Well, okay, let's just do this:
- At least at the moment, while I'm not sure I 100% agree with it, I respect why MP left. While Samsara is right about the need to keep touring, I would have enjoyed them waiting longer to produce an album as well. This is kind of ironic actually, I think everyone just assumed that MP was the one who really liked the album-tour cycle and kept it going, and now he's leaving because it needed to be satiated. Also, there is a zero percent chance MP left Dream Theater unless he really did think about it. His letter to the fans was classy, honest, and emotionally genuine. It sounds kinda weird, but if LeBron had broken the news he was leaving Cleveland like MP broke the news he was leaving DT, people would feel a lot better about him.
And for what it's worth, if I thought MP was screwing the fans or Dream Theater I'd just say it. I don't like this on a number of levels, and there's a lot of internal politics going on here that we inevitably don't know about, but I really just don't have it in me to feel any anger toward MP. Like I just said, zero percent chance he would leave Dream Theater for a frivolous reason. He feels incomprehensibly sadder than we do about this, guaranteed.
- I personally wouldn't like it if MP joined Avenged Sevenfold, but it's none of our business what full-time project he joins next or if he decides to be a drumming nomad. Why anyone would be pissed off about him joining AX7 is beyond me. Although I think they write some good music so I'm biased that way.
- During DT's last tour they opened for Maiden and played at Madison Square Garden. From a live standpoint, I don't think there were many more barriers for MP to cross.
- I may or may not have commented on this in some other thread speculatively, but I guess now that MP's actually left the band I actually had to ask myself "what should DT do now?" And I almost instantly had a definitive answer: Bring in a new full-time drummer and continue.
Something that's hugely important but no one's really acknowledging is that JP has risen up to be the leader of DT now. Musically speaking, I hate to say I'm excited to hear DT without MP, but JP has the swagger, craftsmanship, and creativity to bring the band back together and write potentially great music. Maybe we'll even end up preferring how JP arranges DT songs on his own. Not something that I feel happy about typing but in a year who knows.
What really worries me is how much of DT was run on MP's force of personality. Official bootlegs, rotating setlists, personal updates from him about the band, the fact he did most of the interviews... What happens to all that? Obviously the band is motivated to continue making albums and touring, but I have this weird feeling it might have less of a personal feeling to it.
Which I guess is really the sad part. I've bitched and moaned about many things MP has said and done here (although hopefully complimented on just as much or more). And then for a lot of reasons I decided that complaining about things on internet forums is lame (except for Football), and that between the official bootlegs and the drum DVD's and the rotating sets he really does more for his fans than any member of any band. Losing all that in my mind sucks, but it's emotionally measurable. I'll live.
But the fact DT had an active personality at work in the first place is something unique that we took for granted. Whether you like or not how Portnoy become synonymous with DT, it meant there was something to the band beyond interviews and liner notes. Love or hate MP's vocals on ANTR, he responded to the criticism, and essentially it was getting a personal response from the band. The rotating setlists weren't just Mike Portnoy doing something cool for the fans, it by extension became part of the personality of the band as a whole.
And I don't know how DT's gonna do that now. MP leaving the band is like losing a family member because DT might be about to become something very cold and distant.
Stop and really think about it. Every other member of DT is a pretty quiet and reserved guy. Will it ever really be the same?
I was hoping that I could be more positive. Sorry.