Hey, Steemians! Today I want to tell you a little bit about Dream Theater, one of the best progressive metal bands in the world. This band was formed in the United States in 1985.

Its members are:

• John Petrucci (guitarist)

• Mike Portnoy (drummer)

• James LaBrie (vocalist)

• Jordan Rudess (keyboard player)

• John Myung (bass player)

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At first the band started with the name Majesty and was made up of John Petrucci, Mike Portnoy, Kevin Moore, Chris Collins and John Myung, but after two of the members retired, they decided to change the name to "Dream Theater" due to legal problems.

The actual name was suggested by Mike Portnoy's father and comes from a theater in Los Angeles, California.

Dream Theater signed their first record deal with Mechanic Records, a division of MCA and released their first album "When Dream and Day Unite" in 1989.

In 2010, Mike Portnoy decided to retire from the band and was replaced by Mike Mangini, a drummer who holds 5 records in the World's Fastest Drummer Extreme Sport Drumming.

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The band has released 13 studio albums and they are among my favorites: Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002), Octavarium (2005) and Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009)

One of the things I like about the Octavarium album is that it is completely conceptual and different from the other albums and was created for its fans to discover the secrets that are within the music, lyrics and graphic art.

Dream is very important to me, because the first time I heard them was in 2008 thanks to a good friend of mine with whom I had formed my first band and was my companion in the last concert they gave at the Centro Comercial Ciudad Tamanaco (C.C.C.T.) in Caracas, Venezuela.

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Their best-selling album has been Images and Words (1992), which won a gold record and was ranked 64th on the Billboard 200. Two of their albums (Awake and Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence) were also on the Billboard charts with 32nd and 46th places.

In addition, they were nominated for a Grammy Award in the "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance" section for the song "On the Backs of Angels" in 2011.

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Each of the members of this band have received many recognitions due to their incredible techniques on an instrumental level, for me they are geniuses. For example: John Petrucci was named as the second best guitarist in the world in the book The 100 Greatest Metal Guitarists; Mike Portnoy has been awarded numerous times, among all the recognitions is the Best Progressive Rock Drummer, who won 12 times in a row; Jordan Rudess is considered a keyboard legend and John Myung was awarded as the best bassist of all time.

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Dream Theater has a great affection for Venezuela, in fact, they came on several occasions (before the situation in the country got worse) and the fans welcomed them with open arms.

Nine years ago they had put on their list of favorite videos on Youtube, a cover made by Venezuelan musicians, where a friend of mine participates.

I'll show you one of their covers:

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In 2010, Jordan Rudess (Keyboardist) came to Venezuela specifically to premiere his work "Explorations for keyboard and orchestra" at the Centro Cultural Corp Banca, where the Chacao Youth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Eren Basbug participated.

In addition, Jordan shone at an event with Venezuelan cuatro player Jorge Glem of the C4 Trio, where they played Venezuelan folk music. The video is very exciting, watch it!

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When Mike Portnoy (Drummer) decided to retire, a great tension was created between him and the other members, because he did not want to leave the band completely, he just wanted to take a break, but the others did not agree and decided to go on without him. It was then that the auditions to find Mike's replacement began and Mike Mangini was eventually chosen. The videos of these auditions appear in the documentary "The spirit carries on".

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Dream Theater songs convey a lot of feeling and virtuosity, are characterized by being long (lasting more than 10 minutes) and use many samples of movies and books with particular phrases or quotes.

Five of my favorite songs are:

1. Wither:

Wither is one of the shortest songs on the album Black Clouds & Silver Linings and the lyrics talk about the problem writers have when they lose the ability to write new material and are in a mental block.

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2. The Best of Times:

The Best of Times is the fifth track from the album Black Clouds & Silver Linings and was a tribute to Mike Portnoy's father, who died of cancer in 2009. This is a really melancholic song and the lyrics are about the good times the drummer spent with his father. There is a version of this song sung by Mike Portnoy.

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3. The Root of All Evil:

One of the traditions this band had is that they start out the same way as their previous album ends. In this case, The Root of All Evil is the first song on the album "Octavarium", so it starts just like the last song on the album "Train of Thought" which is In the Name Of God. This song is the continuation of the songs "The Glass Prison" and "This Dying Soul".

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4. The Count of Tuscany:

This is the longest track from the 19-minute album Black Clouds & Silver Linings, written by John Petrucci based on a lived experience and the lyrics to the song are about theme of war, brotherhood and hurt feelings.

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5. I Walk Beside You:

I Walk Beside You is the shortest track from the album "Octavarium" and became very important to me, because the first time I performed with my band in a local, I sang this beautiful song and it was very exciting.

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I hope you liked my post! The story of this band is long and very good, I tried to highlight the things I thought were most important.

I say goodbye with a cover I prepared for the PitchPerfect contest with the song Wither.

I send you a hug! ❤❤❤