My TV is inextricably tuned to the nerdiest of all channels — when I’m loungin’ it’s all about Discovery, Sci Fi, A&E, Animal Planet, the Science Channel, etc. My current obsessions are A&E’s scintillating artificial drama Storage Wars (Yuuuuuuuup!) of which there’s seemingly an endless pit of episodes, and Animal Planet’s Orangutan Island, a serial drama about a group of orphaned Orangutans living together on a 100 acre island in Borneo (seriously, check this shit out, they’re basically human!). A&E’s kinda been going off the deep end lately, though; their success with Storage Wars has seemingly emboldened them to scrape the bottom of the barrel of trashy, niche cultures with new shows like Shipping Wars and Pit Bulls and Paroles. Does anyone actually watch that crap? I like my niche culture CLASSY, thank you very much, which is when I fire up an episode of Hoarders from my DVR.

To be fair, Mike Portnoy definitely isn’t a hoarder — more of an OCD collector of the highest order, with everything organized perfectly. But holy crap, look at all that stuff!!! For a guy who admits to bringing 5 iPods on the road with him, I wonder how often he actually touches those CDs anymore? The real reason for any music dork to watch this Sabian-filmed video, though, is of course to ogle at Portnoy’s personal drum room — tons and tons and tons of goodies, of which he explains them all. Worth the 8-minute watch, for sure.

-VN

[via Metal Injection]

When ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy announced an unlikely collaboration with John Sykes (above left, the guy who wrote Whitesnake’s huge album), it was easy to be of two minds: On the one hand, Portnoy had reactivated the long-dormant Sykes, which is awesome; but, jeez, the Portnoy-Sykes affair also set a roadblock before any potential reunion of Blue Murder, Sykes’ awesomely awesome supergroup with drummer Carmine Appice and farty Tony Franklin. That’s a bummer.

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Mike Portnoy’s new band, Adrenaline Mob, are gonna release their debut full-length, Omertà, later this year. And now they’ve unveiled the cover art, which is pretty typical metal album stuff…

…except if the concept of a skeleton against a deep blue night sky seems kind of familiar, well, it ought to, because of this:

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On September 20th we reported that Mike Portnoy sued the other members of Dream Theater back in April, linking to the publicly available “Notice of Summons” document as proof. Later that day Dream Theater’s attorney was quoted as saying there is “no pending litigation” between Portnoy and Dream Theater. Today I choose to file a motion of “bullshit.”

A stealthy MetalSucks named Larry W. reader tipped us off to the existence of this website, a publicly searchable database of all court records in New York state. Pass the captcha, type “Portnoy, Mike” into the Plaintiff Search box (lol at him not using “Michael”), and voila, a plethora of documents relating to the Portnoy vs. DT litigation, the most recent of which was filed YESTERDAY.

Click to read more…

On September 15th we published Part 1 of an epic Rigged piece, in which new Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini embarked on a quest to take MetalSucks readers through every single piece of his massive drumkit. It wasn’t our intention to have to split this Rigged feature up, it’s just that the dude’s got so. much. gear. that we simply didn’t have a choice but to split it up into three! So, without further ado, here’s Part 2:

So that brings me to the cymbal arrangements. The cymbal arrangement is setup where for the most part darker sounding cymbals are on the left side and brighter sounding cymbals are on the right — higher pitch right, lower pitch left. That determines whether or not I play righty or lefty. Let me give you an example: on a song like “Caught in a Web,” the musicians in the band change key signatures from whatever key signature that they’re in to one that’s up a couple of steps. When I go from a lower key signature to a higher key signature, I will often switch from my left side hi-hats (which are lower pitched) to the right side ones (which are higher pitched).

That is the one thing that is going to stick out as being distinctly different from me and everybody, and that includes Mike Portnoy. When it comes to playing Dream Theater songs, I’m not going to play on just one hi-hat. I’m going to be switching hi-hats when the guys change key signatures.

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UPDATE, 1pm EDT: Now Dream Theater’s attorney says that there is ”no pending litigation” between the band and Portnoy… although he did file a “Notice With Summons.” Stay tuned for more details…

Original post:

I didn’t see this coming, but I can’t say I’m that surprised: Mike Portnoy is suing Dream Theater.

The summons was sent all the way back on April 19th so I’m shocked it’s taken this long to find its way online, but here it is in all its glory. The suit, which is leveled at John Petrucci, John Myung, Jordan Rudess and James LaBrie personally — as well as the operating Dream Theater-related companies Ytse Jams, Inc., and Infinity Touring, Inc. — charges that the above defendants:

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Discussing Dream Theater’s new album, A Dramatic Turn of Events, last week, Vince wrote that the release “sounds just like Dream Theater,” even without longtime drummer Mike Portnoy. And Vince is a way, way, WAY bigger Dream Theater fan than I am, so if he can’t hear any discernible difference, I sure as fuck ain’t gonna be able to.

So. While I still haven’t heard the entire album, mostly because I just do not care, but listening to the song in the band’s new video, “On The Backs Of Angels,” I am inclined to agree with Vince, that, yes, Portnoy-less DT sounds exactly like Portnoy-full DT. Which is to say, the song is pretty cool until James LaBrie opens his stupid mouth. Holy shit, that dude’s voice is irritating.

ANYWAY, check out the video below, courtesy of Yahoo. At first it seems like a pretty cool clip, until you realize it’s really just a bunch of graphics that don’t do anything especially interesting, intercut with some admittedly very good performance footage. So I guess I’d say this is a good video, but not the best video you’ll see today or even this week.

A Dramatic Turn of Events is out now on Roadrunner, but based on the initial sales figures that have gotten out, you already knew that.

-AR

If you’re not a musician, last night’s Metal Masters Clinic 2 — held prior to Anthrax’s so-secret-everyone-knew-about-it show at the Best Buy Theater in NYC — was probably a massive bore. But to everyone else (like me!) it was a wet dream come true; Mike Portnoy having a drum-off with Charlie Benante, Ellefson talking about famous Megadeth bass riffs, Frankie Bello talking about watching porn and playing bass at the same time, all of them jamming on some classic tunes together, and, most notably, this:

Ian, Bello, Benante, Ellefson, Portnoy, Kerry King and Phil Anselmo performing two Pantera cuts. It’s the kind of staged event that might otherwise be cringe-worthy in its attempt at spontaneity, but who gives a shit? As a fan it was really cool to see all those guys jamming up there at once. It was also my first time seeing Anselmo perform Pantera songs live.

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I’ve been ragging on Dream Theater a good bit lately, but it comes from a place of love; nowhere in the metalsphere will you find a bigger DT fanboy than me. Naturally I’m quite excited that no longer do we have to listen to short snippets of new songs; Roadrunner Records Germany is hosting a full stream of DT’s new album Mike Portnoy Left the Band.

As I sit here listening to the album I’m wondering whether this stream is also Mike Portnoy’s first chance to hear it. Sorry for dwelling on his exit from the band, but it’s a pretty big deal! Anyway, from what I can tell his departure hasn’t really affected the band’s sound much one way or the other; A Dramatic Turn of Events sounds just like Dream Theater, even the drumming. I can’t see any longtime DT fans being disappointed, and likewise, if you’ve never liked Dream Theater before this album your mind is not going to be changed. Of course, as with all Dream Theater albums, I’ll need several listens to fully digest the music and make final judgment.

Stream the album over at Roadrunner Germany. Order it here before its September 13th release date.

-VN

What Would Mike Portnoy Have Done? Certainly not put clip art on his band’s album cover or subject his fans to this “snippet” bullcrap they’ve been pulling for weeks now. This is 2011, not 2005; you release full songs, not snippets. No one gives a shit about snippets.

As for the actual music in the post-Portnoy era I wouldn’t know ’cause you can’t tell dick from snippets, especially with a band like DT whose songs are 14 minutes long. The one full song they posted was swell, though (and holy crap, it has nearly 1.5 million plays!)

In other news, I heard Dream Theater signed up for a Friendster profile. Check it out here.

-VN

Adrenaline Mob, the new band featuring ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portony, Symphony X vocalist Russell Allen, and Stuck Mojo/Fozzy guitarist Rich Ward, are now streaming their debut EP in full (below). And, as we have suspected since the project was announced in June, it’s lame.

I mean, I’m sure it will have its defenders, but I’d also wager that those defenders all have beer guts, and reside either in New Jersey or on Long Island. Because that’s how this music sounds; like it was made by a dude who was prom king back in ’86 and basically hasn’t been able to see his own penis since. It’s like one of these demos people send us where the band clearly had no higher aspiration than to be the next Black Label Society, and yet, they have failed miserably.

Feel free to check it out for yourself, though. I hope you have a super-awesome good time!

-AR

I’m not one to place much significance on album artwork in 2011. It’s pretty to look at and can compliment the music nicely, but when all you ever listen to are digital files you really only end up looking at the artwork once — when it’s announced and subsequently plastered across the metalwebs. But this cannot be ignored: Dream Theater used clip art for the cover of their forthcoming album, A Dramatic Turn of Events Since Mike Portnoy Left The Band.

Dream Theater might’ve gotten away with it if wasn’t for those pesky kids in Circus Maximus, whose 2005 album featured the very same $15.00 clip art image on the cover. Though the texture of the pants, hat, and positioning of one of the arms has been modified, the areas circled in the above image by some Internet smartass leave no doubt: clip art is clip art.

Luckily this is only the cover, which like I said isn’t all that important; the first song to be released from the album is pretty sweet. Still… lame. Mike Portnoy is frowning from his beach house somewhere in Long Island.

-VN

Thanks: The Number of the Blog

Portnoy (left) with Tom Morello, John goddamn Sykes, That Metal Show host Eddie Trunk, and Doug Pinnick of King’s X

There are days when it seems like ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy is underachieving (cough Adrenaline Mob), but the wider view reveals a hard-working guy who cares greatly about quality music. His mistakes are mistakes (singing on DT records, 12-stepper lyrics, AX7), and his post-DT career so far is basically frantic, low-confidence base-covering, but hey that’s the reality of a messy break-up. You get a little crazy and scared. But with time and patience, Portnoy will land another Images And Words-sized creative success. This is my belief.

So imagine how smugly right I feel about that belief when it was announced Monday that Portnoy is pairing with hungry, mega-talented ace John fucking Sykes (Blue Murder, Whitesnake). Bonerz!
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Yay, Vince is back! And guess what? Now it’s my turn to take a vacation! I haven’t had once since the summer of 2006, about six months before we started the site. So, yeah, I’m looking forward to getting away. Try not to miss me too much, m’kay?

And, oh yeah, it’s July 4 weekend, so we’re leaving early today and won’t be here Monday. That might be worth mentioning for non-American readers.

ANYWAY, here’s what we did this week:

• We debuted new music by Exhumed.
• Landphil from Municipal Waste and Cannabis Corpse pondered the CM Punk WWE Raw “shoot.”
• Our pals at Decibel spoke to the members of Cradle of Filth about about their album The Principle of Evil Made Flesh.
• We wondered why teenagers are still butthurt about Hot Topic in 2011.
• We celebrated the Stephen Colbert/Ted Nugent showdown.
• We checked out the first Portnoy-free Dream Theater song.
• We enjoyed some lulz at the expense of Staind and their record label.
• We bemoaned the fact that Behemoth’s Nergal is back on trial for tearin’ up a Bible.
• We celebrated the gloriousness that is the new Mastodon video.
• Best. “Show Us Your MetalSucks.” EVER.

And now it’s time to start partying. Lates.

-AR

Yep, it’s finally here — Dream Theater’s first song with new drummer Mike Mangini.

Vince is really the resident Dream Theater expert, and even Anso is a bigger fan than I am, so I feel weird talking about it. The short version is, I feel the same way about it I feel about most Dream Theater, which is that it’s just swell until James LaBrie and his stupid vagina voice comes into the song.

Insofar as the Portnoy versus Mangini question goes… I don’t have an opinion. I’m sorry, I just don’t. I know Portnoy is a great drummer, but Magnini is obviously no slouch, so, again… I’ll leave it those of you who are really enamored of this band to decide whether or not this lives up to the band’s other material, or if they need to get Portnoy back STAT.

Stream “On the Backs of Angels” here. The band’s new album, A Dramatic Turn of Events, comes out September 13 via Roadrunner.

-AR

Last week the once-mighty, now-getting-to-be-pretty-sad Mike Portnoy announced the formation of a new band, Adrenaline Mob, with Symphony X singer Russell Allen, Stuck Mojo guitarist (and first ever MetalSucks interview subject) Rich Ward, and some dudes I’ve never heard of before. Our own Anso DF called the project “iffy,” cringing at Allen’s description of the band as “almost like Rob Zombie meets Black Label Society meets Disturbed, with Dio singing.” And Anso so eloquently put it, “When old guys aim for ‘edgy’ and ‘modern,’ it sets off alarm bells, right?”

Well, as it turns out, Anso had good reason to be concerned. The band released some samples of the music they’re working on, and, yeah, I officially don’t care, and eagerly await Vince returning so I never have to pretend to care about this group again.

I also think someone should sit down and play some Rob Zombie, Black Label Society, and Disturbed for Russell Allen. Not because those artists are great or anything, but because he has to running around and telling people that that’s what Adrenaline Mob sounds like. It’s basically the equivalent of me luring in potential readers by telling them that MetalSucks is a folk music blog. It just has no basis in reality whatsoever.

Here are the samples, so you can make up your mind:

P.S. That play on The Godfather logo was silly back when Lacuna Coil did it, but at least they’re Italian, so it kinda made sense. It seems like it’s just being used here because the band has the word “mob” in their moniker.

-AR

When I heard about the Dream Theater-shaped hole in the life of drummer Mike Portnoy back in September, I wanted to pitch him on my long-gestating idea to form a killer Jellyfish cover band. I bet he’d be into it cuz of his Jellyfish super-fandom (he has cited 1993′s Spilt Milk as a top ten favorite album); and he’s a pro at pulling together all-star jams, like his awesomely fun tributes to The Who, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin with guys like Paul Gilbert, Jason McMaster, and Dave LaRue; and lastly, The Ghosts At Number One (that’s my vote for our band name) could serve as a totally non-cynical tribute to another hardcore Jellyfish fan, the late Dimebag Darrell Abbott. And what better way to hip headbangers to irresistible non-metal jams? How could Mike say no to that? Can I call him Mike?

But, shit, while I was dicking around, gobbling drugs, and failing to corner, pressure, and/or threaten Portnoy about the Jellyfish idea, he teamed with qualified musicians he knows who actually, like, realize their ideas. Even if those ideas aren’t so great. Symphony X singer Russell Allen talks about Adrenaline Mob, one of Portnoy’s new bands:

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Yesterday I interviewed Mike Mangini for a new Rigged feature in which he’ll run through the gigantamongous new drum kit Pearl built him for his brand new gig. It’s a good thing we decided to do a phoner instead of him just sitting down and writing the thing, because the dude probably would have spent hours painstakingly penning it out instead of the 40+ minutes he took to explain it all on the phone. Let me tell you all something: Mangini is STOKED. Stoked on his new gig with Dream Theater, stoked on playing drums in general, stoked on music, stoked on LIFE. Dude is one of the most stoked people I’ve ever encountered in this jaded business.

So it wasn’t without interest that we didn’t report on yesterday’s news of a new Dream Theater album release date and tracklisting, it’s just that we were pre-occupied. A Dramatic Turn of Events will come out on September 13th via Roadrunner, and as we all know it will be the first DT album plus Mangini minus Portnoy, so we’ll see how that goes. This resident MS Mansion DT Fanboy will keep you informed as events develop.

-VN

Once upon a time I pitched Mike Portnoy (through his people) on doing a “Jew on Jew” interview and he turned me down, that persnickety bastid (the Jew on Jew concept did up yielding some fun interviews with Daath’s Eyal Levi [before he was an MS columnist], Genghis Tron’s Mookie Singerman and Orphaned Land’s Kobi Farhi). And here Metal Injection’s Rob Pasbani goes and inadvertently gets all Jewy with Portnoy on the Golden Gods black carpet — over who else, the hero of Jewish men everywhere, Larry David.

It’s all about the shirt. When I first discovered the Larry DavHead shirt last year I immediately bought 10 of them; shirts like this don’t come around every day, ya know? Rob and about 159 other Jewish metalheads I know also bought the shirt; it’s, like, possibly the best t-shirt in the history of ever. So when Rob donned the Larry DavHead shirt underneath his sparkly silver coat on the black carpet, Mike Portnoy was all over that shit like a swarming pack of flies. Watch:

Last post about the Golden Gods and then we’ll shut up about it… I can’t help that Metal Injection’s black carpet interviews are so damn entertaining. After the jump, a quickee with two members of Rammstein; unfortunately there were no cameras around when Till Lindemann was hitting on every piece of ass within a 2 foot radius, but the mental video I took will provide laughs forever and ever. Check out the rest of Metal Injection’s black carpet footage below the video here.

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Confirming what many astute MS commenters and anyone with a brain suspected since this whole cheesy video series began, the new Dream Theater drummer is Mike Mangini, as revealed in the third and final part of their video series documenting their search for a Mike Portnoy seat-warmer. It was clear from the start that he was a great fit musically and personality wise with the band. Will he be able to fill Portnoy’s mongoloid shoes and will fans accept him in? I can already hear the message board chatter on both sides from DT dorks across the e-metalverse. Here’s part 3 (again, not embeddable ’cause WMG are ass-cats who don’t understand how the Internet works):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QHMQjH17aw

[UPDATE 12:01pm EST: I just watched the full video, and WOW, Mangini sure gets emotional at the end when the band offers him the gig. It's great to have a guy that's so INTO it as opposed to just taking a gig, but what's gonna happen when Portnoy claims his throne back in a few years?]

Sound off with your opinions on Mangini in the comments section below… I wanna see some sparks flyin’!

-VN