Dream Theater
Dream Theater is a
progressive metal band, formed by three students at the
Berklee College of Music in 1985. In the twenty years since their inception, they have become one of the most commercially successful
progressive bands since the height of
progressive rock in the mid-1970s, despite being relatively unknown in mainstream
pop and mainstream
rock circles. Their two highest selling albums are 1992's
Images and Words, which was awarded a
gold record and is consistently regarded as a seminal progressive metal release, although it only reached #61 on the
Billboard 200 charts; and 2005's
Octavarium, which reached #36 on the
Billboard 200.
The band is well-known for the technical proficiency of each instrumentalist, winning many
awards from music magazines. They are highly respected by many of rock and
metal's biggest names, leading to collaborations between Dream Theater members and many other well known musicians. In a famous example,
guitarist John Petrucci was named as the third player on the
G3 tour with
Steve Vai and
Joe Satriani, following in the foot steps of
Eric Johnson,
Robert Fripp,
Yngwie Malmsteen and other influential
guitarists.
Dream Theater is also noted for their musical versatility and the many different genres their own music incorporates, which has made it possible for them to perform with a very diverse range of acts. Some of their more notable touring partners include
Deep Purple,
Emerson Lake and Palmer,
Iron Maiden,
Joe Satriani,
King's X,
Marillion,
Megadeth,
In Flames,
Pain of Salvation,
Porcupine Tree,
Queensrÿche,
Spock's Beard,
Fear Factory,
Enchant,
Symphony X, and
Yes. In 2005, Dream Theater toured North America with the
Gigantour festival, co-headlining with Megadeth.
Current members
*
James LaBrie -
Vocals and
percussion (1991 - present)
*
John Petrucci -
Guitars and backing vocals (1985 - present)
*
Mike Portnoy -
Drums, percussion and backing vocals (1985 - present)
*
John Myung -
Bass and
Chapman Stick (1985 - present)
*
Jordan Rudess -
keyboards,
lap steel guitar, and
Continuum (1999 - present)
Former members
*
Chris Collins - Vocals (1985-1986)
*
Charlie Dominici - Vocals (1987- 1990)
*
Kevin Moore - Keyboards (1985-1994)
*
Derek Sherinian - Keyboards (1995-1999)
1985 - 1990
Dream Theater was formed in 1985 by guitarist
John Petrucci, bassist
John Myung and drummer
Mike Portnoy while studying at the Berklee College of Music in
Boston.
Kevin Moore, a high school band-mate of Petrucci's, was recruited to play keyboards and
Chris Collins was enlisted as vocalist.
The quintet settled on the name
Majesty for their newly-formed group (a name inspired by Portnoy's description of the closing section of "Bastille Day" by
Rush), and the three Berklee attendees dropped out to concentrate on the band.
Their first major recording project was The
Majesty demos, a collection of ideas and demos that were released in 1986. The initial run of 1,000 sold out within six months, and dubbed copies of the
cassette spread quickly through the progressive metal scene all over the world.
However, in November 1986, after a few months of writing and performing together, Chris Collins left the band because of creative differences with the other members. After a year of trying to find a replacement,
Charlie Dominici, who was far older and more experienced than anyone else in the band, successfully auditioned for the group. With the stability that Dominici's appointment brought to Majesty, they began playing more shows in and around the
New York City area, and gained a considerable amount of exposure for a band that had not yet released an album.
Shortly after Dominici joined the band, they were forced to change their name when another band named Majesty threatened legal action. Various names were contemplated until Portnoy's father suggested the name
Dream Theater, the name of a now demolished movie theater in
Monterey, California.
They signed their first record contract, with Mechanic (a division of
MCA), in 1988 and set out to record their debut album.
When Dream and Day Unite was released in 1989 to far less fanfare than was anticipated. Mechanic ended up breaking the majority of the financial promises they had made to the band before signing their contract, so they were restricted to playing around NYC. The promotional tour for the album consisted of just five concerts, all of which were in New York or
Rhode Island[See the MikePortnoy.com tourography for details on these concerts.].
After the fourth of these gigs, Dominici was fired because of personal and creative differences between him and the rest of the band. Shortly after, however,
Marillion asked Dream Theater to open for them at a gig at the Ritz in New York, so Dominici was given the opportunity to perform one last time. It would be two more years before Dream Theater had another full-time singer.
1991 - 1994
|
Dream Theater with Kevin Moore on the Another Day single cover. |
Following Dominici's firing, Dream Theater fought successfully to be released from their contract with Mechanic, and set about auditioning singers and writing material for their next album. In the time until they had secured a replacement vocalist, they wrote the majority of the music for what would become their second album,
Images and Words.
In their search for a new singer they auditioned over 200 people, among them former
Fates Warning frontman
John Arch, but all were turned down for various reasons. In 1991 a tape arrived from
Canadian band Winter Rose's singer
Kevin James LaBrie, who was immediately flown to New York for a proper audition. After a short jam session he was hired as full-time singer, and started using his middle name, James, as his first to avoid confusion with
Kevin Moore.
For the next few months, the band resumed gigging and worked on vocal parts for all the music that they had written to that point.
ATCO Records (now
EastWest) signed Dream Theater to a seven album contract on the strength of their reputation and a three song demo (later made available as
The ATCO Demos through the Dream Theater
fan club).
The first album to be released under their new record contract was
Images and Words in 1992, the first of many Dream Theater albums to be recorded at
BearTracks Studios. The song "Pull Me Under" gained a lot of radio airplay, and as a result the label commissioned a
video clip for its promotion, which had high
MTV rotation.
The success of "Pull Me Under", combined with relentless touring throughout the U.S. and
Japan, helped
Images and Words to achieve gold record certification in the States and platinum in Japan. The album received much critical acclaim and is seen as a landmark album in the development of progressive metal. The album is still the most commercially successful of all Dream Theater's releases.
A tour of
Europe followed in 1993, which included a show at
London's famed Marquee jazz club. That show was recorded and released as
Live at the Marquee, Dream Theater's first official live album, and a video compilation of their Japanese concerts (mixed in with some documentary-style footage of the off-stage portion of the tour) was released as
Images and Words: Live in Tokyo.
Keen to work on fresh material, Dream Theater retreated to the studio in May 1994. The 1994 sessions were the first in which Dream Theater as a whole wrote music together that was specifically for an album, with
Images and Words being entirely composed without a vocalist and with an uncertain future as far as recording was concerned.
Awake, Dream Theater's third studio album, was released in October 1994. It featured a distinctly heavier sound than the band's previous releases, which caused criticism among long time fans, but was still well-received by critics and gained Dream Theater a new breed of fans. Shortly before the album was mixed, Moore announced to the rest of the band that he wished to concentrate on his own musical interests and would be quitting Dream Theater. This rocked a band that had enjoyed just two years of stability after a tumultuous first half-decade, but Moore was no longer interested in the life of a touring musician nor the brand of progressive metal Dream Theater performed, so the two parties went their separate ways.
As a result of that news, the band had to scramble to find a replacement keyboardist instead of jumping head-first into touring mode.
Jordan Rudess, an up-and-coming keyboardist who was relatively unknown to that point, was invited to play a trial performance with Dream Theater in the hopes that he would join the band. The gig, in
Burbank,
California, went well but Rudess decided to accept an invitation from
The Dixie Dregs to perform with them instead.
Derek Sherinian was brought on as a hired gun, and by the conclusion of the
Awake promotional tour Sherinian was Dream Theater's new full-time keyboardist.
1995 - 1998
After a petition from fans to EastWest Records, the group recorded their previously unreleased song "A Change of Seasons" and distributed it as an
EP with a collection of live cover tracks. After a short run of small "one-off" concerts to promote the EP, Dream Theater entered the studio once more to write their next album.
In all, almost two
CDs worth of material were written including a 20 minute long follow-up to the
Images and Words song "Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper". The label, however, did not allow the release of a double album because they felt that a 140-minute record would not be digestible by the general public, so half the songs had to be cut.
In addition to, and as a function of, pressuring the band into adopting a more mainstream sound, EastWest recruited writer/producer
Desmond Child to work with Petrucci on re-writing the lyrics to his demo "You Or Me". The whole band substantially reworked the music to that song, and it appeared on the album as "You Not Me" in a form that was barely reminiscent of the original.
The material that made it onto the album proper was released as
Falling Into Infinity, which received a mixed reception from traditional Dream Theater fans. Despite the album containing some very progressive-sounding songs, tracks like "Hollow Years" and "You Not Me" prompted some to believe it was the dawn of a new, mainstream-sounding Dream Theater, just as the release of
Empire had previously heralded the same shift for Queensrÿche. The album was both a critical and commercial disappointment.
In recent years, the album has been rehabilitated to an extent, and interest was rekindled when Portnoy indicated that the unused songs - including more traditionally progressive cuts such as "Raise the Knife" - would be released through Portnoy's
YtseJam Records.
During the European leg of the
Falling Into Infinity world tour, two shows were recorded for a live album entitled
Once In A LIVEtime, in
France and
The Netherlands. The album was released at around the same time as the video
5 Years in a LIVEtime, which chronicled the time from when Kevin Moore left the band right up to the
Falling Into Infinity promotional tour.
In 1997,
Magna Carta Records' Mike Varney invited Portnoy to assemble a progressive '
supergroup' to work on an album, which would become the first in a long string of side-projects for the members of Dream Theater. The lineup that was eventually settled on consisted of Portnoy on drums, Petrucci on guitar,
Tony Levin of King Crimson on bass, and Jordan Rudess, who had finished with the Dixie Dregs by that time, on keyboards. The band assumed the name
Liquid Tension Experiment, and would act as a medium through which Portnoy and Petrucci could once again court Rudess to join them in Dream Theater. They extended an invitation for him to join them in 1999, and he accepted the offer to become the third full-time Dream Theater keyboardist. Unfortunately for Sherinian, this meant that he was out of a job. However, Sherinian on his website and in various interviews has stated that the firing was not that big of a deal and that he was in some parts grateful to the band for firing him, as he could then explore his musical ability and express himself the way he wanted.
1999 - Present
|
Dream Theater with Jordan Rudess |
Armed with yet another new member, Dream Theater entered BearTracks Studio once again to write and record their next album. Perhaps as a response to the backlash over
Falling Into Infinity, this time their record label gave the band complete freedom with their music. The follow-up to "Metropolis Part 1" off
Images and Words, which was written during the
Falling Into Infinity sessions (but not used on that album), was taken off the shelf as the first composition for them to work on.
They decided to rewrite and expand the 20-minute song with a fresh, new band member into a complete
concept album, with the story revolving around themes such as reincarnation, murder and betrayal. To avoid stirring up the fan base, a tight veil of secrecy enveloped the writing and recording process. The only things fans knew before its release were a tracklist that had been leaked against the band's wishes, and a release date. They knew nothing of the title, the music, or even the fact that it would be a concept album.
In 1999,
Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory was released to high critical acclaim. It was hailed as Dream Theater's masterpiece by many fans and critics alike, despite only reaching #73 on the charts
[Details on the chart performance of Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory can be seen at DreamTheater.net.]. 'Scenes...' can be compared to
Queensrÿche's
Operation: Mindcrime, another seminal progressive metal concept album released a decade earlier.
A world tour that followed led the band into more countries than they had ever toured before, taking over a year to complete. For one extra special show, at the
Roseland Ballroom in New York City, actor
Kent Broadhurst was hired to play the role of the hypnotherapist, and gospel choir led by
Theresa Thomason, (also present on the MP2 album as guest singers) was enlisted to play in certain sections of the show.
This show, the last North American date of the tour, was recorded for the band's first DVD release. After many technical delays, Dream Theater fans finally got their hands on the DVD, entitled
Metropolis 2000, in early 2001. Shortly after its release, the band announced that an audio version of the concert, with the entire four-hour long setlist (much of which had to be cut from the DVD to save space), would be released shortly thereafter.
The cover for the CD version of the concert, titled
Live Scenes From New York, showed one of Dream Theater's early logos (the
Images And Words-era burning heart, modelled on the
Sacred Heart) modified to show an apple instead of the heart, as an allusion to the
Big Apple nickname given to New York City. In the flames above the apple was shown the New York City skyline, including the twin towers of the
World Trade Center. In an unfortunate coincidence, the album was released on
September 11,
2001 - the same day as the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The album was immediately recalled, but many copies were snapped up by Dream Theater collectors as a very rare piece of Dream Theater's history. It was re-released with revised artwork a short time later.
Dream Theater once again entered BearTracks Studios to record their sixth studio album. Four years after they first petitioned EastWest to allow them to release a double album, they finally got their chance with
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. The first disc consisted of five tracks of 6-14 minutes in length, and the second disc was devoted entirely to the 42-minute title track, which is to date the longest song Dream Theater have written.
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence ended up being received very well by critics and the press. It was the most publicized of Dream Theater's albums since
Awake, debuting on the Billboard charts at #46
[More information on the chart performance of Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence can be found at Billboard.com and DreamTheater.net.] and the Billboard
Internet charts at #1
[DreamTheater.net reported that Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence had reached #1 on the Billboard Internet Charts.]. Some fans, however, missed the early bandˈs complexity that began to diminish from the bandˈs compositions, being replaced with prolonged virtuoso solos.
Throughout the next year and a half they toured the world once more, with an expanded live show including a select few special "album cover" gigs (see
Cover songs section, below), in which they played Metallica's
Master of Puppets and Iron Maiden's
The Number of the Beast in their entirety.
At the completion of their promotional tour and various side projects, Dream Theater entered the studio to record what would become
Train of Thought, their heaviest and least melodic album to that point, written only in a mere three weeks [
1]. The album was a critical success, but it had a polarizing effect, alienating a fair proportion of Dream Theater's fans (a process that actually started with the "Six Degrees... " album) who enjoyed the traditional progressive rock influence from bands such as
Yes or
King Crimson more than Dream Theater's modern muses like
Tool and
Metallica. Regardless, it expanded the band's fan base into new territory, that of mainstream
heavy metal,
alternative metal and
nu-metal.
Their next move was to release another live CD/DVD combination, this time recorded at the famous
Nippon Budokan Hall in
Tokyo, Japan on their Train of Thought world tour.
Live at Budokan was released on
October 5,
2004, and further propelled Dream Theater's reputation as one of the premier live acts in progressive metal.
Upon the completion of their
Train of Thought promotional tour in 2004, Dream Theater entered the
Hit Factory studios in New York City to record their eighth album. As it turned out, they would be the last group ever to record in that famous studio, and after they wrapped up their final session, the lights were turned off at the studio forever.
The latest album,
Octavarium, was released on
June 7,
2005 and took the band's sound in yet another new direction. Among its eight songs is a continuation of Portnoy's "Alcoholics Anonymous" suite (The Root of All Evil; steps 6-7 in the 12-step plan), as well as the title track itself, an epic rivalling
A Change of Seasons and which spans several musical styles in its 24-minute running time. Like nearly every album by the band,
Octavarium has received mixed reviews from fans and been the subject of spirited debate. In particular, some fans thought that the band wore its musical influences too prominently on their sleeves (e.g. "Never Enough" has been compared to Muse's "Stockholm Syndrome" and the relatively radio-friendly "I Walk Beside You," which combines a sound reminiscent of
U2 and
Coldplay blended with Chicago's
Peter Cetera).
Octavarium was the last album under their seven-album deal with
Elektra Records, and future recording/distribution contracts have yet to be determined.
Dream Theater toured extensively throughout 2005 and 2006 to celebrate their 20th Anniversary as a band, including a headlining spot at
Gigantour. During a show on
August 2,
2005 in
Dallas, the band paid tribute to
Pantera's late guitar virtuoso
Dimebag Darrell by performing
Cemetery Gates as an encore; what made the performance even more remarkable was the unexpected appearance of fellow musicians
Russell Allen,
Burton C. Bell and
Dave Mustaine, who joined the band on stage to perform parts of the song. [
2]
Dream Theater later departed from Gigantour and continued their own series of concerts; the tour ended in the famous
Radio City Music Hall in New York City on April 1st, 2006, which was recorded for a CD/DVD called
Score. Mike Portnoy indicated on his website that both should be released on August 29th through Rhino Records.
Throughout their career, Dream Theater's live shows have gradually become bigger, longer, more diverse, and less restrictive. The most obvious example of this is their rotational setlist policy. That is, every single night of every tour has its setlist devised by Portnoy using a meticulous process that ensures it is completely unique. Factors such as setlists from previous cities are taken into account to ensure that people who see Dream Theater multiple times within the same area will not see the same songs performed twice, and even the setlist from the last time the band was in a particular city is taken into account for the benefit of fans who see the band on successive tours
[See the Earplugs Required interview with Mike Portnoy for an explanation of the setlist system (approximately half-way down the page).].
For this to be possible, the band prepares to play the majority of its catalogue at any performance, depending on what Portnoy decides to program for that night. This process also requires the employment of a very complex lighting system to load preconfigured lighting cues based on the possible individual songs.
Length is another unique element of Dream Theater concerts. Their full world tours, since
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, have predominantly been so-called "Evening with..." tours, in which the band performs for at least three hours with an intermission and no opening act. The show that was recorded for
Live Scenes From New York was nearly four hours in length (LaBrie humorously apologized to the audience for the "short set" after the show), and resulted in Portnoy almost being hospitalized
[This situation is explained in the commentary track on the Metropolis 2000: Scenes From New York DVD and on Mike Portnoy's website FAQ.].
There is also a significant amount of humor, casualness, and improvisation attached to a Dream Theater concert. In the midst of "A Change of Seasons" it is quite common for themes such as those for
Major League Baseball and
The Simpsons to be quoted, and Rudess routinely modifies his solo section in this song and others, often playing the ragtime section of "When The Water Breaks" from
Liquid Tension Experiment 2. Other quotations include "Mary Had a Little Lamb" during "Endless Sacrifice" on the Gigantour, a calliope-inspired break between verses of "Under a Glass Moon," and the Turkish March at a concert in
Istanbul. On the most recent "20th Anniversary World Tour" Rudess has even thrown in a short "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" theme in a break during Endless Sacrifice. During the playing of
As I Am in
Bangkok in January of 2006, Rudess played a very choppy and beginner-style major scale back and forth several times before the instrumental break.
It is also not unheard of for a member of the audience to be picked out at random to perform on stage (an example of which can be seen during Portnoy's drum solo on the
Live at Budokan DVD). There have also been many impromptu renditions of "Happy Birthday" when a member of the band or crew have a birthday corresponding to a tour date, which normally results in a birthday cake being thrown over the subject.
Perhaps the most extreme example of Dream Theater's unpredictable concert structure is that during Derek Sherinian's time with the band, at selected shows the band members all
swapped instruments and performed an encore as the fictional "Nightmare Cinema" (the approximate opposite of "Dream Theater"). They usually performed a cover of
Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers", and, on one occasion,
Ozzy Osbourne's "Suicide Solution".
Similarly, at some shows Sherinian, Petrucci and Portnoy would take the stage together under the name "
Nicky Lemons and the Migraine Brothers". Sherinian, wearing a feather boa and novelty sunglasses, would perform a pop-punk song entitled "I Don't Like You" with Petrucci and Portnoy backing.
 |
The Dream Theater wordmark and Majesty symbol. |
Early on in their career, Dream Theater adopted a custom logo (known as the
Majesty symbol) and wordmark which has appeared on the vast majority of their promotional material since, with at least one of the official marks appearing on the front cover of every major release to date, with the exception of
Once in a LIVEtime (see explanation below). Even after the band dropped the Majesty name the symbol remained as their official mark, and it is viewed by the Dream Theater fan community in much the same way as the four symbols of each member of
Led Zeppelin are embraced by fans of that band. It is common to see people with Majesty symbol
tattoos at Dream Theater concerts.
The Majesty symbol is derived from
Mary Queen of Scots' mark
[The mark used by Mary Queen of Scots has previously been available on DreamTheater.net and now available at DTFAQ.com.], which was re-worked by Charlie Dominici for use on the album artwork for
When Dream and Day Unite[Dominici was responsible for editing the Majesty Symbol in its current form. See DTFAQ.com.]. Another interesting fact about the majesty symbol is that it is a stack of three greek letters, Phi (Φ), Mu (Μ), and Alpha (A), the letters of the musical fraternity that members of the band are part of.
The fact that neither the logo, nor the wordmark appeared on the cover of
Once In A LIVEtime nor companion video/DVD release
5 Years in a LIVEtime was interpreted by some fans as evidence that the band had
sold out and strayed from their roots with their more "modernized" fonts, but by the time it had reclaimed its place on the cover of
Scenes From a Memory the unhappiness was largely forgotten. (The actual reason was that
Storm Thorgerson, the legendary
graphic designer for both aforementioned albums,
doesn't like to work with a pre-existing font.) It has since appeared on every subsequent release. (The
Falling Into Infinity cover had the logo, but not the wordmark.)
Dream Theater is one of the most actively
bootlegged bands in the progressive metal genre. Since their very first gigs in New York as Majesty, fans have recorded almost every single show that Dream Theater have played (occasionally there are three or four versions of a single concert), and some very elaborate and professional recordings have been released.
However, not every member in the band tolerates the release of Dream Theater bootlegs. Portnoy is definitely the most pro-bootlegging member, since he was an avid collector of many bootlegs in his younger days and keeps his own personal archive of Dream Theater material. But both Petrucci and LaBrie have voiced opposition to people recording their concerts. Petrucci takes issue with bootleggers because he prefers audience members to concentrate on the musicians on stage, and not the level adjustments on their recording device. LaBrie, on the other hand, argues that bootlegging takes ownership and control over Dream Theater's performances away from the band themselves and into the hands of the public. Myung has expressed mild opposition to bootlegging, but in some interviews has mentioned that he does not particularly take great issue with it.
Regardless of their personal opinions, each member of the band still
autographs any bootleg that is presented to them for a signature. Dream Theater have also launched a series of official bootlegs through YtseJam Records, spearheaded by Portnoy.
Even though they have been well-known for
covering other artists' work throughout the entirety of their career, Dream Theater took this practice to another level during the promotional tour for
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. At three special gigs, one each in
Barcelona,
Chicago and New York City, they covered
Metallica's Master of Puppets album in its entirety after a full set of Dream Theater material. This came as a complete shock to fans as there was no sign that this was to occur, other than it being announced that the gigs involved, which were the second of a two-night stand in each city, would be "extra special". This tradition can most likely be traced back to one of Mike Portnoy's favorite bands,
Phish, who began covering entire albums from other artists each
Halloween beginning in 1994.
Portnoy devised this "album cover" as the first in a series of gigs to be played as tributes to bands that had been influential in the formation and development of Dream Theater. The covers set divided many fans who attended the shows, with some people saying that they went to a Dream Theater concert to see original music and not another artist's work. Others, however, said that it was a bonus and not a replacement for a normal Dream Theater concert, since an ordinary gig had been played the night before. The next time an album cover gig was to occur this negativity was more subdued, since most fans knew what was to occur at the gig and were aware that they would not be seeing an entire night of Dream Theater material.
On the next leg of the tour they covered
Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast and received a similar reaction to
Master of Puppets, although it was already known that a cover was to be performed that night because the tour itinerary included two successive gigs in a single city.
On October 11th, 2005, Dream Theater covered
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, their third classic album cover. Dream Theater's official webpage states that the 2nd sets of the 2nd nights in Amsterdam, London, Buenos Aires, São Paulo and Tokyo (October 11th, October 25th, December 4th, December 11th and January 13th), and also the 2nd set of the January 15th show in Osaka, will be a classic album covered in its entirety." Dark Side of the Moon was played again on October 25th in London. However, in Buenos Aires (December 4th) and São Paulo (December 11th) the 'classic album' played was Dream Theater's own
Scenes from a Memory, to make up for not having visited Argentina and Brazil in their
Metropolis 2000 tour.
On January 13th, 2006 (Tokyo) and on the 15th (Osaka), Dream Theater covered
Deep Purple's live album
Made in Japan, their fourth classic album cover. (This briefly matched the fan speculations, saying that it is inevitable that at least one '70s progressive rock album, quite possibly
Rush, will be covered.)
Mike Portnoy says that he has one more cover show planned, but refuses to reveal when it will occur, or what album will be covered
[In his FAQ list, Mike Portnoy mentions that he has five albums picked out for Dream Theater to cover. Four of those, Master of Puppets, The Number of the Beast, Dark Side of the Moon and Made in Japan, have already been played.]. There is much debate in Dream Theater fan circles about what album will be covered, and even what genre that album will fall under.
They have also done a live performance of 'Cemetery Gates' by Pantera in Dallas, Texas, to comemorate the late 'Dimebag' Darrel Abott.
Dream Theater is currently on break after their 20th Anniversary show at Radio City Music Hall. The DVD and CD set of the show, titled "Score" is scheduled for release on the 29th August 2006, on Rhino Records. The DVD will contain the full show, and a bonus disc including an hour long documentary on the history of the band and live bonus tracks from Mike Portnoy's archives. It has been rumored that "Octavarium" was their last album on their current label, which they were unhappy with. So it is possible that the band will be releasing albums on a new label.[
3]
In September 2006, Dream Theater are scheduled to reconvene and start the process of recording their 9th studio album; the band is aiming for a Spring/Summer 2007 release. Currently, there are no other details regarding the new album.[
4]
Studio albums and EPs
Live albums
Singles
| Year | Title | Notes |
| 1992 | "Pull Me Under" (Images and Words) | CD Single, radio edit and music video; highest charting single to date (#10). |
| 1992 | "Take the Time" (Images and Words) | CD Single, radio edit and music video; reached #22 on the Billboard singles chart. |
| 1992 | "Another Day" (Images and Words) | CD Single, radio edit and music video; reached #29 on the charts. |
| 1994 | "The Silent Man" (Awake) | CD Single, radio edit and music video; did not chart. |
| 1994 | "Lie" (Awake) | CD Single, radio edit and music video; reached #38. |
| 1997 | "Hollow Years" (Falling Into Infinity) | CD Single, radio edit and music video; did not chart. |
| 2000 | "Through Her Eyes" (Scenes From a Memory) | CD Single only; did not chart. |
| 2003 | "As I Am" (Train of Thought) | Radio edit only; did not chart. |
| 2005 | "Panic Attack" (Octavarium) | Radio edit only; did not chart. |
| 2005 | "These Walls" (Octavarium) | Radio edit only; did not chart. |
Videos and DVDs
Notes
* Dream Theater is possibly the first group to create a meta album. The sound of phonograph static at the end of "Finally Free" on
Scenes from a Memory is the same sound at the beginning of "The Glass Prison" on their next album,
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. And the last chord that fades out at the end of
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence is the same chord that fades in to "As I Am" on the next album,
Train of Thought. And the piano note played at the end of "In the Name of God" on
Train of Thought is the same piano note that opens "The Root of All Evil" on their next album,
Octavarium.
* The three sections of "The Glass Prison" on
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, the two sections of "This Dying Soul" on
Train of Thought, and the two sections of "The Root of All Evil" on
Octavarium comprise the first seven movements of a twelve-movement suite with lyrics by
Mike Portnoy chronicling his involvement in the twelve steps of
Bill Wilson's
Alcoholics Anonymous program. The concept of a meta song is also used here: the short riff starting "This Dying Soul" is the same short riff which ends "The Glass Prison", and the rhythmic motif with characteristic noisy chord, which ends "This Dying Soul" builds up the intro to "The Root of All Evil", with the exact song coming on timestamp 1:00. The chorus of "This Dying Soul" also appears once in "The Root of All Evil". Portnoy has stated his desire to perform the twelve movements in succession after the suite is completed, and each track thus far has been dedicated to Wilson. The songs are also lyrically and musically related to "The Mirror" and "Lie" on
Awake, of which "The Mirror" also deals explicitly with Portnoy's
alcoholism.
* Dream Theater often uses a songwriting technique where sections of the song are expanded each time they are used. An example of this is in "6:00" from
Awake. After the intro, they almost play the chorus, but back away from it and start the next verse (timestamp 1:33). And when the chorus should come around the next time, they play it, but only part of it (timestamp 2:11). The song continues for a while and when it returns to the chorus, they play the entire thing (timestamp 4:41). This technique can also be found in "Peruvian Skies", "Blind Faith", "Endless Sacrifice", among others.
* Dream Theater also uses musical quotations (which is taking a musical theme, manipulating it and placing it in another musical context), a technique made famous by
Charles Ives.
**The theme for "Wait for Sleep" is quoted later in "Learning to Live" (timestamp 8:11) and also twice in "Just Let Me Breathe" (timestamps 3:39 and 5:21)
**The theme for "Learning to Live" is quoted in "Another Day" (timestamp 2:53)
**The theme for "Space-Dye Vest" is used several times throughout the album
Awake.
**The opening theme for "Erotomania" is used in "Voices" on
Awake (timestamp 4:51).
**One of the melodies and lines in "Metropolis Pt 1 (The Miracle and the Sleeper)" is repeated in the second chorus of "Home" from
Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes from a Memory, with only one word changed. Additionally, some of the lyrics in "Metropolis Pt 1" are spoken in "Home". Essentially, the entire
Scenes From A Memory album is full of musical / lyrical / conceptual quotations from "Metropolis Pt 1", and "The Dance of Eternity" is actually constructed from variations of the musical elements building up the original track.
**Pieces of each song in the album
Octavarium are used in section IV of the song "Octavarium".
**Non-Dream Theater musical quotations:
**
Jingle Bells is quoted in "Octavarium" (timestamp 17:47)
**
Battle Hymn of the Republic is quoted in the background of "In the Name of God" (timestamp 12:56)
**Non-Dream Theater lyrical quotations:
***The third section of the song "Octavarium", called
Full Circle is Mike Portnoy's ode to progressive rock as the lyrics consist of word-jokes listing his favourite songs, bands and more, like
The Beatles' Day Tripper, Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, Get Back,
Genesis' Supper's Ready and Cinema Show,
Pink Floyd's Careful With That Axe Eugene and
Yes' Machine Messiah, as well as My Generation (
The Who), Show Me The Way (
Peter Frampton), Light My Fire (
The Doors), and Gabba Gabba Hey (
The Ramones)
*
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, the band's sixth full-length studio release, contains six songs and contains a reference to the number six in its title.
Train of Thought, the band's seventh full-length studio release, contains seven songs. The number seven is used in '
Leet_speak' as the letter T, so the title could be written '7rain of 7hought'; however, it is unclear as to whether this was intentional.
Octavarium, the band's eighth full-length release, contains eight songs and its title is derived from
octo, the
Latin word meaning
eight, as well as the musical term of an octave, which is the distance between a note and itself higher or lower in pitch, which is "eight" notes up or down in almost any diatonic scale. The title track from this disc is also 24 minutes long, a multiple of 8, and the fourth movement (8/2) of the song is comprised of 8 sections, all stepping up by a single interval. The cover design also includes various references to the number 8, e.g. a set of white rectangles and black rectangles, indicating an octave on a piano.
* The song "Octavarium" was originally intended to end with a flute that echoes the same theme it had much earlier in the song, but that was changed to the same piano note that begins the album
Octavarium. At some point between producing the album and printing the CDs, it was decided to change the ending of the song in order to emphasize the circular motif that exists throughout the album. (The earlier version with the flute at the very end was leaked and is circulating through the Internet.) Mike Portnoy has also noted that it ended the stress of having to connect each album's ending to the next album's beginning, as mentioned above. Therefore, Dream Theater's 9th album will not start with the ending of Octavarium.
* The English
dub of the
Dragonball Z special
The History of Trunks features many tracks from
Scenes from a Memory, including "Regression", "Overture 1928", "Beyond This Life", "Through Her Eyes", "Home", and "The Dance of Eternity". Of these, only "Through her Eyes" and "Home" were released on the official soundtrack for that feature. Notably, during its airing on
Cartoon Network, these songs and others were cut and redubbed with various music from the
Funimation dub series.
*
Images and Words (Gold) -
February 2,
1995*
Metropolis 2000: Live Scenes From New York (Gold) -
November 8,
2002*
Live at Budokan (Platinum) -
January 26,
2005*
Live in Tokyo/5 Years in a Livetime (Platinum) -
March 22,
2006(
Source: search for "Dream Theater".)
Keyboard Magazine
Jordan Rudess has been awarded the following
Keyboard Magazine Reader's Poll awards:
* Best New Talent (1994)
Modern Drummer
Mike Portnoy has won the following
Modern Drummer magazine Reader's Poll awards;
* Best Up & Coming Talent (1994)
* Best Progressive Rock Drummer (1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006)
* Best Recorded Performance (1995 for
Awake, 1996 for
A Change of Seasons, 1998 for
Falling Into Infinity, 2000 for
Metropolis, Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory, 2002 for
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence)
* Best Clinician (2000, 2002)
* Best Educational Video/DVD (2000, 2002)
* Hall of Fame Inductee (2004)
* Bredius, Mark.
Dream Theater - The Official Site. (Retrieved February-April, 2005.)
* Dixon, Brad et al.
DTFAQ.com - Dream Theater FAQ. (Retrieved February-April, 2005.)
* Hansen, Scott & Portnoy, Mike.
Dream Theater Tourography. (Retrieved February-April, 2005.)
* King, Brian. (2003). "JaM Progductions! Interview with John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy".
Theater of Dreams 29, pp. 14-20.
* Hansen, Scott. (2003). "James LaBrie: As this man thinks".
Theater of Dreams 27/28, pp. 26-30.
*
Liquid Tension Experiment*
List of Rock Instrumentals*
List of songs over fifteen minutes in length*
Official Dream Theater website*
Official Dream Theater FAQ*
Mike Portnoy website*
John Petrucci website*
Jordan Rudess website*
John Myung website*
James Labrie website*
YtseJam Records*
Official LiveJournal Community
