Sounds like typical dream theater. Not a bad song though I'm not a fan of the production. I'm happy that portnoys back, but I wish they would just get rid of labrie. He doesn't even sound good in the studio anymore. I'll still give the album an honest chance cause I loved them until after A Dramatic Turn of Events.

Yeah I stopped listening to their new material after A Dramatic Turn of Events too, but I'll give this one a shot to see if Portnoy's return did anything. Don't know what to make of this song yet, it's giving me Train of Thought vibes and it's not bad, but something's off with the vocals. The instrumentation is pretty tight though.

Dream Shitter just will not go away!!! Put it to rest Mike Shitnoy!!!

The fact that a band with this amount of talent can't find it in them these days to write a single interesting riff or change up their song structures one atom (seriously there are at leat 10/15 songs from them with the exact same song structure) is maddening. This was so mid I need a good earshower. Gonna put on Awake to remind myself these guys used to do interesting things.

"He doesn't even sound good in the studio anymore. "

Unfortunately that was my thought exactly. The riffing until the vocals set in is ok at least, but it becomes increasingly hard for me to ignore the lack of depth and variety in LaBrie's performance.

"Gonna put on Awake to remind myself these guys used to do interesting things. "
Their old stuff will never get stale agreed. Several stone cold classics in their discog.

Will def check out the new album and I'm even looking forward to it as I just love this band too much to dismiss them for good.

I never thought I would say this, but I actually think Labrie is not the weakest part of this song. He sounds actually better here when he sticks to mid-range notes instead of peaking high notes that are clearly out of his range now.

Portnoy's return kinda gave me hope to rekindle the creative flame of DT, but this song proves they still, after all those years, stick to their code. This song has the tone of Black Clouds with the instrumental section of Systematic Chaos. It is too long and formulaic to my taste compared to today's prog scene, and its a bummer considering the high expectations people had after Portnoy's return. Still can change my mind with the full release.

this song sounds really flat

I am awaiting the album with a strong sense of anticipointment

20 minute song about benadryl to close the album

Forgot about this band, didn't care for their last album but the few before that had some parts that got me. Going to binge DT this weekend I think. Look forward to the album. This new song sounds basic, but I'm also only 2 mins into it.

The Astonishing was ass though, some great moments but just naw.

astonishing and train of thought are among the worst prog albums ever made

Astonishing I get, but train of thought is a killer album. I'd say my favorite next to images amd words. Probably just cause I love how heavy it is.

I had a lot of fun with this song!

Good instrumentals but not digging the vocals at all.

> Good instrumentals but not digging the vocals at all.

Every Dream Theater song ever.

incredibly boring, formulaic, soulless version of dream theater going through the motions. La Brie is honestly a boat anchor.

bruh wtf is up with the production here

listening on spotify and portnoy's drums sound almost lo-fi

is that portnoy backing vox on the chorus??? we are so fucking back

realistically this is a bit underwhelming for a lead/return single. surprised how similar this sounds to the mangini material (tho the drums are very obviously portnoy). figured we'd get a bit of a different flavor with the writing here but maybe portnoy isn't writing anymore/on this song.

I sleep

That certainly is... something.

Something I won't remember in 5 minutes.

Enjoyed that more than I expected. Not expecting anything that deviates from their core sound anymore, but at least there’s playfulness here with Portnoy’s return

How has anyone ever liked this band? Serious question. I have to know.

bro did portnoy even songwrite? This is the same mediocrity they've been spitting out for the last decade now; what a bummer

^ How do you only have one comment despite being on here for over two years?

Anyway, from most sources I've seen, Petrucci appears to be the predominant songwriter for Night Terror. Hopefully Portnoy was given more input for the rest of the tracklist

First comment on a DT thread in 2024; classic Sputnik right there

These comments are not it. What the hell are you guys expecting a band that's almost 40 years old now to be doing this late in their career? With the sheer amount of music John Petrucci has written in his career it's a miracle he still finds ways to keep things remotely close to fresh and interesting. No it's not the most revolutionary song they've written but damn it's like the shortest 10 minutes song I've ever heard, just perfectly paced. LaBrie's vocal lines aren't amazing but he sounds decent enough. I swear some of y'all spend too much time on sputnik and it's rotted your brains to a point where everything that's not a life changing 10/10 is automatically mid, so exhausting.

Again, what the fuck are you guys expecting Dream Theater to release as a first single in 2024?

Tbf, all of their singles going back to the 2000s have usually been the weakest tracks on the record. So if this is the weakest on their next one, it's still worth checking out.

Not in the slightest Peartnoy. This used to be my favorite band until and including Dramatic Turn. If Petrucci can still find fresh solos and instrumental sections after 40 years, surely he can find a way to make a song that isn't verse-chorus-verse-chorus-long instrumental-chorus? I'm not asking for the moon, just for any form of creativity outside of the instrumental bits.

They are either catering too much to what they think their fans want, or just focussing all their effort on everything between that second and third chorus and phoning in the rest.

I think it’s pretty damn solid overall - especially for a band 40 years into this.

There's certainly no shortage of ideas in order to switch things up even for a band 40 years old. I think this single is fine, but it sounds like a handful of previous songs mixed into one, so it's pretty clear that dream theater is perfectly fine with sticking to their tried and true formula and not deviating from it. I could be completely wrong once the whole albums out but we'll see.

THIS




is music

I think this song is kinda what Suno or AI shit would have done if I asked them to do a b-side from Systematic Chaos, it's so stereotypical it's not even funny

also what the fuck are those lyrics, a 10 year old writes better

In b4 Sput bitches like usual


Oops 2 late and I forgot my popcorn

I’m loving the single and stoked for their new album. Love the Castlevania vibes at 5:42

"also what the fuck are those lyrics, a 10 year old writes better"

Literally every Dream Theater song after Awake, you're late to the party.

"THIS



is music"

mu·sic
/ˈmyo͞ozik/
noun
1.
vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion.

Yes... this is, in fact, music

I will agree that the lyrics are pretty cringe. But again, it's been that way for an extremely long time, it's not worse than usual imo.

yeah song was quite boring on first listen but at least there seems to be some flair in Portnoy returning. Didn't expect anything else though

yep it's hard to deny that Portnoy and Petrucci just sound good together. I guess you get that after so many years. you could hear their chemistry on Terminal Velocity too.
having said that, this track does just sound like standard DT. doesn't make me particularly keen on the album, though I think I've simply outgrown being excited for new Dream Theater music

"THIS




is music"

Honestly shout outs to that guy for being a good sport and leaving it up despite all the backlash he got for it. Heard he's been fighting Chron's disease or something along those lines lately though, I feel bad for the guy.

Astonishing is my favorite DT album 😭

Good song. Love hearing Portnoy back in DT

I enjoyed it

I always feel odd to even comment on anything regarding Dream Theater, because the musicianship between all of them is utterly astounding to this day; extreme talent. That said, I gravitate towards more of their songs that tend to evolve/shift dynamics throughout, and this one is more of a lengthier song that doesn't do said stuff. I'll check out the album though, my guess is there's at least one song on it that'll have that

didn’t listen to it and it sucks

it's fine. instruments are good, singing and lyrics bad. so a Dream Theater song since 2006.

Petrucci's songwriting has gotten pretty stale this past decade, but I'd hope that Portnoy being back means they put out something genuinely interesting.

Song isn't bad and the radio edit cuts almost 4 minutes of bloat so efficiently that it's hard to notice anything is actually missing.

Went back and listened to a bunch of DT this weekend..

Finally Free is so good.
Parts of Six Degrees of Turbulence.
Octavarium.

Man I miss being a shit eating teen discovering this band.

been trying to find out if there's any info on their arrangement after bringing portnoy back

their subreddit seems to believe portnoy was brought back with the understanding that the band would continue to operate as it did during the post-portnoy years (i.e. petrucci and rudess calling the shots and writing basically all the material).

its also been pointed out on there that portnoy does not have any sort of producer credit on this track (he apparently used to always get producers credits during his original stint)? i think that explains why his drums sound so shitty / similar to how mangini's sounded on the mangini albums.

as of now it doesn't seem like he's doing literally anything besides playing drums, which is obviously better than not and i'm sure the live shows will be awesome (labrie's voice not withstanding) but yeah doesn't seem like we'll be getting the seismic shift in the creative process we were hoping for

Nothing Dream Theater has done in the past 12 years has been worth any attention, and nothing has changed

doesnt labrie sound pretty much like he did 15 years ago?