Mike Portnoy recently clarified the claims about the upcoming Dream Theater album.
Earlier, the drummer talked about the new album and the band’s chemistry while making the album. He appeared to say that the next record picks off where ‘Black Clouds & Silver Linings’ left things off:
“If I’m being honest, I think it picks up right where ‘Black Clouds’ left off, to be honest. There’s a certain style that the five of us have when we write together. And if you listen to the album with this lineup from 1999, ‘[Metropolis Pt. 2:] Scenes From A Memory’, through 2009’s ‘Black Clouds & Silver Linings’, if you look at that string of five or six albums, that’s the sound and style of these five people. So I think that’s a good indication of what you can expect with the new Dream Theater album. It definitely sounds like classic Dream Theater.”
However, Portnoy has clarified that this was not what he meant.
What Did Portnoy Really Mean?
More recently, the Dream Theater drummer took to Instagram and shared the headline of the interview he appeared in. The title said:
“New Dream Theater Album ‘Picks Up Right Where ‘Black Clouds & Silver Linings’ Left Off’”
Portnoy shared a post to clarify that it was a clickbait and stated that his words could be misunderstood in the media:
“After doing approx 20+ interviews last week that were mainly focused on the upcoming 40th Anniversary Tour, inevitably there were questions asking about the new DT album…so here come the clickbait headlines!”
He then clarified what he actually meant in the interview by saying:
“To clarify the 1st headline, I was referring to the band chemistry itself more so than the actual musical content…(that it felt like no time had passed since making our last album together almost 15 years ago…) Anyways, there’ll be plenty of time to talk about the making of the new album when the time is right…”
How The Album Is Going
The band is currently recording their 16th studio album. Earlier this month, Portnoy shared with The Prog Report details about the writing and recording sessions for the album. He said:
“It’s going great. The writing is done. My drum tracks are done. Guitars are done. So, this week we’re in bass land. I’m home at the moment. So I’m kind of jumping back and forth between the studio as needed. I’m not there 100 percent of the time. But I’m gonna go back for keyboards in a few weeks and then we’re gonna start the vocals, I think, next month.”
See the Instagram post here.