(New York, NY) – GRAMMY®-winning, progressive music titans Dream Theater are announcing the return of drummer Mike Portnoy to the group. Portnoy will reunite with guitarist John Petrucci and bassist John Myung – the trio formed the band at the Berklee College Of Music in 1985 – along with longtime m...
I honestly didn't think this would ever happen! I thought all those MP fans that kept complaining about Portnoy's absence were just being ridiculous, of course he was never gonna rejoin the band.
Well, I guess hell has frozen over.
Mangini is a beast of a drummer but there was a magic with Portnoy that I felt has been missing on the last few albums, so I'm stoked that he's back!
I for one missed Portnoys influence on the music. Not necessarily as a drummer, but as a songwriter and general arranger. I always liked Mangonis drumming, including his work before DT, so I've always been curious how DT would be if Portnoy was involved more on the production side.
Either way, I'm happy to again be able to hear the DT i fell in love with all those years ago (well, minus Derek). I hope to see them live again soon.
I for one missed Portnoys influence on the music. Not necessarily as a drummer, but as a songwriter and general arranger. I always liked Manginis drumming, including his work before DT, so I've always been curious how DT would be if Portnoy was involved more on the production side.
Either way, I'm happy to again be able to hear the DT i fell in love with all those years ago (well, minus Derek). I hope to see them live again soon.
I commented this on a separate post, but it seems to me MM was done dirty. DT was adamant that he was NOT a temporary drummer when they hired him. I get it if they weren’t seeing eye-to-eye in terms of creativity and band direction, but it seems they just booted him so they can get MP back.
I definitely take what the band says with a healthy dose of salt. They're a business first, and outside of Portnoy are usually really opaque about their inner workings. Even if they'd made it clear to Mangini that Portnoy coming back was always on the table, I think they'd still publicly say "We're sticking with this guy forever so get used to it (and don't skip buying the next few albums waiting for a reunion!)"
All that said, even if they told Mangini that Portnoy coming back was off the table, the writing was on the wall and getting bigger as Portnoy was popping back up on Petrucci's solo record, new LTE, and there was so much publicity about him attending DT shows. I just figured they'd have done a "When Dream and Day Reunite" show where both Mikes were on stage before we got to this.