DREAM THEATER has wrapped up the writing process for their sixteenth studio album
This forthcoming release heralds the progressive metal icons’ first full-length effort since drummer Mike Portnoy rejoined the band in October of last year.
Yesterday (Tuesday, April 2), Portnoy and DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci shared a video message in which John said: “Okay, here we are. We did it. We worked so hard our beards are gray.” Mike added: “Yeah, when this session started, I was completely black up there,” referring to the hair on the top of his head. John continued: “Oh my god. So it’s March 30th. It’s a Saturday, 2024. And we just completed the writing of the record and the tracking of the drums. Isn’t that crazy?” Mike added: “I could not be more psyched. Fricking came out so amazing. So excited. Cannot wait to unleash this.” John concurred, saying: “You guys have no clue.”
Over the weekend, Portnoy posted to social media that the next few months will see his DREAM THEATER bandmates laying down “guitars, bass, keys, vocals, percussion (not to mention writing lyrics, mixing, mastering etc etc)”.
Mike Portnoy co-founded DREAM THEATER in 1985 alongside guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung. Over a span of 20 years, Portnoy contributed to 10 DREAM THEATER albums, beginning with 1989’s “When Dream And Day Unite” and concluding with 2009’s “Black Clouds & Silver Linings,” before departing from the band in 2010.
Portnoy discussed returning to DREAM THEATER last December in an interview with Drumeo, saying: “It’s been 13 years, and I think time heals all wounds, as the expression goes. It’s been many, many years now of kind of rekindling my relationships with the guys, starting with John Petrucci… Maybe five, six, seven years ago or so, we just reconnected. Our families — his wife and my wife were in a band together even before we knew our wives. Our kids have grown up together. My daughter and John Petrucci‘s daughter shared an apartment together in New York for the last five years. So the families were still close.
“So John and I inevitably reconnected on a personal level. And I guess it really started to gain some traction during COVID lockdown because I couldn’t tour and DREAM THEATER couldn’t tour, so John decided he wanted to do a solo album and he asked me to play on it. So that was the first step, I guess, in this direction. So I played on John‘s solo album. And then a few months later, we did an LTE [LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT] album with, with JohnandJordan [Rudess, DREAM THEATER keyboardist]. So that brought three of us back together.
“And then the following year I ended up doing John‘s solo tour, and our wives’ band were opening for us. So we had the wives out with us. So it just seemed like it was all starting to come together on a personal level and then the musical level as well. And then I think the final piece was me reconnecting with [DREAM THEATER singer] James LaBrie ’cause James and I hadn’t spoken for over a decade.”
He continued: “I went to see DREAM THEATER play in New York, I guess around 2022, and that was my first time seeing James in over a decade. And literally, I’m not exaggerating, within five seconds of seeing each other, it was hugs, kisses and it was like any of the drama and bullshit that happened during all of those years of the split, it just melted away immediately. And with James and I buddying up again, it kind of just… it began to seem like an inevitability. It wasn’t ever, I don’t think, in either of our plans to eventually reunite.
“In fact, if you would have asked me this five years ago, I probably wouldn’t have put money on it. But with the developments of everything I just laid out for you, then it started to really feel like, well, maybe this is inevitable. It just seems like we’re in the right place and the right time at this stages of our lives.
“All those years of DREAM THEATER, we were in our twenties and thirties and forties. And now here we are, most of us in our fifties and some of the members in their sixties, and it just seems like life is too short to not be with the people you love and play the music that is part of your life and your heart and soul. So, yeah, here we are.”
Portnoy added that he harbored no hard feelings toward his replacement behind the kit in DREAM THEATER, drummer Mike Mangini.
“It was nice to see something like this happen with taking the high road and class and grace and dignity and not a war of words and drama and B.S.,” Portnoy said. “This was really handled so well, and I have to give Mike Mangini all the credit in the world for that, ’cause it’s not easy being replaced. I can’t imagine. He handled it really well, and I guess the things he said were so classy. So, yeah, I was really glad to see how well he took it. ‘Cause I was a little concerned about that. But it couldn’t have come off any better.”
Portnoy also added that he had been “friends with Mangini before he even knew any of the guys in DREAM THEATER. “He and I were friends in the ’90s when he was still playing in EXTREME and stuff like that and we would do clinics together and stuff,” he said. “So, yeah, he’s an old friend. And I could never get mad at the guy for taking the gig. I mean, how could you not? It was a great opportunity and a great gig. So, yeah, it was nice when all those resentments and all that stuff melted away, because it was a tough couple of years in the start of the split.”
When Portnoy‘s return to DREAM THEATER was first revealed back in October of 2023, Mangini said in a statement: “I understand DREAM THEATER‘s decision to get Mike Portnoy back at this time. As was said from Day 1, my place was not to fill all the roles that Mike held in the band. I was to play the drums in order to help the band carry on. My main role of keeping our live show working tightly on a nightly basis was an intense and rewarding experience. Thankfully, I got to experience playing music with these iconic musicians, as well as some fun times laced with humor.”