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A Dramatic Turn of Events
A Dramatic Turn of Events is the eleventh studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, released worldwide in September 2011 through Roadrunner Records. It is the band's first recording to feature drummer Mike Mangini, following the initial departure of founding member Mike Portnoy in September 2010. The album was written, recorded, mixed, and mastered between January and June 2011 at Cove City Sound Studios in Long Island, New York. It was produced by guitarist John Petrucci and mixed by Andy Wallace. Two singles, "On the Backs of Angels" and "Build Me Up, Break Me Down", were released in promotion of the album.
For A Dramatic Turn of Events, Dream Theater underwent a self-proclaimed musical change, reevaluating and restructuring themselves. The album has drawn stylistic comparisons to two of the band's past albums, Images and Words (1992) and Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999). Many songs on the album were written with a specific purpose in mind as Petrucci, one of the album's primary composers, felt a sense of responsibility to fans following Portnoy's departure. The album's title was derived from its recurring lyrical themes of dramatic changes in history that have affected people's lives, including contemporary uprisings such as the Libyan Civil War.
A commercial success, A Dramatic Turn of Events moved 36,000 units in the United States during its debut week, charting at number eight on the US Billboard 200. The album received mixed reviews from critics, but nonetheless earned Dream Theater their first-ever Grammy nomination, for "On the Backs of Angels". Between July 2011 and September 2012, the band supported the album on the A Dramatic Turn of Events Tour.
On September 8, 2010, drummer Mike Portnoy announced that he would be leaving Dream Theater, citing better relationships in other projects, burnout, and his desire for a break as reasons. Elaborating on the situation for MusicRadar, guitarist John Petrucci revealed that, originally, Portnoy did not want to leave the band, and that he only wanted to take a five-year break. Only after the rest of the band rejected his proposal did Portnoy decide to officially quit.
Petrucci has called Portnoy's departure one of the hardest things Dream Theater have had to face, and speaking of when he first heard the news, keyboardist Jordan Rudess recounted, "You know, just to give you an idea of how deep this was to lose him, how difficult it was... after we got off the phone with him... I literally sat on the steps of my studio and cried. This is a guy who's a friend of mine, who we all love and admire. We didn't want to see it come crashing down."
A little more than a month after Portnoy's departure, Dream Theater began auditioning for a new drummer in New York City. The drummers invited to audition were Mike Mangini, Derek Roddy, Thomas Lang, Virgil Donati, Marco Minnemann, Aquiles Priester, and Peter Wildoer. In April 2011, the band announced that Mangini was the drummer selected via a three-part YouTube documentary series called The Spirit Carries On.
Shortly after Mangini joined Dream Theater, Portnoy e-mailed the band asking to rejoin, but his attempt was rebuffed. Reflecting on his arrival to the band, Mangini told Noisecreep, "As I see it, as I look back, I really think what happened was that this band kind of started over. They were in a new place as they looked for a drummer, and when I got the news, after the shock wore off, I knew what I wanted to do – which was just basically come in and try to support where they wanted to go. They had a vision, they had great ideas, and I just wanted to help them achieve those things."
On January 3, 2011, Dream Theater entered Cove City Sound Studios to begin working on a new album. Although John Petrucci brought in demos, riffs, and songs from home, the album was mostly written in the studio. Writing was completed on March 2 and done without Mike Mangini. The band made demos for all the songs with drums already programmed, then sent them to Mangini who learned the parts and "added his own stuff." Reflecting on the writing process for Rock Your Life, Jordan Rudess explained that the band's approach was more open to his keyboards than in the past, and that after Mike Portnoy's departure, he and Petrucci "became, like, free." Vocalist James LaBrie and bassist John Myung each contributed more to the writing than they had in recent years.
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A Dramatic Turn of Events
A Dramatic Turn of Events is the eleventh studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater, released worldwide in September 2011 through Roadrunner Records. It is the band's first recording to feature drummer Mike Mangini, following the initial departure of founding member Mike Portnoy in September 2010. The album was written, recorded, mixed, and mastered between January and June 2011 at Cove City Sound Studios in Long Island, New York. It was produced by guitarist John Petrucci and mixed by Andy Wallace. Two singles, "On the Backs of Angels" and "Build Me Up, Break Me Down", were released in promotion of the album.
For A Dramatic Turn of Events, Dream Theater underwent a self-proclaimed musical change, reevaluating and restructuring themselves. The album has drawn stylistic comparisons to two of the band's past albums, Images and Words (1992) and Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999). Many songs on the album were written with a specific purpose in mind as Petrucci, one of the album's primary composers, felt a sense of responsibility to fans following Portnoy's departure. The album's title was derived from its recurring lyrical themes of dramatic changes in history that have affected people's lives, including contemporary uprisings such as the Libyan Civil War.
A commercial success, A Dramatic Turn of Events moved 36,000 units in the United States during its debut week, charting at number eight on the US Billboard 200. The album received mixed reviews from critics, but nonetheless earned Dream Theater their first-ever Grammy nomination, for "On the Backs of Angels". Between July 2011 and September 2012, the band supported the album on the A Dramatic Turn of Events Tour.
On September 8, 2010, drummer Mike Portnoy announced that he would be leaving Dream Theater, citing better relationships in other projects, burnout, and his desire for a break as reasons. Elaborating on the situation for MusicRadar, guitarist John Petrucci revealed that, originally, Portnoy did not want to leave the band, and that he only wanted to take a five-year break. Only after the rest of the band rejected his proposal did Portnoy decide to officially quit.
Petrucci has called Portnoy's departure one of the hardest things Dream Theater have had to face, and speaking of when he first heard the news, keyboardist Jordan Rudess recounted, "You know, just to give you an idea of how deep this was to lose him, how difficult it was... after we got off the phone with him... I literally sat on the steps of my studio and cried. This is a guy who's a friend of mine, who we all love and admire. We didn't want to see it come crashing down."
A little more than a month after Portnoy's departure, Dream Theater began auditioning for a new drummer in New York City. The drummers invited to audition were Mike Mangini, Derek Roddy, Thomas Lang, Virgil Donati, Marco Minnemann, Aquiles Priester, and Peter Wildoer. In April 2011, the band announced that Mangini was the drummer selected via a three-part YouTube documentary series called The Spirit Carries On.
Shortly after Mangini joined Dream Theater, Portnoy e-mailed the band asking to rejoin, but his attempt was rebuffed. Reflecting on his arrival to the band, Mangini told Noisecreep, "As I see it, as I look back, I really think what happened was that this band kind of started over. They were in a new place as they looked for a drummer, and when I got the news, after the shock wore off, I knew what I wanted to do – which was just basically come in and try to support where they wanted to go. They had a vision, they had great ideas, and I just wanted to help them achieve those things."
On January 3, 2011, Dream Theater entered Cove City Sound Studios to begin working on a new album. Although John Petrucci brought in demos, riffs, and songs from home, the album was mostly written in the studio. Writing was completed on March 2 and done without Mike Mangini. The band made demos for all the songs with drums already programmed, then sent them to Mangini who learned the parts and "added his own stuff." Reflecting on the writing process for Rock Your Life, Jordan Rudess explained that the band's approach was more open to his keyboards than in the past, and that after Mike Portnoy's departure, he and Petrucci "became, like, free." Vocalist James LaBrie and bassist John Myung each contributed more to the writing than they had in recent years.