Dream Theater

Parasomnia (InsideOut Music/Sony Music) (available 7 February)

Album 16 from prog metal’s finest

There’s plenty to be joyous about in the Dream Theater camp. To begin with, the band has just celebrated its 40th anniversary in the business with a tour that hit London last October, and then there’s the return of prodigal son Mike Portnoy to the fold. As a result, this is the first album that has seen this line-up since the release of Black Clouds & Silver Linings in 2009. For the uninitiated, the album’s title, Parasomnia, relates to a raft of sleep disorders, a subject that dominates the album’s lyrical content. From the album’s opener, Dream Theater is on familiar territory, entering with a crash on ‘In The Arms Of Morpheus’ and moving on to tracks like ‘A Broken Man’, which is an angry Metallica-influenced outing with 16th-note flurries and ominous riffing from fretmaster Petrucci. An album full of dark delights that will enrapture the band’s dedicated fanbase. [DM]

Standout track: ‘Dead Asleep’

For fans of: Metallica, Queensrÿche