DREAM THEATER have officially started work on their 17th studio album. On October 13, the band posted a photo of all five members in the studio with the caption "#DT17 is underway…".
The new record will follow Parasomnia, released on February 7, 2025 via InsideOut Music. That eight-song, 71-minute album was the band's first since co-founding drummer Mike Portnoy rejoined in October 2023. It was produced by guitarist John Petrucci and mixed by Andy Sneap.
The timing matches what the band had been saying all year. In May, singer James LaBrie told Brazilian journalist Igor Miranda that once the world tour wrapped in mid-May, DREAM THEATER would take a break and "probably late '26 or early '27" start writing and recording, with a new tour pencilled in for "late '27 or early '28" — stressing that none of it was concrete yet (our story). LaBrie also described how the band approaches a new record: conversations about where everyone is in life and what the next chapter should be, while each member brings in "seeds of ideas" to build on.
Portnoy had said much the same last December: after a year and a half on the road, the plan was to take the summer of 2026 off and then turn to new music.
The Parasomnia cycle, billed as "An Evening With Dream Theater", saw LaBrie, Petrucci, John Myung, Jordan Rudess and Portnoy play the new album in full along with the complete "A Change Of Seasons". The band's April 22, 2026 show at Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile was filmed for an upcoming Blu-ray. Last November they also released Quarantième: Live À Paris, recorded during the 40th-anniversary European tour.
No title, release date or label details for the new album have been announced yet.