Oh dear,
Hello, everyone! It's been a while (a couple of years, at least) since I last wrote in these parts. To be honest, I had grown weary of DT-related discussions and I feel that talking about the band stopped being so much fun as it once was because it all arguably became a little bit stale (for lack of a better word), but these news really hit us all like a train, didn't they?
I've been lurking quite a bit since the announcement and I really like and resonate with some of the things said by some of you (particularly my very good and old friends. You know who you are!). Here are my two cents that I really felt like logging back in after forever and share them with y'all:
WARNING: It's going to be a long post, so feel free to skip all of this and answer a very simple TLDR. I won't feel any offense.
Wow. It's almost two months since the announcement and I'm still a mixed bag of emotions. This was completely out of the blue and unexpected, and after reading the words
"Mike Portnoy returns to Dream Theater" I relived some of the most intense moments from September 2010 when Mike Portnoy originally left. I remember feeling like a lifelong friend had died (I was 20 back then) and feeling completely shaken to the core. It's funny how close we can emotionally get to a rock band, eh? Now, that being said, the following months with the whole drummer announcement thing were incredibly exciting and full of revitalized discussion. It was really a great time to be a Dream Theater fan and, particularly, a great time to be a part of this community because discussions evolved into more intricate debates and perspectives and then, finally, the announcement of Mike Mangini.
Mike Mangini. Boy, what a drummer. I understand perfectly what DT saw in him, and in the same tenor I understand perfectly what some fans didn't like about him (and that is pretty simple to answer: he was not Mike Portnoy). Nevertheless, he was exactly what the band needed in 2011 and helped DT, in some ways better than others, to fit into an ever evolving and complex progressive metal scene in the 2010s - the decade of the Hakens, the Peripherys, the Animals as Leaders, the Nolly-driven-hyper-pristine productions. ADTOE was a huge home run, in DT's most particular way. I've been listening quite a lot of the Mangini-era output these past few weeks and that album is truly one of DT's all-time best in my book, no contest. The songs are inspired, the performances are soulful and the tour that followed was something really special (even though the Luna Park document is not really up there with DT's great live documents, not because of the band but because of the production, but that's another story for another day). I remember feeling very strongly then that DT was going to be okay. It was a great, great feeling.
These are not going to be chronicles of my DT journey in the 2010s and 2020s because I can't imagine them being an interesting read to any of you, so I'm going to fast forward quite a bit:
I know, as most of you do, that the rest of the 2010s were mostly okay for the band. It produced some music that hasn't really aged so well (the self-titled, although it has some pretty brilliant moments) and it also produced some gems as well. I've been focus of critique and thrash-talk for the past seven years for saying The Astonishing is one of my all-time favorite Dream Theater albums and I truly understand its weak points (it's longer than it should be, some of the "additional" sound production feels like a 90s RPG and the graphic 3D art is not very good at all) but it holds some of the most inspired and beautiful music DT has ever produced and that really set in stone a new approach in their musical legacy to writing concept albums (unlike The Neal Morse Band's Similitude of a Dream, that although it was very good and I enjoy it thoroughly it's pretty much the same music Neal Morse had been writing for the past 30 years compositionally, sonically and aesthetically). The last two albums in the Mangini-era, Distance and View, fall into the same category in my book: they sound great (compared to their earlier 2010s efforts), they make amazing use of Mangini's otherwordly technical chops and particularly A View From the Top of the World felt like the culmination of the Mangini sound and aesthetic although I don't feel there was anything particularly exciting about these releases other than they were a nice collection of songs that I still enjoy from time to time. Things were really good and stable in DT camp, but to be honest nothing exciting was happening. The Grammy win was so cool, though, and having a song like The Alien win it was a huge statement but that's about it.
Now, after a quick or not-so-quick recollection of thoughts and feelings over 13 years of DT history, I'll slowly move into my thesis:
I know I'm in a minority on this, but I really loved how dialed in and absolutely solid their Mangini era shows were. Playing to a click track was something that really upped their live show in many ways (the Distant Memories live release is an absolute crowning in this matter). The aesthetics they were aiming at really needed that sort of precision which was not so needed in the Portnoy camp because the band's musical philosophy changed quite a bit (I'm a full-time composition professor at a Conservatory, I can get pretty intense about these subjects). I did miss the rotating setlists because it was so fun coming into here and discussing different possibilities and combinations, but I completely understand why they got rid of them and honestly it was fine by me because change is not always for the worse. You lose the excitement and mystique, but you get an absolutely dialed-in show more in the vain of a Classical Music concert and from here is that I state why I'm a mixed bag of feelings regarding Mike Portnoy's return:
I think this both a personally-driven and business-driven decision by both parts. I think Mike Portnoy's return is going to up their next tour quite a bit, and I can see them playing in bigger places and audiences because most of us want to relive the good ole pre-2010 days and the young people who have discovered the band will see Mike Portnoy behind the kit with Dream Theater for the very first time. This is going to be be very good for business, hands-down.
Now, as most of you I have several questions that I will very gladly wait to see answered: How much music from the Mangini era will they still play? Will Mike Portnoy be able to pull off songs like Pale Blue Dot? In the same way that Mike Mangini technically pushed the other three instrumentalists, will they push Mike Portnoy as well? I can't help but to feel that Rudess, Petrucci and Myung have evolved quite a bit in their respective crafts but I do not feel the same about Portnoy. LTE3 was definitely very nice, but LTE is not the same as Dream Theater. The band achieved a very intricate and technically-driven sound with A View From the Top of the World, and I would feel like the band is taking steps backwards in the went back to their Black Clouds & Silver Linings sound, it's a weird feeling.
Its really too soon to know how DT will take their acquired wisdom from the 2010s and merge it with the pre-2010 way of thinking about music, but although I'm definitely excited about what will happen I fear that DT might become an Iron Maiden of sorts: a band that will forever sail with their "greatest hits" (remember that "greateSt Hit" pun? One of MP's not-so-good creative outputs).
Anyways, to conclude this unnecessarily long post (what a way of coming back to the forum, eh?): I will really miss Mike Mangini. He is a truly one-of-a-kind professional and I really enjoyed what the band became with his talent behind the drums. I never imagined I would be saying this, but still don't know if musically the band will benefit from Mike Portnoy's return in many aspects, although I'm extremely excited to find out in the following months. As wishful thinking, I really hope that the band really takes into account everything they learned from the Mangini era in terms of management, of composition, of band dynamics and of music because us, the fans, can only benefit from it. It's ironic how, in some manner, Mike Portnoy has some pretty big shoes to fill this time around drum-wise. Now, something DID return with a bang: DT-related discussions are probably going to be fun and exciting again for me.
Cheers!