Should Dream Theater Continue?
Mike Portnoy has linked to a blog about Dream Theater and his decision to leave, as well as the future of the band he helped to found…
Paul Gargano of www.PAULGARGANO.com writes: “I’m a big fan of irony. Earlier this afternoon, I loaded the entire Dream Theater catalog onto my iPod. Until this afternoon, only two of the band’s 10 studio albums were found on the 80GB drive. Why the sudden urge to drown myself in musical theory? Avenged Sevenfold.
A quick timeline: In 1985 – one year after the youngest member of the band Avenged Sevenfold is born – Mike Portnoy forms the band Majesty while attending the Berklee College of Music. Majesty would become Dream Theater.”
Read Hammer’s news story: ‘Mike Portnoy leaves Dream Theater’
“Over the next quarter-century, Dream Theater would release ten studio albums and come to define the progressive metal genre. Likewise, Mike Portnoy is universally acknowledged as one of the greatest rock drummers of all time.
Avenged Sevenfold, meanwhile, burst from their Southern California roots and emerged as a hard rock and heavy metal powerhouse with City of Evil, their major label debut in 2005. When drummer Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan died of a drug overdose late last year, many wondered what would come next for the band – and in the most unlikely of announcements, Mike Portnoy was enlisted to record drums on new release Nightmare, as well as accompany them on this year’s tours to support the album.
Earlier today, on Twitter, I said of the record: The new @TheOfficialA7X is musical quicksand – it’s got me waist-deep and keeps pulling… (Pull me under, I’m not afraid.)
Absorbed in Nightmare, I was inspired to listen to more Dream Theater. Makes sense, right? Not to Dream Theater.”
Read Metal Hammer’s ‘My Life Story’ here – tracking Mike Portnoy’s early life and character
“About five hours after my Twitter post and ensuing addition of the Dream Theater catalog to my iPod, Mike Portnoy announced that he was leaving Dream Theater [read his full statement here].
I’ve been a fan of Dream Theater for the past two decades, and at the forefront of that fandom have been Mike Portnoy and frontman James LaBrie. Portnoy was the band’s heart, LaBrie the band’s soul.
Science was never my strong suit in school, but I’m fairly certain that losing your heart isn’t a good thing.
The journalist in me wants to wait to hear both sides of the story, but this is a rare instance where I feel justified to overrule my professional sensibilities. Or, as my career has paralleled that of Dream Theater, perhaps I’m honoring those sensibilities…
A number of people have asked me how this happened, as well as why it happened. While I don’t know anything more than I read in Mike Portnoy’s statement, I can say this – when I made the decision to leave Metal Edge, a magazine I dedicated my blood, sweat and tears into running for a decade, people asked the same questions.
Sadly, sometimes the decisions that are the hardest for us to make, are also the easiest. Not because we want to make them, but because we know that we need to make them. By the time I left Metal Edge, I knew that there was no other option. The magazine was destined to fail under its new ownership, and I realized that I was in no position to prevent that from happening.
Two years and three editors later, Metal Edge went out of business.
What does this have to do with Dream Theater? Everything. I can relate to Mike Portnoy’s decision, because I know exactly how it feels to know that you’re out of options.
And he was clearly out of options – you don’t walk away unless you have no other choice.
So, yes, the irony isn’t lost on me that on the day I plunged back into the swirling waters of Dream Theater, their drummer made the choice to climb out of the water and towel off.
I’m the first person in the world to defend Journey without Steve Perry, Van Halen after they hired Sammy Hagar, and KISS with only half their original members. But Dream Theater without Mike Portnoy? Where’s the heart?”
Head to the Hammer homepage to have your say in our poll: Should Dream Theater continue without Mike Portnoy?
Mike Portnoy also Twittered the following message from his FaceBook: “I BEG of the fans to please NOT hold A7X responsible for MY decision…they are just as shocked as you guys..I had been contemplating this and desiring a “break” (not split) as long ago as last year…everything else is fully explained in the press release…thank you all for your support and understanding…this is the hardest thing I’ve ever done… : (“
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Mike Portnoy didn’t write the blog, someone else did. Title is misleading Gill!
Yes Dream Theatre should continue because somewhere down the line, Portnoy will be back where he belongs!!!
Really gutted about this as a friend only introduced me to Dream Theatre a year ago – Damn!
DT should definitely continue, no question. He’ll be back within a few years anyway.
should dream theatre continue? who cares?
Completly useless post, Hammer. Its not up to us wether they should continue or not.
no, mike wont leave dream theater.. i think that is fake.. sure man
THE BIG QUESTION IS: Who the hell could take over that throne? The few good enough (Gavin Harrison for instance) would they want to take over the seat when they have their own bands?
Sckou, either you’re being completely sarcastic or you’ve been living under a rock for the past 2 days….Portnoy left DT.
@Arctangent – Metal fans care.
I think the band should of listened to Mike and gone on hiatus to be honest.
The band has a back catalogue to be proud of at this point, and to be fair Mike finished off his Shattered Fortress series of songs on Black Clouds, so one wonders if indeed they would’ve just gone through the motions by carrying on the same routine of write, record tour, repeat.
If they do decide to carry on without Portnoy, then they damn well better get a good drummer to replace him, but I do think that with Mike being the most productive and kind of controlling member of the group, that both John Myung and Petrucci could step up to the plate of handling main song writing duties.
First of all Kudos to Diablo!
My fandom in perspective: I’ve been a massive fan of Dream Theater’s for over 12 years and have followed them through the years with each album and each side project! I also have the official biography and got to meet the band last year. All in all they are one of my favourite bands if not my favourite band! I’m also a huge Mike Portnoy fan (i’m not even a drummer) but also love his other side project ‘Transatlantic’ and saw them twice live this year.
All i can say is that i was very shocked about this news yesterday and it will feel weird and almost like the band will not exist at least in the same way without Portnoy.
Portnoy’s passion and status in the band has reached the band into Prog metal icons and it has also held himself as the personality of the band. He even does most of the interviews and over see’s artwork and the production of the records. Also, as the founder of the band, to get someone to replace him and to play the older songs is going to be awkward even if they are a very good player. Dream Theater fans are amongst the most passionate and there are plenty of Portnoy fans who go to Dream Theater shows just to see him.
Should Dream Theater continue? It’s not a definite answer for me but if there was a meter between ‘No’ they shouldn’t continue and ‘Yes’ they should, i ark towards the ‘No’.
Sorry but Portnoy IS Dream Theater.
I definetely think they should continue, and I also hope that Mike will return somewhere down the line.
I dunno who’ll be able to fill his shoes though, although Richard Christy came to mind (I’ve only heard his stuff with Death, but its pretty damn awesome, and quite similiar to Portnoy’s style.
I’m fed up with people being so disrespectful towards the other members of the band. Just because MP did all the interviews and stuff DOESN’T mean that the band should automatically sit around and wait for him before they do anything.
If he wants to leave let him, JP is more than capable of carrying the band and is the one who has the greatest songwriting input as well.
I for one am really excited to see what they can come up with now. If you don’t wanna listen to the band without MP that’s fine but saying they shouldn’t carry on without one guy is ridiculously unfair.
I personally wasn’t being disrespectful nor meant to be to the other members, i love the other guys too and agree with you Ben about Petrucci as a songwriter. But as a long time fan of the band it won’t be the same without Portnoy, that isn’t being disrespectful, just being honest as a long time fan.
The band obviously will continue and it will be interesting to see where it goes with the other guys and the new drummer, but even still there will be a splinter in my mind saying where’s Portnoy?
hmmm tough one, ofc we cant truly decide what happens, but why cant DT just take a year or two off? portnoy said theyd been in a write/record/tour cycle for a while now, so they definetly deserve a break, let portnoy have his fun with his projects then get back together with DT and blow us all away again!
whilst i have to agree that portnoy is the heart of the band and a crucial element to their sound, you’ve got to respect that the other 4 guys want to continue, 2 of them formed the band with mike so its not just his decision regarding the band’s future. i can see it from both points of view and only time will tell if its the right decision.
its different for any band who loses a member or members for whatever reason. should guns n roses still be around? probably not. but was it right for metallica to continue after cliff died? yes, they’re still an amazing band. alice in chains without layne was unthinkable, but the last album was incredible so im glad they continued. however if type o negative continued after pete steele’s death i’d feel it was the wrong choice
dream theater basically need to find a drummer who can not only drum like portnoy, but can continue writing and playing songs in the dream theater style and being an innovative and influential drummer……no easy task!!! time will tell on this one
I think they shoud continue. I am absolutely gutted about Portnoy leaving, and hope to god that he doesn’t become a full time member of Avenged Sevenfold. I’m having trouble thinking of a suitable replacement for him within DT….but i’m sure its something the rest of the band won’t rush into.
portnoy may have been at the centre of the band, but a band like that isn’t made by one member. The whole band are phenomenal musicians who each lend themselves very distinctively to the band’s sound. I would argue that LaBrie or Petrucci leaving is as damaging as Portnoy leaving however it’s not as if they remaining band were relying on Portnoy. They aint no amateurs.
I think Dream Theater should coninue. Mike Portnoy wasn’t the only main writer within the band as John Petrucci has written a large number of the bands songs. Plus James Labrie, John Myung and Jordan Rudess have the ability to write good songs too. As far as replacements go I don’t envy there job at all. Terry Bozzio would be a good replacement besides the fact that he plays a huge drum kit. Failing that maybe Pat Mastelotto from King Crimson or possibly Rod Morgenstern.
The members of DT are all like a set of gears, if one gear is removed then the rest wont work. I would love to see dream theater continue, but without Mike the music could never be to the standard it was, there are drummers at Mike’s level but he as a very unique style that could never be copied. It’s bassicaly like RUSH without Neil Peart.
i think that people are jumping the gun a bit tbh.
we should wait until they write another album without portnoy before we judge.
for all we know portnoy couldve been holding them back from creating an even better album. (clearly not true btw)
They should call it a day because their last few albums have been very stale and they look and sound bored. They would all do much better working with other people on other projects IMO.