When Dream Theater announced their new record, Parasomnia, fans hoped that something special would come. What they might not have expected was just how heavy the album would turn out to be in comparison to the band's latest efforts.
In a recent conversation with Dylan Gowan of Banger TV, Portnoy talked about such a renewed intensity, and how the band leaned into their heaviest impulses.
“Yeah, I think sometimes people overlook the importance of the metal side to Dream Theater, especially with me in the band,” Portnoy said (via Blabbermouth). “It’s a really important aspect. It always has been. If you look at the very, very first song from the very first album, in 'A Fortune In Lies', I was playing thrash, double bass, thrash beats right outta the gate.”
That metal backbone has always been part of their DNA, according to Portnoy, even as the band built its reputation on progressive complexity. “And we’ve always had songs like that, whether it be 'The Glass Prison' or 'Panic Attack' or 'A Nightmare To Remember'. It’s been a big part of the band’s sound, and, to be honest, I think it’s a big part of the band’s success.”
Portnoy pointed to the band’s ability to tap into both the progressive and metal crowds as a key reason for their reach and longevity. “There’s a lot of prog bands or prog metal bands that are still kind of underground and still play smaller shows or maybe don’t sell as many records because maybe they haven’t tapped into the metal side.”
“But the fact that the metal side is such a big, big part of our sound, I think, is what elevates Dream Theater to be the cream of the crop in terms of ticket sales and record sales in the prog universe,” he continued. “I think it’s that metal side that does it. The fact that we could play these big metal festivals like Aftershock or Louder Than Life or Hellfest or Graspop, the fact that we could pull off gigs like that as a prog metal band speaks a lot for that metal side.”
Despite its heavy tone, Parasomnia wasn’t designed to sound that way — it simply evolved in that direction. “And when writing Parasomnia, we just naturally fell into it,” Portnoy explained. “Maybe it was the dark subject matter of sleep disorders and nightmares and things like that, maybe that helped us gravitate towards it.”
For fans wondering how this new material stacks up against the band’s previous work, Portnoy offered a clear comparison: “If I had to describe Parasomnia, the album, to somebody, I would say it kind of has the darkness and heaviness of Train Of Thought with the cinematic approach of Scenes From A Memory.”
