Wrapping up the successful European leg of their 40th Anniversary Tour 2024 – 2025 last week, GRAMMY®-winning, Progressive Music titans Dream Theater are releasing the next piece of music from their sixteenth studio album, “Parasomnia.” The track “A Broken Man” is the latest track from the iconic reunited lineup of vocalist James LaBrie, guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, keyboardist Jordan Rudess and drummer Mike Portnoy. The song opens with a driving musical barrage that subsides as LaBrie tells the story of a war vet who is experiencing sleep disturbances such as nightmares and insomnia, due to combat experience. The song contains audio from actual vets speaking about their personal horrors and replaying the traumatic events of wartime deployments. A visualizer for the song – created by longtime collaborator Wayne Joyner – that captures the essence of “A Broken Man” is now available throughthe YouTube player below:
From the opening track “In The Arms Of Morpheus” to the closer of “The Shadow Man Incident,” Dream Theater returns with a collection of songs that showcase what has earned the band a loyal following for four decades. Clocking in at 71 minutes, “Parasomnia” takes the listener on a musical journey that has become synonymous with the band since the beginning of their career. Parasomnia is a term for disruptive, sleep-related disturbances including sleepwalking, sleep paralysis, and night terrors. Songs like “A Broken Man,” “Dead Asleep,” “Midnight Messiah” and “Bend The Clock” all build upon the themes brought on by the album title.
Tracklist:
01. In The Arms Of Morpheus (5:22)
02. Night Terror (9:55)
03. A Broken Man (8:30)
04. Dead Asleep (11:06)
05. Midnight Messiah (7:58)
06. Are We Dreaming? (1:28)
07. Bend The Clock (7:24)
08. The Shadow Man Incident (19:32)
The album 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. More information can be found at: www.dreamtheater.net
Pre-Order here: https://dream-theater.lnk.to/ParasomniaAlbum
Tour Dates:
December 7 – Mexico City, Mexico – Explanada Estadio Azteca
December 10 – Belo Horizonte, Brazil – Befly Hall
December 13 – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil – Vivo Rio
December 15 – Sao Paulo, Brazil – Vibra (Limited Tickets Remain)
December 16 – Curitiba, Brazil – Live Curitiba
December 17 – Porto Alegre, Brazil – Araújo Vianna
December 19 – Buenos Aires, Argentina – Movistar Arena
December 21 – Santiago, Chile – Movistar Arena (Sold Out)
December 22 – Santiago, Chile – Movistar Arena
February 7 – Philadelphia, PA – The Met
February 8 – Raleigh, NC – Martin Marietta Center
February 10 – Nashville, TN – Opry House
February 11 – Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy
February 12 – Biloxi, MI – Hard Rock Café
February 14 – Houston, TX – 713 Music Hall
February 15 – Dallas, TX – Texas Trust CU
February 16 – San Antonio, TX – Majestic
February 18 – Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Center
February 19 – Highland, CA – Yaamava Theater
February 21 – Las Vegas, NV – The Chelsea
February 22 – Los Angeles, CA – YouTube Theater
February 24 – San Jose, CA – San Jose Civic
February 25 – Sacramento, CA – Safe Credit Union Performing
February 27 – Seattle, WA – Moore Theater
February 28 – Portland, OR – Keller Auditorium
March 2 – Reno, NV – Grand Sierra
March 4 – Salt Lake City, UT – Maverik Center
March 6 – Denver, CO – Mission Ballroom
March 8 – Chicago, IL – Chicago Theatre
March 9 – Cleveland, OH – MGM Northfield Park
March 11 – Toronto, ON – Coca-Cola Coliseum
March 12 – Montreal, QC – Place des Arts
March 14 – Wallingford, CT – Oakdale Theater
March 15 – Boston. MA – Boch Center
March 17 – Rochester, NY – Kodak
March 18 – Wheeling, WV – Capitol Theater
March 19 – Cincinnati, OH – Brady Music Center
March 21 – Washington, DC – The Anthem
March 22 – New York, NY – Radio City Music Hall
Portnoy co-founded Dream Theater in 1985 with guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung. Mike played on 10 Dream Theater albums over a 20-year period, from 1989’s “When Dream And Day Unite” through 2009’s “Black Clouds & Silver Linings,” before exiting the group in 2010.
Mike Mangini joined Dream Theater in late 2010 through a widely publicized audition following the departure of Portnoy. Mangini beat out six other of the world’s top drummers – Marco Minnemann, Virgil Donati, Aquiles Priester, Thomas Lang, Peter Wildoer and Derek Roddy – for the gig, a three-day process that was filmed for a documentary-style reality show called “The Spirit Carries On.”
Asked by Brazil’s Marcelo Vieira and Matheus Ribeiro if Dream Theater‘s upcoming LP picks up from where the last DT album he played on, 2009’s “Black Clouds & Silver Linings,” left off or if it’s a different thing entirely, Portnoy said: “If I’m being honest, I think it picks up right where ‘Black Clouds’ left off, to be honest. There’s a certain style that the five of us have when we write together. And if you listen to the album with this lineup from 1999, ‘[Metropolis Pt. 2:] Scenes From A Memory’, through 2009’s ‘Black Clouds & Silver Linings’, if you look at that string of five or six albums, that’s the sound and style of these five people. So I think that’s a good indication of what you can expect with the new DREAM THEATER album. It definitely sounds like classic DREAM THEATER.”
