You might think that a band who have been active for 40 years would have covered all the musical ground they possibly could, yet true to their trailblazing spirit Dream Theater are still mapping new sonic spheres. In the true spirit of progressive music, they’re a restless bunch who go undercover of darkness to chart new dreamscapes on their latest album Parasomnia. Featuring eight melodic tracks that combine metal and prog and deliver them with a technical proficiency, this is an album that marks the band as a vibrant force and makes a welcome return for their classic line-up.

Dream Theater certainly know how to create a sense of time and place, and that’s exactly what opening track ‘In The Arms Of Morpheus’ does. With an introduction that perfectly captures that moment between wake and sleep, it makes the ideal gateway into the band’s world and is an instrumental of ethereal beauty; it’s poetry without words, with the tone and timbre employed serve to alter the listener’s physiology and lull us into another state of being. It is dreamlike and replicates that magical moment between wake and sleep, and means that when the following ‘Night Terror’ hits, it is like a splash of cold water to the face. It finds Dream Theater doing what they do best, namely locking in tightly and rocking a heavy groove. It contains all the essential ingredients, from those neat time changes and sonic shifts to the proggy sections and soulful vocals. It’s a feast for the ears and one which flows smoothly; whilst much progressive metal can lose the listener in a maze of complexity, Dream Theater never take their eyes from the important stuff like melody and song structure, and subsequently Parasomnia never jars the ears, no matter what kind of curveball the album throws, its flow is seamless.

With drummer Mike Portnoy back in the group, Dream Theater’s iconic line-up has been reunited and they are displaying a definite chemistry with Portney immediately making his presence felt with some neat fills on ‘Night Terror’. Yet there’s room for each band member to display their wares; John Petrucci guitar tone is particularly on point and he gets all funky on ‘A Broken Man’, whilst Jordan Rudess’ keys are grandiose and glacial and used to great effect on ‘Dead Asleep’. At almost twenty minutes, ‘The Shadow Of Man Incident’ is a truly epic closer, a song of many suites and one that is threaded together by John Myung’s bombastic bass. With a voice that has aged like oak-aged whiskey James LaBrie adds an air of authority to proceedings and when combined with the rest of the group makes for an engaging experience.

The hypnotic nature of Dream Theater means that they alter the very fabric of time and that means that the album’s 71-minute running time (including the 20-minute ‘The Shadow Of Man Incident’) never feels elongated or overly long. While it is perfectly feasible to dip in and out of this record and listen to the songs individually, it is best consumed whole to fully appreciate its ebb and flow. As Dream Theater prepare to celebrate their 40th anniversary, they’ve released an album that proves themselves very much vital and contemporary, and Parasomnia is the stuff that dreams are made of.

• Parasomnia is released via InsideOut Music and is available now.
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Track List:

1. In The Arms Of Morpheus
2. Night Terror
3. A Broken Man
4. Dead Asleep
5. Midnight Messiah
6. Are We Dreaming?
7. Bend The Clock
8. The Shadow Of Man Incident