The Similitude of a Dream

Morse began writing in December 2015 and started researching The Pilgrim's Progress when he thought he needed some direction and presented his idea to the band one month later.^[8] As the band began working on the album, Mike Portnoy was adamant that the album be a single disc whereas Morse felt there was much more to the story that needed to be explored. Morse wrote additional material to complete a second disc and as the band was finishing the album, Mike Portnoy told the band, "we just made the album of our careers.".^[9] Portnoy later made these comments public when the album was announced saying, "Neal and I have now made 18 studio albums together, and I consider 'The Similitude Of A Dream' the absolute creative pinnacle of our collaborations together, after a career of almost 50 albums, I honestly consider this to be one of the defining works of my career".^[10] These comments caused much excitement and anticipation in the prog rock community.^[11]

The band released five videos in support of the album release. Long Day/Overture,^[7] City of Destruction,^[12] So Far Gone,^[13] The Ways of the Fool,^[14] and The Man in the Iron Cage.^[15]

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Stereoboard.com	[16]
Prog Radio	[17]

The Similitude of a Dream was received with high praise, being honored as "Album of the Year" (2016) by several online music magazines, including Prog Radio,^[18] The Prog Report,^[19] The Fire Note,^[20] and Rock at Night.^[21]

The Prog Report said, "‘The Similitude of a Dream’ does the impossible and exceeds all expectations. It is absolutely a jaw-dropping release that will no doubt rank alongside the best albums by Neal Morse and Mike Portnoy, if not above them."^[22] Two years later, in 2018, The Prog Report ranked Similitude of a Dream as the all time best album in the Neal Morse discography.^[23]

Sonic Perspectives added, "'Epic' doesn’t begin to describe what these five musicians have managed to pull off here. It is a fantastic progressive rock opus in the best tradition of the finest prog of the 70s and is an album that I find tremendously satisfying, both spiritually and musically. It has everything any prog fan can ask for and then some, it is really the prog fan’s wet dream."^[11]