Dream Theater Follow Up

Dream Theater entered Cove City Sound Studios to begin working on a new album on January 3, 2011. Writing was completed on March 2 and done without Mike Mangini. On April 14, James LaBrie began tracking vocals and by June 28, the album's mixing and mastering by Andy Wallace were finished.

Released worldwide on September 12 and in the United States on September 13, A Dramatic Turn of Events debuted at number one in some countries and attained the eighth position on the Billboard 200,  the band's second ever top ten debut position on that chart after Black Clouds & Silver Linings. Although the album received mixed reviews, it won numerous awards from music publications and its lead single, "On the Backs of Angels", was nominated for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance at the 2012 Grammy Awards, representing the band's first ever Grammy nomination.

Dream Theater kicked off their tour in support of A Dramatic Turn of Events on July 4, 2011, in Rome, Italy. The second leg of the tour took place in North America, where the band headlined with Trivium. After a short break to conclude 2011, the band returned to Europe with Periphery, to Asia with Andy McKee, to North America with The Crimson Projekct and then to South America for the final leg of the tour. On August 19 and 20, two shows were recorded at Luna Park in Buenos Aires, Argentina for a live Blu-ray release by Over the Edge Productions. After a six-month delay, Live at Luna Park was released on November 5, 2013, by Eagle Rock Entertainment. The tour concluded on September 1, 2012, in Brasília, Brazil.

On December 25, 2013, at 06:00:00 EST, as a holiday gift to the fans, Dream Theater released a free electronic 2-CD set of live tracks that were not recorded for Live at Luna Park from their 2011–2012 tour in FLAC format via BitTorrent. The release date and time were an allusion to their 1994 song "6:00", the intro of which contains a repeated sample of the line "Six o'clock on a Christmas morning" as spoken by Helena Carroll in The Dead.

Writing for Dream Theater's twelfth studio album commenced on A Dramatic Tour of Events. During soundchecks, the band would jam and record their ideas, and John Petrucci would bring in material he wrote independently. Following the conclusion of the tour, the band took a break but continued writing. They reconvened in early 2013 to enter the studio.

In December 2012, Dream Theater re-signed with Roadrunner Records. The band's self-titled twelfth album was released on September 23, 2013, as part of the new agreement with Roadrunner. The album sold more than 34,000 copies in its first week and landed on the Billboard 200 chart at No. 7, the band's third consecutive top 10 album.

In addition, the album cracked the top 10 in 24 countries including Japan, Germany, Argentina, The Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Australia and United Kingdom. Dream Theater's seventh live album, Live at Luna Park, was released on November 5, 2013.

On July 8, 2014, Dream Theater released The Studio Albums 1992–2011, a box set spanning all albums from Images and Words to A Dramatic Turn of Events.

On September 30, 2014, Dream Theater released their eighth live album and film, Breaking the Fourth Wall, which was recorded live from The Boston Opera House on March 25, 2014. During this concert, the band were joined by the Berklee World Strings and the Berklee Concert Choir, directed by Eren Başbuğ, for the second half of the set. The setlist for the tour featured the entire second half of Awake, in celebration of the album's 20th anniversary, including the song "Space-Dye Vest", which had never been performed live. The setlist closed with a performance of four songs from Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, in celebration of the album's 15th anniversary. The Along for the Ride Tour concluded on October 30, 2014.

On January 6, 2014, John Petrucci said that Dream Theater were already "planting seeds for album No. 13". He commented: "There are some song ideas and little things like that -- nothing really official, but the seeds just start to get planted. One of the great things about this career is that you have the opportunity every time to go in and start again with a blank slate and think, 'What can we do differently? How can we make this better? Where can we go from here?' Every album has a story, and to constantly have a fresh opportunity to do it is really satisfying."

The band headed into the studio in February 2015 to record its thirteenth album. The album, titled The Astonishing was released on January 29, 2016. It is a concept album set in a dystopian future society devoid of real music, centering on a conflict between a group of rebels and an oppressive empire. Two singles, "The Gift of Music" and "Moment of Betrayal" were released on December 3, 2015, and January 22, 2016, respectively.

Throughout 2016, Dream Theater went on a tour titled The Astonishing Live to support the album. They played the album in its entirety, with an intermission between the two acts, only playing songs from earlier albums on occasions later in the tour. Their performance was accompanied by a visual representation of the story on background screens. The band also made it a point to play at indoor theater halls such as Radio City Music Hall. In 2017, Dream Theater went on another tour, titled Images, Words & Beyond, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Images and Words. Each night they performed the album in its entirety, as well as A Change of Seasons, which was originally written during the Images and Words sessions, and other selections from their catalogue.

In a May 2017 interview with Rockbook, frontman James LaBrie talked about the style of the band's fourteenth studio album: "It's really important for us that the new album will be our best effort. It should be who we are at that particular moment. [...] But if along the way we feel that there is another album we should recognize once again, then we'll do it." In December 2017, Dream Theater announced that they had signed a worldwide longterm deal with Sony Music via Sony's progressive music label imprint Inside Out, for the release of the album.

The album was written in June and July 2018, and features pieces written collectively and lyrics written by John Petrucci, James Labrie, John Myung and, for the first time ever, Mike Mangini. In anticipation of the album, the band launched a "treasure hunt" in the form of an alternate reality game, where participants would search for various clues across the internet. The game ultimately led to a site revealing the title of the album to be Distance Over Time. The site also revealed the cover art for the album, its scheduled release date in February 2019, as well as dates for a tour in North America celebrating the 20th anniversary of the band's fifth album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. On November 6, 2018, a press release from Inside Out officially announced Distance Over Time, with a release date of February 22, 2019. Upon release, the album received widespread critical acclaim.

In April 2020, Metal Addicts reported that Dream Theater was expected to begin working on their fifteenth studio album in 2021. About the direction of the album, guitarist John Petrucci stated in an August 2020 interview with Ultimate Guitar:

"The eight-string project with Ernie Ball Music Man is something we are working on and hoping to have developed as this year goes on. I'm hoping that on the next Dream Theater record I'll be able to explore that." This would later be confirmed in an interview with Ultimate Guitar in February 2021.

Also in August 2020, John Petrucci also told Spain's Metal Hammer that the band would begin working on their new album in the fall. Recording sessions started at DTHQ (the band's own studio) in October 2020. The band was confirmed on November 27, 2020, to be writing the songs, while James LaBrie was writing his parts back home in Canada. When asked in an interview, John Petrucci said that the writing sessions were "off to a great start".

Petrucci released his first solo album in fifteen years, Terminal Velocity, on August 28, 2020. The album was recorded at DTHQ earlier the same year. Its recording sessions marked the first time in ten years that Petrucci worked with his former Dream Theater bandmate Mike Portnoy, who played drums on all tracks from the album. This collaboration led to speculation of a Dream Theater reunion with Portnoy, which was denied by Petrucci, who told Metal Hammer:

"I understand where people are coming from with that. One of the concerns I had, a little bit – not musically at all – but about Mike, is I didn't want people to get the wrong idea." On November 27, 2020, Dream Theater released their ninth live album, Distant Memories – Live in London, recorded at Hammersmith Apollo prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On December 1, 2020, the band released the single "The Holiday Spirit Carries On", a medley of holiday songs played in a Progressive metal style, exclusively through Bandcamp. The title references the fan-favorite song "The Spirit Carries On" from Scenes from a Memory. The proceeds from sales of the single benefited the band's road crew. On January 30, 2021, Dream Theater held a special streaming event titled Images, Words & Beyond Live in Japan, an online broadcast of a concert from the band's 2017 tour, which was originally recorded for Japanese television.

On May 5, 2021, Dream Theater announced a series of albums titled the Lost Not Forgotten Archives, the first release of which is the second set of the Images, Words & Beyond Live in Japan concert. The band added that the Lost Not Forgotten Archives will eventually include every YtseJam Records release on CD, vinyl and digital formats, along with previously unreleased archival material.

Dream Theater teased the new album on July 26, 2021, revealing that it would have seven songs, with more details to be released on July 28, 2021. On July 28, it was announced that the album was titled A View from the Top of the World, and it was released on October 22, 2021. The album was supported by five singles, "The Alien", "Invisible Monster", "Awaken the Master", "Transcending Time" and "Answering the Call", and music videos were released for each of them. The band promoted the album with a concert tour of Europe from April 20 to June 1, 2022. They had previously announced a tour of North America from late October to mid-December 2021 on the same day as the album, but announced on September 27 that it had been rescheduled to early 2022, due to safety concerns related to the COVID pandemic. The rescheduled tour began on February 2, 2022, in Mesa, Arizona.

On April 3, 2022, "The Alien" won a Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, giving Dream Theater their first Grammy.

On June 16, 2023, they started the Dreamsonic Tour, a travelling Progressive metal festival which also featured Devin Townsend and Animals as Leaders. The tour ended on July 26.

In August 2023, John Petrucci mentioned that studio time for their sixteenth album was slated to begin in late 2023, though James LaBrie later stated it would be more likely the beginning of 2024. On October 25, 2023, Dream Theater announced the departure of Mike Mangini as they were reuniting with Mike Portnoy. The reunion resulted from years of gradual reconciliation between Portnoy and individual members of the band, as he disclosed in an interview with Drumeo:

"Starting with John Petrucci maybe five, six, seven years ago or so, we just reconnected—John decided he wanted to do a solo album and he asked me to play on it—So I played on John's solo album. And then a few months later, we did a Liquid Tension Experiment album with John and Jordan. So that brought the three of us back together—And then I think the final piece was me reconnecting with James LaBrie,

'cause James and I hadn't spoken for over a decade.

I went to see Dream Theater play [at the Beacon Theatre] in New York, I guess around 2022, and that was my first time seeing James in over a decade. And literally, I'm not exaggerating, within five seconds of seeing each other, it was hugs, kisses and it was like any of the drama and bullshit that happened during all of those years of the split, it just melted away immediately."

In a group interview with Rolling Stone, James LaBrie addressed his and Mike Portnoy's reconciliation at the 2022 show, stating: "Mike and I are both very emotional and passionate people. And I think that led to the reason for us not coming together until we did. But as soon as I saw him, like he said, I came out of my dressing room, I saw him, and I was like, 'Come here.' And I gave him a fucking hug. And that was it." Petrucci added in the interview that "When Mike left the band, it was traumatic for all of us. We had to figure out how we were going to move our career forward. 

And those years that went by, they were also healing years because you don’t just have something like that happen, and all of a sudden, you're all best buddies a week later. There's some trauma there that had to heal. Thirteen years was enough time for that to happen and be like, 'Hey, you know what, man? We love each other like we're brothers.'"

Mike Mangini was amicable about his departure, stating "As was said from day 1, my place was not to fill all the roles that Mike held in the band. I was to play the drums in order to help the band carry on. My main role of keeping our live show working tightly on a nightly basis was an intense and rewarding experience. Thankfully, I got to experience playing music with these iconic musicians, as well as some fun times laced with humor." With Portnoy's return the band announced plans to record its first studio album with him in fifteen years.

On November 17, 2023, the band announced former lead vocalist Charlie Dominici's death at the age of 72 that month from unspecified causes.

In February 2024, Mike Portnoy posted pictures from DTHQ on his Instagram account, confirming that the new Dream Theater album was "officially underway".

On April 2, 2024, John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy announced that all of the writing and the drum tracks were completed. John Petrucci later posted a video on YouTube on May 1, 2024, confirming that the guitar tracks were completed. On June 26, 2024, Jordan Rudess announced on his Instagram that all the keyboards had been recorded. On July 30, 2024, James LaBrie posted on his Instagram, a photo of himself in the studio with the caption "Vocals" with a green check mark, and the hashtag "DT16", signifying the vocals had been completed for the new album.

On October 10, 2024, Dream Theater released "Night Terror" as the first single for their sixteenth studio album Parasomnia, which was released on February 7, 2025. The album was highly anticipated, with several publications (including Loudwire, Stereogum and Ultimate Guitar) naming it in their lists of the most anticipated albums of 2025.

Throughout their career, Dream Theater's live shows have gradually become bigger, longer and more diverse. Prior to Mike Portnoy's departure, Dream Theater "rotated" its setlists to ensure that fans who attended multiple shows in the same area would see few, if any, songs repeated. Portnoy, who constructed the setlists, would take into account the setlist from the last time the band was in a particular city for the benefit of fans who saw the band on successive tours. The practice was abandoned with Mike Portnoy away from the band, and the setlist remained static even after his return on the 40th anniversary tour, but Portnoy noted that the practice of rotating setlists will return eventually.

The band's full world tours, since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, have predominantly been "Evening with..." tours, in which the band performs for at least three hours without an opening act. Until 2012, such tours did not contain an intermission, but every tour since the Along for the Ride Tour in 2013–2014 until the Distance Over Time Tour had. The show that was recorded for Live Scenes From New York was well over three hours in length, and resulted in Mike Portnoy almost being hospitalized after acquiring severe food poisoning from the food he ate before the show.

There is also a significant amount of humor, casualness, and improvisation attached to Dream Theater's concert. For example, the performance of "A Change of Seasons" on Live Scenes from New York features changes to a series of instrumental breaks, with John Myung playing a baseball organ melody, John Petrucci playing the opening theme to The Simpsons, and Jordan Rudess playing the ragtime section of "When the Water Breaks" from Liquid Tension Experiment 2 (the latter is also heard on the album "Live at Budokan").

Several songs included on Once in a LIVETime include snippets of others' pieces, such as Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird" and Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee." Other quotations include "Mary Had a Little Lamb" during "Endless Sacrifice" on the Gigantour, a calliope-inspired break between verses of "Under a Glass Moon", a quote of "Don't Cry for Me, Argentina"'s main melody played by John Petrucci while performing the intro solo of "Through Her Eyes" in Buenos Aires, the Turkish March at a concert in Istanbul, and the opening riff of Rush's "A Passage to Bangkok" at a show in Bangkok, Thailand.

On the "20th Anniversary World Tour", Jordan Rudess has even thrown in a short "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" theme in a break during "Endless Sacrifice," and during a concert in Israel he started a spontaneous "Hava Nagila", with the rest of the band later joining in. During the band's 2017 tour, a snippet of Metallica's "Enter Sandman" was played during Dream Theater's own song "As I Am".

Perhaps the best example of Dream Theater's unpredictable concert structure came during Derek Sherinian's time with the band. At selected shows the band members all swapped instruments and performed an encore as the fictitious band dubbed Nightmare Cinema. They usually performed a cover of Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers," and, on one occasion, Ozzy Osbourne's "Suicide Solution," At some shows, Sherinian, Petrucci and Portnoy would take the stage together under the name "Nicky Lemons and the Migraine Brothers." Sherinian, wearing a feather boa and novelty sunglasses, would perform a pop-punk song titled "I Don't Like You" with Petrucci and Portnoy backing. During the Chaos in Motion tour, in several concerts before "Trial of Tears," Portnoy and Petrucci would change positions.

In the Score and Chaos in Motion DVDs, an animation has accompanied certain parts of the songs, showing the band playing along to the music as cartoon characters. On the Score DVD, during the song Octavarium, the band is seen performing in an octagonal shaped maze. As the animation continues Jordan Rudess spontaneously turns into Santa Claus and John Petrucci catches fire. In "The Dark Eternal Night" from the Chaos in Motion DVD, the band battles against a monster by shooting fireballs from guitars, throwing drum sticks, and screaming.

Dream Theater played and recorded a live performance at the Nippon Budokan Hall on April 26, 2004. It was later released as Live at Budokan on October 5, 2004.

Dream Theater's largest audience as a headlining act was 20,000 in Santiago, Chile on December 6, 2005. The show was released on DVD through Portnoy's YtseJam Records.

In 2007, after their show in Salt Lake City on July 30, Governor Jon Huntsman, Jr. signed a proclamation officially marking July 30, 2007 as Dream Theater Day in the state of Utah.

In 2008 Dream Theater started the Progressive Nation 2008 tour, along with Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, and 3. The tour is the brainchild of Mike Portnoy, who stated, "I've been wanting to assemble a package tour like this for many years now. 

With all of the festivals and package tours that go through America, I've been talking with our manager and agent for over 10 years now about doing something that focuses on the more progressive, musician-oriented side of hard rock and metal. I decided it was time to stop talking the talk, lace up and finally walk the walk."

On February 13, 2009, Dream Theater announced the official line up for their Progressive Nation 2009 tour. The tour was originally set to feature bands including Swedish bands Beardfish and Pain of Salvation, as well as Zappa plays Zappa. On June 22, 2009, Mike Portnoy announced that Pain of Salvation and Beardfish would not be touring the North American leg of the Progressive Nation 2009 tour because of record label complications. In the same announcement, Portnoy stated that the bands Scale the Summit and Bigelf would replace Pain of Salvation and Beardfish on the tour. This lineup change has put Bigelf on both the North American and European legs of the Progressive Nation 2009 tour. The tour's North American leg ran throughout July and August 2009.

On March 26, 2009, it was announced that Dream Theater would take the Progressive Nation tour to Europe for the first time alongside Opeth, Bigelf and Unexpect. The tour ran throughout September and October 2009.

In June/July 2010 Dream Theater were the opening band for Iron Maiden during the first leg of their Final Frontier Tour which included Madison Square Garden as one of the many venues. On December 7, 2010, Dream Theater announced on their website that they would be headlining the High Voltage Festival alongside Judas Priest in 2011. In July 2011 they started A Dramatic Tour of Events to promote A Dramatic Turn of Events. In January 2014, they started the Along for the Ride Tour to promote their self-titled album. On December 13, 2016, Dream Theater confirmed 5 UK tour dates for their Images, Words & Beyond 25th Anniversary Tour, starting in Birmingham on April 18, 2017.

On March 4, 2022, Mike Portnoy attended his first and only Dream Theater show as an audience member at the Beacon Theatre in New York City, taking photos with the band and receiving a shoutout from James LaBrie during the show. The attendance would eventually lead to Portnoy rejoining the band.

On April 22, 2023, Dream Theater announced the first edition of DREAMSONIC, taking place in North America throughout June and July and celebrating the summer's ultimate progressive metal line-up. Started in Cedar Park, Texas, on June 16, 2023, they were joined by special guests Devin Townsend and Animals As Leaders. The tour would be Mike Mangini's last with the band.

After rejoining Dream Theater, on April 8, 2024, the band announced their first tour with Mike Portnoy in fourteen years, titled the "40th Anniversary Tour 2024 – 2025", which began with a month-long European leg in October.

Dream Theater have covered other artists' work throughout their career. They have performed cover songs live and in studio, with many of those live performances being recorded for official release. A Change of Seasons features Elton John, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Kansas, Queen, Journey, Dixie Dregs and Genesis live covers.

Through YtseJam Records, the band have also released full album live cover performances of Metallica's Master of Puppets, Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, and Deep Purple's Made in Japan. The special edition of Black Clouds & Silver Linings includes a bonus disc with Rainbow, Queen, Dixie Dregs, Zebra, King Crimson, and Iron Maiden covers. Other notable artists covered by Dream Theater include Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne, Pantera, Rush, The Who, and Yes.

Despite the band being forced to change their name, Dream Theater adopted a custom logo (known as the Majesty symbol) and wordmark, both of which have appeared on most of their promotional material. The Majesty symbol has been featured on the front cover of every Dream Theater studio album, while the wordmark appears on all except Falling into Infinity. The Majesty symbol is derived from Mary, Queen of Scots' mark, which was re-worked by Charlie Dominici for use on the album artwork for When Dream and Day Unite.

In September 2010, a fan of Dream Theater discovered that all of the letters of "DOMINICI" fit together perfectly into the Majesty symbol. When Charlie discovered this, he laughed and mentioned that "it only took them 25 years to figure out the 'Dominici Code!'" This has earlier also been discovered as shown on the comment section of DTFAQ and in the DTNorway Podcast Episode 2 from 2008, with Charlie Dominici.

AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Dream Theater's music as a "dense blend of Progressive rock and post-Halen metal". The band is well noted for being one of the early progenitors of the Progressive metal genre, and they are considered a member of the so-called "big three" of the genre, along with Queensrÿche and Fates Warning. The original members, Mike Portnoy, John Petrucci and John Myung, have strong influences from progressive rock bands such as Rush, Yes, and Pink Floyd, heavy metal bands such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, various Speed metal bands, and even the Glam metal  of the day.

John Petrucci described Dream Theater's musical style as a blend of Rush, Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, Yes, and Metallica, while Mike Portnoy described their style as a blend of Progressive rock and Heavy metal. They encompass the progressive aspect, influenced by Rush, Yes, Pink Floyd, and Genesis, alongside the metal aspect influenced by Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Metallica, and Black Sabbath. When combined, that's precisely what characterizes Dream Theater.

This synthesis created a unique metal that was not traditional of the day: it had distorted guitars and fast riffing, but the music focused more on technical proficiency and precise execution than on heavy metal riffs. The band's music has focused on three main elements: metal, melody, and progressive roots. In the liner notes for the 2008 Greatest Hit compilation, Mike Portnoy cited artists such as Peter Gabriel, U2, and Journey as inspirations for Dream Theater's softer songs. Dream Theater's music has also been described as Art rock.

Dream Theater's 2003 album Train of Thought showcased a heavier sound. This decision was inspired by the positive feedback received from their previous heavier songs on stage. 1999's Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory was praised for its display of old-fashioned progressive rock, and was influenced by classic conceptual rock records such as The Beatles' Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, Pink Floyd's The Wall and The Final Cut, The Who's Tommy, and Genesis's The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

Dream Theater's music usually borrows elements from other musical styles including Symphonic rock, Symphonic metal, Arena rock, Soft rock, and Classical music.

The Majesty Demos (1986) demo

When Dream and Day Unite (1989)

Images and Words (1992)

Live at the Marquee (1993)

Awake (1994)

A Change of Seasons (1995) ep

Falling into Infinity (1997)

Once in a LIVEtime (1998)

Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory (1999)

Live Scenes from New York (2001)

Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence (2002)

Train of Thought (2003)

Live at Budokan (2004)

Octavarium (2005)

Score (2006) live

Systematic Chaos (2007)

Chaos in Motion: 2007–2008 (2008) live

Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009)

A Dramatic Turn of Events (2011)

Dream Theater (2013)

Live at Luna Park (2013)

Breaking the Fourth Wall (2014) live

The Astonishing (2016)

Distance Over Time (2019)

Distant Memories – Live in London (2020)

A View from the Top of the World (2021)

Parasomnia (2025)