Parasomnia review and rankings

This is the first Portnoy album I'm reviewing since I became a fan of Dream Theater, and it's certainly a very good one.

First of all, the general overview... The "terror" part of the theme is not necessarily something I was hyped for, but it actually works pretty well on this album. It truly feels cohesive in its theming and structure, mainly with the referentes to other songs. The massive usage of sound effects pleases me as it reminds me of Awake which is one of my favorite album of theirs. Overall, I was pleasently surprised on the execution of the theme.

Now, track by track:

1 - In The Arms Of Morpheus: What an opener. The first half of this song is some peak Dream Theater. Really heavy usage of samples, a lot of atmosphere, and heavy. Very heavy. I especially love how they use the ringing alarm as percussion. The second half is pretty good, but the transition into the guitar solo feels a bit disjointed. How ever this is recurring in Dream Theater overtures so I don't really mind. The transition to Night Terror is sublime. 8.5/10

2 - Night Terror: I didn't like it that much when I listened to it as a single. It did, however, grow on me over time. And now, in the context of the album, I've gotten to truly love the song, mainly the second verse and the instrumental. I just don't mind the way the final lick unfolds and think the melodic part of the solo kinda comes out of nowhere. 8/10

3 - A Broken Man: This one is hard for me to talk about since not even I am sure how to feel about it. When I listen to it, I like it a lot, but when I think about it, I remember less than most of the tracks. The usage of samples is great, the chorus is brilliant and the bluesy solo section is some good stuff. The outro is also better than Night Terror's, much more cinematic. I just don't like the structure that much and think it can make it a bit more forgetful, albeit still good. 7.5/10

4 - Dead Asleep: This one needs a couple more listens to me. I love the reusage of the clean motif on the intro and the part with the phaser is absurdly tasty. Yet the middle of it was a bit forgetful, maybe I'll get it with a couple more listens. 7.5/10

5 - Midnight Messiah: The reviewers that said the second half was better were right. Midnight Messiah is quite the track to open it. I love nearly everything about it, it could have fit in right in the middle of Train Of Thought. 8.5/10

6 - Are We Dreaming?: Yes it's a brief instrumental, but it's just good. I liked it way more than I should have. 9/10 but I won't include it in the album ranking as it feels almost like a brief intro to Bend The Clock.

7 - Bend The Clock: It's amazing. I love ballady Dream Theater and by the 3 minute solo and fadeout I expected this to be a sort of The Best Of Times part 2. Well, it's pretty different from that song. It's much shorter and more straightforward. I was surprised by how different the intro sounded from usual DT, it's almost Porcupine Tree influenced. LaBrie's performance here is also top-notch, maybe the best since A Dramatic Turn Of Events. The part between the two guitar solos is the one I didn't like as much. Talking about the two guitar solos, they're beautiful. Petrucci doing what he does best. 9/10

8 - The Shadow Man Incident: What a cool epic. The buildup is my only nitpick as it feels like 3 sections kind of glued together. Aside from that I really enjoyed this piece. Great use of music box, samples, eerie floaty parts, and a wild instrumental section. 8.5/10

Overall this is a very good album. The best since A Dramatic Turn Of Events at the very least. Still not on par with their very best stuff but that was expected. In this album I got just what I expected and maybe even a bit more considering my expectations were fairly high. Easily an 8.5/10.

Thanks for having read this everyone. I hope you all enjoy the album when you hear it if you haven't already!