Dream Theater

Parasomnia

A decade and a half ago, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy suffered a lapse of reason and quit the beloved prog-metal outfit he co-founded in 1985. Now, with the stickman back in the fold, the quintet sounds complete again on Parasomnia, their 16th album of athletic prog-metal, built around guitarist John Petrucci’s finger-breaking fretwork, Jordan Rudess’ coils of synths, and Portnoy’s jaw-dropping command of about 16,346 drums and cymbals. On ‘A Broken Man,’ written by frontman James LaBrie, they shift gears between un-headbangable time signatures like 5/8 and 5/4, and on ‘Midnight Messiah,’ penned by Portnoy, Petrucci conducts a hurricane of notes during the solo break, but it can’t break the band. On that last song, LaBrie sings, “The dream will never end” – not a bad thing.

—Kory Grow