Portnoy - where is his prog metal band?

[Tony From Long Island]

I never lose faith that he won't return to DT.     As much the band can say "everything's great,"    many of us can tell it's not the same.     My former singer /best friend and I had a falling out.    I think much of the reason we haven't worked it out is stubbornness.  It's a natural human emotion. Difficult to overcome.   

As to why he doesn't have a prog band, maybe he simply doesn't want one.     He doesn't need the money.    I think Winery Dogs is great  (thought I'm not a huge fan of Kotzen's singing).   Maybe he likes have a million short-term projects.

[Dublagent66]

He helped form DT, formed LTE on his own and was instrumental in the huge success of both.  What more could he possibly want to accomplish?  I couldn't possibly expect any more from the guy than he's already given.

[ChuckSteak]

I don't know why some people assume that just because he played in a prog metal band for most of his career, he now has to go and form another prog metal band. Maybe that's the reason he doesn't do it.

"Some people?" 

Just address me, since I am the one that started the thread. That's not why I assume he has to go and do it. I feel he will, based on what I said above. Which, as I also said, isn't right, and isn't wrong. It's a speculative opinion, which, I think is the point of discussion forums.

You may be entirely correct, but so could I. That's the frustrating beauty of the forum, right? 

Yes, but you are not the only person who thinks he should start a prog metal band or who asks that question, so that's why I wrote "some people". I wasn't just refering to you. I saw him saying in a lot of interviews that he also wanted to play other stlyes and not to be stuck in the prog metal label.

I am not saying your thread was pointless.

[Skeever]

Portnoy returning to Dream Theater at some point seems inevitable to me. I'm sure whatever ill feelings there were 5 years ago have now cooled somewhat, and, not to sound harsh, but Mangini doesn't seem to have injected himself as an irreplaceable member of the band the way Rudess had after three albums.

I don't think it will happen anytime soon, though. As long as DT have no reason to part from Mangini, I think they'll keep going with him as long as they stay on a regular tour/album cycle. Then, if they decided to take a break, I could see them coming back with MP for a special anniversary tour or something like that. 

Gotta say, though. Scenes from a Memory 20th Anniversary Tour with Mike Portnoy on drums would definitely get me back in the seats.

[Tony From Long Island]

I haven't seen DT since 2000  - several reasons (dislike of TA,  economic  and incarceration!!!)

I may go on the next tour if I can afford it and if they don't play more than two or so songs from TA, but if MP was back for the aforementioned hypothetical  Scenes Anniversary tour, I would pay whatever I had to.


I also think that a lot of what happens with the band in terms of members depends on if they are still financially viable.  One thing that I respect so much about DT is their ability last as long and make a decent living. 

[bosk1]

I also think that a lot of what happens with the band in terms of members depends on if they are still financially viable.  One thing that I respect so much about DT is their ability last as long and make a decent living. 

Short anecdote related to that:  For those old enough (and hip enough) to know '80s band Y&T, I have posted a lot about them over the years, and have had a fair amount of interaction with them, especially front man/guitarist/band leader, Dave Meniketti.  I have posted a lot about how, through the entire decade of the '80s, they were perpetually (and frustratingly) always 1 or 2 steps away from breaking huge, but never could quite manage to get over that hump.  And it frustrated the band members as well to see bands that had basically been discovered or getting their break while opening for Y&T (Journey, Van Halen, Metallica, Crue, etc.).  Meniketti is still a bit bitter about that to this day.  But he also tempers that with some really good perspective and has said on more than one occasion that, in the grand scheme of things, it was better for him as a person that they never broke huge, and he is thankful that they were big enough that he was able to make a living for himself and sustain himself all these years by making music.  In other words, they were just successful enough that he was able to live a comfortable (but not extravagant), although fairly modest, lifestyle through just playing music, being (relatively) smart with his money, and taking advantage of other opportunities that came through music (such as writing/playing jingles for commercials, etc.). 

I mention that to say that I think the guys in DT are in kind of a similar situation, minus the frustration part.  They have never been HUGE, and never will be.  But they are big enough to make enough money to live comfortably and not have to do other stuff, as long as they are smart with their money, which they seem to be.  And living that kind of lifestyle versus the life of a true megastar tends to keep one better grounded and make them more appreciative, which the members of DT tend to be.

[goo-goo]

I also think that a lot of what happens with the band in terms of members depends on if they are still financially viable.  One thing that I respect so much about DT is their ability last as long and make a decent living. 

I mention that to say that I think the guys in DT are in kind of a similar situation, minus the frustration part.  They have never been HUGE, and never will be.  But they are big enough to make enough money to live comfortably and not have to do other stuff, as long as they are smart with their money, which they seem to be.  And living that kind of lifestyle versus the life of a true megastar tends to keep one better grounded and make them more appreciative, which the members of DT tend to be.

This is what I have always admired about DT. I always thought bands were rockstars and huge money makers. DT was the first band that seemed to be different in this aspect...A few months later it dawned on me that they were hard working musicians and never "rich and famous". They were a huge inspiration for me (and still are to a degree) because of this (a humble hard working band).

[Tony From Long Island]

Y&T is a great under-rated band from my beloved hair band era.       Dee Snider played "Contagious" a lot on House of Hair when I was able to listen to it.   Great song.

DT will of course never be "huge"  here, but they are "Big In Japan"       :-)


When I first heard  "I Walk Beside You"  I really hoped it could be their  "Owner of a Lonely Heart"   so they could have that one big hit like YES did.   They deserved it.    I sorta felt it would make a good song for American Idol to play during the montage of the person just voted off.        Too bad that didn't work out.

As far as I know Petrucci lives in St. James on Long Island.  You have to be making a decent living to live there, so all the power to em!

[bosk1]

If rumborak and the people he knows generally do not like something, he believes it received a "poor reception."

MP himself no longer counts into your list of valid opinions? Getting more selective over the years, buddy.

  I'm not saying you aren't sometimes right, or that your take isn't sometimes valid.  You sometimes are, and your opinion sometimes is.  I'm just saying, that is your general approach, and has been as long as I have "known" you on these forums all these years.

[noxon]

Fun fact - according to my parents, Black Tiger by Y&T was one of the first songs i ran around the house singing ... when i was 2 years old.

[bosk1]

Fun fact - according to my parents, Black Tiger by Y&T was one of the first songs i ran around the house singing ... when i was 2 years old.

  That is amazing.  When they were letting fans come up onstage with them for the annual Meniketti birthday bashes in the early 2000's, I was hoping to get to play bass on that song.  My friend Steve got to do rhythm guitar (and my former bandmates, Chaz and Marty, on bass and drums, respectively) with Meniketti on that song:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LX90_4uv9-E

But since I got to sing Meanstreak with the entire Y&T band a few years later, I can't complain. 

Anyway, sorry for the off-topic, but it is tangentially related, so... 

[KevShmev]

We'll see, yeah. I mean, it looks like Mike was convinced that SOAD was going to be the prog epic the world was waiting for, but the poor reception of it might make him reconsider whatever prog plans he may have been having.

It has not received a poor reception.  The sales being lower than he hoped is not the same as it being poorly received.

[Jester]

I thought SOAD was getting good reception?  I know I liked it when I clicked on a new video link.  Prog breakthrough (in sales) is quite a bit different than your standard music breakthrough.  It is more about a fanbase giving it a kick on release, and then that's usually about it.

[KevShmev]

I thought SOAD was getting good reception? 

It is.  Its sales are higher than normal for a Neal release, and most fans seem to really like it or love it, so the reception has been very positive.   

[Kotowboy]

Portnoy joined System of A Down ?

[Jester]

I can't help but think Stormtroopers Of (a) Death when I see it.  He is Portnoy420 afterall, so the System of a Down thing sounds like it holds some merit.

[TAC]

So let me get this straight..MP joined Y&T??

[Jester]

Y&T, MP, Twisted Sister - Six Degrees
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fazyu_0IamA

[Dave_Manchester]

One aspect in my opinion is that he's simply extremely busy now. He has a very tight personal and musical connection with Neal Morse, and they have three (in my opinion great) projects together, which are all in constant rotation (Flying Colors is apparently next up). Then there's the Winery Dogs (not my cup of tea, but still very good), and he's also had the Twisted Sister gig, and Metal Allegiance, and Adrenaline Mob (which I actually liked). I dunno, I'm one of the resident fanboys on his site and I try to follow him as much as I can (I'm not on any social media), but my (very possibly completely wrong) impression is that the last 6 years were pretty hard for him, and the projects he has now give him some kind of peace and calm and musical satisfaction. He seems to value good, healthy professional relationships a lot more now. He spent 25 years doing prog metal and he's spent the time since he left Dream Theater exploring other musical avenues. It would have been strange to leave DT only to then quickly start a similar band from the ground up, using musicians who (in my opinion of course) couldn't possibly hope to be of the calibre of Petrucci, Myung and Rudess. For me, between the 'epicness' of Transatlantic and the melody of Neal Morse and the heaviness of Metal Allegiance and (occasionally) The Winery Dogs and the tunefulness of Flying Colors, he kind of has everything Dream Theater do, just spread across several bands.

[KevShmev]

I think that is a great way to sum it up, Dave_Manchester.

Portnoy has done tons of prog and metal since leaving Dream Theater, just not both at once (even Neal Morse at his most rocking is never metal).

[Jester]

Friends don't let friends prog and metal.

I know it is not normally considered American to ban genres.  But there is one genre that has caused so much damage, that we believe that it should finally be made illegal.  I'm talking of course about the genre "prog metal".  Two genres which by themselves can be harmless, but which together form an auditory missile of cheese.

From now on, if a prog metal musician quits their prog metal band, their next prog metal release must be separated by no less than 7 years.

So OP is correct.  An MP prog metal album is due next year.

[rumborak]

We'll see, yeah. I mean, it looks like Mike was convinced that SOAD was going to be the prog epic the world was waiting for, but the poor reception of it might make him reconsider whatever prog plans he may have been having.

It has not received a poor reception.  The sales being lower than he hoped is not the same as it being poorly received.

Yeah, I meant reception in a much wider sense here, not just what people think about it, but also how many people listen to it in the first place.

[KevShmev]

Well, I suspect Portnoy had unrealistic expectations, thinking that everyone who follows him on Twitter and FB is automatically going to listen to whatever he recommends, but like I said before, sales are higher than every other Neal solo/NMB album to date so far, and most reviews have ranged from very good to glowing.

[Madman Shepherd]

Believe it or not, I actually wish Mike would turn Shattered Fortress into a full project with new material.  I've given everything he has done a fair shake and haven't really dug any of it.  Out of everything post-DT he has done, the only one that has any decent moments has been Adrenaline Mob and I really don't think that is very good overall. 

I was looking forward to Metal Allegiance but nothing really grabbed me. 

[rumborak]

I think what people always seem to underestimate in these discussions, good songwriters don't grow on trees. There's so many bands in the genre that seemingly have all the pieces in place: great singer, skilled musicians. But most of them don't even gain traction from the people who love the genre.
Mike is a drummer, and as such he is reliant on a songwriter. In DT that was JP, now he has Neal Morse and Richie Kotzen, with both of them already known for their songwriting before Mike joined them.

[SoundscapeMN]

it may not be prog metal, but for those who didn't hear it, That Drummer Guy JRundquist interviewed Portnoy a couple of weeks ago and he mentions another new "secret project" in the works:

https://youtu.be/SHVcRJRbjLM?t=1616

[gzarruk]

it may not be prog metal, but for those who didn't hear it, That Drummer Guy JRundquist interviewed Portnoy a couple of weeks ago and he mentions another new "secret project" in the works:

https://youtu.be/SHVcRJRbjLM?t=1616

Probably he finally got his project with Mikael Akerfeldt? I find it funny that Portnoy has always wanted to collaborate with him, since the Progressive Nation days (2008-2009), and Mikael has never ever talked about that, not even as something he wants to do in the future  And I'm pretty sure MP has talked (a lot) with him about that

I think what people always seem to underestimate in these discussions, good songwriters don't grow on trees. There's so many bands in the genre that seemingly have all the pieces in place: great singer, skilled musicians. But most of them don't even gain traction from the people who love the genre.
Mike is a drummer, and as such he is reliant on a songwriter. In DT that was JP, now he has Neal Morse and Richie Kotzen, with both of them already known for their songwriting before Mike joined them.

This. Mike has always been more the kind of guy who listens to a lot of the songwriting and then says "you should change this and that. repeat this section here and move the solo over there", kind of what a producer would do, but he definitely needs someone to come up with most, if not all, the musical writing first.

If he ever started a new prog metal band with him as a leader, even if he gets the most amazing lineup of musicians, he would still need someone like JP or Neal to come up with a lot of songs

[emtee]

No clue who the new project is with but IF it would finally happen with Akerfeldt and Wilson I would be ecstatic. There is no way they
could make an uninteresting album. I doubt it's them though. MA and SW seem pretty busy.

[Adami]

In all of the recent interviews with Akerfeldt, there has been nothing to indicate he wants to do anything beyond what he currently is doing, including going back to a heavy prog style, which he seems to think less of. Same with Wilson.

So it's probably not going to be them. Invoking their names more often won't make it more likely.

[gzarruk]

No clue who the new project is with but IF it would finally happen with Akerfeldt and Wilson I would be ecstatic. There is no way they
could make an uninteresting album. I doubt it's them though. MA and SW seem pretty busy.

When asked, Portnoy has always said he wants to make a musical project with Akerfeldt, but has never mentioned Steven Wilson. That original idea was what would eventually turn into Storm Corrosion, and, after that, Mike has still talked about his interest in working with MA.

Still, as just stated by Adami, Akerfeldt doesn't seem to have too much interest on any of that, so this new Portnoy project must be something completely different and, let's hope, good.

About his post DT work, I've only liked the albums he did with Neal Morse, Transatlantic (both which existed before he left DT), Flying Colors and always hoped PSMS would make an original album, but never happened 
His other current projects just don't interest me at all 

[rumborak]

In all of the recent interviews with Akerfeldt, there has been nothing to indicate he wants to do anything beyond what he currently is doing, including going back to a heavy prog style, which he seems to think less of. Same with Wilson.

So it's probably not going to be them. Invoking their names more often won't make it more likely.

I think the whole Wilson/Akerfeldt thing was at best an idea bandied around between them before Storm Corrosion happened. To my understanding that's the project that actually came of the collaboration talks.
So, I have zero expectations that anything will happen between them at this point. Steven and Mikael are also in totally different musical spaces than MP. I have a hard time imagining them being interested.

Also, they have the phone numbers of Gavin Harrison, Marco Minnemann, Craig Blundell and Martin Axenrot on speed dial.

[Samsara]

Circling it back around to Dream Theater, project or not, I am talking basing a band around the catalog of songs from DT that Mike helped write and contribute to. I just don't see him as a person content to not play those songs again regularly. You can tell, when he does play them, how much he misses it. It's in his energy.

I think it is a matter of time before he comes full circle -- not with DT, but back to those DT songs and prog metal.

[Air Weaver]

I need to get clarification of a term here, to make sense of this discussion.

A couple mentions of the "Shattered Fortress project." Are y'all talking about the 12-Step Suite? SF is the last song in that collection, so I assume that's what we're talking about.

I'm not going to say this as if no one here knows it, but there are apparently two 2017 planned performances of this particular set of songs - the Prog Cruise in January, and a festival in September. I won't be making it to either, so I am kind of hoping that there is another chance to see Mike do this all together sometime. I'll ask when I do the Neal Morse Band meet and greet in DC in February.

I have only recently heard of the existence of this as a sub-set of DT songs, though the 12step themes are obvious to anyone with a passing knowledge of the program.

Can I assume that these very Mike songs are pretty much left alone and not done at DT shows since his departure?

[BlobVanDam]

Can I assume that these very Mike songs are pretty much left alone and not done at DT shows since his departure?

DT have played The Shattered Fortress many times with MM. I wouldn't expect DT to ever play the entire suite together, but they're not avoiding the songs. Which is good, because I'm still waiting to hear THE GLASS PRISON DANGIT.

[TheCountOfNYC]

Can I assume that these very Mike songs are pretty much left alone and not done at DT shows since his departure?

I think the only songs that are very closely associated with MP that may be "off limits" to DT (not officially but I doubt that they would play them) would be the entire 12 Step Suite straight through especially Repentance (although they may play parts separately and have in fact played The Root of all Evil and The Shattered Fortress with MM) and The Best of Times.