Thursday, September 9, 2010

Black Clouds & Silver Linings

Was the title of the last Dream Theater CD with Mike Portnoy prophetic or what?

It's true! Mike Portnoy is leaving Dream Theater. Needing a break from the band, not having his heart fully into it, Mike Portnoy has decided, for the good of the band and for his own good, to leave the band he started and helpp make famous!

Of course Mike is also a member of Transatlantic, and has had numerous other ventures that never stop him from joining with his regular band mates to write and record albums. But it seems that he needs a break from DT, and was hoping the other members felt the same way as he. It was not to be!

Of course, that doesn't mean the Mike has quite the biz! He will have many other musical projects and we will be hearing his trademark druming on CDs soon enough (probably the live CD and DVD of the Transatlantic tour will be the first of these releases).

And what, pray-tell is the Silver Lining? Well Dream Theater have announced that they are going back in the studio in January 2011 to record their next CD. I know, it won't be the same withoout Mike behind his kit, but they are great musicians nonetheless and will surely come up with a great CD (finding a replacement for Mike won't be easy, but they will try).

So, as we say "The King is dead.... Long live the King!".... Dream Theater as we knew it is no more, but a new Dream Theater may be reborn from this, and Mike Portnoy will still be around on whtever project he decides to venture in! Good luck to both of them... I know I'm looking forward to hearing what they will deliver in the years to come!

2 comments:

  1. as you say, dream theater will not be the same, and thats a healthy good thing if you ask me.

    i liked the latest records, especially octavarium and black clouds, but i think they started to sound a bit like a caricature of themselves since the early 2000's, so i'm sure the new drummer, who ever that will be, will give an interesting new twist to their music. as for portnoy himself, i hope his recent joining to avenged sevenfold is not the reason why he quits dt, that band to me sounds like just another common modern flat emo rock unit - even the huge amount of progmetal elements added to it left me totally cold -...as you can see i'm much more interested in what DT will become after this major event than any of MP upcoming projects... except for transatlantic, wich i always liked a lot...

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  2. Same here, I am more interested in the future of DT as opposed to Mike's personal projects. Transatlantic is the obvious exception, I cannot wait for their live DVD, I was there!

    Back on track, DT have a chance to reinvent themselves. We all know Mike was the life and soul of the more "administrative" parts of DT and wrote the majority of the lyrics, along with Petrucci. This "creative void" should encourage not only the new drummer but the existing guys to chuck in more of their own ideas. LaBrie is known for not giving much input to the writing process, Myung is a virtual ghost and I would love to hear more Rudess style (taking over MP's backing vocals?!) stuff coming from them.

    Whilst I was shocked to the core, the silver linings outweigh the black clouds for me at the moment. Just happy that I saw DT with Portnoy twice before this happened.....

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