During a new chat with Jorge Botas, Mike Portnoy shared why Dream Theater didn’t want to come back with a heavy metal song.
“There was a big thing that we had to weigh because there’s a few songs on the upcoming album that we knew were possible singles and there’s one that’s like a real metal single,” the drummer said while speaking of their latest song, ‘Night Terror.’
Mike went on to explain, “We knew that’s like a real obvious choice but we didn’t want to come out with something that’s just like a metal song after all this time waiting. We wanted to have something that really kind of had a little bit of variety to it and something that maybe the Dream Theater fans would expect from us.”
“So, ‘Night Terror’ was the first song we wrote once we started the sessions. So what you’re hearing there is literally the first thing we created together when we reunited. So we felt like that was a good first impression for people to hear,” the rocker added.
When the host said he believes the song has everything a Dream Theater fan wants, Portnoy replied, “That’s what we hoped. Of course, Dream Theater fans are some of the most critical in the world. So it’s impossible to please them all but we figured that one does have a little bit of everything in it. So we hoped that it would check all the boxes for everybody.”
On October 10, 2024, Dream Theater released ‘Night Terror’ as the first single from their upcoming sixteenth studio album, ‘Parasomnia,’ set to come out on February 7, 2025.
Portnoy sent a message to the fans about the success of the new single on Instagram, writing, “Incredible!! Almost 2 Million Views on YouTube in under a week. Thank you all for the overwhelming response to ‘Night Terror…’”
He then noted, “It’s been great reading the comments, watching the reaction videos and covers, etc The excitement is palpable! Cannot wait to share the rest of the album with you all in February, but in the meantime… time to kick off this 40th Anniversary Tour in a few days and we are so excited to play for you ALL everywhere we can!”
Dream Theater played their first concert with Portnoy in 14 years on Sunday at the O2 Arena in London. The band’s next concert will be in Milan, Italy on October 25.