My opinions about Rush, Dream Theater, Spock's Beard and Queensryche are so aligned with yours, a conversation would probably be boring 'cause we'd just be agreeing with each other the whole time lol. I'd said for a while that Mike Portnoy's thumbprint on DT's music was most evident by his absence in it. Meanwhile it was all over the place in his other projects. Especially Sons of Apollo. He brings the "soul" and the "fun" and the "balls and chunk" to it. He's referred to it as "the human element". When he worked with JP on his solo album, I thought "Oh that's cool! I'm so glad they were able to bridge whatever gaps there were, and rekindle that friendship - with or without the music" (friendships are too precious to let go; I was similarly happy when the original lineup of Live got back together). It never occurred to me that DT would be in the future again, though. Then the third LTE album was announced.. Okay.. Now it's JP, MP and JR. So they have that going. Still didn't even dare think that a reunion could happen. There was also him going to the DT concert. Making amends with James (again, thrilled for them) and James calling out that he was there. At that point, I thought "Okay... maybe they'll invite MP on stage to perform a few songs with them, etc." It still never occurred to me that he might ever re-join. So... when the news hit that he was back in... It did surprise me... But also felt right, and seemed obvious by then. All I know is.. I was smiling that whole day about it. Best news I'd gotten all year to that point.
I first got into DT with Images and Words back in the day. I was heavily into thrash music ( Megadeth being my all time favorite band), and I was always starving for great bands, especially heavy ones. But, unfortunately my fandom ended there. I have a hard time getting into bands with predominate keyboards, Rush being the exception. Although, I prefer 70's and 90's Rush to mid 80's Rush. I'm also not a big fan of James's vocals. If someone like Devin Townsend was singing in DT, and the keyboards were just a supporting aspect of the music, I would listen to it all day. Fast forward to when I was in a band in later years, my drummer was heavily into DT, especially Portnoy. I never realized how much his playing style resembled Portnoy's until he got me listening to them again. Although, I'm still not a fan of James, I became invested in them through him. His passion was contagious. And I was sad when Mike left and invested in their search for another drummer. Mangini was clearly the right guy at the time. And Although I feel bad he is no longer there, I am excited that Portnoy is back. I'm curious what role he'll have in the band, considering how integral he was before he left.
Dude, Mangini is the best drummer in the history of music. Portnoy will never reproduce Mangini's technical tracks. He's incapable. Only other drummers understand that. Mangini made the other guys better. In response to your Spock's Beard comment, I hope Portnoy shows Mangini the respect he deserves by laying his tracks to rest.....Been there done that with Portnoy. He left. Why take him back? This is just old friends taking a second chance. And, here they go, again. Bad decision.
The entire reason you are a fan of DT is because of Portnoy. Clearly, he was the soul of the band, and while Mangini is unrivaled in drum skill, he comes nowhere close to filling Portnoy's shoes. DT lost their way without him. So, I don't get the negativity.
