Dream Theater is an American progressive metal/rock band formed in 1985 under the name

Majesty by John Petrucci, John Myung, and Mike Portnoy while they attended Berklee
College of Music in Massachusetts. They subsequently dropped out of their studies to
concentrate further on the band that would ultimately become Dream Theater. Though a
number of lineup changes followed, the three original members remained together along with
James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess until September 8, 2010 when Portnoy left the band. In
October 2010, the band held auditions for a drummer to replace Portnoy. Mike Mangini was
announced as the new permanent drummer on April 29, 2011.
The band is well known for the technical proficiency of its instrumentalists, who have won
many awards from music instruction magazines. Guitarist John Petrucci has been named as
the third player on the G3 tour six times, more than any invited players. In 2009 he was
named the No. 2 best metal guitarist by Joel McIver in his book The 100 Greatest Metal
Guitarists. He was also named as one of the "Top 10 Fastest Shredders of All Time" by
GuitarOne magazine.[1] Jordan Rudess is considered to be one of the greatest keyboard
players of all time by many publications like MusicRadar.[2] Former drummer Mike Portnoy
has won 26 awards from Modern Drummer magazine and is also the second youngest person
(at the age of 37) to be inducted into the Rock Drummer Hall of Fame. His replacement Mike
Mangini has also previously set 5 WFD records.[3] John Myung was voted the greatest bassist
of all time in a poll conducted by MusicRadar in August through September 2010. The band
was inducted into the Long Island Music Hall of Fame in 2010.[4]
The band's highest-selling album is the gold-selling Images and Words (1992), which reached
No. 61 on the Billboard 200 chart.[5] Both the 1994 release Awake and their 2002 release Six
Degrees of Inner Turbulence also entered the charts at No. 32 and No. 46 respectively and
received mostly positive reviews. Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was ranked
number 95 on the October 2006 issue of Guitar World magazine's list of The greatest 100
guitar albums of all time.[6] It is ranked as the 15th Greatest Concept Album (as of March
2003) by Classic Rock Magazine[7] and as the number one all-time progressive album by
Rolling Stone (as of July 2012). Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence also led to Dream Theater
becoming the initial band reviewed in the music section of Entertainment Weekly during its
opening week of release, despite the magazine generally preferring more mainstream music.
The band's eleventh studio album, A Dramatic Turn of Events, was released on September 13,
2011. On November 30, 2011, the album's lead single, "On the Backs of Angels", was
nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" category,
marking the band's first ever Grammy nomination.[8] Dream Theater's self-titled 12th studio
album was released on September 23, 2013 and sold around 34,000 copies in the first week
and landed at No. 7 on the Billboard 200 chart, one position higher than A Dramatic Turn of
Events.[9] Dream Theater earned their second Grammy Award nomination, this time for Best
Metal Performance, for the album's first single, "The Enemy Inside".[10]
On April 9, 2013, Images and Words won Loudwire's fan voted March Metal Madness for
world's best metal album beating albums by Dio, AC/DC, Judas Priest, Megadeth and
Metallica.[11] As of 2011, Dream Theater has sold over 12 million records worldwide.[12]

Contents

1 History
o 1.1 Early years (198590)

1.1.1 Formation

1.1.2 When Dream and Day Unite (198890)

o 1.2 The Atlantic years

1.2.1 Images and Words and the addition of James LaBrie (199193)

1.2.2 Awake and Kevin Moore's departure (199495)

1.2.3 A Change of Seasons, Falling into Infinity (199598)

1.2.4 Addition of Jordan Rudess and Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a

1.2.5 Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (200102)

1.2.6 Train of Thought (200304)

1.2.7 Octavarium (200506)

o 1.3 The Roadrunner years

1.3.1 Systematic Chaos and Greatest Hit (200608)

1.3.2 Black Clouds & Silver Linings (200810)

1.3.3 Mike Portnoy's Departure (201011)

1.3.4 A Dramatic Turn of Events (201112)

1.3.5 Self-titled album (201314)

1.3.6 Upcoming 13th studio album (2015-present)

2 Live performances
o 2.1 Notable shows and concert accomplishments
o 2.2 Tours

3 Cover songs

4 Logo and imagery

5 Musical style

6 Band members
o 6.1 Timeline

7 Bootleg culture
o 7.1 Demo series
o 7.2 Studio series
o 7.3 Live series
o 7.4 Cover series

8 Discography

9 Certifications

10 Awards

11 References
o 11.1 Further reading

12 External links

History
Early years (198590)
Formation

Founding members (from left to right) John Myung, Mike Portnoy, and John Petrucci in
1985.

Dream Theater was formed in Massachusetts in 1985 when guitarist John Petrucci, bassist
John Myung, and drummer Mike Portnoy decided to form a band while attending the Berklee
College of Music. The trio started by covering Rush and Iron Maiden songs in the rehearsal
rooms at Berklee.
Myung, Petrucci, and Portnoy joined together 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 the band 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 would be the band's name.[13]
The trio then set out to fill the remaining positions in the group. Petrucci asked his high
school band-mate Kevin Moore to play the keyboard. After he accepted the position, another
friend from home, Chris Collins, was recruited as lead vocalist after band members heard him
sing a cover of "Queen of the Reich" by Queensrche.[14] During this time, Portnoy, Petrucci,
and Myung's hectic schedules forced them to abandon their studies to concentrate on their
music, as they did not feel they could learn more in college. Moore also left his college,
SUNY Fredonia, to concentrate on the band.
"Another Won"

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"Another Won" from The Majesty Demos.
Problems playing this file? See media help.
The beginning months of 1986 were filled with various concert dates in and around the New
York City area. During this time, the band recorded a collection of demos, titled The Majesty
Demos. The initial run of 1,000 sold out within six months, and dubbed copies of the cassette
became popular within the progressive metal scene. 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 was
fired. 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 to increase the
number of shows played in the New York City area, gaining a considerable amount of
exposure.
Shortly after hiring Dominici, a Las Vegas group also named Majesty[15] 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, which were all rejected, though the band did go as Glasser for about
a week, though fans reacted poorly to this decision. Eventually, Portnoy's father suggested the
name Dream Theater, the name of a small theater in Monterey, California, and the name
stuck.[16]
When Dream and Day Unite (198890)

Dream Theater in 1989: John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, Charlie Dominici, Kevin Moore, and
John Myung.
With their new name and band stability, Dream Theater concentrated on writing more
material while playing more concerts in New York and in neighboring states. This eventually
attracted the attention of Mechanic Records, a division of MCA. Dream Theater signed their
first record contract with Mechanic on June 23, 1988[17] and set out to record their debut
album. The band recorded the album at Kajem Victory Studios in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania.
Recording the basic tracks took about 10 days, and the entire album was completed in about 3
weeks.[18]
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 New York City. The promotional tour for the album consisted of just five concerts, all
of which were relatively local. Their first show was at Sundance in Bay Shore, New York
opening for the classic rock power trio Zebra.[19]
After the fourth show, Charlie Dominici was let go because the band was starting to feel the
limitations of his voice based upon the vocal style they wanted. The band was looking for
more of a Bruce Dickinson/Geoff Tate type of singer, and his stage presence was not what
they wanted for a front man. Shortly after, however, the band 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.[19] It would be another two years before Dream Theater had a
replacement vocalist.