Dream theater
| Dream theater | |
|---|---|
 |
|
 Dream Theater live in Rio de Janeiro , 2008 (left to right: John Myung, Jordan Rudess, Mike Portnoy, James LaBrie and John Petrucci) |
|
| General information | |
| origin | New York , United States |
| Genre (s) | Progressive metal |
| founding | 1985 as "Majesty" |
| Website | www.dreamtheater.net |
| Founding members | |
| John Petrucci | |
| John Myung | |
| Mike Portnoy (until 2010) | |
| Current occupation | |
Guitar, vocals |
John Petrucci |
Electric bass, Chapman Stick |
John Myung |
| James LaBrie (since 1991) | |
| Jordan Rudess (since 1999) | |
Drums |
Mike Mangini (since 2011) |
| former members | |
singing |
Chris Collins (1985-1986) |
singing |
Charlie Dominici (1987-1990) |
Keyboard |
Kevin Moore (1986-1994) |
Keyboard |
Derek Sherinian (1994-1998) |
Dream Theater is a progressive metal band from New York , USA .
The band is one of the most important representatives of progressive metal and is considered one of the most commercially successful bands in this genre. They were one of the first bands to combine the contemporary form of heavy metal with the progressive rock of the 1970s. Although their first official album When Dream and Day Unite received very good reviews, sales fell short of the expectations of the band and the record company. The band's real breakthrough came in 1992 with their second album Images and Words .
In addition to their work for the band, all band members are and were also active in other projects; Mike Portnoy , for example, also works in the bands Transatlantic , Flying Colors , The Winery Dogs , OSI or Liquid Tension Experiment (together with John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess ). Portnoy also initiated tribute bands for The Beatles , Led Zeppelin , The Who and Rush .
history
1985–1990: foundation
In September 1985 the band was formed by music students John Petrucci ( guitar ), John Myung ( electric bass ) and Mike Portnoy ( drums ). All three attended Berklee College of Music and are from New York. Keyboardist Kevin Moore and singer Chris Collins completed the line-up that came to be known as Majesty . Soon the band had to change their name to Dream Theater for legal reasons, as Majesty was already taken. The name Dream Theater was suggested by Mike Portnoy's father, who was inspired by a movie theater in Monterey .
After some demo recordings and line-up changes, the official debut album When Dream and Day Unite was released in 1989 , on which Charlie Dominici sings instead of Chris Collins.
1991–1994: Breakthrough with Images and Words and Awake
A year and a half after the departure of singer Charlie Dominici (due to problems with the record company and artistic differences), the band signed the Canadian James LaBrie as a new vocalist. The classically trained LaBrie has a large range .
In 1992, the second album Images and Words was released , which received gold status with around 600,000 copies sold in the USA , making it one of the most successful progressive metal albums. The single "Pull Me Under" reached number 10 on the US Billboard charts. Three video clips were produced (“Pull Me Under”, “Take the Time” and “Another Day”), all of which were included in the MTV program. Another title is "Metropolis Part 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper", the name of which suggested a sequel. Dream Theater toured with the album for around two years and then released the live album Live at the Marquee (1993).
Shortly after the recordings of Awake , keyboardist Kevin Moore left the band for various musical and probably also personal reasons and decided on a solo career with his project Chroma Key. With “Wait for Sleep” (Images and Words) and “Space-Dye Vest” (Awake) , however, he left two ballads valued by fans. The latter was played live for the first time since his departure in 1994 on January 23, 2011 in New York, as Dream Theater regarded it as his personal farewell piece and the band wanted to show him their respect. For the recording of the live album Live Scenes from New York (August 30, 2000, release on September 11, 2001) the band invited him to play this song again with them. Moore declined, however, on the grounds that he did not want to be presented as an "ex-dream theater keyboardist".
1995–1998: Under pressure from the label
With Moore's successor, Derek Sherinian , Dream Theater recorded the 23-minute epic “A Change of Seasons” (1995), the origins of which go back to 1989. Sherinian previously played a. a. at Alice Cooper and Kiss Hammond organ . After the waking-up-the-world tour, the band recorded their fourth studio album, Falling into Infinity (1997). Actually, the album was supposed to be released as a double CD and contain the follow-up to “Metropolis Part 1” with a long piece. However, the record company pushed the band in a more commercial direction and shortened some songs. So it was decided to release the album as a single CD without the "Metropolis" successor. After the touring into Infinity world tour, the band members took a break to devote themselves to other musical projects.
From Liquid Tension Experiment (instrumental project with bassist Tony Levin ) Portnoy and Petrucci brought keyboardist Jordan Rudess with them, who is characterized by guitar-like phrasing in his solos . His predecessor Sherinian had to leave the band.
1999–2006: Worldwide success
With Rudess, the band has now written the follow-up to “Metropolis Part 1”, for which their record company granted them absolute artistic freedom. The resulting fifth studio album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory is a concept album , which is related in terms of content and music, and contains numerous quotes from the first part. Pieces with particularly virtuoso instrumental passages are “Beyond This Life”, “Home” and “The Dance of Eternity”.
In 2000, the Metropolis 2000 world tour was followed by the band's first live DVD with a visual implementation of the concept album and the triple live CD Live Scenes from New York . The original cover took up the concept of the burning heart already used on the covers of Images and Words and Live at the Marquee , but the heart was represented by an apple (the Big Apple as a slang term for New York City) with the skyline New York's replaced. Because of the coincidence with the attacks on the World Trade Center , the CD was immediately taken from the store shelves and then re-released and resold two months later with the cover replaced. The cover developed for the new release contains the same snippets of images that were previously shown on it, only the burning apple was replaced by the golden Majesty symbol.
After this tour, Dream Theater began to work with experimental song ideas and in 2002 released the double CD Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence . The 42-minute epic of the same name contained on it shows again typical features of a concept album with overture and recapitulation. But the band emphasizes that it should not be understood as such. The title "Disappear" was the theme song of the 2000 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's drama Hamlet . Michael Bahr produced a video clip for this. The album was followed by the World Tourbulence world tour . As an encore, the band occasionally played the full length albums Master of Puppets (1986) by Metallica or The Number of the Beast (1982) by Iron Maiden .
Dream Theater wrote the follow-up, Train of Thought (2003), within just three weeks. Musically intended as an homage to their heavy metal role models, the album is characterized by straightforward hardness and high speed. During the world tour for this album, the three CD live album Live at Budokan was created , which differs from the previous triple live album in that it has an almost completely different setlist.
In June 2005 the eighth album Octavarium was released , on which the style moved again in a more melodic direction. It contains several ballads that, according to the band , are influenced by bands like U2 or Coldplay (e.g. heard in "I Walk Beside You").
The 24-minute title track, on the other hand, pays homage to well-known progressive rock bands such as Genesis , Pink Floyd , Yes and others. Musically similar motifs and instruments (e.g. the indulgent keyboard / guitar intro, live with Continuum fingerboard) are intentionally used as an allusion to "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" by Pink Floyd. The lyrics quote well-known song titles (such as "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" by the Beatles or "Supper's Ready" by Genesis). From summer 2005 Dream Theater started an extensive world tour and toured with Megadeth under the name Gigantour through the USA. On the following 20th Anniversary Tour through Europe, the band traditionally covered another full-length album. The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd was performed for the first time in October 2005 with guest musicians Theresa Thomason as singer and Mike Kidson on saxophone in Amsterdam . During the Japan tour in January 2006, Made in Japan was played live as a cover album by Deep Purple in Tokyo. On April 1, 2006, Dream Theater played a concert with orchestral accompaniment in New York's Radio City Music Hall to round off their 2005/2006 world tour and on the occasion of their 20th anniversary , which was held on August 25 under the title Score (English for score , but also for score or sexual conquest) on CD and DVD.
2007–2016: Roadrunner Records
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Dream Theater went back to the studio in September 2006 and worked on their new album Systematic Chaos . The recordings were completed in February 2007 and the album was released on June 1st in Europe (June 5th in America). It is the band's first release on the Dutch label Roadrunner Records . The track "Constant Motion" is the first single from the album. Dream Theater made an official music video for the first time in almost ten years . Joe Satriani , Mikael Åkerfeldt and Steve Vai can be heard as speakers in the piece “Repentance” .
The band started the Chaos-in-Motion-World-Tour in June 2007 in Europe and the USA. At the opening concert Gods of Metal 2007 in Milan and Bonn, the complete album Images and Words was played in honor of its 15th anniversary. On September 26th, 2008 the live DVD Chaos in Motion 2007-2008 was released. It contains excerpts from several concerts of the Chaos-in-Motion- World-Tour as well as a 90-minute tour documentation.
On December 17, 2007, a biography approved by the band was released in the United States under the title Lifting Shadows: The Authorized Biography of Dream Theater . A second edition was expanded by 40 percent to 450 pages in 2009. The latest edition was published in 2013 and covers the period up to then.
The recordings for the tenth album Black Clouds & Silver Linings in the Avatar Studios in New York were completed in spring 2009, the album was released at the end of June 2009 and entered the German album charts on July 3, 2009 at number 3.
On September 8, 2010, Mike Portnoy announced on his official forum that he would be leaving the band. One of the reasons he gave was the constant flow of writing and tours. In a first press release, the band announced that the other band members want to continue without Mike Portnoy and plan to start work on the next studio album in early 2011.
The band invited the seven drummers Mike Mangini , Derek Roddy , Thomas Lang , Virgil Donati , Marco Minnemann , Aquiles Priester and Peter Wildoer to audition in New York to find a replacement for Mike Portnoy. The rehearsals and conversations were uploaded to the three-part documentary entitled The Spirit Carries On on the Roadrunner Records YouTube channel . The band announced on April 29, 2011 in the final third part of the documentary that the job would go to US drummer Mike Mangini.
As announced by the director of the documentary, the eleventh album A Dramatic Turn of Events , which reached the top 10 of the charts in numerous countries, along with the documentary will be on DVD on September 9 in Europe and on September 13, 2011 in published in the USA.
On June 6, 2013, the band announced their twelfth studio album, Dream Theater , which was released on September 20, 2013. The thirteenth studio album The Astonishing was released on January 29, 2016 .
Since 2017: At Sony Music
After switching to Sony Music and InsideOut Music in December 2017, work on the fourteenth album began in June 2018 and ended in September 2018. The release took place in February 2019. On March 1, 2019, the band reached the top spot in the German album charts for the first time in their almost 35-year history with their 14th album Distance over Time .
Concerts
Live performances
The band used flexible, constantly changing set lists for their concerts. Every single concert on every tour had its own setlist, which was always created by Mike Portnoy until his departure. It was noted that the setlist differs from previously used setlists in the same region. The set lists have been constant on every tour since 2011. Since the introduction of this idea, Dream Theaters have only carried out the soundcheck via headphones - that is, the loudspeaker system is completely switched off so that fans who are already present before the start of the concert can be surprised. This also requires the use of a very complex lighting system that carries out preset movements of the lamps based on the set list entered.
The length of the concerts is another distinguishing element of Dream Theater. Since the Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence in 2002, their world tours have mainly been called evening-with ... tours, as the band plays for at least three hours with only one break and without an opening act. The CD / DVD Live Scenes from New York concert lasted over three hours.
When Derek Sherinian was still with the band, there were a few gigs in which the band members swapped instruments and gave an encore as the fictional band "Nightmare Cinema". Usually Perfect Strangers by Deep Purple and one time Suicide Solution by Ozzy Osbourne were played. Sherinian, Petrucci and Portnoy have also appeared on stage under the name "Nicky Lemons and the Migraine Brothers", but only at very few concerts. Sherinian, wearing a feather boa and sunglasses, then sang a song called I Don't Like You with Petrucci and Portnoy as second voices.
Compared to concerts by other bands, however, the stage show is rather simple. The musicians remain largely in their places and concentrate on getting the pieces on stage without errors; this can mainly be seen on the live DVDs, but is not as pronounced for concerts that have not been recorded. An exception is James LaBrie, who z. B. often runs across the stage during the instrumental parts and communicates with the audience. The fans also remain quieter than the fans of other metal bands, crowd surfing or pogo rarely take place.
Concert recordings and bootlegs
Dream Theater is one of the progressive metal bands with the most bootlegs . Since her very first appearance in New York as "Majesty" fans have recorded almost every single show, and some very long and professional recordings have also come into circulation.
Of the musicians themselves, only Mike Portnoy endorsed the publication of dream theater bootlegs, as he was an avid bootleg collector himself in his younger days and also has his own personal archive of dream theater material. He sells some recordings through the company he founded, YtseJam Records ( YtseJam results from writing “Majesty” backwards), including two of the previous cover appearances on Metallica's Master of Puppets , Iron Maiden's Number of the Beast and currently Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon and Made in Japan by Deep Purple . The other band members are generally accommodating when it comes to fulfilling autograph requests at bootlegs, but personally adopt a neutral to negative attitude. They argue, among other things, that bootlegs take the bands control of their concerts and put them in the hands of the public. In addition, the audience should concentrate on the concerts and not on their recording devices.
Since 2005 there has also been a Dream Theater Bootleg Hub ( Direct Connect ), which deals exclusively with the exchange of (legal) bootlegs. These are not all Dream Theater bootlegs.
Band members timeline
Discography
Studio albums
| year | Title music label |
Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, music label , placements, weeks, awards, notes) |
Remarks | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 DE
|
 AT
|
 CH
|
 UK
|
 US
|
|||
| 1989 |
When Dream and Day Unite Mechanic |
- | - | - | - | - |
First published: March 6, 1989
Sales: +37,092 |
| 1992 |
Images and Words Atco |
DE94 (3 weeks) DE |
- | - | - |
US61  (24 weeks)US |
First published: June 30, 1992
Sales: + 604,000 |
| 1994 |
Awake East West |
DE15 (9 weeks) DE |
- |
CH12 (8 weeks) CH |
UK65 (1 week) UK |
US32 (6 weeks) US |
First published: September 30, 1994
Sales: + 271,570 |
| 1997 |
Falling into Infinity East West |
DE9 (5 weeks) DE |
- |
CH43 (1 week) CH |
- |
US52 (4 weeks) US |
First published: September 23, 1997
Sales: + 141,946 |
| 1999 |
Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory Elektra |
DE8 (4 weeks) DE |
- |
CH44 (1 week) CH |
- |
US73 (2 weeks) US |
First published: October 25, 1999;
Concept album sales: + 123,275 |
| 2002 |
Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence Elektra |
DE12 (4 weeks) DE |
AT73 (2 weeks) AT |
CH52 (5 weeks) CH |
- |
US46 (2 weeks) US |
First published:
Jan 28, 2002 Sales: +32,773 |
| 2003 |
Train of Thought Elektra |
DE16 (3 weeks) DE |
AT66 (1 week) AT |
CH44 (2 weeks) CH |
- |
US53 (2 weeks) US |
First published: November 10, 2003
Sales: + 125,000 |
| 2005 |
Octavarium Atlantic |
DE15 (4 weeks) DE |
AT35 (3 weeks) AT |
CH25 (6 weeks) CH |
UK72 (1 week) UK |
US36 (3 weeks) US |
First published: June 6, 2005
Sales: +56,000 |
| 2007 |
Systematic Chaos Roadrunner |
DE7 (6 weeks) DE |
AT20 (3 weeks) AT |
CH14 (6 weeks) CH |
UK25 (2 weeks) UK |
US19 (5 weeks) US |
First published: June 1, 2007
Sales: + 36,000 |
| 2009 |
Black Clouds & Silver Linings Roadrunner |
DE3 (9 weeks) DE |
AT18 (3 weeks) AT |
CH9 (6 weeks) CH |
UK23 (1 week) UK |
US6 (8 weeks) US |
First published: June 19, 2009
Sales: + 40,000 |
| 2011 |
A Dramatic Turn of Events Roadrunner |
DE3 (5 weeks) DE |
AT5 (3 weeks) AT |
CH6 (7 weeks) CH |
UK17 (2 weeks) UK |
US8 (4 weeks) US |
First published: September 9, 2011
Sales: + 36,000 |
| 2013 |
Dream Theater Roadrunner |
DE4 (4 weeks) DE |
AT7 (3 weeks) AT |
CH5 (5 weeks) CH |
UK15 (2 weeks) UK |
US7 (5 weeks) US |
First published: September 20, 2013
Sales: + 34,000 |
| 2016 |
The Astonishing Roadrunner |
DE5 (7 weeks) DE |
AT6 (4 weeks) AT |
CH5 (9 weeks) CH |
UK11 (2 weeks) UK |
US11 (2 weeks) US |
First published: January 29, 2016; Concept album
sales: + 30,000 |
| 2019 |
Distance over Time InsideOut Music |
DE1 (7 weeks) DE |
AT5 (4 weeks) AT |
CH1 (7 weeks) CH |
UK12 (1 week) UK |
US24 (2 weeks) US |
First published: February 22, 2019
|
Fan clubs
There are nine official fan clubs worldwide , the operators of which are in close contact with the band and label. The clubs are regularly provided with material that, depending on the quantity, is either given to all members or raffled off. The so-called fan club CDs and DVDs, which have been published annually since 1996, are particularly well known. These mostly contain previously unpublished demos, live performances or radio versions.
The following fan clubs have been founded so far:
- Voices UK ( United Kingdom )
- The Mirror ( Germany )
- Carpe Diem! ( Japan )
- Your Majesty ( France )
- Infinite Dreams ( Greece )
- YtseBR ( Brazil )
- Home ( Turkey )
- DTNorway ( Norway )
- Ytsejammers Israel ( Israel )
Trivia
- In March 2010, a soundtrack was released for the video game God of War III , which includes the play Raw Dog ( Anagram of God War ) by Dream Theater. This instrumental was composed especially for it.
- The song Pull Me Under is unlockable in Guitar Hero World Tour .
- The song Panic Attack is unlockable in Rock Band 2 . Constant Motion is available as downloadable content.
- The song On the Backs of Angels is featured in Sleeping Dogs on Roadrunner Records radio station .
- In the German-language " Lustigen Taschenbuch " No. 468 a band called "Traumtheater" appears with the guitarist John Petrutschi. This can supposedly play 45 notes in a second.
literature
Scientific literature
- Gregory Richard McCandless: Rhythm and Meter in the Music of Dream Theater. - PhD at the College of Music, Florida State University, 2009
- WB van Dijk: Progressive Traits in the Music of Dream Theater. - Utrecht: Bachelor thesis at the University of Utrecht, 2013
biography
- Rich Wilson: Lifting Shadows. The authorized Biography of Dream Theater. - Essential Works Limited, 2013.
Songbooks
- Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a memory. - Alfred Publishing, 2000.
- Dream Theater Keyboard Anthology. - Alfred Publishing, 2004.
Textbooks
- John Petrucci's Wild Stringdom. - Alfred Publishing, 2000.
- Total Keyboard Wizardry. A technique and improvisation workbook. - Cherry Lane Music Company, 2004.
Web links
- Official website (English)
- Dream Theater at Allmusic (English)
- Dream Theater at MusicBrainz (English)
- Dream Theater at laut.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ See e.g. B. Jeff Wagner: Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal . Bazillion Points, Brooklyn, NY 2010, xvii, etc. or the mention in the guide: ProgMetal on the baby blue pages .
- ↑ a b c RockHard encyclopedia - 700 of the most interesting rock bands from the last 30 years , RockHard Verlag, Dortmund 1998, p. 101, ISBN 3-9805171-0-1 .
- ↑ Graves / Schmidt-Joos-Halbscheffel: Das neue Rock Lexikon, Hamburg, 1998, p. 283.
- ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mn0000803544 (accessed on January 17, 2009)
- ↑ http://www.mikeportnoy.com/forum/m2585154.aspx
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from May 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ http://www.metalinsider.net/interviews/exclusive-director-mike-leonard-talks-about-filming-dream-theaters-the-spirit-carries-on-documentary
- ↑ http://de.roadrunnerrecords.com/artists/dream-theater/releases/a-dramatic-turn-of-events-special-edition-cd-dvd
- ↑ A Dramatic Turn Of Events ( Memento from November 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ It was announced for September 24, 2013, cf. Dream Theater - New Album 9/24 !!! ( Memento of June 8, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Retrieved November 6, 2015.
- ^ The Astonishing at Allmusic.com. Retrieved December 25, 2017 .
- ^ Sony Music Signs Dream Theater to a Long-Term Deal via its InsideOutMusic Imprint - Dream Theater . In: Dream Theater . December 11, 2017 ( dreamtheater.net [accessed March 14, 2018]).
- ↑ DREAM THEATER To Begin Work On New Album In June; February 2019 Release Expected . In: BLABBERMOUTH.NET . April 5, 2018 ( blabbermouth.net [accessed April 6, 2018]).
- ↑ John Petrucci on Instagram: “First day of DT writing sessions! @dtimages #dreamtheater “. Retrieved June 17, 2018 .
- ↑ Dream Theater on Instagram: “4 months ago we moved into a top secret ? studio location to record our 14th studio album. Today is our last day. We cannot wait for you… " Retrieved September 14, 2018 .
- ↑ Official German Charts - Official German Charts. Retrieved March 5, 2019 .
- ↑ Chart sources: DE AT CH UK US
- ↑ a b c d e Sludge Scans For February 2002 ( Memento from December 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b c Gigantour: Sales Update ( Memento from April 3, 2020 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Dream Theater Causing 'Chaos' With New Album ( Memento from April 3, 2020 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Dream Theater's New Album Debuts At No. 7 on the Billboard 200 Chart ( Memento from April 3, 2020 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Anthrax, Dream Theater Crack Billboard US Top 15 ( Memento from April 3, 2020 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Dream Theater Nabs First No. 1 on Top Rock Albums ( Memento from April 3, 2020 in the Internet Archive )
