FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 13, 2009 New York, NY:
Progressive metal veterans DREAM THEATER have announced BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS as the title of their tenth studio album. The band commenced work on the album - their second for Roadrunner Records, following up 2007's Systematic Chaos - in October of last year.
Roadrunner will release the record on June 23. In addition to the standard version CD, the album will also be available on vinyl LP, as well as a 3-disc Special Edition CD that will include the full album, a CD of instrumental mixes of the album and a CD of six cover songs, the titles of which will be revealed at a later date.
Six weeks prior to the June 23 street date, Roadrunner will release one cover song per week through digital retailers.
Drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci are once again at the helm as producers, while Paul Northfield mixed the record.
The band will embark on a world tour in support of the album beginning in Europe throughout June which will be followed by the second edition of the band's PROGRESSIVE NATION tour featuring Zappa Plays Zappa, Pain Of Salvation and Beardfish throughout North America in July/August.
A video for the first single, "A Rite of Passage" will be shot in late March.
The track listing for BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS is as follows:
A Nightmare to Remember A Rite of Passage Wither The Shattered Fortress The Best of Times The Count of Tuscany
CLICK IMAGE TO BUY THE CD
Dream Theater Greatest Hit (... And 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs)
ON SALE NOW!!! CD Universe
(Right to Left) Mike Portnoy, Tony Levin, John Petrucci, & Jordan Rudess
If you have not heard the previous Liquid Tension Experiment CD's (with John Petrucci), you need to buy them NOW!!! They are amazing.... Zilla
- Dream Theater's keyboard player and drummer - Tony Levin - bassist with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel -Unreleased jams recorded during sessions for LTE2 - Limited Edition Metallic Print DigiPak - Brand new liner notes by Mike Portnoy
"In October 1998, Liquid Tension Experiment reunited at Millbrook Studios in upstate New York to record their 2nd album. A few days into the sessions, John Petrucci's pregnant wife went into premature labor leaving Mike Portnoy, Jordan Rudess and Tony Levin stranded in an already set-up and booked recording studio. So like any creative and productive musicians would do, they decided to stay and JAM... and JAM they did!
For some bizarre and still unexplained reason, the master tapes of these jams were misplaced during the mixing process. But, luckily, Portnoy records almost everything he ever does and as a result his live 2-track stereo DAT mixes are the only remaining traces of this historic jam. So what you have here is as live and raw as it gets. No overdubs, no editing, no mixing.
Just 3 guys, their instruments and their spontaneous imaginations feeding off of each other."
LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT TO HEADLINE NEARFEST 2008
NEARfest is very pleased to announce the Saturday night headliner for NEARfest X: Liquid Tension Experiment!
The supergroup consisting of Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess, and Tony Levin are reconvening and preparing to tear the roof off of Zoellner Arts Center next June. Portnoy and Petrucci are founding members of progressive metal's 5-headed monster, Dream Theater, and have won accolades from fans and critics alike for their prowess on the drum kit and guitar, respectively. Rudess is was previously known for his blazing keyboard work with the Dixie Dregs and the Rudess/Morgenstein Project and joined Dream Theater officially after the second Liquid Tension Experiment album sessions. Tony Levin needs no introduction -- Stick and bass maestro, two-time NEARfest alum, and play with everyone from King Crimson to Peter Gabriel to Yes to Sarah McLachlan.
Liquid Tension Experiment's two studio albums, Liquid Tension Experiment (1998) and Liquid Tension Experiment 2 (1999), are filled to the brim with everything from blazing, chops-laden sonic attacks ("Paradigm Shift") to melodic anthems ("When the Water Breaks") to humorous jams ("Chris and Kevin's Excellent Adventure"). The improvisational nature in the writing sessions permitted the band to stretch out to many different influences, including rock, metal, prog, funk, blues and even ragtime. It is a great honor to host this ensemble of legendary, virtuoso players on the NEARfest stage for our 10th anniversary.
Liquid Tension Experiment is the supergroup consisting of Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci, Jordan Rudess, and Tony Levin are reconvening and preparing to tear the roof off of Zoellner Arts Center next June. Portnoy and Petrucci are founding members of progressive metal’s 5-headed monster, Dream Theater, and have won accolades from fans and critics alike for their prowess on the drum kit and guitar, respectively. Rudess is was previously known for his blazing keyboard work with the Dixie Dregs and the Rudess/Morgenstein Project and joined Dream Theater officially after the second Liquid Tension Experiment album sessions. Tony Levin needs no introduction – Stick and bass maestro, two-time NEARfest alum, and play with everyone from King Crimson to Peter Gabriel to Yes to Sarah McLachlan. Liquid Tension Experiment’s two studio albums, Liquid Tension Experiment (1998) and Liquid Tension Experiment 2 (1999), are filled to the brim with everything from blazing, chops-laden sonic attacks (“Paradigm Shift”) to melodic anthems (“When the Water Breaks”) to humorous jams (“Chris and Kevin’s Excellent Adventure”). The improvisational nature in the writing sessions permitted the band to stretch out to many different influences, including an abundance of rock, metal, and prog plus some doses of funk, blues and even ragtime.
Dream Theater drummer carries the torch for a new generation
Michael Senft The Arizona Republic Jul. 17, 2007
For more than 20 years Dream Theater has steadily built a reputation as musician's musicians, metal virtuosos revered as much for their technical ability as their epic songwriting.
The band's ninth CD, Systematic Chaos, which hit stores earlier this month, is no exception, filled with lengthy instrumental workouts and plenty of metal crunch. The disc does have one major difference from the group's previous offerings - after 15 years Dream Theater has left longtime home Atlantic Records for the independent Roadrunner Records.
The band will show off its new material on July 25 when it visits the Dodge Theatre. We recently spoke with drummer and bandleader Mike Portnoy about the new label and tour.
Question: Where are you speaking from?
Answer: We're in Luxembourg and it's a nice talking to an American for once. We've been in Europe for a few weeks. We're firing up the machine, getting the wheels running again. We're mainly playing festivals on weekends - then during the week we're hitting these bizarre secondary markets like Luxembourg that are usually hard to get to. It's basically just a warm-up tour though, getting ready for the U.S. leg, which will be the full production.
Q: The past few times you've visited the Valley you haven't had an opening act. This time you are bringing Redemption and Into Eternity along.
A: There were two factors in my deciding that. First, we've done the "Evening with" format for three world tours in a row, so I thought we should change things up to make it more interesting for us.
The second factor is fatigue. It's just exhausting to do that and it was burning us out. We were playing three to three and one-half hour shows and doing completely different sets every night so there was a lot of rehearsing at sound checks. We would end up playing for five hours by the time we got to the bus, and we would crash out of exhaustion. We needed to give our minds and bodies a break.
Q: Considering the instrumental complexity, it seems like Dream Theater's music would be extra exhausting to play for three hours a night.
A: Yes, the music is incredibly intense, and no disrespect to other bands doing the "Evening with" format, but we change the show every night. A lot of those bands would do the same set over and over, so they have it rehearsed and almost on autopilot. It's going to be nice this time to only do a two-hour set like a normal band.
Q: You also just moved to Roadrunner Records from Atlantic.
A: We were with Atlantic/Elektra for 15 years, a seven-album deal we signed in 1991. They kept picking up options for every record. To be honest, we've been ready to get the (expletive) out of there for years, the whole corporate, major label thing was . . . we were starting to get really frustrated with it. The kind of band we are, we aren't a flavor of the month, we aren't MTV, we aren't corporate-minded Rolling Stone- type music. And it was easy for us to get lost in the shuffle. Our previous label was just relying on our existing fans to buy our albums and make them their money. They would then leave us alone to work the album ourselves, no promotion, no tour support.
We were excited at our possibilities when the contract ended - Roadrunner was a no-brainer. They've got the power and marketing muscle of any major label, but they don't have the corporate mentality, they are more independent minded. And they've grown so much in recent years; they aren't strictly a hardcore metal label anymore. They've got acts ranging from Opeth to Nickelback and everyone in between, like Stone Sour and Megadeth. We fit in and they obviously care about their bands and they give all their bands attention. And frankly they've given us the attention we've earned after 22 years in the business.
Q: Sort of going from being a small fish in a big pond to a big fish in a small pond.
A: Well, a big fish in a medium pond. We really feel like we are the number one priority over there, even if a band like Nickelback sells more records. They treat all their acts with respect, but they also see what we've been able to do without any label support so they're excited about the possibilities with label support.
Q: Prog-metal fans are getting an extra special treat the week you are in town. You play on Wednesday, and Rush is in town on Friday.
A: Wow. (Rush's drummer) Neil (Peart) is the drummer who introduced me to progressive drumming. Before Neil it was Keith Moon, John Bonham and Ringo Starr - they got me interested in music, but once I discovered Rush in 1981, Neil became the number one influence. I was a young teenager and I'd never heard a drummer do odd time signatures, have a massive kit, playing extended drum solos.
Since then Dream Theater's path has followed Rush's development. We're kind of the torch bearers for that kind of music to a new generation. The appeal Rush had to me as a kid seems to be the same appeal that my music has to our fans.
The tradition continues - there will always be an audience for that kind of intense musicianship and I'm proud to be carrying it on.
***DALLAS***AUGUST 2nd, 2007***
Dream Theater Day in Utah
We had a Dream Theater day of our own here in North Texas on August 2nd, 2007. Here's the set list from that concert - it may not be in the exact order, but it's pretty damn close. So, Dallas DT fans, don't write to tell me what a dork I am because I have two songs switched midway through... It's freakin' close enough!!!
Constant Motion I Walk Beside You Honor Thy Father Blind Faith In the Presence of Enemies Pt. I Take the Time Strange Deja Vu Lines in the Sand The Dark Eternal Night The Mirror Metropolis Pt. II In the Presence of Enemies Pt. II
Encore:
Learning to Live Bombay Vindaloo Instrumedley Never Enough
"We realize our strength is in our perseverance and in our live shows, and if something were to click with radio, it would be fantastic." -- Dream Theater's John Petrucci
Dream Theater Causing 'Chaos' With New Album
Christa L. Titus - BILLBOARD MAGAZINE Dream Theater's top 20 entrance onto The Billboard 200 is a vindication in triplicate for the New York band. The No. 19 debut for "Systematic Chaos" heralds the group's best start for an album, its best sales week (36,000) since 1994's "Awake" and its first breath of air inside the top 20.
"Chaos" also represents an unexpectedly sweet beginning with Roadrunner Records, which signed the act last December. Unhappy with being shifted among Warner Music Group's labels and receiving minimal promotion for records following "Awake," the prog rockers hoped they would get dropped when their eight-album option was up for renewal. But EastWest, then Elektra, then Atlantic, kept picking it up, so Dream Theater self-promoted albums with yearlong tours pegged to the release dates and constant contact with fans through its Web site.
Imagine, then, the band's chagrin when it finally got a fresh start by signing with Roadrunner only to face the announcement, just days later, that Warner had purchased Roadrunner for nearly $74 million.
"That's the biggest irony of this whole thing," drummer Mike Portnoy says with a laugh. "We waited 15 years to get away from Warner, and we actually had several offers from other Warner-affiliated labels that we passed on because we wanted to go with Roadrunner, and then literally a week after we signed was when they announced it."
"Distribution is such a minor piece of the puzzle in terms of marketing and promotion, and the hands-on creative engine and all of that is intact at Roadrunner," Portnoy continues. "With Atlantic and Elektra we were just kind of this bastard child who was handed from person to person, from staff to staff, label to label, each time we made a record."
They may not be a bastard child, but they're certainly a unique one often misunderstood by record companies. "The thing, to us, that's the most important is that we went somewhere where people really understood the history of the band and what we've built," guitarist John Petrucci says of Roadrunner. "It was actually surprising to some of the labels we were talking to how many records we've sold, how many concerts we've done [and] how many people we've played to. It's kind of like a best-kept-secret."
According to Nielsen SoundScan, Dream Theater has sold 2.1 million albums in the United States. Band manager Frank Solomon estimates the band has sold between seven and eight million records worldwide.
"Systematic Chaos" is Dream Theater's ninth studio album. Number eight, the last one released on Atlantic, was 2005's "Octavarium," which debuted and peaked at No. 36. The band's 1992 major-label debut, "Images and Words" (Atco), was the only one of its albums to garner significant radio and MTV airplay. Lead single "Pull Me Under" hit No. 10 on Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks.
Why hasn't the band scored a second traditional hit? It could be simply due to the fact that its songs keep getting longer. "Systematic Chaos" opens and closes with a two-part track, "In the Presence of Enemies," that runs for practically half an hour. The group also writes complex, technically proficient compositions that can't be absorbed in one listen, and that's hard to market in an instant-gratification, increasingly download-centric world.
But these same factors helped Dream Theater create a following among music students and prog fans alike. Vinne Hartong, the band's product manager at Roadrunner, explains that having experienced success with accomplished musicians like DragonForse and Trivium, the label believes in a market for those audiences. Roadrunner was also attracted to Dream Theater's status as a heritage act that's still youthful and relevant. Hartong thinks the label can not only build on the group's existing fan base, but also recruit new listeners.
"It's cool to take this band that has been shown no label love in like 10 years and ... finally give them what they deserve," Hartong says. "We have a point to prove. I'd love to prove to Atlantic, 'If you guys had just done an ounce of work, this is what you could have had.'" Atlantic Records did not provide any comment by deadline.
Roadrunner's marketing plan for "Systematic Chaos" includes interviews in metal and music instruction magazines, print ads, a free download of first single "Constant Motion" and studio footage of the band posted online. A special edition of the album that features a 90-minute making-of documentary and a 5.1 Surround Sound mix is also being released. In addition, a recent TicketMaster promotion allowed those who purchased tickets for select 2007 North American dates to download a free video of the band recording album track "The Dark Eternal Night" when they also pre-ordered "Systematic Chaos."
For Dream Theater, this is the first time in years, if ever, that many of these tactics have been employed. One of the biggest steps forward has been doing a video for "Constant Motion," which is now in post-production. It's the first clip the band has lensed in a decade.
"There was no reason for us to do music videos because MTV wasn't gonna play us, so it was a waste of time and money," Portnoy says. "But now, in the age of the Internet, it makes sense. A great way to market a band [is] through Web sites and YouTube and things like that."
The road, however, remains the linchpin of Dream Theater's promotion strategy. The Agency Group's Steve Martin, the band's longtime booking agent, says the group plays venues with an average of 3,000 seats. He has seen it progress from filling the 1,000-capacity Irving Plaza in New York the day of a show to selling out the 6,000-seat Radio City Music Hall through an Internet-only pre-sale four months in advance.
Dream Theater is currently in Europe on its Chaos in Motion tour, but will return to the States in July and head back overseas in early fall. Martin seconds Roadrunner's thinking that the band can reach new markets and audiences. "In 2008 we're going back to South America," he says. "Last year we played San Juan [for the first time], and we did 5,000 people." Solomon confirms the band will play inaugural shows in Australia in early 2008.
Hartong says Roadrunner will also give terrestrial and satellite radio a shot. Since the label wants to establish the band "as hip and relevant to the modern metal world" with what Hartong calls "the hardest track on the record," the nearly seven-minute "Constant Motion" was delivered to metal radio May 28.
The band appreciates giving radio the old college try, but Petrucci isn't holding his breath. "We realize our strength is in our perseverance and in our live shows, and if something were to click with radio, it would be fantastic," he says. "We've seen the difference, we've seen how that really goes, [how it can] sell so many more records. But we're doing great even without that."
