Dream Theater

Hailing from Boston, Massachusetts, Dream Theater have established themselves as a major force in progressive metal since the 1990s. In 1985, Berklee College of Music students John Petrucci (guitar), John Myung (bass) and Mike Portnoy (drums) got together under the name Majesety, backed by Kevin Moore (keyboards) and Chris Collins (vocals). After an enthusiastic demo and the replacement of Collins by Charlie Dominici, the band rebranded as Dream Theater with a new singer, Canadian James LaBrie, and signed with Atco to produce the album Images & Words (1992), boosted by the hit "Pull Me Under". From then on, with Awake (1994), Falling Into Infinity (1997), Scenes from a Memory (1999) and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulences (2002), the band continued to expand their audience from one tour to the next, and to extend their impact in terms of album sales worldwide. This period also saw a succession of keyboardists, with Mike Sherinian replacing Kevin Moore in 1994, and then Jordan Rudess in 1999. In 2006, after the releases of Train of Thought (2003) and Octavarium (2005), the live album Score: XOX saw Dream Theater surrounded by a 29-piece orchestra. The band, whose lyrics are inspired by heroic fantasy and science fiction literature, signs with Roadrunner Records and breaks into the American charts, reaching number 19 on the Billboard 200 with Systematic Chaos (2007), then number 6 with Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009). Drummer Mike Portnoy, a stalwart since the early days, leaves the band to support Avenged Sevenfold, who have just lost Jimmy Sullivan. He is replaced by Mike Mangini from A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011), followed by Dream Theater (2013) and the dystopian The Astonishing (2016), played in full on a world tour. The two-hour-plus double album is followed by the more concise Distance Over Time (2019), which inaugurates a new contract with Inside Out Music. In 2021, A View from the Top of the World is recorded in his brand-new studio, Dream Theater Headquarters, before Mike Portnoy returns on Parasomnia (2025).