By: Staff
A Dramatic Turn Of Events
Mike Portnoy, the former drummer of prog-metal giants Dream Theater, has delivered some biting criticism of the band’s new album, A Dramatic Turn Of Events, in the forums of his own website, suggesting the new songs are “ desperate attempts of secretly re-writing the past.”
Portnoy’s post is in response to an interesting article by Thiago Campos, a Brazilian guitarist/producer of Youtube covers project “VRA! Split-Screen Covers,” readable in full here. In his post, Campos postulates that A Dramatic Turn Of Events was written based off arrangements of songs from Images And Words, their classic 1992 album.
Campos compared the albums after noticing a couple similarities, and he “came to the wonderfully shocking conclusion that the entire album (or almost, I’m positive on at least 6 songs) was written based off of the charts of Images & Words songs. I know this might come across as an absurd accusation to many of you, but I wouldn’t be coming out in public with this information if I hadn’t done my homework, and if I wasn’t confident this approach to writing the new album was a conscious/intentional decision, maybe even humorous, by the band.”
He illustrates the similarities between “This Is The Life” from A Dramatic Turn Of Events and “Another Day” from Images And Words:
“ Intro clean/acoustic guitar 2x
Full band + thematic guitar solo 1x
*Cool down*
Verse 1: Piano + vocals
Verse 1: Piano + vocals + guitar volume swells
Chorus: drums slowly build up
Thematic solo again, “quieter” (played by the Sax on “Another Day”, cleaner guitar + keys on “This is the Life”)
Verse 2: (harmonically/melodically similar to verse 1, but over a groove throughout)
Chorus
Bridge (climb)
Guitar solo (not exactly the “Theme”, but derived from it)
Chorus (this time played at it’s “strongest”)
Instrumental ending on the theme (once again with the guitar in place of Saxophone)”
After reading Thiago Campos’ analysis, Portnoy posted his take on it on his site’s forum:
“Well done, Thiago…. Great post and spot-on! I *immediately* noticed everything you wrote about upon my first listen… and found it all incredibly strange… If they are indeed intentional ‘nuggets,’ then I guess that’s a pretty cool idea… However, if they were desperate attempts of secretly re-writing the past… hmm, maybe not so much… I guess only they will know the real reason for it…”
Fan reaction to the “accusations” have been decidedly split. On Blabbermouth.com, Furywhip defended Dream Theater: “even if it was written that way, so what!! Like Campos mentions, it doesn’t mean it sounds the same, and it clearly doesn’t. Mike Portnoy shouldn’t even be commenting on such an absurd accusation, even though he is stating it with envy, in my opinion. And it’s as if we haven’t haven’t heard the same song over and over for the last 40 years, which were written with the same arrangements. Just another dig towards Dream Theater. GREAT ALBUM!”
MrMcThrasher views it differently, exclaming “I don’t WANT callbacks to previous songs or albums. I want fresh material.”
Ben (12 years ago)
Sensationalist journalism at its best. Why don’t you just call this site “The Guitar Enquirer”? Your article is a complete misrepresentation of the facts.
To folks who read this hogwash…know for a fact. MIKE NEVER MADE THE STATEMENT THAT DT WAS REWRITING THE PAST!! He wondered aloud about several different ideas as to why it might sound this way, and DREW NO CONCLUSIONS!!! What this reporter has done gives him about as much creditably for facts as Michael Moore….or Ben Stein.
eric (12 years ago)
this post is total BS. portnoys coments are takien completely out of context, and they never imply anything ab out the album other than its similarities to another DT album in song structure/instrumentation NOT THE MUSIC.
Ben (12 years ago)
…btw…I also notice that this coward couldn’t even put his name on this tripe. Nice going “staff”…whoever you are.
Kevin Breemen (12 years ago)
Hot News:
Mike Portnoy and Britney Spears will collaborate to recreate the 12 step AA suite
They will be joined by Brian May on guitar, Jason Newsted on bass
and Kermit the Frog on the keys.
Check it out on MP dot com, where we can all steal stories and five then our own truth
Yours truly,
Kevin Breemen ( see my name? I date)
Mathew (12 years ago)
Actually he did present Mikes statement in it’s entirety here… so read for yourself. The title is definitely sensational, but Mike did more than wonder aloud… It was insinuated, but he stopped short of actually accusing them… That said MP should never have even made a statement like that in the first place and given blabbermouth the ammo it needed… I would also disagree with the reaction being mixed. I’d venture about 10% of people actually tried to defend MP, or say that it was a big deal…. More than 90% of people on MP forums and blabbermouth (where it gets really nasty) were of the opinion that it didn’t matter… from there MP gets bashed left and right… sooo what have we learned here…
MP should have kept his mouth shut… like he said he would… now he comes across as a gigantic douche…
In the big scheme of things borrowing your own arrangements… not such a big deal as all bands do it… Even DT did it many times over the years with MP in the band… and lest we forget what about adrenaline mob??? Yeah prog-heads typically hate it but let’s just say it’s not so original either… nuh said…
Whatever (12 years ago)
So, yes, the title completely and utterly takes what he said out of context, though the author did include the full quote at the end. Even so, when looked at not out of context, it’s almost as if Portnoy couldn’t wait to drop in a suspicion that DT ripped off I&W instead of drawing inspiration from older albums. Why didn’t he just say that it was a cool idea? Why did he have to throw in “desperate attempt” and such? Desperate attempt my butt.
Russ Orme (12 years ago)
This is just stupid. I love Portnoy, his attitude and passion for drumming is incredible. Im gutted he quit the band but that was his own choive. Mangini was a great replacement, even though I prefer Marco Minneman. Yes you can hear that the album is little more classic. But isnt that what bands do. My favourite band is Iron Maiden, and all the songs are based around a very repeative structure. Portnoy made his opionion on the album, but theres no need to glamourise his points. I bust my ass off everyday at work, and all I want to do is listen to music in my down time. So why dont some of you get a life/job/partner. This album is incredible. Portnoy, carrying living the dream!
Russell Orme
England, UK
Maiden till I die!!!
eric (12 years ago)
Get a life mike
bmcconn (12 years ago)
portnoy – even if your comments were taken out of context – what have you been up to lately? Thats right – in SHIT bands with no hope of returning to your former glory. You had your time and now your through! Mangini will kill it on the next album and be completely part of the creative process – which YOU bailed on! See ya chump – you just found out that you are indeed expendable and without a doubt, completely REPLACEABLE. No more whining about how someone needs to take a fucking break. The new album is completely FRESH no matter if the arrangements are the fucking same as 20 years or 2 days ago. Who gives a shit – what have you written thats been worth a damn lately: ANSWER: NOTHING.
Jace-C (12 years ago)
Wow , some People are only seeing and hearing what they want to see or hear and are refusing to see or hear the full story , you guys should be ashamed.
omnihumble (12 years ago)
This is one of the best albums since IAW as it encompasses all aspects of DT throughout its history. A little mix of everything. I love it! Don’t get too serious people, otherwise it isn’t fun. I saw them perform last night in Houston. Needless to say they ROCKED! The drum solo was especially fun.
crap article (12 years ago)
I’m sad I gave you another page view. This article is a poor excuse for journalism.
IceIcePenguin (12 years ago)
Portnoy should’ve listened a couple of previous DT albums and see if he can spot any similarities there. Mike Mangini is the best thing that has happened to the band since Jordan, and I hope there will be no DT albums with Hetfield-ish sounding LaBrie and MP constantly growling as back vocals.
Lewis Bullock (12 years ago)
Look what their “desperate attempt” got them … a Grammy Nomination … well … I guess it worked. I’m enjoying the album immensely – and guess what – I love Images and Words too – what a coincidence! Have yet to hear an AM song that I’ve enjoyed listening too nearly as much.
elwacko (12 years ago)
Mike really couldn’t stifle his comments until the end of the year, huh…I think he was on that metalshow and he was bein cool and dodging questions about dream theater without him, which was the smart decision. If he had just ignored the comments and let it be, his reputation might still be what it was when he was in dream theater, and I really don’t dislike the guy, in fact in a lot of ways I sympathize, empathize even with him. But even comments like this, which aren’t malicious in intent, should just not be said as they can easily be taken the wrong way by the fans.
PhillYorkHunt (12 years ago)
When I first got into DT, Another Day was my favourite song and must have listen to it a 100 times…….fast forward to 2011 and This is the life is now my latest favourite song. Now, even though I’ve been singing, playing drums, guitar, piano and writing songs for over 20 years, I never picked the similarities between these two songs……though I wasn’t looking for one and haven’t sat down to work out how to play either song till now. And I can see now that they are structurally similar….so fucking what…it got me to like the song, and still be blissfully un-aware of this fact
Well done DT……I havent felt this way since I heard The Count of Tuscany
Paul (11 years ago)
@omnihumble “best albums since IAW”?
There’s a few albums in there you might not have heard.
Scenes, Awake, Scenes, Octavarium, Scenes?