AND SO THE POST-PORTNOY DREAM THEATER ERA BEGINS

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