Stream Dream Theater’s First New Track Since 2011, “The Enemy Inside”

You may have missed me waxing ecstatic about the private Dream Theater listening party I attended last week since it was buried under a headline about Mike Portnoy’s Progressive Nation reprise on a boat. So let’s just skip the part where I’m a total fanboy and get right to the part where I talk about the music:

As for the new album, one listen is never ample to form an opinion when it comes to Dream Theater, but I am pretty confident in saying it’s probably the band’s best and most creative work since Train of Thought. There aren’t any real curveballs and there are a couple of filler tracks, but at least three tracks are Heavy with a capital “H,” like the latter.

It’s not that everything since Train of Thought has been bad, it’s just mostly been meh. There have been some great songs in the past 10 years, no doubt, but the past four album have mostly felt like “stock Dream Theater” to me. On first pass (and, since I wrote the above, several more) the new album’s got some real winners on it, and some heavy stuff too. Not that heavy is all I demand from Dream Theater (not even close), but fuck, Train of Thought was so good and I’d be great to get more like it!

Anyway, now’s your chance to hear one of the new album’s highlights, “The Enemy Inside,” the first proper track on the self-titled release (after a 3-minute instrumental intro Track 1). USA Today’s got the goods for you (I’m as mystified as you are!), so click here to stream it. It’s got all the hallmarks and musical shenanigans Dream Theater fans will be looking for, all of which are wrapped in a tasty, catchy song.

Dream Theater comes out on September 24th.