Official Parasomnia album discussion thread ***SPOILERS***

[Skeever]

The Broken Man becoming anyone else's favorite song, or one of them? I just love the main melody, especially in the context of the full album. But especially the way it sounds - so cool.

[Jamesman42]

Itpoe has really grown on me, both parts are great but the intro is especially fun.

Can't wait to hear this album tomorrow 

[TAC]

The Broken Man becoming anyone else's favorite song, or one of them? I just love the main melody, especially in the context of the full album. But especially the way it sounds - so cool.

Definitely.

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

I can relate to this today. 

 

There's also nothing like seeing a song live to change your opinion of it.

[TAC]

I feel like MP really knocked it out with his playing. I mean, he has a style that us longtime observers will definitely recognize, but I found him way more busy than he'd been on those last few albums with the band before he left.

Listening to both Distance Over Time and A View From The Top Of The World over the last couple of days, I feel like MP's drumming is pretty much in line with Mangini over those two albums.

MP's style is easier to "lock in" with, but I found him just as inventive.

[DTiwbwMP]

PARASOMNIA  
1. Best DT album since TOT
2. I LOVE the many "callbacks" throughout the album.
3. While NOT the CRAZY proggy DT I hoped for, I feel the writing is top notch! Also, the haunting level of the album is PHENOMENAL!
Now, for each song:
1. ITAOM (7.5/10): Takes awhile to get going, but once it does, it's an awesome track. More an "overture" than a typical instrumental.
2. NT (9/10): I LOVE the song so much more coming off of ITAOM.
3. ABM (8.5/10): I wasn't crazy about this as a stand-alone release, but in the context of the album, it really comes alive. Reminds me a lot of THE ALIEN in structure, just executed MUCH BETTER.
4. DA (9/10): Very reminiscent of TCOT story told wise, and a song that gets better every listen!
5. MM (10/10): Probably my favorite on the album. This song SCREAMS for live performances.
6. AWD: meh
7. BTC (10/10): Hands down, my favorite DT ballad of all time! JLB is simply phenomenal here! Only bad part is that JP's solo fades out FAR TOO SOON.
8. TSMI (9/10): When is an epic not an epic? When the song goes by in an instant! The music & lyrics are just super creepy and fits the song perfectly. Love Jordan' part 2/3 through the song. NOT on par with ACOS or 8V, but certainly a classic DT epic!

Final thoughts - A top 5 DT album for me (9/10) behind only SFAM, I&W, Awake & TOT!

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

Why is ITPOE 2 widely disliked? Is it the Sacrificed Sons Dark Master melody, the lyrics, both?

Both to me. I'm not sure if it's widely disliked but i think it encapsulates so many things that made me check out of the TOT-BCSL era. Bloat, lack of strong melody, cheesy lyrics and vocal parts (not all JLB's fault).

[NoseofNicko]

I think the lyrics of ITPOE are pretty bad but I think it is absolutely fantastic musically, a top 5 DT epic for me.

[wolfking]

The Slaughter of the Damned is one of the most badass DT moments!

[TAC]

The Slaughter of the Damned is one of the most badass DT moments!

 

[jammindude]

Why is ITPOE 2 widely disliked? Is it the Sacrificed Sons Dark Master melody, the lyrics, both?

For me, that's a lot of it. Although SC was the one album that was just lyrically so bad that it was distractingly bad.

I mean the lyrics pretty much took a nose dive into mediocrity from the day Kevin Moore left. From that point forward, the lyrics managed to be in offensive and just sort of there and not very good but they didn't distract from the music.

SC was the exception. Almost everything on that album was so distractingly terrible that I had trouble focusing on the music. In fact, I consider The Dark Eternal Night to be the lyrical *high point* of that album. That's how bad the rest of the lyrics sound to me.

[Skeever]

Why does this place have to be so chronically off topic. Page 3 of the SPOILERS thread for the new album and people are talking about fucking In the Presence of Enemies? Did one of the other 6,968 topics not appeal? C'mon guys, I want to read people's Parasomnia thoughts 

[TAC]

Why does this place have to be so chronically off topic. Page 3 of the SPOILERS thread for the new album and people are talking about fucking In the Presence of Enemies? Did one of the other 6,968 topics not appeal? C'mon guys, I want to read people's Parasomnia thoughts 

 

[Architeuthis]

quote author=BeatriceNB link=msg=3212189 date=1738875236]
Ml but the modulation from C major to E minor for the solo puzzles me, not because it's weird, but I don't understand why; are there any other examples of DT switching between keys just for a solo

The Bigger Picture

[Madman Shepherd]

No real change in my opinion since I left my original review. Underwhelmed by most songs, BTC is absolutely amazing though.

Listening to the drum *sound* though, I think it's a lot more similar to the sound on AVFTTOTW than anything with Portnoy.

Mind you, I'm not saying Portnoy is playing like Mangini, just that the sound of his drums is more in line with the production on the previous album.

[Northern Lion]

Can't wait for tomorrow when I can finally listen. Loving everyone's takes so far!

And ItPoE is my favorite DT song. I think beginning to end it is a masterful piece of music. To all you desenters, thems fightn words!

[Progmaniac1988]

Well My boxset showed up this morning and I've listened to this album 4 times now front to back. Here's my thoughts.

I absolutely love the production and flow of this album. So many nuggets and returning themes! Just so much I love about DT is very present.

Lots of track by track reviews out there so I'll give a general feeling and some personal highlights.

I love the album from front to back but if I had to pick a few Stand out tracks for me they are Dead Asleep, Bend the Clock, The Shadow Man incident and in the arms of Morpheus. I love the overture. Has everything I want in a DT album opening. Petrucci sounds incredible. That entrance 8 string riff in sync with the alarm is fucking brutal and I was not expecting that. MPs drum playing, JR's leads and the atmosphere he creates on this album. I almost teared up right there on first listen.

Performances are all incredible...
James sounds great on this album. I feel this has some of his best moments since his performance on the astonishing.

Myung is solid as a rock as usual. He Has some great stand out moments, especially on the shadow man incident. Loving his tone on this album

Petrucci is just incredible, is that a surprise? Lol his tones throughout are just fantastic. His solos are top of his game. Especially that outro solo In bend the clock. Goosebumps!

Portnoy is Portnoy, and that's exactly what I wanted! His performance is tight, aggressive and exactly what each song need. I personally love all his signature fills, and I welcome them lol. He plays oozing with energy and swagger and I love everything about his playing!

Rudess's performance on this album is what really surprised me! I gotta say for me this is the best he's sounded since six degrees. He just fills this album with atmosphere and moodiness. I never want to hear anyone say he can't do that anymore lol. His performance on here to be is his "awake". It's so dark and gripping, but still has the Rudess technical edge. He is playing grand piano through so much of this album. I love all his piano playing. It's dark yet beautiful and really gives all these songs a certain feel. His Synth choices are all great as well. His leads seem more thought out and composed. I didn't hear much comments about his performance so I wanted to shine a light on that.

This album is just so dense and I'll be listening to is constantly over the next weeks. I love it. Some moments just brought happy tears to my eyes. That instrumental break in shadow man... just perfect. The piano solo, myung's latin sounding bass groove... into the guitar and drum solos. It just had a "magic" this line up seems to have. Brought happy tears to my eyes.

My one small not really complaint is the subject matter can be difficult to sit through for a long period of time. It's very dark and depressing lyrically. Life is hard enough so it would have been nice to have some more positive messages. I get it tho. It's the whole parasomnia theme, and I dig it! But it's also very emotionally heavy. Especially for someone like me that actually deals with sleep issues lol. I like it, but damn it's heavy on the emotions.

Still early, but for me this is shaping up to be my fav album from DT since ADTOE.

A solid 9/10

[TheBarstoolWarrior]

No real change in my opinion since I left my original review. Underwhelmed by most songs, BTC is absolutely amazing though.

Listening to the drum *sound* though, I think it's a lot more similar to the sound on AVFTTOTW than anything with Portnoy.

Mind you, I'm not saying Portnoy is playing like Mangini, just that the sound of his drums is more in line with the production on the previous album.

Makes sense given the 3 guys who worked on the production on View worked on Parasomnia.  The lower register drums (Toms and bass?) sound a little different on Parasomnia but they kept it consistent generally. Cymbals are crystal clear.

[geeeemo]

Can't wait for tomorrow when I can finally listen. Loving everyone's takes so far!

And ItPoE is my favorite DT song. I think beginning to end it is a masterful piece of music. To all you desenters, thems fightn words!

I love it it too! Top 5 or 10.

[Skeever]

Well My boxset showed up this morning and I've listened to this album 4 times now front to back. Here's my thoughts.

I absolutely love the production and flow of this album. So many nuggets and returning themes! Just so much I love about DT is very present.

Lots of track by track reviews out there so I'll give a general feeling and some personal highlights.

I love the album from front to back but if I had to pick a few Stand out tracks for me they are Dead Asleep, Bend the Clock, The Shadow Man incident and in the arms of Morpheus. I love the overture. Has everything I want in a DT album opening. Petrucci sounds incredible. That entrance 8 string riff in sync with the alarm is fucking brutal and I was not expecting that. MPs drum playing, JR's leads and the atmosphere he creates on this album. I almost teared up right there on first listen.

Performances are all incredible...
James sounds great on this album. I feel this has some of his best moments since his performance on the astonishing.

Myung is solid as a rock as usual. He Has some great stand out moments, especially on the shadow man incident. Loving his tone on this album

Petrucci is just incredible, is that a surprise? Lol his tones throughout are just fantastic. His solos are top of his game. Especially that outro solo In bend the clock. Goosebumps!

Portnoy is Portnoy, and that's exactly what I wanted! His performance is tight, aggressive and exactly what each song need. I personally love all his signature fills, and I welcome them lol. He plays oozing with energy and swagger and I love everything about his playing!

Rudess's performance on this album is what really surprised me! I gotta say for me this is the best he's sounded since six degrees. He just fills this album with atmosphere and moodiness. I never want to hear anyone say he can't do that anymore lol. His performance on here to be is his "awake". It's so dark and gripping, but still has the Rudess technical edge. He is playing grand piano through so much of this album. I love all his piano playing. It's dark yet beautiful and really gives all these songs a certain feel. His Synth choices are all great as well. His leads seem more thought out and composed. I didn't hear much comments about his performance so I wanted to shine a light on that.

This album is just so dense and I'll be listening to is constantly over the next weeks. I love it. Some moments just brought happy tears to my eyes. That instrumental break in shadow man... just perfect. The piano solo, myung's latin sounding bass groove... into the guitar and drum solos. It just had a "magic" this line up seems to have. Brought happy tears to my eyes.

My one small not really complaint is the subject matter can be difficult to sit through for a long period of time. It's very dark and depressing lyrically. Life is hard enough so it would have been nice to have some more positive messages. I get it tho. It's the whole parasomnia theme, and I dig it! But it's also very emotionally heavy. Especially for someone like me that actually deals with sleep issues lol. I like it, but damn it's heavy on the emotions.

Still early, but for me this is shaping up to be my fav album from DT since ADTOE.

A solid 9/10

Agree with everything you said.
Andy Sneap's mixing has been a revelation for the band. The sound is just so good.

[faizoff]

Come to think of it Shadow Man does have ITPOE vibes. Starting to get very familiar the structure of this song and the instrumental breaks with the solos are really great.

[faizoff]

Andy Sneap's mixing has been a revelation for the band. The sound is just so good

I think it was in the view BTS doc that Andy Sneap mentioned how his job was so easy to mix because how superbly Jimmy T recorded and tracked everything. I'm sure it takes two to tango in that scenario and having the album engineered properly massively helps the mixer do his job.

[Glasser]

The only song I don't love so far is Dead Asleep. I should come around to it, but I feel like the album drags a bit there. It does remind me a bit of Beyond This Life, so there's definitely hope for it.

Definitely a grower. Sadly I have a lot in common with the song. 

[Jamesman42]

I have an 18 minute car ride to work tomorrow. What songs should I play on the way there? And not the 3 singles, I want to hear new music.

[Glasser]

I have an 18 minute car ride to work tomorrow. What songs should I play on the way there? And not the 3 singles, I want to hear new music.

Dead Asleep and Bend The Clock!

[Jamesman42]

Dead Asleep and Bend The Clock!

Oh wow, that's pretty much perfect length-wise

[Glasser]

Oh wow, that's pretty much perfect length-wise

I'm curious what you think of them. Definitely let me know if you play them. You could add Are We Dreaming? Since it's just a prelude.

[Nissim]

Here it goes da personal raking as of now:

1. Bend the clock. Best sing along song since ... idk, I like it better than wither, I walk beside you, etc. The solo was good, but not as good as some people on reddit say imo, it ain't no under a glass moon or the best of times, but it does its job well, I say give it a minute more. The riffs playing under James' voice are soooooo tasty.

2. Night terror. Best crafted song on the record, it's the only one that gives me the illusion of progression, it changes within its boundaries tastefully. The solo section is maybe top 3 or 2 in the album.

3. The shadow and incident. It feels wrong ranking the epic 3rd, it'll grow on me, but I feel it's kinda disjointed, it's fun all along, I just don't see purpose in its sections, or most of them, like Is expected of an epic. As some reviews said, it doesn't feel 19 min at all, like a regular DT long song with an epic outro glued to it.

4. Dead asleep? I'm still debating if broken man is better. Like the intro, eerie and all, then DA riff. The intro solo is kinda just there, doesn't do a lot for me, then again, the reviews weren't lying, DA riff keeps going ooon and ooon. Cool vocal melodies, that chorus is good, the middle solo section is one of my less favorite moments on the record, not really bad, I'm just waiting for it to end and it doesn't add to the song. The end is cool, YOU ARE IIIIINOoOoCENT, theatrics are back I see.

5. A broken man. I didn't like it as a single, but it's perfectly placed on the album, the solo sections is above most on the album. All the singing sections and riffs flow into each other so well, maybe tomorrow it'll be higher.

6. In the arms of Morpheus. DA RIFFS. Also, Jordan got better leads I see, more like that and less wacky solos 🙏

7. Midnight messiah. I loved it as a single, within the album it's not as fun for me bc we already got heavy, the solo is really typical, nothing bad honestly, just, not that good, I'm really just waiting for bend the clock to play at this point.

8 are we dreaming? Just and interlude, the voices work really well though.

Overall I like it better than black clouds, TCOT, ANTR and TBOT are better songs individually, but AROP and TSF bring the album down overall, it doesn't happen with parasomnia, where the sloppiest moments are still fun somehow. Not better than a View imo, I don't know how my opinion will change, but as of now that's it.

[mrpmrpmrpmrp]

This album is FUCKING SICK

[EvantheMotel6Owmer]

Some ramble thoughts as I do my third listen:

-The singles work a lot better in context of the album

-Production and mix are solid

-Loving the dark and almost horror-like tone

-Dead Asleep and The Shadow Man Incident are my favorite songs so far

-I was worried listening to the singles that this album would sorta be "more of the same," but I think this album does have its own unique sound and style

-I'd say this album is probably a mix of Scenes from a Memory, Black Clouds, View, and Dark Side of the Moon

-It's a lot more "dark" than it is heavy, I'd say. In fact, I'd say this is one of their more straight progressive rock albums

-Bend the Clock is one of their best ballads, for sure

-Can't say I'd skip a single song!

Overall, I'm happy and pleasantly surprised. When the drums came in on In the Arms of Morpheus, I immediately did a ":O" and knew I was in for a treat. Definitely best album since ADTOE, maybe #6 or #7 in my overall ranking?

[Bacong]

I enjoyed it a good deal.

[jammindude]

Re: the singles

Can I say that I'm extremely happy that I only listened to them *once only* and never repeated them until album day.

In fact, I can say with a bit of pride that when I sat down to listen to the album, I didn't even remember what the singles sounded like.

"This is the way..."

[PROGdrummer]

    As obsessed as I was with the singles, somehow none of the other songs on the album do anything for me at all. Hopefully it's a grower.

I ended up skipping Dead Asleep halfway through. Bend The Clock was cool. The Shadow Man Incident did absolutely nothing for me whatsoever. 

In The Arms of Morpheus is a great opener, and singles are all great. I'm really scratching my head. Hopefully I'll change my mind on the drive to work tomorrow.

I gotta say, I'm really sick and tired of the half-time "epic Petrucci solo on a mountaintop" thing. It didn't need to be in Morpheus either. Or 2 minutes into Dead Asleep. Just let me bang my f*cking head! The key changes are always jarring. Its definitely a staple of the Mangini era and I guess its staying. But I kinda hate it.

[Jinx]

The mix is absolutely terrible. Granted I'm only listening on Spotify but it sounds like a mess. Honestly this morning it sounds like a LimeWire download, and it's a bloody shame.

[nobloodyname]

Gotta add that I feel like the back-half of the album is stronger than the front-half. Anyone else feel that way? At least the album gets better as it goes along if you listen in order. Better than an album that gets worse as you go along. 

-Marc.

I said the exact opposite after my first listen. Funny old world, innit? But I'm coming around to Bend the Clock now. The Shadow Man Incident, I'm not so sure about yet.