Dream Theater

Dream Theater is a progressive metal band formed in Boston, Massachusetts in 1985.
==History==
===Formation===
In 1985, guitarist John Petrucci, bassist John Myung, and drummer Mike Portnoy were attending the Berklee College of Music, and formed a band known as Majesty. They began covering Rush and Iron Maiden songs in the rehearsal rooms of the college. Needing a vocalist to complete the lineup, the band first ran into keyboardist Kevin Moore, of whom Petrucci knew when he was in high school. After Moore joined, the band recruited Chris Collins to be the lead vocalist. The hectic schedules of the founding members prompted them to abandon their studies at college and solely concentrate on music. Moore also left his college, SUNY Fredonia, to concentrate on the band.
The beginning months of 1986 had concert dates scheduled in and around the New York City area. During this time, the band recorded a collection of demos, titled The Majesty Demos. The initial run of 1,000 sold out within six months, and dubbed copies of the cassette became popular within the progressive metal genre. The demo album included six tracks. By November 1986, Collins was dismissed. A year later, the band hired Charlie Dominici, who seemed experienced in singing and songwriting. With Dominici in, the band continued to play shows around the New York City area, which greatly increased their popularity.
Meanwhile, a Las Vegas group also known as Majesty, intended to file an intellectual property infringement act due to the other side using their same name. Needing to act swiftly to rename the band, the members came up with some ideas, including Glasser, Magus, and M1, which were all rejected, though the band did go as Glasser for about a week, but fans were not too happy about it. Eventually, Portnoy's father suggested the name of Dream Theater, the name of a small theater in Monterey, California. After reaching a consensus, the name of Dream Theater for the band came about.
===When Dream and Day Unite===
With the band renamed Dream Theater, the band began writing some new material and performing more concerts around the New York metropolitan area. This attracted attention by Mechanic Records, a subsidiary of MCA Records. Dream Theater signed with Mechanic Records on June 23, 1988. With a record label in their books, Dream Theater entered Kajem Victory Studios in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania to begin recording material for their first album. Development went swiftly as basic tracks took ten days, while the entire album was completed in only three weeks.
Dream Theater released their first studio album, When Dream and Day Unite, on March 6, 1989. The album included eight tracks, including "Afterlife", which became a single. Despite the release, it did not receive much fanfare as expected. It was later revealed that Mechanic Records ended up breaking the majority of the financial promises they had made to Dream Theater prior to signing their contract, thereby restricting them from playing around New York City. The tour to promote the album was extremely short as it had only five shows scheduled, especially for one at Sundance in Bay Shore, New York. After the fourth show, Dominici was dismissed, because the band felt that the limitations of his voice based upon the vocal style they desired was not as expected. With one concert left on schedule, taking place at The Ritz in New York City, Dominici was given the opportunity to perform one last time with Dream Theater.
After Dominici's release, the band battled extensively to be released from their contract with Mechanic Records. Needing a new vocalist to fill in their gaps, Dream Theater auditioned about 200 people. One of them was John Arch, who formerly played for Fates Warning. Arch felt that his personal commitments were more important and did not join the band. On June 9, 1990, at a concert at Sundance in Bay Shore, New York, Dream Theater introduced Steve Stone as their new singer after playing half the set instrumental. Stone recorded some demos with the band, but after an ill-fated concert, he was dismissed. Five months later, Dream Theater performed live at an undisclosed location, entirely instrumental.
In January 1991, Dream Theater received a demo tape by James LaBrie, who was with a band known as Winter Rose. The band was mightily impressed with the demo tape, so they offered Labrie to join the band as the next vocalist, and hired him on the spot after a few jam sessions.
===Images and Words===
With LaBrie taking over the vocal position, Dream Theater needed to sign to a new record label in order to help finance the development for their next album. The band settled in on ATCO Records, a label also notable for picking up Pantera. Signed with ATCO to a seven-album contract, the band began recording material for their next album. Development took place at BearTracks Studios in Suffern, New York and The Hit Factory in New York City.
Dream Theater released their second studio album, Images and Words, on July 7, 1992. The album included eight tracks, and "Pull Me Under" became a successful single, garnering a medium volume of radio play as well as the music video being premiered on MTV and VH1. The album was certified platinum. Despite the album's success, producer David Prater found to be hard to work with, and did not have a good relationship with the band. Dream Theater went on a global tour for the first time to promote the album. In 1993, the band performed at the Marquee Club in London, England. This would foreshadow the release of the band's first live album, Live at the Marquee, on September 4, 1993. The Fleetwood Mobile Recording Unit helped record and produce the live performance. The live album included six tracks. There was a slight difference between the U.S. and Japanese version of the live album, where the fourth track had "Surrounded" in the U.S. version, while "Another Day" was the fourth track in the Japanese version. Strangely, those tracks did not come together in both regional versions, which would have made seven tracks altogether. Later, a home video titled Images and Words: Live in Tokyo was released on November 16, 1993, showing concert footage at various portions in Tokyo, Japan. The VHS home video was an hour and 31 minutes long with 16 tracks played.
===Awake===
In May 1994, Dream Theater began development for material for their next album. Recording took place at One on One Studios and Devonshire Studios in North Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. The development was originally intended to take place at Prince Studios in New York City, but due to a lack of management and leadership, tensions surrounded the band, and they had to shift their ambitions over to a more familiar site in order to record their material properly. The band's third studio album, Awake, was released on October 4, 1994. The album included eleven tracks. John Purdell and Duane Baron helped produce the album. Shortly before the album was mixed, Moore resigned to focus on his own musical interest. The remaining band members had to act swiftly to find a new keyboardist if they were to go on tour again. Dream Theater first auditioned Jens Johansson, but would later settle in on Jordan Rudess. The band performed at a trial concert known as the Concrete Foundations Forum in Burbank, California with Rudess in action for the first time. Shortly afterwards, Rudess decided to tour with a band known as The Dixie Dregs rather than join with Dream Theater full time. The band eventually settled in on Derek Sherinian as the next keyboardist.
Between January and May 1995, Dream Theater developed new material at three different recording studios. An EP titled A Change of Seasons was released on September 19, 1995. The EP included five tracks. "A Change of Seasons" was over 23 minutes in length.
===Falling into Infinity===
By June 1997, Dream Theater entered Avatar Studios in Manhattan, New York City, New York to begin recording new material. Development for the next album was originally slated to take place at Dream World Studios in East Rutherford, New Jersey, but the band needed a little larger space for their persona. However, before and during recording sessions, tensions surrounded the band as some songs that were written by some band members were recorded without permission, which made the band nearly disband. Development for the tracks took only one month, and Falling into Infinity, the band's fourth studio album, was released on September 23, 1997. It included eleven tracks but did not really spawn a single. "Trial of Tears" was 13 minutes in length, being the 12th and final track to make the cut.
While the band was on tour again, a live album titled Once in a LIVEtime was released on October 27, 1998. The live album contained 23 tracks, with half and half being split into two discs. The entire live album featured live performances at Le Bataclan in Paris, France.
===Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory===
In 1999, Portnoy and some other Dream Theater band members founded a supergroup called Liquid Tension Experiment. Around the same time, the band met Jordan Rudess and convinced him to join; this time, it succeeded. Sherinian left, and Rudess stepped in to be the next keyboardist. With Rudess in action, Dream Theater entered BearTracks Studio in Suffern, New York to begin development for a new album. The band's fifth studio album, Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, was released on October 26, 1999. The album included twelve tracks.
Another tour ensued for the band for most of the year 2000, and most notable out of all those concerts would be at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City. This would foreshadow the release of Metropolis 2000: Scenes from New York for DVD on April 21, 2001. Thirteen tracks were played along with five bonus tracks, giving the release three hours and ten minutes in total length.
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