For Dream Theater, it was a nightmare scenario. On September 8, 2010, after months of emotional turmoil, original drummer Mike Portnoy announced he was leaving the band.
The move came as a shock to the band’s fans, many of whom viewed Portnoy as the group’s heartbeat, the precise, polyrhythmic pulse that anchored the songs and gave guitarist John Petrucci a colorful, well-lit lane in which to fervently speed, randomly meander, or passionately roll.
The natural chemistry between Petrucci and Portnoy dates back to their early days jamming together. The story began when the guitarist and his middle school buddy and bassist John Myung met the drummer in 1985 at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and started the band Majesty.
For nearly 25 years, they had a nearly insatiable hunger for writing, recording, and performing experimental prog-metal and rarely allowed personal matters to interrupt their musical ambition.
“We had lofty goals from the very beginning,” Petrucci says from his hotel room in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where Dream Theater just finished a show with Portnoy for their 40th Anniversary Tour. “We looked up to bands like Iron Maiden and Rush, who had long careers and were always putting out records. We wanted to do the same thing.”
Starting with their 1989 debut, When Dream and Day Unite, the band combined their diverse influences (including Rush, Yes, Metallica, Dixie Dregs, Iron Maiden, King Crimson, and Al Di Meola) and created iconoclastic, mathematically complex prog-metal that shattered boundaries.
The band became tighter and more adventurous with time. Multi-faceted full-lengths were followed by world tours, and soon after one album cycle ended, the next would begin. It was how Dream Theater flowed – like a huge, glittering waterfall in constant motion – and it allowed the band to maintain visibility through the grunge, alternative, and nu-metal movements and retain a dedicated fanbase.
But the decades of churning and burning took its toll on Portnoy. Having devoted 25 years to the band, the acrobatic drummer wanted to take at least a year off to decompress and focus on other projects. Such a request was unacceptable to his bandmates, so Portnoy bailed.
“It just came down to priorities,” Petrucci says. “He wanted to take some time off, and we wanted to keep going with our busy schedule, writing and recording and then going on a full world tour that could last for a year and half or more. He wanted to stop, we didn’t, and that was the decision we made. We did what we needed to do in order to keep going.”
“I was starting to feel trapped, and they wanted me to commit to a certain date to start the next record, and I just wasn’t ready,” Portnoy told the podcast Everyone Loves Guitar in 2020. “I went with my heart and said, ‘Look, I’d rather regret something I have done than something I haven’t.’”
Soon after Portnoy quit, Dream Theater held rigorous auditions and hired Berklee professor and ex-Steve Vai tour drummer Mike Mangini, who more than capably played on Dream Theater’s next five albums. Seeing someone else behind the kit created tension between Portnoy and Petrucci, but they stayed in touch and their daughters even shared an apartment in New York for about five years.
![Dream Theater in 2024 [from left]: Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, James LaBrie, John Myung, and Jordan Rudess](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/eS86g3gEprxk2KFJ2tmkrc-1200-80.jpg.webp)
During the 13 years Portnoy was out of Dream Theater, he played on 40 albums with many bands, including the power trio the Winery Dogs (Portnoy, guitarist Richie Kotzen, and bassist Billy Sheehan), which released four albums. As early as 2013, however, Portnoy said he was ready to return to Dream Theater, but wasn’t overly optimistic that it would happen.
We met Mike when we were teenagers and we played together as Dream Theater for 25 years, so we know exactly how to play together and sound great
“I would do it in a heartbeat,” he told MetalInjection.com. “But I honestly don’t think they ever will; they’ve closed their door on it and I think they’re too headstrong in having to prove themselves without me. So I wouldn’t count on it. But my door is always open.”
Then when the Covid pandemic hit, tensions between Petrucci and Portnoy substantially dissipated. Life was just too short for lingering animosity over life choices. So, when Petrucci was working on his second solo album, 2020’s Terminal Velocity, he invited Portnoy to play drums.
The two had such a good time reminiscing and reconnecting that they decided to reform their instrumental prog supergroup Liquid Tension Experiment and recorded Liquid Tension Experiment 3 – the follow-up to 1999’s Liquid Tension Experiment 2, with King Crimson bassist Tony Levin and Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess.
Many Dream Theater fans thought the writing was on the wall for Portnoy’s return, but the rest of the band were happy with Mangini, and some were unsure how bringing Portnoy back would change the vibe in the band.
“Fans speculated that all the signs were leading to this, but we had no definite plans and it wasn’t a sure thing,” Petrucci says. “Then, one day the timing felt right and we all got together.”
For Petrucci, the hardest part of the reconciliation was getting everyone into the rehearsal room at the same time. Yet he knew that once they were all together and started playing, the band would bond like a video of an exploding car projected in reverse.
“We met Mike when we were teenagers and we played together as Dream Theater for 25 years, so we know exactly how to play together and sound great,” he says. “When we finally did it, there were no surprises. Mike didn’t miss a beat and everything was easy and exciting.”
In February 2024, Dream Theater started writing new songs and setting up the conceptual threads for their 16th album, Parasomnia, their most adventurous, energetic, and darkly metallic album in more than a decade.
Determined to recapture the impulsiveness, experimentation, heaviness, and technical proficiency of records like 2003’s Train of Thought and 2009’s Black Clouds & Silver Linings, the band assembled an epic concept album about the dark side of sleep disorders that plunges into realms of terror, paralysis, and even murder.
“From the moment we started writing it, we knew it was going to be a heavy, aggressive album,” Petrucci says. “Having Mike back, and all of us being together in the studio made us feel like we were 18 again. We just wanted to write super-heavy riffs and rock out.”
Having Mike back, and all of us being together in the studio made us feel like we were 18 again. We just wanted to write super-heavy riffs and rock out
When Petrucci uses words like “heavy” and “aggressive,” he’s not being hyperbolic. Not only is Parasomnia turbulent, dense, and often fast, but some passages in Night Terror, A Broken Man, and Midnight Messiah feature guitar tones, palm-muted riffs, and angular rhythms reminiscent of Metallica.
“To me, that’s a huge compliment,” Petrucci says, then smiles. “It was so exciting to draw back on some of my early influences. I’m a huge Metallica fan, and majorly influenced by James Hetfield and Kirk Hammett. I infused that style of fast, chuggy rhythmic playing into my sound and you can clearly hear it on the first Dream Theater album. It was great to bring some of that stuff back.”
Did you write any of Parasomnia in advance or did you get in a room with Mike and let fly?
“Mike rejoined in October 2023, and we started working on the new album all together in February 2024. I didn’t have any songs going in, but I’m constantly writing and collecting chord progressions and different ideas to complement them, so when we start working on an album I have some direction.
“What’s interesting is that I’ve had the title Parasomnia in my head for a few years, and along with that came this idea of having a lyrical theme that deals with different types of sleep disturbances.”
The conceptual thread of sleep disorders drives and provides cohesion for the songs. Is Parasomnia something you’ve experienced?
“Not more than anyone else. The idea surfaced when I was talking to my son one day, and he mentioned the word ‘parasomnia.’ I was like, ‘Whoa, what’s that? I’ve never heard that word before, but it sounds cool.’ We talked about it, and I said, ‘Man, that would be a great album title for Dream Theater. The word has such a cool ring to it. And once I started diving into what it entailed, it brought up all these ideas that provided a wealth of inspiration to write some really cool, dark, creative songs.”
So, the concept helped guide the music as well as the lyrics.
“It did. And one of the first things Mike said when we started writing the songs was, ‘Hey, what if this wasn’t only a lyrically conceptual album?’ as I had proposed. ‘What if we took it a step further and made the music have that concept album feel as well?’”
All these weird things happen to them when they’re sleeping, and in the end they come out of it. I thought that was a really cool way to make this album more intense
Was that a turning point for you?
“It was a great suggestion, and we ended up taking that as far as our imaginations could go. We had recurring themes and little vignettes between the songs to connect them and give them more of the feel of a record like The Dark Side of the Moon, which is meant to be listened to from beginning to end.
“So, the album is almost like an experience. It starts off with somebody going to bed and drifting into a sleep state. And all these weird things happen to them when they’re sleeping, and in the end they come out of it. I thought that was a really cool way to make this album more intense, creative, and epic because having all these connections created a cinematic element to the album.”
Did having Mike back on drums fuel the band’s creativity?
“As soon as Mike was back on the kit, everything started taking shape for the whole band. I met him when we were 18, and we were always together for so long, so as soon as we started playing again it was like having my buddy back. We were all inspired and felt so creative. Night Terror was the first thing we wrote.”
That song is almost 10 minutes long, and it’s the heaviest track you’ve recorded in years, building from bleak and doomy to fast and thrashy before leveling off when the vocals kick in before hitting the gas again.
“That song gives you a little idea of what the vibe was like in the studio. That’s a big part of why we released it as the first single. We wanted listeners to feel what we felt after Mike rejoined – the excitement of being back with him in the studio. There’s a brotherly chemistry between us that’s undeniable.”
Did you plan to start out with a banger or did it just burst out of you when you plugged in?
“It exploded out of us. That’s the way it works for us. We were pumped, and we naturally set off in a direction. Whether that direction comes from a riff, a chord progression, or a drum beat, it begins the flow and then this stream of consciousness takes over and we all start coming up with ideas.”
Was Mike Mangini, who played in the band between 2010 and 2023, understanding about your decision to work with Portnoy again?
“To his credit, he was wonderful about it. I called him and explained the conclusion we came to and he was really gracious and accepting, which helped make the change and transition very smooth and non-dramatic.”
There are some contemplative tracks on Parasomnia, including the instrumentals Are We Dreaming and Bend the Clock. Did the heaviest material come to you first?
“I think the second song we wrote was Broken Man, so yeah, I’d say we stayed heavy for a while, which was so much fun.”
You’ve never constrained yourself musically, and Parasomnia is no exception. There’s a haunting, harrowing instrumental overture, crushing riffs, shredding solos, heartrending leads, narrative samples, and orchestral passages. Then, after 50 minutes, when most albums are coming to an end, you start The Shadow Man Incident, a nearly 20-minute feast of cinematic progressions, experimental flourishes, and exotic rhythms.
“Shadow Man is one of my favorite tracks. I really enjoyed, not just writing the music, but making the lyrics as well, because the topic was so intriguing. So, we had the best of all worlds – the perfect backdrop to explore the story line.”
What’s it about?
“Sleep paralysis, which is a really interesting phenomenon. People who suffer from it are awake and they can see and hear but they can’t move. It’s like there’s a demon on their chest holding them down, and some people who go through it – and there have been tons of reports over centuries – claim they’ve seen this ominous figure that’s been called the Shadow Man.”
I mixed up the tunings, which I haven’t done since Train of Thought... Dead Asleep is in drop Bb, which was inspired by Zakk Wylde
Dead Asleep, the second-longest track (11 minutes), starts as a haunting lullaby and then evolves into heavy riffs punctuated with pick harmonics before bounding off in a more ethereal and melodic direction.
“When I wrote the chord progressions for the beginning and the end of that, I was thinking about Randy Rhoads, and how he would create these dark, dreamy chord progressions on the Ozzy Osbourne album Diary of a Madman. Everything else stemmed from that.”
Was there anything new you wanted to do with guitars on Parasomnia?
“I wanted to infuse some different tonal elements to the riff writing and the chord progressions. So I started studying some things I hadn’t done before – different types of scales, different types of chords, and chord movement.”
Can you be more specific?
“In Night Terror, I wrote the riffs and main guitar solo trying to stick to this mode called Super Phrygian, which added a weird tonal element. I also did some classical things, in which a song doesn’t ever resolve to the root until the end, which is a cool technique that creates a more dreamy sound.
“I used really weird things like the Tristan chord and the Prometheus chord to give some of the songs a mystical vibe. When I did my homework for the album, I studied a lot of eight-note scales as well.”
Do you work on different parts for different songs at the same time and build them as you go along or do you prefer to write a full song before moving on to the next?
“We’ll work on one song at a time and try to finish it. But as we’re writing, sometimes we’ll go off on a tangent that doesn’t necessarily make sense for that song. At the end of Bend the Clock there’s a long Pink Floyd-y David Gilmour-inspired guitar solo that came out of a jam we were doing, and it stemmed from this bass part John started playing.
“It was so cool, but we knew it wouldn’t fit into the song we were working on, so we documented it and put it aside to work with later. That happens from time to time. But mostly, we focus hard on one song at a time, perfect it, and get the drum performance recorded.
“Otherwise, we’d have a whole pile of material for a 70-minute record and we’d have to go back and try to remember how the hell we played everything. When we get the drum performance down, we also record scratch tracks, so now we have more than just a skeleton, we have the full song done and it’s just a matter of going back in and getting the overdubs done.”
Parts of the instrumental overture, In the Arms of Morpheus, and The Shadow Man Incident would sound great in a film soundtrack.
“A lot of that comes from studying John Williams and trying to understand his epic, cinematic compositions.
“On the first vocal sections and verses of Shadow Man, the chord progressions are really strange and have some weird resolutions and key changes. And you can hear it in Morpheus, too, when the eight-string guitar kicks in.
“That chord that we whack after the F# downbeat is the Prometheus chord I was talking about, which is a series of tritones. And that’s something else I have been working on.”
Why did you play an eight-string guitar on the overture?
“We wrote the whole record and then decided to go back and make the listening experience more like The Dark Side of the Moon and create little musical and narrative connections between the songs. So, we wrote an overture that encompasses all of these melodies on the record. I had not used the eight-string yet, so I tried it and I was like, ‘This thing sounds great!’ Just as soon as it kicks in, all hell breaks loose.”
You played a seven-string in The Shadow Man Incident. Was everything else played on six strings?
“Yes, but I mixed up the tunings, which I haven’t done since Train of Thought [2003]. Night Terror and Bend the Clock use standard tuning, but Dead Asleep is in drop Bb, which was inspired by Zakk Wylde, who joined me at my Guitar Universe Camp.
“We jammed on a bunch of Black Label Society and Ozzy stuff. Zakk is always playing in drop Bb, where you tune to C and you drop the [lowest string] down to Bb. Midnight Messiah is in C, and A Broken Man is tuned down to D.”
Did you use a variety of new and vintage guitars?
“It’s all my Ernie Ball Music Man Signature Majesty. I used the eight-, seven-, and six-string versions. I used different agencies, but it’s all on the Majesty. It does everything I need, whether it’s a great clean sound, a heavy, tight percussive, riffy sound, or a soaring, creamy lead sound.
“I have the bolt-on version of my Ernie Ball Music Man JP15, which is amazing. And we have the neck-through version, which is now celebrating its 10th anniversary.”
Are you trying out any new right-handed techniques?
“There’s this hyper-speed alternate picking style I was trying to do for a while and finally got the hang of. You hear that a few times on the album, most noticeably right in the middle of Night Terror.”
There’s some flashy interplay between the guitar and keyboards that almost sounds like guitar harmonies.
“Jordan [Rudess] and I do it in Night Terror in the first instrumental break before the main guitar. And we do it again on Midnight Messiah. It’s a right-hand tapping Van Halen hammer-on technique that we’re harmonizing. I like to think of it as our version of a Highway Star unison-type harmony. And we also do some unison stuff in Shadow Man, in the Latin music-influenced section.”
What inspired you to break into a Latin-inspired part?
“One morning, as I would often do, I got to the studio before the guys, picked up my guitar, and started writing this really fast, galloping, tight riff. And that’s what the Latin part morphs into. So, that fast part came first, and I don’t know why I put this Latin-y thing in front of it. John was doing this line on bass, and somehow that sent me off into this vibey thing. It popped out of me and we all liked it.”
We’re not afraid to do stuff some other bands won’t try. We’ve earned the license to do anything
You’ve never held back from abrupt sonic shifts. Is that part of the appeal of writing for Dream Theater?
“Doing something that totally interrupts the flow of the song is just us having fun. We’re like, ‘Hey, let’s take them down this road instead,’ so we put a twist in that surprises the listener and the song takes a sudden left turn.
“Some people might be thinking, ‘What? Why the hell did you do that?’ But doing something that’s melodic or straightforward, then playing something far more complex, then switching to something that swings or has a funky or jazzy vibe to it, and then morphing that into something that’s full-on Latin-sounding, is a lot of why I love Dream Theater.
“We’re not afraid to do stuff some other bands won’t try. We’ve earned the license to do anything. There are no rules, so you don’t have to worry about how long a song is, how many styles you play, or whether it’s going to be a hit or not.”
With all the lofty expectations from fans, did you feel under the gun to deliver?
“There was pressure, but I think it was self-inflicted. You’d have to be dumb not to be aware of the anticipation that the announcement created in our fans, and we knew people would be looking forward to hearing what we could come up with.
“But thinking about all of that before we even walked into the studio was inspiring and pushed us to want to do our best. There was a real incentive to figure out how we could take this album to a level that’s going to be undeniable. And when I say undeniable, it’s not only how other people perceive it, but how we perceive it as a band when we’re working on it.”
Does Parasomnia feel like a musical rebirth?
“In a way, it does. It’s our 16th album, and it comes after our 40th year as a band. Those benchmark moments have created new enthusiasm, and renewed energy, and we’re all vibing on the anticipation that those moments bring. We’re thinking, ‘Man, this is an amazing time in our career. Let’s make sure we rise to the occasion.’”
- Parasomnia is out now via Inside Out.
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