Filmed on several dates during Dream Theater’s European tour this fall, you’ll get plenty of behind-the-scenes action in the new Dream Theater video “Wither”. Watch it below.
FaceCulture.com spoke to James LaBrie of progressive metal band Dream Theater about a broadway career, his lyrics and of course Dream Theater. Click here or on the screenshot below to go directly to the FaceCulture.com website.
Dream Theater was honored with the “Spirit Of Prog” achievement award at the 2009 Classic Rock Awards this evening in London.
The award was presented to Mike Portnoy by Prog legend Rick Wakeman who added that he couldn’t have been happier for it to go to such a worthy recipient (and joked that he was jealous he wasn’t getting it!)
The star studded event was attended by such legends as Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin, Pete Townshend of The Who, Ron Wood of The Rolling Stones, Brian May of Queen, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Jeff Beck, Paul Rodgers of Bad Company, Iggy Pop, Slash of Guns N Roses, Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath, Ginger Baker of Cream, Chrissy Hynde of The Pretenders, Carl Palmer of ELP and members of Iron Maiden, Anthrax, Anvil, Marillion, ZZ Top, Uriah Heep and Mott The Hoople.
Here’s an initial report of the winners and some paparazzi pix of the red carpet arrival
Dream Theater also was nominated in the “Album Of The Year” category for their latest release “Black Clouds & Silver Linings”.
The 5th episode of The Lowdown, the video podcast featuring the latest news about this year’s Download festival, set to take place June 12-14 in the United Kingdom, can be viewed here or below. Included is an interview with Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy as well as a video message from Killswitch Engage.
The Download festival continues to take place at Donington Park, which has established itself as the original and “spiritual” home of all things rock since the first Monsters of Rock festival in 1980.
New York progressive metal veterans Dream Theater will take their Progressive Nation tour overseas for the first time with a run through Europe and the UK throughout September, October and November 2009, with special guests Opeth, Bigelf and Unexpect.
Progressive Nation founder and mastermind, Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy, once again hand-picked the bands based on musicianship, originality and diversity…not necessarily by popularity and marquee value. He comments: “After the excitement of putting together two very cool Progressive Nation packages for North America, I knew it was time to bring the concept overseas and share some of these other great bands with our amazing fans throughout Europe and the UK”.
Joining the tour will be Dream Theater’s tourmates from PN08 (and Roadrunner Records labelmates), the legendary Opeth from Stockholm Sweden. Vocalist/Guitarist Mikael Akerfeldt was excited to partake in another Progressive Nation experience: “Once my man “The Port” suggested they’re going to bring Progressive Nation over to Europe, I more or less begged him to get us on it, haha! We had such a great time doing it in North America and it did many great things for us as a band. It’s fair to say that I can’t wait to get going with this one. It will be a blast, believe me!!”
Los Angeles band Bigelf will bring their unique brand of psychedelic, progressive hard rock to PN09. Vocalist/Keyboardist Damon Fox adds: “When I first met Mike Portnoy, I felt like we were cut from the same cloth, a brother from another mother. We could talk rock & roll for eons (we probably will on tour, hell yeah!). Being added to the Progressive Nation tour feels like the planets have aligned for us and the elves have finally come home to Rivendell. The mentality of Dream Theater and Progressive Nation reminds me of a quote from the great Willy Wonka, “There is no life I know to compare with pure imagination. Living there, you’ll be free if you truly wish to be…” We eagerly await our return to Northern Europe and on a special note, we have never performed in England. This has driven us completely mad over the years. We are just brimming with passion and excitement to be able to bring our music back to the homeland which has inspired us so deeply.”
Opening the show each night will be Canada’s Unexpect who will surely blow people’s minds with their insane musicianship and avant garde style of extreme progressive metal. Guitarist Syriak had this to say: “How can we rationally express that crazy excitement we feel about this awesome turn of events… Upon getting offered by Mike to be on board this amazing prog vessel, we accepted at once to participate and add our own mad musical touch to the crew! Being part of the European leg of PN09 is an extreme honor for us and playing in company of such talented musicians shall be a true and heartfelt enjoyment! See you all on stage guys!!!
The European leg of Progressive Nation will follow on the heals of the North American version of PN09 which will run throughout July & August 2009 in the US and Canada featuring Dream Theater , Zappa Plays Zappa, Pain Of Salvation and Beardfish.
Progressive Nation’s successful inaugural run throughout North America in 2008 featured Opeth, Between The Buried And Me and Three.
A festival and headlining run of Europe in June, followed by the two PN09 tours will be the first treks across the globe for Dream Theater in support of their newest Roadrunner Records release “Black Clouds & Silver Linings” which is slated for a late June 2009 release.
For more information, including tourdates to be announced soon, visit www.progressivenation2009.com (coming soon), www.dreamtheater.net and www.myspace.com/dreamtheater
Progressive metal veterans Dream Theater have announced Black Clouds & Silver Linings as the title of their 10th 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 19, 2009. In addition to the standard version CD, the album will also be available on vinyl LP, as well as a three-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, which will be revealed at a later date. 6 weeks prior to the June 19 street date, Roadrunner will release one cover song per week through digital retailers. 
The artwork was once again designed by Hugh Syme (Rush, Iron Maiden).
Drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci are once again at the helm as producers, while Paul Northfield is mixing 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 “A Rite of Passage” will be shot in late March.
Tracklist Black Clouds & Silver Linings:
1. A Nightmare to Remember
2. A Rite of Passage
3. Wither
4. The Shattered Fortress
5. The Best of Times
6. The Count of Tuscany
Stay updated! Visit www.roadrunnerrecords.com or www.dreamtheater.net
Prog metal veterans Dream Theater are currently wrapping up work on their 10th studio album. The band commenced work on the as-yet untitled album – their second for Roadrunner Records, following up 2007′s Systematic Chaos.
Drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci are once again producing the CD, while engineer Paul Northfield will mix the record. Roadrunner plans to release the album in early summer upon which the band will immediately embark on a world tour to support it.
Drummer Mike Portnoy said: “Try to imagine a Dream Theater album with ‘A Change Of Seasons’, ‘Octavarium’, ‘Learning To Live’, ‘Pull Me Under’ and ‘The Glass Prison’ all combined on one album. COULD YOU HANDLE IT?? Excited? I sure am!!!!”