New York Based Progressive Metal Legends Reunite with Former Member

The Dream Theater story begins with 3 kids from Long Island, NY meeting up at the Berklee School of Music in 1985. And now in 2023, after 13 years, those same three kids are reunited to make new music.

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John Petrucci, John Myung and Mike Portnoy would end up focusing on the band they had created more than the curriculum. Petrucci would recruit his high school bandmate Kevin Moore to play keyboards and he too would abandon his studies to join the group then known as Majesty.

The vocalist position wasn't so easily filled. The band was able to make an album with Brooklyn native Charlie Dominici, but were soon on the lookout again. They went across the border to find Canadian Kevin James Labrie.

This lineup would make two albums together before Moore would leave the band.

Keeping all of this straight? Dream Theater had its share of member changes.

For eleven years, things were finally stable. From 1999 to 2009, after the addition of keyboardist Jordan Rudess, the band enjoyed their longest period of a change-free lineup.

That all changed on September 8, 2010 when founding member Mike Portnoy announced his departure from the band. It was a day fans never thought would happen.

The band continued with Mike Mangini and entered into the band's longest period of lineup stability, totaling the better part of 13 years.

On October 25, 2023, it was announced that Mangini would be leaving and Mike Portnoy would be coming home to the band he started with Myung and Petrucci 38 years ago at Berklee School Of Music. The band has announced that they are starting work on their 16th studio album, their first with Portnoy since 2009.

The past for dream theater has been filled with people coming and going alternating with long stretches of stability. The music has always come first and has never been short of exceptional.

The future isn't written yet, but there is no doubt the music will still come first.