Very exciting news! I never thought it would happen, and I was never clamoring for it as I really loved Mangini in his role.
But YES I AM EXCITED FOR THIS!!!
After a week of thinking about this... I dunno, I've started to feel conflicted about this. I will say that I LOVE Mike Portnoy. He is the reason DT was ever my favorite band. From 2003-2010 they could do no wrong for me. The shows, setlists, bootlegs (official and otherwise), the albums.... everything was eaten up by me and I could not get enough. Since the release of ADTOE, there's been less excitement regarding everything. Setlists were static (moreso than the last few years with MP, which were also heading that way - people often overlook that fact), official bootlegs were non-existent for a time, shows were less often (no shows in '13,'18, '21, US skipped in '15), and the albums, while quite good, were often not as listened to as in years past. Note that none of this has anything to do with MM, nor anyone else other than me.
So you would think that this would be the most exciting news I could ever get. And during the initial shock, that's how I felt. But I dunno... does anyone else feel like this is a step backwards?
I feel like they've been building this momentum up with MM and they have 5 albums and 13 years with this lineup, and now they've pulled the rug out on this buildup, just to go back to the previous line-up. It's weird and unsettling.
I assume that once things get going, I will quickly go back into fanboy mode. But, what if things don't get going? What if the LNF Archives stall out? What if the album is mediocre? I honestly doubt any of these thoughts will matter come next year when they start album release and performing again, but who knows?
I guess they know better than I do. And I'm hoping this is just my weird brain being weird. I'm certainly not conveying every thought I want to here, but needed to get some things out of my head.
In regards to Mangini... I'm not a fan of the way he speaks in interviews. It feels like he's all over the place and he hardly makes any sense. Nothing personal against him. I've met him and he's extremely kind and insanely awesome at the drums. But yeah, as JSS said, "He talks funny."