Hidden messages! Surrealism! 9-11 conspiracy theories! 45-minute long songs! It can only be - Dream Theater!

Dream Theater are an American five-piece progressive rock band. To date, they have released nine studio albums, plus assorted live albums, singles, bootlegs and DVDs.

They were initially formed in 1985 as a trio under the name Majesty by a group of graduates of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. The founding members were John Petrucci (guitar), John Myung (bass) and Mike Portnoy (drums). All three are still core members of the band, although they have since expanded to a five-piece and moved to New York. Kevin Moore (keyboards) and Chris Collins (vocals) completed the original line-up.

Their musical style has been described as 'nothing like Pink Floyd meets Metallica'. 'Prog' - and heavy metal in general - has been notably out of fashion during the lifetime of Dream Theater, but they have nevertheless managed to build themselves a dedicated following through a mixture of skilled musicianship, rapport with their fans and innovative presentation.

Albums

When Dream and Day Unite (1989)

Collins was fired from the band after recording some demo tracks under the Majesty name due to the other band members becoming disappointed with his lack of vocal range, but he was rapidly replaced and the band's name changed for their first commercial release (although the logo based on the old name was retained and used on almost all their subsequent albums). Charlie Dominici provided the vocals for the debut album.

The album failed to sell well, Dominici was fired by the band and not replaced, and the supporting tour was curtailed by the record label, which contributed to the band seeking to be released from their contract with MCA's Mechanic Records. Dream Theater appeared to be suffering the fate of most bands that fly in the face of musical fashion. Only a single supporting date for Marillion (themselves prog fashion outsiders) provided any consolation.

Images and Words (1992)

After much hassle - including firing a potential singer after three songs and an attempt to go instrumental - James LaBrie filled the vacant vocalist slot and a seven-album contract was signed with ATCO Records (later EastWest), part of Elektra Records. Now things began to come good for the band as Pull Me Under, based on Hamlet's famous soliloquy from Shakespeare, was heavily played on MTV.

Live at the Marquee was recorded on the supporting tour.

Awake (1994)

The tour supporting the Awake album was disrupted by the sudden departure of keyboardist Kevin Moore to pursue his solo career. He was replaced by Derek Sherinian.

At around this time, the band released A Change of Seasons (1995), a single 23-minute song that had originally been written for Images and Words. The release was backed with several live cover versions, so although billed as an EP was actually a full CD of music.

Falling Into Infinity (1998)

Apparently under pressure from their record label, the band adopted a more 'commercial' sound for their next offering. Their tentative plans for a double album were quashed by the record label, who insisted they work with writer/producer Desmond Child. This backfired badly; despite feeling they had compromised their artistic freedom, the band produced an album that many fans disliked and which failed to make a commercial impact. At least one band member has since admitted that this nearly lead to the dissolution of Dream Theater.

The Once in a LIVEtime double live album was recorded on the supporting tour.

Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From a Memory (1999)

Jordan Rudess - who had been the band's first choice to replace Moore - now joined on keyboards, giving the band the line-up that they would stick with to date. The title of the new album was taken from a song on Images and Words, and the album was the expansion of an idea that dated back almost as far. It was a concept album that tells the story of a murder through the past-life regression hypnosis of one of the participants.

Insisting on complete artistic control, the band produced a critical hit that was also one of their most commercially successful. Suddenly, the band was in a much stronger place both with their fans and with their record label. They had established a line-up that would remain for the next decade, giving them some stability for the future. The supporting tour ended with a single concert that featured actors playing the various roles in the story. This was released as Live Scenes from New York.

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)

Dream Theater's only double studio album to date, this was another concept album based around the theme of mental illness. The album reached number one on the Billboard internet album chart, although it fared less well on the 'real' charts. It was at this time that Dream Theater began playing cover versions of whole albums during occasional live shows.

Train of Thought (2003)

For the second time in four albums, the band managed to upset some elements of their fan-base by releasing an album perceived as a change of direction, although again the difference was slight. Train of Thought was regarded as more 'metal' than 'prog', though this may have won the band as many fans as it lost them as hard rock began to come back into vogue.

Live at Budokan was recorded during the tour.

Octavarium (2005)

By this point in their career, Dream Theater had virtually carved out a genre to themselves. Octavarium perhaps marked the high point of their obsession with 'nuggets' (see below), as the CD booklet illustrations heavily featured octagons, spiders and an eight-ball Newton's Cradle, emphasising the fact that this was their eighth studio album. The songs were each in a different minor key (with the first and last songs in the same key, to make eight songs in total). Songs were even arranged so that their lengths would give numerological results; for instance, track five is eight minutes and 13 seconds long - five, eight and 13 being consecutive Fibonacci numbers.

Score was recorded on this tour, which featured the 'Octavaruim Orchestra' for one date.

Systematic Chaos (2007)

Dream Theater switched to Roadrunner Records after their contract with EastWest expired. Systematic Chaos consequently benefited from increased marketing, and debuted at number 19 in the Billboard chart, their best commercial result. Greatest Hit (...and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs) (2008) was a double-disc 'greatest hits' collection, and their most recent release at the time of writing.

Live Albums

As a band noted for their live performances, it is fitting that Dream Theater have also released several live albums and DVDs. These are: Live at the Marquee, Once in a LIVEtime (a double album), Live Scenes from New York (a triple album) and Live at Budokan (a triple album). Their most recent live release at the time of writing is Score, a triple live album (yes, their third triple live CD) marking the twentieth anniversary of the band's formation.

Live Scenes from New York had a controversial release. The original cover featured a montage of images, including a flaming apple symbol, based on the Catholic flaming heart image adopted by the band, and photos of the New York skyline. Due to the layout of the album cover, these images overlapped and appeared to show the World Trade Centre surrounded by flame. The release date of the album was 11 September, 2001. The album was immediately withdrawn and reissued with different artwork.

There is also a large quantity of live material on the Change of Seasons EP, made up of cover versions, and several 'official bootleg' live albums.

Liquid Tension Experiment and Other Spin-Offs

A four-piece 'supergroup' called the Liquid Tension Experiment was formed by Mike Portnoy. He initially considered several guitarists, including the late 'Dimebag' Darrell, before settling on his band-mate John Petrucci. They persuaded Jordan Rudess to join them on keyboards, (he had at the time declined to join Dream Theater) and Tony Levin on bass completed the line-up. The Liquid Tension Experiment has released two albums, the imaginatively named Liquid Tension Experiment and Liquid Tension Experiment 2. The formation of the group in 1997 was instrumental in persuading Jordan Rudess to join Dream Theater, but once he did, it was felt that there was insufficient musical difference between Dream Theater and the Liquid Tension Experiment, so the latter was disbanded. Dream Theater have been known to incorporate Liquid Tension Experiment material into their live shows.

Although initially short-lived, interest in the project has not died down, and there are plans for a tenth anniversary tour and even talk of a new album. Petrucci missed one recording session due to the birth of his child; these were released in 2007 under the name Liquid Trio Experiment.

Several Dream Theater members have released solo material, including Jordan Rudess, James LaBrie and Mike Portnoy. In addition, all the current band members are involved in side projects with names such as Transatlantic, Cygnus and the Sea Monsters, Platypus and OSI (Office of Strategic Influence). As if that were not enough, Portnoy also plays in tribute bands to The Beatles (Yellow Matter Custard), Led Zeppelin (Hammer of the Gods) and The Who (Amazing Journey).

Bootlegs

Mike Portnoy has long been involved in 'bootleg culture', and is rumoured to have recordings of every Dream Theatre live show. He has set up a record label called Ytse Jam¹ Records to sell 'official bootlegs' of Dream Theater recordings.

So far, there are four categories of official bootleg; the Live Series, the Demo Series, the Cover Series and the Studio Series. The Studio Series contains a single release, The Making of Scenes from a Memory. The four Cover Series releases are Master of Puppets, The Number of the Beast, Dark Side of the Moon and Made in Japan, all played live. The demos and live albums are self-explanatory, and are most notable for containing early versions of songs such as A Change of Seasons and Metropolis Part 2 that would later be greatly altered and expanded.

Nuggets

Dream Theater delight in leaving hidden messages and symbolism in their songs and cover art. These are generically known as 'nuggets' to fans. No definitive list exists - part of the attraction to fans is the hidden nature of these nuggets - so the following list is to give a flavour of what they are, rather than a complete run-down.

There is a (rather rude) hidden message on All About God made up of Morse code hidden underneath the music.

There are many 'musical quotations' within songs, where a well-known phrase of music is incorporated into a Dream Theater song.

There is also a lot of numerology - fives and eights figure in many ways in the song lengths and cover art for Octavarium, for example. The sixth, seventh and eighth albums have six, seven and eight songs respectively.

Several of the albums begin with the same sound as the previous album ended with.

Some of the tracks can be strung together to form a suite of music based on the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step plan. Known to fans as the Alcoholics Anonymous Suite, this began with The Glass Prison from Six Degrees and continued through This Dying Soul (Train of Thought), The Root of All Evil (Octavarium) and Repentance (Systematic Chaos) (The Mirror from Awake has been retrospectively worked in as a prologue) and is incomplete at present, due to be completed with the band's next album. There are rumoured to be tentative plans to play the entire suite as part of a live performance.

Live Shows

As noted above, Dream Theater are well known for their live shows. They do not have support acts, opting instead to play a much longer set. Furthermore, the set list is tailored for each show so that there is the minimum possible duplication of songs at consecutive gigs, especially when playing multiple dates in one city.

On several occasions, Dream Theater have played through an entire album as a on-off encore. This began with a fairly uncontroversial run-through of their concept album, Scenes From a Memory, on the tour to support that album. However, they later began playing whole albums by some of the bands that influenced them, as a form of tribute. These include Master of Puppets by Metallica, The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden, Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd and Made in Japan (itself a live album) by Deep Purple. Most recently, they have played the whole of Images and Words to mark the anniversary of its release.

The Future

Dream Theater seem to be in a good place currently. They have a steady line-up, a new record contract, a dedicated fan-base and have just released their most commercially successful album to date. Their artistic plans run at least as far as the completion of the Alcoholics Anonymous Suite, and there seems no reason that they should not continue producing their unique blend of prog and metal for another twenty years.