Surrender to Reason

This was the first song that Dream Theater worked on for their self-titled twelfth album. Keyboardist Jordan Rudess recalled to MusicRadar: "It's funny: It's always a little hard to get started, a little scary, too, I guess, but once we get a few things under our belts, or even a song, then we're going for it. We had a lot of discussions about things, and then we went in and just did this – it happened very quickly and naturally."

Guitarist John Petrucci told Ultimate-Guitar.com about his wild, off-the-cuff solo on this song. "That's just a reckless solo," he said. "That's the type of thing where I transport myself into a small, smoky club with a trio. It's late at night and you're just going for it. I wanted to make that solo right in your face. With the exception of during the pick scratches, the whole solo is just dry. It's just my Dreamscape TC Electronics flanger on it and just really obnoxious and dry and right in your face. That's what I was looking for. It's just guitar, bass and drums there and there's no keys and vocals. A trio going for it with a lot of vinegar and a lot of improv. I would have went on longer if I could but that's it."

Petrucci explained to Ultimate Guitar that by calling the album "Dream Theater," they were trying to define who the band is in 2013. "We've had a long career and we're very fortunate to have been doing this as long as we have," he said. "Every time we go into a new album, we put everything into it. We're so into what we do. It's hard when a band has this many albums to convey that to the listener. Because a lot of times as the listener it's very easy to say, 'Oh, I like the old stuff. Who cares about the new album?'"