Dream Theater

Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band comprising James LaBrie, John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy.
Dream Theater was formed in 1985 under the name "Majesty" by Petrucci, Myung, and Portnoy, while they all were studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, before dropping out to help support the band. Though a number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remain today along with LaBrie and Rudess. Dream Theater has become one of the most commercially successful progressive rock bands since the height of the genre in the mid-1970s, despite being relatively unknown in mainstream rock circles. Though the band has had a few extremely successful hits (notably 'Pull Me Under' in the early 1990s, which had extensive MTV rotation), it has mostly stayed underground for its career, feeding off support from fans.
The band is well known for the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, who have won many awards from music instruction magazines. Dream Theater's members have collaborated with many other notable musicians. Guitarist John Petrucci was named as the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any other invited guitarist, following in the footsteps of Eric Johnson, Robert Fripp, and Yngwie Malmsteen.
The band's two highest selling albums are Images and Words (1992), which was awarded a gold record although it reached only #61 on the Billboard 200 charts;[1] and Awake (1994) which reached #32 on the Billboard 200.[1] Dream Theater has sold over two million albums in the U.S.,[2] and over eight million albums and DVDs worldwide.[3]
The band is currently promoting their latest effort, Systematic Chaos, and went on the North American leg of their world tour, which began on July 24, 2007 in San Diego, California[4].


History:

1985: Beginnings

Founding members John Myung, Mike Portnoy, and John Petrucci in 1985.
Dream Theater was formed in September of 1985 when guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung decided to form a band in their spare time while studying at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. They came across a drummer by the name of Mike Portnoy in one of Berklee's rehearsal rooms, and he was asked to join the band. They started off by playing Iron Maiden and Rush covers in the rehearsal rooms at Berklee.
Myung, Petrucci, and Portnoy settled on the name Majesty for their newly formed group. According to the The Score So Far… documentary, they were waiting in line for tickets to a Rush concert at the Berklee Performance Center while listening to Rush on a boom box. Portnoy commented that the ending of the song "Bastille Day" (from the album Caress of Steel) sounded "majestic." It was then decided that Majesty was a good band name, and it stuck[5].
The trio then set out to fill the remaining positions in the group, and Petrucci asked his high school band-mate Kevin Moore to play keyboards. He accepted, and when another friend from home, Chris Collins, was asked to sing after they heard him sing a cover of "Queen of the Reich" by Queensrÿche[6], the band was complete.
During this time, Portnoy, Petrucci and Myung were still juggling their studies with part-time jobs and tutoring. Their schedules became so busy that they were forced to decide between pursuing a music career or dissolving the band, but Majesty won out and all three left Berklee to concentrate on their music. Petrucci commented about this on the Score documentary, saying that it was hard enough to convince his parents to let him go to a music school, let alone convince them to let him drop out. Moore also left his college, SUNY Fredonia, to concentrate on the band.

1986 – 1987: The Majesty Demos and the birth of “Dream Theater”

The beginning months of 1986 were filled with various concert dates around the New York City area. During this time the band recorded a collection of demos, entitled The Majesty Demos. The initial run of 1,000 sold out within six months, and dubbed copies of the cassette spread like wildfire through the progressive metal scene all over the world. Because of the devotion of Dream Theater fans over the years, the Majesty Demos are still available in their original tape format today, despite being released officially on CD through Mike Portnoy's YtseJam Records.
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 hiring Dominici, a Las Vegas group [7] also named Majesty threatened legal action for intellectual property infringement related to the use of their name, so the band was forced to adopt a new moniker. Various possibilities were proposed and tested; among them Glasser, Magus, and M1; all rejected[8], until Portnoy's father suggested the name Dream Theater, which was the name of a movie house in Monterey, California.

Logo and imagery

During this time, the band adopted a custom logo (known as the Majesty symbol) and wordmark which have 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. Even after the band dropped the Majesty name the symbol remained as an official mark of the band.
The Majesty symbol is derived from Mary Queen of Scots' mark,[9] which was re-worked by Charlie Dominici for use on the album artwork for When Dream and Day Unite.[10] Portnoy and Dominici subsequently became the first two people to get tattoos of the majesty symbol on their arms.

1988 – 1990: When Dream and Day Unite

With a new name and singer, Dream Theater concentrated on writing more material and playing more concerts in New York and in neighboring states, eventually attracting the interest of Mechanic Records, a division of MCA. Dream Theater signed their first record contract with Mechanic on June 23, 1988[8] and set out to record their debut album.
When Dream and Day Unite was released in 1989 to far less fanfare than the band had anticipated. Mechanic ended up breaking the majority of the financial promises they had made to Dream Theater prior to signing their contract, so the band was 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[11].
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 a further two years before Dream Theater had another full-time singer.

1991 – 1993: Images and Words and their first live album

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 their search for a new singer they auditioned over 200 people, among them former Fates Warning front man John Arch; all were turned down for various reasons. In mid-1990, at a gig in New York, Dream Theater introduced Steve Stone as their new singer. He performed just three songs with the band before he was fired for performing less than adequately. It was five months before Dream Theater played another gig, this time all-instrumental (under the name YtseJam), and from then until mid-1992 they did not take to the stage at all[11]. Instead, they devoted their time primarily to auditioning other singers, while continuing to write and develop more music. During this period they wrote the majority of the music for what would become the Images and Words album.
It was not until late 1991, when a tape arrived from Canada, that they would find a suitable fit. Kevin James LaBrie, of glam rock band Winter Rose, was immediately flown to New York for a proper audition. LaBrie jammed on three songs with the band, and they immediately decided to hire him to fill the long-vacant vocalist position. Once hired, LaBrie decided to drop his first name to avoid confusion with the other Kevin in the band.
For the next few months, the band resumed gigging (still mostly around NYC), and worked on vocal parts for all the music that they had written to that point. ATCO Records (now EastWest), a division of Elektra Records, 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 cover of Dream Theater's Images and Words album
The first album to be recorded under their new record contract was Images and Words, which was released in 1992. The label released a CD Single and video clip for the song "Another Day" in order to promote it, but neither made a significant impact in the charts or on radio. "Pull Me Under", however, managed to attain a high level of radio airplay without any organized promotion from the band or their label. In response, ATCO produced a video clip for "Pull Me Under", which was in heavy MTV rotation for a number of weeks. A third video clip was produced for "Take the Time", but it was not nearly as successful as "Pull Me Under".
The success of "Pull Me Under", combined with relentless touring throughout the U.S. and Japan, caused Images and Words to achieve gold record certification in the States and platinum in Japan. 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. Additionally, 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.

1994: Awake

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.
Awake, Dream Theater's third studio album, was released in October 1994 in a hail of controversy among established 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[12]. 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 this news, the band had to scramble to find a replacement keyboardist instead of jumping headfirst into touring mode.
Because of their high profile at the time, they had no shortage of musicians to choose from. Jens Johansson, who would go on to become a member of Stratovarius, was among the biggest names to audition, but they did not find anyone suitable for the position until Jordan Rudess was contacted. Portnoy and Petrucci had spotted Rudess in Keyboard Magazine, which awarded him the "best new talent" award in their reader's poll that year, and invited him to play a trial gig with the band at the Concrete Foundations Forum in Burbank, CA[11]. The gig went incredibly well for all concerned, and Dream Theater asked Rudess to fill the keyboardist position permanently, but The Dixie Dregs had asked him to go on tour with them at the same time. Rudess decided that the commitment needed in Dream Theater was too much for him and his young family to be subjected to, so the less intrusive touring spot in the Dregs was chosen.
Disappointed, Dream Theater hired fellow Berklee alumnus Derek Sherinian, whose previous work included stints with Alice Cooper and Kiss, to fill in for the Awake promotional tour. By the conclusion of that tour, the band decided to take Sherinian on as Moore's full-time replacement.

1995 – 1998: A Change of Seasons and Falling into Infinity

Once again finding themselves in the studio with a new member, Dream Theater did not immediately start working on new material. Fans around the world, united on the YtseJam Mailing List (the most popular form of communication between Dream Theater fans at that point), had started a groundswell of pressure on Dream Theater to officially release their song "A Change of Seasons". It had been written in 1989 and was intended to be a part of Images and Words, but at almost 17 minutes it was deemed too long and was put on the shelf for a later date. Although the band performed it live occasionally (to great reception), and continued to rework it in the years leading up to 1995, there was no sign of it ever seeing the light of day on an official album until the fans sent a petition to EastWest Records.
The petition was successful, and the group entered BearTrack Studios in New York in April 1995 to rewrite and record their epic, which was now more than 23 minutes long. It was to be Sherinian's first contribution to the band in a writing capacity, and he put a significant amount of his personality onto the track. They toyed with various ideas on how to disseminate "A Change of Seasons", but eventually settled on releasing an EP with a collection of bonus cover songs recorded live at the infamous Uncovered fan club gig in addition to the title track.
After a short run of small "one-off" concerts to promote A Change of Seasons, Dream Theater took a break for a few months. They managed to keep busy however, releasing a special Christmas CD through their official fan club, which consisted of some rare live tracks recorded through the early years of the band's existence. They would continue this tradition until 2005, releasing a new CD each Christmas.[13]The break was also spent working individually on some compositions for their upcoming writing sessions.
Meanwhile, there were some changes at EastWest, and Dream Theater's main contact with the label was fired. As a result, the new people at the company were not fully accustomed to the relationship that Dream Theater had previously had with EastWest, and they pressured Dream Theater to write an album that was accessible to people beyond their progressive fan base.
At the end of 1996, they entered the studio to write their next album. 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. Child also had a macroscopic impact on the album, which had a noticeable shift towards compositions that were less complex and more radio-friendly.
The band wrote almost two CDs worth of material, 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. The band also made a consensus that the CD should be one disc[14], so half the songs had to be cut. Most of the unused songs were released in other ways later on, either on fan club Christmas CDs, or at live shows.
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, a lot of whom wanted to hear another Images and Words or Awake. 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. Overall, the album was both a critical and commercial disappointment. Ironically, the songs that EastWest had earmarked as candidates for release as singles, "You Not Me" and "Hollow Years", failed to make an impact on radio or in the charts. In recent years, the album has been rehabilitated to an extent, and interest was rekindled when Portnoy indicated that the demos - including more traditionally progressive cuts such as "Raise the Knife" - would be released through YtseJam Records.
The time immediately before and during the release of Falling Into Infinity was a particularly frustrating time for a band that had up to that point enjoyed total freedom with their music, and the tension of having been thrust into dealing with the corporate side of releasing an album almost tore the band apart. Portnoy considered breaking the band up because of its newly imposed restrictions, a fact he didn't discuss publicly until many years later, but he stuck with it for the promotional tour.
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.

1999 – 2000: Scenes from a Memory and their first live DVD

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 [15]. The lineup that was eventually settled on consisted of Portnoy on drums, Petrucci on guitar, Tony Levin 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.
Many fans blamed Sherinian for the disappointment of Falling Into Infinity, and his firing was perceived as Dream Theater's tacit agreement with this notion. This was perhaps unfair, because the corporate pressures placed on the band at the time were not the fault of anyone in the band, but Sherinian was seen as a scapegoat nonetheless.

The cover of Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory
Armed with yet another new member, Dream Theater entered BearTracks Studio once again to write and record their next album. As a result of an ultimatum from Portnoy that the label must give the band creative control or it would fold, this time their record label gave the band complete freedom with their music. The follow-up to "Metropolis Part 1", which was written during the Falling Into Infinity sessions (but not used on that album), was taken off the shelf as the first thing for them to work on.
They decided to expand the 20-minute song 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 prior to its release were a track list 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 US album chart.[1]
A massive world tour followed, taking over a year to complete and visiting more countries than they had ever toured before. The concerts, which were far bigger than anything the band had attempted before, reflected the theatrical aspect of the album. They played the entire Scenes From a Memory album from start to finish, with a video screen on the back wall of the stage showing a narrative companion to the story of the album. In addition to playing the album in its entirety, the band also played a second set of older Dream Theater songs as well as a few covers and some new interpretations of old Dream Theater material.
For one extra special show, at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City, actors were hired to play characters in the story, and a gospel choir was enlisted to perform in some sections of the show. One actor played the part of the hypnotherapist, and gospel singer Theresa Thomason sang the part of the female main character, Victoria.
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 (most of which had to be cut from the DVD to save space), would be released shortly thereafter.

The covers of Live at the Marquee and Live Scenes From New York, notice the silhouette of the World Trade Center within the flames on the right
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 of Christ) modified to show an apple (as in "Big Apple") instead of the heart, and the New York skyline, including the twin towers of the World Trade Center, in the flame above it. In an unfortunate coincidence, the album was released on the same date as the September 11, 2001 attacks on the U.S. The album was quickly recalled by the band and was re-released with revised artwork a short time later.

2002: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Putting the whole ordeal behind them, 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 7-13 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 has written. The genesis of that song came when Rudess wrote what would become the "Overture" section of "Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence", and the band took some different melodies and ideas contained within it and expanded them into chapters of the complete piece.
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[1] and the Billboard Internet charts at #1.[17] 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.

2003 – 2004: Train of Thought

The year of 2003 saw a reunion between Kevin Moore and Mike Portnoy, nine years after Moore left Dream Theater. Jim Matheos, guitarist and songwriter for Fates Warning, recruited the pair, along with Sean Malone, to perform in his OSI project. Their debut album, Office of Strategic Influence, can be described as a heavier version of Moore's Chroma Key work, and it was very well received by most of the prog world including Dream Theater fans. It was quite a departure for Portnoy to take drumming direction from Moore and Matheos, since he was essentially playing the role of band member, rather than the band leader role he was accustomed to in Dream Theater, but many critics have applauded his drumming with OSI.
Also during 2003, Dream Theater entered the studio to write and record another album. Since Scenes From A Memory they had written and recorded simultaneously in the studio, but to bring a fresh approach to the new album they tweaked this process, setting aside three weeks prior to recording in which they wrote and developed the material.
In the middle of the recording sessions for that album a special one-off package tour with two other heavyweights of progressive metal, Queensrÿche and Fates Warning, was devised to tour North America. The "Escape From The Studio American tour", as it was referred to in Dream Theater's promotional material, featured Queensÿche and Dream Theater as the co-headlining acts, alternating the right to perform last between cities, and Fates Warning performing support act duties. As a finale for each concert there was an extended encore in which both Dream Theater and Queensrÿche performed together on stage simultaneously, often performing cover songs.
At the completion of that tour the group returned to the studio to finish the recording of their seventh album, Train of Thought, which was their heaviest to that point. They concentrated more on writing a great song-oriented album (that is, a collection of songs rather than an album as a single composition), a mindset inspired by covering Master of Puppets and Number of the Beast on a previous concert tour. As a result, the heavy metal sound of those two albums seemed to creep into Train of Thought as well.
The album was a critical success, but it alienated a fair proportion of Dream Theater's fans that enjoy traditional progressive rock such as Yes or King Crimson more than modern heavy metal like Tool. Regardless, it seemed to expand Dream Theater's fan base into new territory, that of mainstream heavy metal.
Another world tour followed, during which Dream Theater performed support act duties for one of their major influences, Yes. A modest North American tour was completed by the two bands, after which Dream Theater continued to tour the world with their so-called "Evening With" shows.
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.

2005 – 2006: Octavarium and Score

Upon the completion of their Train of Thought promotional tour, Dream Theater entered the Hit Factory studios in NYC 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.
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 rivaling "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"[18] and the relatively radio-friendly "I Walk Beside You," which combines a sound reminiscent of U2 and Coldplay)[19]. Octavarium was the last album under their seven-album deal with Elektra Records, which had inherited the contract upon its absorbtion of EastWest Records, which in turn had swallowed up Atco Records.
Dream Theater toured extensively throughout 2005 and 2006 to celebrate their 20th Anniversary as a band, including a headlining spot on 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.
Dream Theater later departed from Gigantour and continued their own series of concerts. The 20th anniversary tour concluded with a show at the famous Radio City Music Hall in New York City on April 1st, 2006. Though the show had minimal promotion, the show was sold out days after tickets were made available. This show, which was recorded for a CD/DVD called Score (holding a double meaning for both a musical score, as well as a score meaning 20), released on August 29, 2006 through Rhino Records, was the band's first concert accompanied by a full symphonic orchestra (the "Octavarium Orchestra").

2007: Systematic Chaos

Dream Theater's latest release Systematic Chaos was released on June 5, 2007. The record marked their first with new label Roadrunner Records - another label owned by the Warner Music Group, under Atlantic Records (once the parent label of Atco). Immediately Roadrunner implemented increased promotion for Dream Theater's new album, and as a result, Systematic Chaos reached number 19 on the Billboard 200, making it the best start of an album in Dream Theater's career.[20] It also saw the release of a video for "Constant Motion" on July 14, the band's first music video since the mid-1990s. An authorized book entitled Lifting Shadows, detailing their first twenty years, is also set for release before the end of 2007.[21]
Systematic Chaos contains eight tracks, but only seven songs. The epic on this album is entitled "In the Presence of Enemies", and the song is split to bookend the album as tracks 1 and 8. Portnoy's AA Saga is also continued on this album with the song "Repentance", a brooding piece that chronicles steps 8 & 9 in the AA Program. Also, another political song makes an appearance on this album, in the form of "Prophets of War", making it the fourth album in a row to contain a political-based song (Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, Train of Thought, and Octavarium being the others containing "The Great Debate", "In The Name Of God", and "Sacrificed Sons" respectively).
The 2007/2008 Chaos In Motion World Tour started off in Italy. Dream Theater played in the Gods of Metal concert on June 3, 2007.[22] Dream Theater also appeared at the Fields Of Rock Festival in the Netherlands on June 17, 2007[23]. They also played at various other European festivals including the UK's Download Festival and the French festival Hellfest Summer Open Air with other bands such as Megadeth, Korn, Mastodon and Slayer.
Dream Theater returned to perform the North American leg of the tour on July 24th in San Diego, California and wrapped up on August 26th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They played with opening acts Redemption and Into Eternity. Dream Theater will continue their "Chaos In Motion" tour for the rest of the year and into 2008, where further shows in Europe, Asia, South America and possibly Australia will take place. The band has also mentioned a return to U.S. live shows in the Spring of 2008.



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Grup Hakkında:


1985 Sonbaharı... Boston-Barklee Müzik Okulu’nda eğitim alan ve çok iyi birer dost olan John Petrucci ve John Myung bu sonbaharda her şeyin değişeceğinden habersiz makus kaderlerine belki de lanet ediyorlardı. Barklee’de okumak elbette bir ayrıcalık ve kusursuzluk belirtisiydi. Ama öğretim görevlileri ve öğrencilerin rock müziğine bakış açısı pek de iç açıcı değildi. İşte böyle bir dönemde Petrucci ve Myung, Mike Portnoy’a rastladılar. Egzersiz odasında davuluyla çalışmakta olan 18 yaşındaki Mike Portnoy, Petrucci ve Myung için rahatlatıcı bir etkendi. Öyle ki Portnoy, rock müziği için adeta biçilmiş kaftandı... Kişilik özellikleri de tam istenildiği gibiydi. Portnoy ile tanışılmasının ardından ilk çalışma yapıldı ve 40 dakika kadar süren bu prova onları müthiş ve kusursuz bir birlikteliğin içine öylesine bir çekti ki, bugün hala birbirlerinden vazgeçebilmiş değiller. Okulun dışında kalan her saati birlikte geçirmeye ve müzik adına bir şeyler yapmaya uğraşıyorlardı. Yine böyle bir zamanda Petrucci’nin yüksek okulda okuduğu dönemdeki grubunda (Centurion) beraber çaldığı klavyeci Kevin Moore ve vokalist Chris Collins de aralarına katıldı. Artık grup kavramının hakkını tam anlamıyla vermeye başlıyorlardı. Her şey hazırdı... Grubun adı bile: “Majesty” Grup, çalışmalarının ilk meyvelerini sekiz şarkılık bir demo albümü ile almıştı. Ve kısa sürede bir demo için oldukça fazla olan bin sayısını görmeyi başardılar. Bu demoda tarzları, her daim süregelecek olan progressive rock kavramı ile örtüşmeye başlıyordu. Demonun çıkmasının ardından “Majesty” ismini kullanamayacaklarının farkına vardılar. Çünkü bu isim, bir caz grubu tarafından kullanılıyordu. İsim arayışı içine girdikleri sırada Portnoy’un babası, Montere/California’daki bir sinema salonunun ismini önerdi: “Dream Theater” Dream Theater’ın albüm hazırlıklarına başlamak için hazırlandığı bir dönemde progressive ile pek ilgisi olmayan bir müzik tarzı ile uğraşan Charlie Dominici gruba katıldı. Yaşça büyük olmasına ve müzik tarzının pek uyuşmamasına rağmen Dominici, gruba kısa sürede uyum sağlamayı başarabildi. Ve 1988 yazına gelindiğinde Terry Date’in yapımcılığında “When Dream And Day Unite” albümü tamamlandı. 1989’da ise albüm piyasaya sunuldu. Bütçenin yetersizliği ve tanıtımın azlığına rağmen albüm tüm dünyaya dağıtıldı. Ancak Mechanic Records’un sermayesi onlara klip ve konser imkanı vermiyordu. Bu yüzden grup, konserlerini yalnızca New York ve çevresindeki birkaç bölgede yapabildi. Her şeye rağmen Dream Theater grubu elemanları, doğrunun bulunacağına ve basamakların zor da olsa aşılabileceğine inanıyorlardı... Ve basamakları aşmak için sürekli daha iyisini yapmak zorunda olduklarının ayırdında olarak çalışmalarına aralıksız olarak devam ediyorlardı. 1990’a gelindiğinde Dominici’nin gruptan ayrılmasıyla birlikte bir vokal arayışına girildi. Ancak yeni vokal bulmaya zamanları olmadığından son konserlerinde de Dominici onları yalnız bırakmadı. Albümün çıkmasının üzerinden bir yıl kadar bir zaman geçti ve bu son konser için albümden öte çalınan bir parça vardı: iki yıl sonra çıkaracakları “Images And Words” albümündeki “Metropolis” efsanesi... Artık yeni bir albümün hazırlanması gerekiyordu ama hala kendilerine bir vokalist bulamamışlardı. Bu arayışın süregeldiği zaman içerisinde New York’taki barlarda çalıştılar. Onlara eşlik eden bir çok vokalist olmuştu. Ancak hiçbiri istedikleri gibi grup ile örtüşmeyi başaramıyordu. İşte bu dönemde karar kıldıkları bir isim ortaya çıkmıştı. Ama bu ismin, son anda gönderilen bir kasetten dinlenen sesle pabucu dama atılmıştı. Bu isim Kevin James Labrie idi. 1991 yılında Kevin Labrie grupta zaten Kevin isminin bulunduğunu düşünerek James Labrie adını kullanmaya karar verdi. Artık grubun klavyecileri dışında hiçbir değişikliğe uğramayacak olan kadrosu oluşmuştu: “James Labrie, John Petrucci, John Myung, Mike Portnoy ve Kevin Moore.” Yeni albüm için Atco/East West Records ile Dream Theater arasında bir anlaşma imzalandı. Albümün yapımcılığını ise David Pratter yapacaktı. Dream Theater’ın bundan sonraki çoğu albümünün kaydedileceği Bear Track Stüdyosunda her şey tamamlandı ve albümün ismi "Images and Words" olarak belirlendikten sonra 1992 yılında piyasaya sunuş gerçekleşti. Bu albüm, 90’lara vurulacak damganın sinyallerini taşıyordu. Ve klibi çekilen üç parça (Pull Me Under, Another Day ve Take The Time), MTV’nin de katkısıyla onları büyük bir hayran kitlesine ulaştırmıştı. Iron Maiden’ın desteklemesiyle ilk konser New York’ta verildi. James Labrie’nin katıldığı bu ilk konserde performansları herkesi etkilemişti. Konser serileri bununla kısıtlı kalmadı, Labrie’nin sesi grubun müziğine müthiş uyuyordu ve grubun hayranları günden güne çoğalmaya başlamıştı. “Images And Words” albümü onları büyük başarılara taşıyordu. Artık albümleri, tüm dünyada aranan ve sürekli olarak satılan bir trendi yakalama aşamasındaydı. Hatta “Images And Words”, Japonya’da altın plak almayı bile başarmıştı. “Music in Progress” Avrupa Turu’nun bir parçası olan Londra - Marquee konserinin kaydı “Live at the Marquee” ismiyle piyasaya sunuldu. 1993 yılında verilen Japonya konserleri serisinden Tokyo bölümü ise "Images and Words - Live in Tokyo" adı verilerek video şeklinde yayınlandı. Ve hızla gelişen bu olayların ardından Dünya Turnesi Kasım 1993’te sona erdi. 1994 Mart’ına gelindiğinde ise üçüncü albüm hazırlıkları tüm grubun katılımıyla başladı. Artık vokalistleri, hazırlık aşamasında da onlara eşlik ediyordu. Albüm, hazırlandıktan kısa bir süre sonra, 4 Ekim 1994’de, tüm dünyada piyasaya sürüldü. 75 dakikalık “Awake” isimli bu çalışma, Amerika Billboard listelerine 32. sıradan girdi ve Almanya’da bir hafta içinde 43.000 alıcı buldu. 1995 yılında ise gruba, Platin Plak (Japonya) ödülünü kazandırdı. Herşey düzene girmiş gibi görünürken 1 Ağustos 1994’de Kevin Moore gruptan ayrılma kararı aldı. Çünkü “müzikal anlayış” bakımından grup üyeleri ile ters düştüğünü söylüyordu. Bu ayrılışın ardından Kevin Moore “Chroma Key” adlı grubunu kurdu. Moore’un yerine ise, daha önce Alice Cooper ve Kiss gibi büyük isimlerle çalışmış olan Derek Sherinian çağrıldı. Derek ilk etapta sadece “Awake” albümünün geri kalan konserlerinde gruba yardım edeceğini açıklamıştı ama konserler sonunda grupta kalmaya karar verdi. Ve Eylül 1995’de yine bir albüm yayınlandı. Bir tür EP içeriğine sahip olan bu albümün adı: “A Change Of Seasons”dı. Daha önceki albümlere sığmayan 23 dakikalık "A Change of Seasons" şarkısı ve konserlerde söyledikleri cover* şarkılarla desteklenen bu albüm, Dream Theater’ın müzikal performansını bir kez daha gözler önüne seriyordu. “Falling Into Infinity” albümü 23 Eylül 1997’de Amerika Birleşik Devletleri’nde piyasaya sunuldu. Bu albümün hemen ardından ise büyük çaplı bir turne düzenlendi. Bu turnenin arından Dream Theater’ın canlı kayıtlarından oluşan “Once in a LIVEtime” ve “5 Years in a LIVEtime” isimli videolar Ekim 1998’de piyasaya sunuldu. 18 Ocak 1999’da Dream Theater için tekrar klavyeci değiştirmenin zaman gelmişti. Derek Sherinian; Liquid Tension Experiment projesinde Petrucci ve Portnoy ile çalışmış olan Jordan Rudess ile grubun klavyeci değişikliğini yaptı. Bu değişiklik, Dream Theater dinleyenleri için çok ani ve anlaşılması zor bir hamleydi. Ama Jordan Rudess’ın, Liquid Tension Experiment’ta neler yaptığı çok iyi biliniyordu. 26 Ekim 1999 da 77 dakikalık konsept albüm "Metropolis pt.2: Scenes From a Memory" piyasaya sürüldü. Efsane artık sonlanıyordu; Metropolis’te anlatılan hikayenin bırakın şarkısını yapmayı, sözcüklerle ifade edilemeyecek koca bir albümünü yapmıştı Dream Theater. Bunun ardından “Scenes From A Word Tour” isimli bir turneye çıkan grup, Türkiye’ye gelme kararından son anda birkaç aksaklık yüzünden vazgeçmek durumunda kaldı. Türkiye’deki Dream Theater dinleyenlerinin tek tesellisi ise, New York’ta gerçekleştirilen konserin; DVD, VHS Video ve CD formatında piyasaya sunulacağının müjdesiydi.


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ALBÜMLERİ:

1-When Dream And Day Unite (1989)
2-Images And Words (1992)
3-Another Day (1992)
4-Live At The Marquee (1993)
5-Awake (1994)
6-The Silent Man (1994)
7-Lie (1994)
8-A Change Of Seasons (1995)
9-Hollow Years (1997)
10-Falling Into Infinity (1997)
11-Once In A Livetime (1998)
12-Scenes From A Memory (1999)
13-Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory (1999)
14-Through Her Eyes (2000)
15-Live Scenes From New York (2001)
16-Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence (2002)
17-Train of Thought (2003)
18-Live At Budokan (2004)
19-Octavarium (2005)
20-Score (2006)
21-Dark Side Of The Moon (2006)
22-Systematic Chaos (2007)