The Cavern
Rock & Words
DREAM THEATER
“This world is spinning around me
This world is spinning without me
Every day send future to past
Every breath leaves me one less
to my last”
“C”
Main Decade: 90’s
Main Eras:
Progressive (1968-???)
Metal (1970-???)
Key Members:
John Petrucci, Guitar
Mike Portnoy, Drums
John Myung, Bass
Jordan Rudess, Keyboards
James LeBrie, Vocals
Key Songs:
Pull Me Under, Peruvian Skies, Metropolis Pt I, Burning My Soul, Ytse Jam, A Change of Seasons, Strage Déjà Vu, You Not Me, Space-Dye Vest, Octavarium, Under a Glass Moon, The Dance of Eternity, As I Am, Hell’s Kitchen, Lines In The Sand, Take The Time, Learning to Live, Caught in a Web, Never Enough, Trial of Tears, Voices, These Walls, The Killing Hand,
Dream Theater is perhaps the greatest collection of virtuosos that has ever existed. history, or at least the greatest I've ever heard. The technique and virtuosity of its members are undeniable. Until Mike Portnoy's departure a few months ago, they were a five-headed monster where each member mastered their instrument in a colossal fashion. It's debatable whether John Myung is the best bassist, John Petrucci the greatest guitar wizard in the world, Portnoy the best drummer, or Jordan Rudess the best keyboardist on the face of the earth; but what's indisputable is that each one is at least among the top five on their respective instrument, and I dare say: of all time. This gives us a powerful progressive rock/metal machine, devilishly intelligent, loaded with solos and riffs left and right, and a display of technical prowess that leaves us trying not to drool. James LaBrie is an excellent vocalist, and his presence is evident on the band's debut album, the only one he's not on, where Charly Dominici sounds like an average metal singer, reaching incredibly high notes, but nothing more. LaBrie is also an excellent vocalist, but I think he's the weakest link in the quintet. Don't get me wrong, I wish I could sing like him or reach even a tenth of the notes he does, but the other musicians' technique on their respective instruments makes LaBrie sound almost ordinary.
Another thing about Dream Theater is that their live albums are just as, if not more, essential than their studio recordings. The band sounds significantly better live, with more power, more spark, more connection and energy with the audience… more human. Live, the group recovers that sensitivity that seems to be missing in the studio. And while it seems impossible to improve upon their original creations, live they do so with apparent ease, with longer, faster, and more impressive solos. Their tributes are also breathtaking, ranging from Led Zeppelin, Queen, Pink Floyd, Iron Maiden, Rush, Metallica, and Pantera, even covering entire albums on bootlegs or live!
In short, these guys can do whatever they want. They are magicians and masters, whose only sin is that they are too pretentious, sometimes suffocating the songs with so many solos, and neglecting the melody in favor of technical prowess. This makes many songs sound soulless. Otherwise, they are the most perfect band in the universe.
The band formed in 1985 with a group of very young students from Berklee College of Music in Massachusetts, who decided they were geniuses on their instruments and were going to form the greatest rock band in the world. I suppose that, on average, there are about 10 bands per minute around the world promising the same thing. The difference is that these young guys—John Myung on bass, John Petrucci on guitar, and Michael Portnoy on drums—made it happen. Not immediately, but rarely has history seen such tenacity and a band grow so much to achieve that goal. The trio started out playing Iron Maiden and Rush covers, which already demonstrate the influences and the two sounds that would converge: the powerful sound of metal and the incredibly intelligent complexity of progressive rock. Progressive Metal!! They named the band Majesty because they intended to have a “majestic” sound like Rush's.
The next to join was Kevin More, a keyboardist from the same music school, and later Chris Collins, Kevin's friend, joined as the singer. When the first quintet was formed, Mike and the two Johns left music school to dedicate themselves fully to the band. More than burning bridges, they had a dangerous vanity that told them they couldn't learn any more about their respective instruments than they already knew through regular lessons.
By 1986, they had all moved to New York and started playing some shows in the area. They recorded some demos on cassettes, which are now known as "The Majesty Demos," priceless. At the end of the year, Chris was fired, and Charly Dominici took his place. It's mistakenly believed that Dominici was the band's first vocalist. Dominici was considerably older and more experienced than the rest, had more connections, and started getting more gigs for the band, which began to gain experience and become more well-known in the New York metal scene.
This exposure had its downsides, as they came to the attention of a Las Vegas band called, no less, Majesty! After a threat of a lawsuit from the Nevada band, they reached an amicable agreement, and our wannabe kickass rock players offered to change their name. After considering several truly awful options, Mike's father suggested Dream Theater because it was the name of a movie theater from his childhood in California.
With their name finalized, they signed with a subdivision of MCA Records, a smaller label called Mechanics, on a disadvantageous contract, but one that is, after all, the Holy Grail for any young band. By mid-1988, under the production of Terry Date, the group locked themselves away in Kajem Victory Studios in Pennsylvania, completing the process in about three weeks. This is actually quite a long time for a debut album. Mechanics would take almost eight months to release the album, until When Dream And Day Unite finally saw the light of day in March 1989. During that time, the label had filled the band members' heads with promises of instant stardom, a massive publicity campaign, and an unprecedented tour. The promotional tour consisted of a five-date mini-tour around New York City (they had already played further on their own), and more than promotional, it was opening for another metal band. They were disappointed and from then on sought to terminate their contract with Mechanics. Another problem was that, after their fourth concert, they had issues with Dominici and fired him. But Marillion, who were already much more well-known, heard them and asked them to open for one of their shows, so they had to beg Dominici to sing with them one last time. Almost two years would pass before they had another permanent vocalist, and Dream Theater nearly ended up as an instrumental band.
They finally managed to break free from their contract with Mechanics and auditioned about 200 vocalists without finding one who completely satisfied them. During this period of almost two years, they played as an instrumental band, performing as Ytse Jam. They wrote a lot of songs, which, lacking vocals, they meticulously refined to sound impressive as instrumentals. During these two years, they compiled the songs that would later form their next album, Images and Words in 1992. The songs were perfect, and with the addition of vocals, they became monumental due to the great care and time they spent perfecting them.
In 1991, a young man named Kevin James LaBrie, from a glam metal band, auditioned and impressed the others so much that they hired him immediately. The group began playing again in the New York City scene and focused on adding lyrics to their developed songs, constantly changing them, as well as the solos and some passages in the multi-part arrangements, until they arrived at the final versions.
The group signed with Atco Records, a subsidiary of Elektra, and went into the studio to record Images and Words, generally considered their masterpiece. “Another Day” was the first single, but it was the monstrous perfection of “Pull Me Under” that propelled the album to success in metal and progressive music circles, even without a single release or any promotion. The song and the album received unprecedented airplay on radio stations specializing in their genres, to the point that MTV contacted them to request a video for "Pull Me Under," which also received significant airplay on the music channel. The album quickly went platinum in the United States, and shortly after in Japan, which would soon become one of the band's main markets. Dream Theater was suddenly one of the most powerful bands on the planet, without having an accessible sound like, say, Metallica or Guns N' Roses, who were also at their peak at that time.
The tour was a huge success, especially in Europe, where, surprised by the reception, they recorded the performances at the Marquee Club in London, the first of their many live albums.
In 1994, they released Awake, their third studio album, more rushed and lacking the mastery of its predecessor. Kevin Moore, in particular, felt sidelined in the creative process and left the band just before the album's promotional tour. The band sought out Jordan Rudess, who, according to several music magazines, was the most promising young musician of the moment. Rudess played with them for a couple of concerts, but then opted to tour with another band, leaving them high and dry. So, they approached Derek Sherinian, a former classmate. He was supposed to be a temporary replacement, but he ended up staying on keyboards for several years.
Shortly after, fans began pressuring them to finally record "A Change of Seasons," a song dating back to 1989. They had originally arranged it into a 17-minute version for live shows, which had become a legendary track, as it wasn't included on any album. The problem was that it was longer than 17 minutes. The band went into the studio to rework the song, which ended up being 23 minutes long and would become one of the group's most iconic tracks. The song was released on the EP of the same name, along with several other songs and a couple of live covers or medleys that combined excellent reinterpretations of classic bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Pink Floyd, Queen, Kansas, Genesis, and even Elton John. This began to establish their reputation as excellent cover artists, and they gradually incorporated more songs from outside their concerts, eventually performing entire albums as a tribute. After the EP's promotional tour, the band went on hiatus to take a break after years of nonstop touring.
During the hiatus, there were changes at the record label, and when they returned to the studio in 1997, the new staff demanded a more accessible album, as they expected a massive sales success that would transcend the underground circles they usually frequented. Basically, they were asking for something equivalent to Metallica's Black Album. So the band locked themselves away to compose and record what would become Falling Into Infinity, their most accessible album, but one that, in my opinion, is still a masterpiece, with practically perfect songs. Hardcore fans were offended, but the truth is that all the tracks are perfect, magnificent, powerful, with some of the best riffs and lyrics in their discography, even though the songs themselves are the least complex in their discography. For the album's tour, they recorded another live album called Once in a Livetime.
Mike Portnoy was quite angry with his bandmates for having given in to the pressure to make more commercial sounds. He would later say that he considered leaving the band, but instead accepted the invitation to join the Liquid Tension Experiment project, with Petrucci on guitar, Tony Levin on bass, and Jordan Rudess on keyboards. Thanks to this progressive supergroup, John and Mike were finally able to convince Rudess to join Dream Theater in 1999 and dismissed Sherinian, who never lived up to expectations.
For their next album, Mike stood his ground and gave the record label and the rest of the band an ultimatum, granting Dream Theater complete creative control. They recorded Metropolis Pt. II: Scenes From a Memory, a concept album born from the joke that was the song "Metropolis Pt. I" from Images and Words, for which fans constantly asked when the second part would be released. The album was a smash hit, both with fans and critics, who equally celebrated the band's return to their progressive and complex roots. The Metropolis tour lasted over a year, and the stage production was spectacular. Perhaps along with Images and Words, this is the band's best album—the most complex, the most creative, and full of virtuosity. A CD and DVD of the show were released as Live Scenes From New York. The original cover featured the Twin Towers of New York, and in an ironic coincidence, it was released on September 11, 2001, the day the towers were brought down by "alleged Islamic terrorists." The album had to be withdrawn and re-released with a different cover. What a stroke of luck!
This was followed by Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence in 2002, a double album full of lengthy, multi-part tracks, and one of their heaviest and most commercially successful albums. Train of Thought followed in 2003, leaning slightly more towards classic progressive rock, with more influence from Rush, Yes, and King Crimson.
Octavarium was released in 2005 to mixed reviews, and Systematic Chaos in 2007. Their last album to date is Black Clouds and Silver Lightning. On September 8, 2010, Mike Portnoy announced his departure from the band after almost 25 years of continuous activity. The departure was amicable, with Portnoy citing emotional and creative exhaustion and the need for a long break. His bandmates didn't want a hiatus of several years to recharge, so they preferred to move forward without him.
Portnoy joined Avenged Sevenfold, while Dream Theater recruited Mike Mangini. After his first album with Sevenfold, he realized they weren't up to his standards. Portnoy held the title of best drummer in the world for years, and the only band that could truly live up to such a label was Dream Theater. When he tried to return to the band he had founded, his bandmates thanked him but told him his place had been taken.
Dream Theater is about to release its first album with its legendary drummer Mike Portnoy, tentatively titled A Dramatic Turn of Events (possibly referencing Mike's unusual departure), with a release date set for September 2011, in just a few weeks. We'll have to wait and see how the band sounds with the new drummer, especially John Myung with the new rhythm section lineup, since it's well known that he and Portnoy had a great rapport.
In short, a gigantic band that perfectly combined the power of metal with the intelligence of progressive rock. Its members are virtuosos with a passion for music, and together they have won dozens of awards, both individually and as a group.
Dream Theater is exquisite and one of the best recommendations I can make if you haven't heard them yet. I'm not a huge metal fan myself, as you know, but the sounds these guys create are absolutely wonderful and captivating.
To conclude, Dream Theater is a very unusual group. They've achieved success and recognition, but because of the nature of their music, it's impossible for them to achieve radio airplay or widespread video distribution. Almost everyone has at least heard of them at some point, but they don't enjoy the spotlight, nor is the media paying close attention to what they're doing, like Metallica or Radiohead. That's why I say they're so unusual… They are perhaps the most powerful, successful, and well-known underground band on the planet!
By Corvan
Ago/24/2011
