It’s been a while since we had anything to grind through the Mike Portnoy / Dream Theater rumor mill, unless you count all those “I’m not the permanent drummer of Avenged Sevenfold” interview responses, which I don’t. Thankfully this glorious week of giving thanks here in the U.S. brings us two Portnoy / DT news tidbits to be thankful for, one dorky and one gossipy.

First, the dorkitude. In perhaps some of the best DT drum covers to be posted to YouTube in the history of that site, Behold… the Arctopus and Blotted Science drummer Charlie Zeleny recently uploaded a bunch of “audition” videos of himself playing along to various Dream Theater songs. “Audition” is in quotes because apparently Zeleny wasn’t actually asked in for an audition, but somehow got wind of which songs DT were asking auditioning drummers to learn and recorded and uploaded them of his own accord. It sorta worked, too; apparently the members of DT have now seen these videos. I’m actually kinda surprised more young drummers that grew up under Portnoy’s influence haven’t done the same thing the way, say, Dave Grohl publicly groveled for Led Zeppelin’s drum throne when they reunited in 2007 to pay tribute to Ahmet Artegun. Here’s Zeleny covering the middle/end section of “Metropolis Pt. 1″:

Note the Portnoy stick-flip at 1:10! Way to score those extra points, Chuck.

Now onto the gossip!!

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What does Dream Theater inspire you to do? Some of you would probably answer “stick screwdrivers in my ears” and some of you would probably answer “masturbate furiously in the corner.” A few level-headed folks might even answer “nothing at all… I appreciate their technicality but they aren’t for me.”

In the case of the Venezuelan YouTube user known as cebra4444, Dream Theater inspire martial arts; I know what you’re thinking, and no, not the moshpit variety. What’s more, cebra444′s version of Dream Theater’s now-classic “Home” (11 years ago already!! crikey, I’m getting old) is his own acoustic arrangement, multi-tracked to the 9′s complete with several rhythm and lead tracks all executed extremely admirably. The guy can sing too, and does a damn fine job of imitating James LaBrie’s timbre and matching his range. In fact, I like this acoustic rendition of “Home” so much that I’ve already listened to it three times. So what’s with the random footage added in of this dude performing some kind of martial art? Beats me, but this version of “Home” definitely gets the Neilstein stamp of approval.

-VN

P.S.: I had a dream last night where the new Portnoy-less Dream Theater album came out and it totally smoked. Yes, I dream about Dream Theater. Seriously.

Thanks: Guido Perdomo

Preface: I love Dream Theater and anything DT-related with all my heart. But this is just too easy!

A media war of words between the remaining members of Dream Theater and the recently departed Mike Portnoy was bound to erupt sooner or later, right? Here’s where things get really nasty, so that once the inevitable occurs and Portnoy re-joins the band he helped form, at least there’ll be some good sound bites for Behind the Music or whatever the Metal Injection equivalent of it is in the year 2014, right?

But before the media sensationalized JUICY GOSSIP, a quick update from the Portnoy front. Metal Insider is reporting that in a recent interview Portnoy claimed he’d remain with Avenged Sevenfold for the remainder of the Nightmare touring cycle. This shouldn’t really surprise anyone as it wouldn’t make sense for A7X to switch drummers mid-tour, but it does call into question Portnoy’s motives for leaving Dream Theater. Didn’t he want a break so he could pursue other musical projects? Obviously A7X qualify as a musical project (now’s your chance for a snarky comment about A7X… hyuck, hyuck!), but I got the impression he wanted to spend more time on side projects and didn’t want to be on the road constantly. The touring cycle for an album by a band of A7X’s stature usually lasts 1.5 to 2 years… so expect Portnoy to be out on the road with them until this time next year, or later. That’s not gonna leave much time for anything else.

But you want the JUICY GOSSIP, right?? Well, click on through to see what James LaBrie had to say about Portnoy, and what Portnoy said back:

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Welcome to “Question of the Week,” a (sometimes) weekly debate amongst the MetalSucks staff regarding a recent hot button issue.

With seemingly every band in the world now less-than-hesitant to replace a departed member, no matter how seemingly important that member was to the band’s success, this week we asked our writers:

IS THERE ANY STILL-ACTIVE METAL BAND THAT COULD NOT AFFORD TO LOSE A SINGLE MEMBER OF ITS LINE-UP?

The MS staff’s answers after the jump.

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Will Vince murder me if I compare Star One, the new project from multi-instrumentalist and Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen, to Dream Theater? ‘Cause I can’t really think of a more apt comparison. Classically infectious main riff? Check. Vocals sure to elicit homophobic epithets? Check. Super proggy guitar solo interspersed with an equally proggy synth solo played in a keyboard tone that is awesome even as it somehow conveys years of chronic masturbation in the face of a complete inability to lose one’s virginity? Check. Dorkiness out the wazoo? My fellow Firefly nerds (I still have just enough dignity left not to refer to myself as a “browncoat”) will recognize the title of Star One’s new song, “Earth That Was,” as a reference to Joss Whedon’s cult show. So, yeah, big 10-4 on that last one.

But as is the case with Dream Theater, I kid because I love. I mean, this shit really is as geeky as geeky gets, but that doesn’t negate the fact that it’s also really fun. In other words: Maybe a more apt comparison than Dream Theater would just be Ayreon.

“Earth That Was” is streaming at Noisecreep. It features vocals by Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Headspace, Threshold), Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), and Dan Swano (duh), in case my witticisms didn’t already have you foaming at the mouth. And it comes off of Star One’s new album, Victims of the Modern Age, which is out October 26th via InsideOut Music.

-AR

Mike Portnoy’s departure from Dream Theater is pretty much the biggest non-death story to break in metal over the past several months. Foundations have been demolished! Worlds have come crashing down! The strongest of e-friendships and message board dork alliances have been shattered! MetalGF copped to enjoying Scenes From a Memory when I put it on this Saturday morning! What is the Metalverse coming to???

In a move that only underscores how far beyond drumming his role in Dream Theater stretched, Portnoy took to the airwaves on Eddie Trunk’s weekly Friday Night Rocks broadcast this past Friday and attempted to clear up some of the rumors and accusations that’ve been floating around the Webernets since he announced his departure on Wednesday evening. Since you all reading this site are no doubt very concerned about wasting your boss’s dollar while you peruse the Internet, I’ll sum up the main talking points for you here in convenient bullet-point form:

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That’s right! One of MetalSucks’ most controversial voices — which is really saying something — is gonna be the DJ at tonight’s Heavy Metal Happy Hour at Arrow Bar (85 Avenue A). There are 2-for-1 drinks from 6:00PM until 9:00PM, so if you’ve ever wanted to get drunk and ask Gary “ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS OR WHAT?!?!” in person, here’s your chance!

Now the week’s highlights:

• We debuted new music by The Absence and Vanisher.
• We spoke to Accept’s Wolf Hoffmann and Sebastian Bach (but not really with that last one).
• We checked out new releases by Filter, Neurosis, and The Last Felony.
• Vince contemplated a Mike Portnoy-less Dream Theater.
• Sergeant D. contemplated the new Escape the Fate song…
• …while we couldn’t even pay attention during the new Oceano song.
• We considered bidding on the best band name in the world.
• As it turns out, Wormrot are really good live, too.
• Neil Young and Burzum are collaborating on a new album?!?
• Wanna see a fat man eat seven cans of ravioli in time to a Fuckshovel song? OF COURSE YOU DO!!!

As Eyal promised yesterday, next week will see the full-on return of “Jumping Darkness Parade.” Plus we’ll have more contest, more video and track debuts, more interviews, more everything. Be there or be ᄆ.

-AR

Reader Mike McGurney sent us a link to the below video, in which Mike Portnoy plays Avenged Sevenfold’s “Nightmare” with his eleven year-old son, Max, awhile back… and we never ran it. But now certainly seems like an appropriate time, eh?

I know some of you sourpusses will get your panties in a twist that they’re playing “Nightmare” and not “Pull Me Under” or whatever, but did you do anything this cool with your dad when you were eleven?

-AR

Now that I’ve had a good 24 hours to process the news that Mike Portnoy has quit Dream Theater, I’m ready to opine on it. And my opinion can be summed up thusly:

RUFKM????

No, no… obviously it’s way more complex than that. Allow me to elaborate.

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Right up there with “Shana Tova.”

Gee, Mike, from the bottom of my blackened Jewish heart, thanks for the new year’s present. Don’t worry, there’ll be time to atone for your sins a week and a day from now; you can still take it back!

I’m definitely still in the denial phase of this whole thing. Sigh.

-VN

Our inboxes are currently blowing up with this link, a lengthy post on Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy’s personal Facebook page, in which the DT mastermind / genius / orchestrator / everythingman announces he is leaving the band. Yes, you read that correctly; Mike Portnoy — the heart and soul of DT — is leaving the legendary band he helped create.

As best I can tell the post was indeed written by Portnoy; it certainly reads like him, and the Facebook profile it was posted from has 185,993 likes which would seem to indicate it’s actually his profile. And, yep, there we go; Roadrunner Records’ publicist just responded to our email seeking confirmation. Ladies and gentlemen, Mike Portnoy has officially left the building.

As for an actual analysis of what this news means to me — and to you, my fellow Dream Theater superfan — my mind is so fucking boggled right now that I think I’m gonna hafta take a day or so to think about and digest it. So, without further ado, Mike Portnoy’s Dream Theater departure letter:

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I was totally skeptical about Mose Giganticus — until I saw them live. They put on a really, really fun show. And in that regard, their new video, for “The Left Path,” is a smashing success: It portrays the band gradually winning over a room of jaded hipsters, which is exactly what I saw them do in Brooklyn earlier this summer.

But a big part of what won me over about Mose Giganticus was the use of the keytar by MG mastermind Matt Garfield (who is actually the only “real” member of the band — he writes and records everything, and guitarist Joe Smiley and drummer Dan Eppihimer are just live/touring members). ‘Cause the keytar rules, and more bands that aren’t Dream Theater or DragonForce (e.g., more bands that probably didn’t spend much of high school in a locker) need to use them. And, yes, Garfield does use a regular keyboard as well as the keytar, and maybe he even uses a regular keyboard for this song (I honestly can’t remember), which would make the use the keytar in the clip “dishonest.” But whatever… sometimes you gotta take dramatic license for the sake of awesomeness, dude!!!

In any case, I still dig this song a whole bunch.

Mose Giganticus’ Relapse debut, Gift Horse, is out now. The band is touring right now, and you should totally check ‘em out, and throw your panties at the stage when Garfield whips out his mighty keytar. Get tour dates here.

-AR

[via Popmatters.com]

… sort of!

The above photo was sent in by Zappa Plays Zappa bassist Pete Griffin, who’s already been featured in our ongoing Show Us Your MetalSucks contest series — in which you send in a fun/funny picture of yourself donning your MetalSucks merch and in return we send you a buncha free shit.

Griffin befriended Portnoy on last year’s Progressive Nation tour and the two have been buds since. The above photo was snapped after the ZPZ set at the High Voltage Festival in London, where Portnoy was playing with Transatlantic and then immediately flying back to the US to do the first gig with Avenged Sevenfold the next night. Says Griffin, “He once again sat and watched our entire set, singing and air drumming along.” The dude on the left is ZPZ drummer Joe Travers and the dude on the right is ZPZ guitarist Jamie Kime, both of whom are in Griffin’s other project Gryphon Labs.

So, while Portnoy might not be wearing that bad-ass Jewified MetalSucks shirt… it’s probably the closest he’ll ever get to doing so. Thanks, Pete!

-VN

The new James Labrie solo effort “One More Time” — streaming today on Noisecreep — starts out much like you’d expect from a side project of a member of Dream Theater; deep, rich guitar tone (heyo John Petrucci), a pounding, driving but intricate drum beat (heyo Mike Portnoy), some proggy time shifts here and there and even a Johny Myung-esque bass solo mid-song. And… screaming vocals. Zuh???

Not that this is a bad thing. It just caught me completely by surprise. The screams come courtesy of guitarist/keyboardist Matt Guillory, and Labrie’s trademark pipes comes back into play in the choruses. The effect is a good cop / bad cop vocal scheme which, in concert with the music, really has a melodic death metal feel with a very slight technical edge. This is exactly what Soilwork would sound like if they had James Labrie singing for them instead of Speed Strid… now that’d be a cool duet, wouldn’t it?

Static Impulse comes out on September 28th via InsideOut. Stream “One More Time” at Noisecreep; it’s addictively catchy.

-VN

Avenged Sevenfold’s Nightmare is out today (read Vince’s interview with A7X’s Johnny Christ here), and I’ve only listened to it twice so I reserve the right to completely rescind everything I’m about to type. But my initial impressions are that it’s a really good record, maybe the best pop metal album of the year so far, and that it’s not quite as good as the band’s last, self-titled album. I don’t think the band have pushed themselves quite as hard as they did last time out, when they suddenly revealed aspirations of being Queen. Even the really epic songs, like “Save Me” and “Victim,” don’t quite have the WHOA! factor of tracks like “A Little Piece of Heaven” or “Unbound” — songs that no one could have predicted after Waking the Fallen and City of Evil. Yeah, “Natural Born Killer” and “Tonight the World Dies” are excellent songs, but they’re songs that will surprise exactly no one who heard Avenged Sevenfold. (The one exception might be “Fiction,” which is a straight-up piano ballad.)

But don’t get your panties in a twist if you’re an A7X fan. I still think it’s a really good album.

Now the band has made their Rev-less live debut with Mike Portnoy on drums, and… yep, it stills sounds like Avenged Sevenfold. But for some of us, bootleg vids like this one (of the new song “Welcome to the Family”) will be our only chance to see Portneged Sevenoy so… enjoy!

Check out more clips of our favorite Jewish drummer from Long Island playing with our favorite glam Republicans from Orange County over at The PRP.

-AR

With the passing of James “The Rev” Sullivan, it hasn’t been an easy year for the members of Avenged Sevenfold. But with their new album Nightmare coming out tomorrow and the band out on tour once again — with fill-in drummer Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater — things are starting to look up for the OC crew. In my quick chat with A7X bassist Johnny Christ last week, the youngest and newest member of Avenged Sevenfold spoke about The Rev’s passing, the late drummer’s role in writing the record, and working with Portnoy and producer Mike Elizondo. Our chat after the jump.

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As previously reported, Iron Maiden’s July 12th set at Madison Square Garden with Dream Theater was a doozy! MS photographer Jacqueline Cheng thought so too — although various contingents within the MS Mansion disagree — and was there, camera in hand, to document the action. Cheng captured some fantastic images (and words! har har, see what I did there?) from Dream Theater’s set before being unexpectedly booted from the photo pit when Iron Maiden’s set began, but still managed to snap a few shots of our favorite Brits too. Her pics, after the jump.

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Avenged Sevenfold may not be a hair metal, exactly — Guns N’ Roses (particularly Use Your Illusion-era Guns N’ Roses), who we will argue this week are very much not a hair metal band, seem to be their biggest influence — but they certainly seem to embody the spirit of hair metal, and have succeeded where so many modern hair metal bands have ultimately failed: they have created catchy pop metal and found a mass audience. And while we still haven’t heard all of their new album, Nightmare, as of yet, what we have heard suggests that it’s gonna continue in the same vein; in other words, if Avenged Sevenfold was Use Your Illusion III and Chinese Democracy was Use Your Illusion IV (or, perhaps more accurately, Use Your Delusion), than Nightmare will pretty much be Use Your Illusion IV.

Here’s the new video for the title track from Nightmare. They’re calling this the “unedited” version of the clip, although I assume they mean “uncensored.” ‘Cause, y’know. Unless all this footage cut itself together, it looks pretty edited to me.

Nightmare comes out July 27 on Warner Bros.

-AR

Photo credit: MS photographic wiz Jacqueline Cheng. More pics (including lots of opening act Dream Theater) coming soon!

The setlist of Iron Maiden’s current U.S. tour has been the topic of much debate lately. At first I was bummed to hear that it would consist of mostly material from Brave New World and newer, the album on which Bruce Dickinson and Adrian Smith rejoined the band. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that it was actually a pretty cool thing for the band to. I LOVED Brave New World so it would be a treat to hear those songs live again after 10 (!) years, and though I couldn’t possibly ever tire of hearing Maiden’s classic songs live, I’d seen them performed on the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour less than two years. Maybe it was time for something different, and maybe it was time for everyone to stop whining and to let the band do their thing. They’ve earned it after all these years.

By the time I was standing at my seat in Madison Square Garden on Monday night I was 100% behind the idea of a Maiden set focusing on new material. And Iron Maiden did a fucking fantastic job with it, putting on a stellar, captivating show as always and giving us, the fans, something just as fun, albeit a bit different, than what we’re used to.

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Why is it that drummers have a habit of wearing basketball jerseys on stage? Tool’s Daney Carey constantly rocks his Lakers jersey (though dude, whatup with the t-shirt underneath? that’s like wearing socks with sandals.), and Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy is rarely seen on stage without a jersey of some kind (though to be fair, he also sports baseball and hockey jerseys). But it was actually this video of Vince Neil’s solo band drummer Zoltan Chaney doing his usual crazy routine that got me thinking.

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