The way I see it, the band are trying new kinds of themes, structures and melodies while still being identifiable as Dream Theater with this track. They've never been the kind of band that'd completely lose that signature in a new release, even if their shifts had previously pushed them outside of their identified genre every once in a blue moon (with Falling Into Infinity, Octavarium and The Astonishing). Sure, maybe the shifts were arguably more drastic before a certain point (that is, if you're only considering variation in style rather than structure, pacing, mood etc. where I think the album shifts are just as prominent as before), but I still don't think the band are on autopilot in that regard, with The Alien very much considered.
I always wonder what people actually want when I see people complaining that this is the same old DT, especially when considering how unusual this is for a single (which has traditionally been one of the more familiar sounding songs of the album like On the Backs of Angels and Untethered Angel). They could do the whole funk-prog thing and get compared to Lines in the Sand, they could do jazz fusiony stuff (which imo the middle JP solo feels like it has elements of) and get compared to Beyond This Life / Take the Time / Surrender to Reason (depending on where they go with it), they could go all orchestral and symphonic and get compared to The Astonishing, they could do another rap section and get compared to Honor Thy Father / This Dying Soul / Prophets of War or the Canadian rap, streamlined alt-metal as in Paralysed or BMUBMD, they could do understated prog rock and get compared to Repentence and Octavarium, they could do full on pop rock and get compared to I Walk Beside You and You Not Me, excursions into extreme metal territory in A Nightmare to Remember, spacey atmospherics in Pale Blue Dot / Octavarium, spaghetti western style in Fall Into the Light's mid-section, folksy stuff in Solitary Shell and Hymn of a Thousand Voices, electronic music elements in Space Dye Vest / Outcry / BMUBMD, avant garde noise weirdness in the NOMAC tracks and the end of Misunderstood, upbeat prog in Surrender to Reason / Barstool Warrior, Deep Purple style hard rock in Viper King, musical theater stuff yet again all over The Astonishing and Scenes... hell, reggae would probably be referenced back to LTE's Ya Mon and Universal Mind.
Sure, there's room to go deeper into some of these but still, I don't think there's really enough of an appreciation sometimes for just how wide the DT stylistic palette can be, with this song included. You got a lot of harmonically off-kilter elements, the aforementioned fusiony middle solo, MM doing that quirky stick rhythm (also worth noting that his performance here is pretty unprecedented overall), that uplifting, double-time solo towards the end, that orchestral, cinematic ending that blends in with elements of that opening riff, the unusual melodic style, a lot of fresh, varied stuff imo, even if not all of it is entirely new in some form. That's just what happens when you get a band that's already done a fair amount of musical exploration. I'm not sure where else they can go without sounding like they're putting novelty over songwriting or doing BtBaM esque weirdness (and even their last few tracks don't seem like they have anything entirely new for them) (EDIT: nevermind, those tracks definitely have unique elements), which has never really been what the band were about.