomnia, Dream Theater's first new album with Mike Portnoy for 16 years, will be released in February

(Image credit: Mark Maryanovich)

US prog mteallers Dream Theater have shared the first new music since drummer Mike Portnoy's return to the band last year, sharing a video for their brand new single, the near ten-minute Night Terror.

At the same time the quintet have announced that they will release their brand new album, the band's sixteenth, Parasomnia, through InsideOut Music on February 7. It will be the first Dream Theater album to feature the iconic lineup of vocalist James LaBrie, guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, keyboardist Jordan Rudess, and Portnoy since 2009’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings

"We've been working on it since February and it’s coming along," Petrucci told Prog. "I’m just so excited about it. It really has been awesome. I feel so great about the material and it has just been fun, it really has. I mean Mike and I have done things together before this. We’ve already connected musically and we even toured together for my solo album. So that’s already there. 

"But you know, with him just coming back into the band, it has been great. It’s like we haven't missed a beat and it really feels like we’re 18 again. The flow was really, really smooth. There’s definitely an undeniable, creative chemistry there. You meet certain people in your life and you connect on an artistic level, and it just flows. We have been working in our own studio and our space has expanded. We have just built a new live room and control room, which is just beautiful."

As well as Night Terror, the new album features seven more tracks, containing 71- minutes of brand new music, which culminates in the near 20-minute epic The Shadow Man Incident.

Parasomnia was produced by Petrucci, engineered by James ‘Jimmy T’ Meslin, and mixed by Andy Sneap. Hugh Syme returns once again to lend his creative vision to the cover art, which you an see below.

The album will be available as a limited edition deluxe box-set which includes the deluxe 2CD+Blu-ray Artbook (Incl. CD1: full album, CD2: instrumentals, Blu-ray: Dolby Atmos & 5.1 Surround Sound - mixed by Mark Gittins, High-Resolution Stereo Mixes, animated visualizers for each song created by Wayne Joyner, + 68-page booklet), gatefold 180g dark green 2LP (feat. alternative cover artwork), Majesty-logo dream catcher keyring, sleeping mask, Dream journal, 60x60cm poster & hand-numbered, foil-stamped certificate of authenticity and is limited to 3500 copies worldwide); as a limited edition deluxe 2CD+Blu-ray Artbook - (Incl. CD1: full album, CD2: instrumentals, Blu-ray: Dolby Atmos & 5.1 Surround Sound - mixed by Mark Gittins, High-Resolution Stereo Mixes, animated visualizers for each song created by Wayne Joyner, + 68-page booklet), a gatefold 180g 2LP + 12-page LP-booklet, a special edition CD Digipak and as a digital Album - (incl. Dolby Atmos - mixed by Mark Gittins).

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Dream Theater kick off their 40th Anniversary World Tour at London's O2 Arena on October 20.

Pre-orders for Parasomnia open tomorrow.

Dream Theater - Night Terror (Official Video) - YouTube

Watch On

(Image credit: InsideOut Music)

Dream Theater: Parasomnia
1) In The Arms Of Morpheus (5:22)
2) Night Terror (9:55)
3) A Broken Man (8:30)
4) Dead Asleep (11:06)
5) Midnight Messiah (7:58)
6) Are We Dreaming? (1:28)
7) Bend The Clock (7:24)
8) The Shadow Man Incident (19:32)

Jerry Ewing

Writer and broadcaster Jerry Ewing is the Editor of Prog Magazine which he founded for Future Publishing in 2009. He grew up in Sydney and began his writing career in London for Metal Forces magazine in 1989. He has since written for Metal Hammer, Maxim, Vox, Stuff and Bizarre magazines, among others. He created and edited Classic Rock Magazine for Dennis Publishing in 1998 and is the author of a variety of books on both music and sport, including Wonderous Stories; A Journey Through The Landscape Of Progressive Rock.

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