Photo by mark Maryanovich
Dream Theater
Dream Theater
Back in the mid-‘70s, progressive rock bands were roundly criticized for their excessive displays of instrumental virtuosity, shifting time signatures, banks of synthesizers and fondness for concept albums. Rolling Stone magazine’s most prominent critic Lester Bangs went so far as to blame them for “the insidious befoulment of all that was gutter pure in rock.” Years later, bands like Radiohead would wince any time the term showed up in reviews.
Dream Theater’s founding guitarist and co-producer John Petrucci—whose band started out in the mid-1980s and is often described as progressive metal—has no problem with either term. Over the course of 16 albums, the group’s music has combined, and at times, transcended both genres. Dream Theater will perform Wednesday, Sept. 24 at Miller High Life Theatre.
The band’s latest album, Parasomnia, released in February, is no exception. Like a number of Dream Theater’s past releases, it’s a full-blown concept album, complete with sound effects, interludes, and an overture.
“When you have a theme, it helps dictate where the music is going to go, whether it's dark or uplifting or creepy or heavy or positive,” said Petrucci, who first heard the word parasomnia several years ago and realized it could someday be the perfect concept for a Dream Theater album.
“Parasomnia encompasses all different types of sleep disturbances and disorders,” he explained in a recent interview. “So a parasomnia event could be sleep walking, sleep paralysis, night terrors, things like that. All of the lyrics and all the songs’ subject matter are about parasomnia events. So it’s a very conceptual Dream Theater album, and it's also a very dark album because of that.”
Crimson Dissonance
That’s especially the case with the album’s second single “A Broken Man.” The track’s aggressively angular fretwork was inspired by King Crimson guitarist Robert Fripp, who is cited by numerous progressive-metal bands as a major influence.
“The chords on ‘A Broken Man’ definitely have that King Crimson thickness and dissonance,” Petrucci acknowledged. “We were trying to create moods that are a bit more jarring, so using those types of chords is a really good way of doing that. Also, it’s in 5/4 time, so nothing about it sounds grounded. It sounds like something's going horribly wrong.”
But while the time signature remains the same throughout the song, the arrangements are less predictable. “The choruses are more cinematic and dramatic, which gives it an early Genesis vibe,” said Petrucci, who also numbers Rush among his early influences. “You’ll hear that throughout the album, that back-and-forth between things that are really dissonant and disturbing, and then things that are more dramatic and melodic and peaceful, which is much the way that sleep can be.”
Mysterious and Dark
One song that departs from that doom and gloom is “Bend the Clock.” “It almost has a completely different feel from the other heavier, darker songs,” said Petrucci. “It’s kind of ballady, with more of a ‘70s or ‘80s sound like Journey or Pink Floyd, whereas the other songs on the album have that more mysterious, creepy, dark, exotic vibe going.”
The album and current tour also mark the long-awaited return of co-founding drummer Mike Portnoy, who after 25 years with Dream Theater, went on to play with artists like Liquid Tension Experiment and the Neal Morse Band. The other band members remain James LaBrie (vocals), Jordan Rudess (keyboards) and John Myung (bass).
“We met Mike when we were 18 at Berklee College of Music in Boston, so he’s like our brother,” Pettruci said. “We asked him to rejoin in October of 2023, and then went into the studio to work on ‘Parasomnia.’ He’s a powerhouse of creativity and you can hear that he definitely had a big impact on how we write and how we play. So having Mike back in the band, celebrating our 40th anniversary, and releasing a brand-new album feels like a perfect storm of all these really cool and positive things that we’re getting to enjoy.”
Dream Theater audiences are more than likely to agree. “Mike has a certain way of playing and a lot of energy,” Petrucci said. “He's a great showman onstage, a great communicator with the audience. So not only are WE feeling that onstage, but I think the audience has been really loving that, starting from the first show.”
With concerts plus intermission clocking in at three hours, audiences can expect to hear several songs from the new album as well as a generous selection of fan favorites from the group’s extensive catalogue. There’ll also be no shortage of elaborate staging and special effects.
“We have an incredible light show and a laser show as well,” Petrucci said. “The music is dramatic, so it really lends itself to the kind of experience that Pink Floyd, Rush, Genesis and all those prog bands gave us with those great visual shows. And that’s really important to us.”
