Lifting Shadows: The Authorized Biography of Dream Theater

by Rich Wilson

Two-volume boxed set with a DVD - both a written and a pictorial history of the band.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Biography

576 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Phil Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story of a great band. This is not a "Behind the Music" type of expose. Rather, it's a balanced account on how "the biggest band you never head of" came to be. I couldn't put this down.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

In another instance of art mimicking life, Rich Wilson's "Lifting Shadows", much like Dream Theater's music, will only appeal to the already converted. The book is jam-packed with interviews from the band members themselves (including the taciturn John Myung!), crew members, producers, and collaborators for a panoramic view of the band's many trials and tribulations.

Indeed, there's much more drama to the Dream Theater story than one might initially expect from "the greatest band you've never heard of." Wilson is keenly aware of his niche audience, and as such, seeks to answer many of the questions fans have wondered about over the years. Aside from the interesting (and sometimes amusing) anecdotes of band interaction, the best parts of the book are the ones that give insight into the music industry. Wilson does a fine job of showcasing the band's perspectives, as well as conflicting perspectives from the record executives they struggled against.

Wilson is clearly quite familiar with Dream Theater's history, and "Lifting Shadows" is very much a book "for the fans, by a fan." Each chapter details the story of the band by album, and it's here that Wilson's music journalism background really shows through--sometimes to the book's benefit, other times to its detriment. Wilson coaxes great interviews from all his subjects, and his research is impeccable. However, there are times where he waxes on about each album as if he's writing a glowing music review when it's clear that anyone reading this book will already be quite familiar with Dream Theater's discography.

Finally, reading this book after Mike Portnoy's departure is both telling and quite sad. The book depicts an interesting picture of the drummer, who loves the band as much as he loves perfection and control over it. No one would be able to doubt Portnoy's dedication to the band, but its interesting to see some of the threads that eventually led to his departure. Knowing that, the closing chapters of the book take on a bit of sadness as the reader knows how the band's expressed optimism turns out.

Fans of the band will love this book, and the DT fanatic would be remiss to miss Wilson's article in Classic Rock magazine detailing Portnoy's departure.

[Jeff McCormack · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Being a huge fan of Dream Theater's music for about 15 years now, I have pretty mush just consumed anything and everything musically that I could find that involved the band, or any of the individual members.

Not being much of a follower of online chats, forums, discussions, news, gossip, etc. I was only really aware of their music and official news I had read. This book gave the whole behind-the-scene details for pretty much everything from their earliest days on through their latest album (2009's Black Clouds & Silver Linings), including details about all the various side projects each member has been involved in as a bonus.

I am amazed at the detail this went into, and how even some of the smallest characters in the story got covered and interviewed. Managers, record execs, singers who tried out, people they had crossed the path of, just about everyone got talked to. Very well written; very in-depth; very revealing; and kept me glued to the book.

I found it a bit odd when I read that Mike Portnoy had pretty much stated he was leaving the band years ago. The things that were said about how there is no way the band could conceive of going on without him, and fortunately he did not follow through and we have some of the most amazing albums to date that came afterwards. Now, here we are in 2001, and Mike did recently quit, and yet they are continuing on without him, and just released the info on their new drummer. I just found it funny in reading that section last week right around the time they announced their new drummer.

This book covers the time frame all th way through their latest album, so it covers very modern times. And now that Mike has quit the band, this book basically encapsulates the entire Mike Portnoy era of the band.

[Laura Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lifting Shadows - The Authorized Biography of Dream Theater (by Rich Wilson) opens with prog-rockers Dream Theater (James LaBrie-singer, John Myung-bass, John Petrucci-guitar, Mike Portnoy-drums and Jordan Rudess-keys) playing to 93,000 people at the Download Festival on June 14,2009. The book chronicles the group's arrival at this momentous occasion. The story starts with a brief look at each member's childhood and early musical influences. Many of the chapter titles reference Dream Theater (DT) songs and each charts their challenging career course in detailed fashion. Their many battles within the established music industry, and Dream Theater's continuing fight for musical integrity, provide the foundation on which the group's story is told.

The book runs in order of events and gives insights behind the ideas and innovations of each album starting from When Dream And Day Unites through Black Clouds & Silver Linings. Although personal issues are touched upon, this treatise is more concerned with the career changes and inner workings of the group.

"I truly believe that the best is yet to come," is how the Dream Theater portion of the volume ends quoting James LaBrie's positive thoughts on the band's future. The last chapter is Dreaming Aside which talks about the extensive side projects that James, John, John, Mike and Jordan have been involved in over the years.

As a fan of the band I really enjoyed this book. A quick read, for fans of progressive rock and metal, and good for anyone starting out in the industry.

[Daniel Lavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was really well put together. The interviews were surprisingly thorough, both in content and who the author reached out to. This was an amazing deep dive into a band I've been obsessed with for nearly 10 years.

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

An incredibly thorough, enthralling book for the diehard Dream Theater fan. It doesn't matter how long you've been a fan for, or how much you've read up on the band online, there will be facts in here you've never read. With the exception of John Purdell (RIP) and Kevin Moore (wasn't interested in contributing), everybody who had something to do with Dream Theater at some point is interviewed in-depth. Even the singers who were in the band for just two months and David Prater (who describes Mike Portnoy's drumming as sounding "like faeces") got interview spots. Every studio anecdote or memorable gig story gets a mention. No stone is left unturned!

Which, for someone who is a great fan of the band (or has a strong interest in their history), is fantastic. Rich Wilson has clearly poured hundreds of hours of research and interviewing time into writing this book.

But for more casual fans, this book's extreme depth will make it a drag. Personally, my biggest interest is in the band's early days, and their "classic" albums. I like their more recent material but in my opinion it doesn't compare to the likes of Awake. So from my perspective this raises two issues with the book.

The first is that, while the first half of their career is filled with conflict and turmoil, and makes for a thrilling read, the second half is much more plain. For Six Degrees... through to Black Clouds... there are few interesting anecdotes from the studio, no conflicts with producers or record labels. It all goes swimmingly. Yet Wilson insists on making these later chapters just as big and chunky as the early ones. Although I'll admit this may just be due to personal bias, the second half of the book is much less engaging than the first half.

The second issue, again, may be affected by personal bias. I don't think their more recent albums are that great. In all honesty, I think that by Six Degrees... the band had a fixed style, and each album then on was only a variation on that style rather than a genuine progression. Again, this might just be me, but Wilson's constant gushing about how amazing each album is gets tiresome after a while. Even on the albums which are regarded less well, he tries to use some angle which makes it seem brilliant. I know this is a biography of Dream Theater, so is likely to be a bit biased, but it does get cringeworthy after a while.

Perhaps another flaw in the book is the absence of any new interviews with Kevin Moore, who declined for reasons which aren't entirely clear. Regardless of your opinion as to whether his contributions were actually the best in the band, or whether he merely helped lay the groundwork for later releases, you cannot deny he wasn't part of the creative core of the band. A lot of the time when reading the book you don't notice (most of the interviews are with Mike Portnoy and John Petrucci anyway), but there are some parts of the book, particularly the parts discussing Moore's departure from the band, which feel very awkward given his absence. Some past interviews from magazines and websites are occasionally used, but these don't nearly help plug the gap left by his refusal to contribute to the book. A real shame.

A nice "bonus" comes in the form of the sixty-odd page appendix, detailing each current band member's side projects. Particularly in-depth are the sections on Liquid Tension Experiment and Transatlantic. The section on OSI again suffers from a lack of contribution from Moore, and inevitably this leads to a bias. There's a definite bias in favour of Portnoy (in summary: the album with little to no creative input from Portnoy is written off by Wilson as just not being as good as the first album - something I personally disagree with). It's a pity that space is only given to discuss current Dream Theater members' projects: nothing on Dominici, Planet X or Chroma Key. But if all these projects and solo careers were featured, the book would probably have been brought close to the 500 page mark.

Having said that, all in all this is a great read for anybody who wants a deeper and fuller history of Dream Theater. If you've read the Wikipedia pages on Dream Theater and scoured the net for band interviews, but still hungered for more information on Dream Theater, I cannot recommend this book highly enough.

[Andri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sambil menunggu album terbaru DT, Black Clouds and Silver Linings yang akan rilis 22 Juni nanti, sekaligus menaikkan kembali passion membaca gw yg tengah drop.. buku ini gw baca ulang.

Sambil menunggu kelanjutan The 12 Step Saga, meneruskan The Glass Prison (6DOIT), This Dying Soul (TOT), The Root of All Evil (Octavarium) dan Repentance (SC), yang oleh Portnoy diberi judul The Shattered Fortress.. paling enak emang terus mendengarkan ulang lagu komposisi ini.

Sebuah komposisi yang "indah", berisi berbagai curahan tentang bagaimana menyikapi sebuah kesalahan, dan kembali ke jalan yang semestinya. Dalam. Penuh inspirasi.

-andri-

***

Bukan lantaran nama gw tertera di buku ini lalu kemudian gw memberi buku ini 5 bintang. Juga bukan karena gw cinta mati sama dream theater lalu gw beri buku ini jg 5 bintang. Tapi karena bukunya memang layak untuk dibaptis sebagai an authorized biography of dream theater, yang sangat memuaskan bagi para DT die hard fans.

Terbagai dalam 2 buku, Images : berisi gambar-gambar perjalanan Dream Theater dalam berbagai era, dan Words : berisi kisah perjalanan musikalitas dan kehidupan Dream Theater, yang banyak berisi kisah-kisah menarik tentang persahabatan, saling pengertian, mengejar impian, kejatuhan, kebangkitan, dan semangat untuk menjalani hidup sejalan dengan pilihan yang diyakini.

Dilengkapi dengan 1 cd bonus yang berisi lagu-lagu yang selama ini jarang didengar, membuat buku ini sangat-sangat layak dan menjadi wajib hukumnya bagi mereka yang mengaku sebagai pecinta DT.

Tambahan info, ternyata yang edisi susulan, tidak berisi nama-nama devoted fans.

-andri-

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dream Theater is one of the most successful progressive rock/metal bands in history and one of my favorite bands. Even though I listen to virtually nothing else in this realm, something about Dream Theater has stuck with me since I discovered them as a teenager. Even though I don’t love their last few albums and I’m pretty sure they are way beyond their prime now, I still adore their albums from their heyday.

So, having a biography of the band that explored their history is a real treat. The book starts from the band’s beginnings and follows up to the departure of founding member Mike Portnoy and the release of their album A Dramatic Turn of Events in 2011. There is a wealth of incredible information tracing the band’s influences, creative process, and struggles along the way. I found it particularly illuminating to read about various tensions in the band through the years and the lack of support they felt from record labels for the first 20 years or so of their existence.

The book almost feels like an oral history with its heavy reliance on interview with the band members, producers, and other people in their orbit. Wilson interjects throughout, providing additional context to make sense of the story. The interviews capture the band members’ personalities effectively. Everyone comes off as fairly low-key with the exception of Mike Portnoy, whose fiery personality shines through. At times, I even found myself annoyed with him because of his resentful attitude toward other musicians, fans, or record labels. He seemed to have a fairly big chip on his shoulder and it seems as though no level of credit would be enough for him to feel like he is adequately appreciated for his contributions to the band and music.

The actual information and story conveyed through the book were fantastic–they are the primary reason for my high rating. I knocked off a star because the writing is…well, it’s quite bad. I was tempted to knock off a couple of stars for just how bad it is, but I loved the content so much that I left it at a four.

It truly confounds me how many people I see praising the writing in this book. The book is riddled with grammatical errors, from unnecessary commas and misplaced apostrophes to frequent malapropisms. The most egregious (and truly baffling) grammar mistake throughout is his lack of adherence to normal conventions of quoting when using block quotes. When he block quotes and continues into a new paragraph, rather than leaving the first paragraph open and starting the next paragraph with a quotation mark (i.e., what you’re supposed to do), he uses a closed quote at the end of the first paragraph and starts the next paragraph with another quotation mark. That may seem nitpicky, but for someone who is used to reading block quotes used appropriately, it was really distracting and honestly made it confusing whom he was quoting at times. And this happened through the entire book, he never figured it out.

He’s also just not a very gifted writer. His syntax and word choice aren’t great. He also had a habit of seemingly deciding to randomly throw in a “big word” but he often used them incorrectly. For example, he talks about the band trying to “extradite” themselves from a record deal. I’m pretty sure he meant “extricate,” unless the band committed some kind of music crime and were supposed to be sent to the Hague for trial. He also referred to an illness called “lead singer syndrome” as a “malaise” when I’m pretty sure he was looking for “malady.” I have two or three other examples, but I think I’ve made my point.

Outside of the structural problems with the writing, he also came across strangely defensive of the bands at points. He talked about outlets “reveling” in giving the band negative reviews or implied there was some sort of agenda against the band. Maybe it’s just that not everyone loves every album or Dream Theater’s? Or doesn’t think the band is good generally?

There was also an embarrassing part when he was talking about the band using harsh vocals. He’s referring to “A Nightmare to Remember” when Mike Portnoy uses a gruff vocal at one point. He refers to them as “cookie monster vocals,” a semi-derogatory term for harsh vocals used in death metal. First, Mike Portnoy is not using a death growl, so not only is the term derogatory, it is inaccurate. Further, he says that it is good that Dream Theater did not give in to the passing trend of using “cookie monster vocals.” This reveals his complete and total ignorance of vocal convention in a huge swath of metal. Vocalists have been using harsh vocals in death metal and black metal since the early 80s, with bands like Hellhammer, Bathory, Possessed, and Mantas pioneering the sound. Throughout the 80s, other black and death metal bands expanded upon the vocals until now there are several archetypal styles of harsh vocals, broadly divided between typical death and black metal styles. So, to refer to harsh vocals as a passing trend is just asinine and comes off as uninformed and frankly a bit embarrassing to me. (You can probably tell I’m someone who listens to a lot of extreme metal. I’m not offended by Wilson’s comments, but I do find it annoying when people belittle a genre or subgenre of music that they clearly are not well-versed in.)

All told, this was a fascinating book with a wealth of great information about Dream Theater that is held back by the less than stellar writing. Only essential for fans of Dream Theater but essential for them nonetheless.

[Katie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very well written, and interesting even if you're not a huge Dream Theater fan. (OK, I could be a little biased.) However, I definitely felt that the book did them justice, and that is a big compliment to the author. A must read for all Dream Theater fans, but they already knew that. And they've already read it. Twice.

[Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book about my favorite band...what's not to like? I learned a lot about DT.

[lita]

harus punya! harus punya!

[Juan Brodersen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really odd book. First, the whole Dominici part is boring as hell and way too long. Then, the book feels like a compilation of testimonies and quotes with barely any narrative thread. And when you get to the end of the Black Clouds disc/tour, it's like: “Oh, and the drummer decided to leave, he was gone, they hired a new guy, and continued. The end.” It really leaves you with a sense of not understanding what happened.

There's only one lead: James saying, “Looking back, he was a bit odd during the tour.” If you’re reconstructing what happened, I think you can drive the narrative towards that moment so the reader isn’t lost. There were things going on, the band didn’t notice at the time, but water has gone under the bridge, so here’s the story for you to understand: that’s totally missing.

It kind of felt like a compilation of interviews with not much more to add.

To give the autor some credit, maybe Dream Theater’s story is boring and that’s just it. But the book left me a taste of nothing.

[Kristen S. Hé 何盛皓 · Rating 4 out of 5]

pros:
• Rich Wilson has a really impressive way of capturing the interpersonal and creative tensions in and around Dream Theater. behind the music, there's a Rashomon-like quality to things like the triggered snare on Images and Words, everything behind Falling into Infinity, and especially Portnoy leaving the band. in all of those cases, multiple people can be right and wrong simultaneously.
• beautifully captures Mangini's entry into DT, and why he really was the right person for the job (even if I didn't think so at the time!).


cons:
• too light on the musical and thematic analysis, especially for THIS band. we don't even get a deep dive into Scenes from a Memory!
• certain later sections have a bit too much PR-authorised optimism. Wilson and the band members are willing to talk about older conflicts and failures because they're in the past - but they skirt over LaBrie's shaky vocals in the mid-2000s, making it sound like he was back to 100%. honestly, compared to his post-2017 performances, we didn't know how good we had it


overall - more or less the biography the band deserves. but there's still so much left to be said - maybe one day i'll have something to add myself...

[Scotty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very solid biography for a band that, unless you're already in the circle, doesn't get much attention.

There's a lot to unpack throughout the early and mid career of this prolific band. From false starts to sour record deals to personnel shakeups, these guys went through the ringer but kept swinging. That being said, the later chapters can tend to drag and ramble on for lack of adversity (barring the one big event).

Despite aby of that, this book features a lot of direct quotes from the band and their closest cohorts, so there's a good amount of material that will make you feel closer to the band. It gives great insight into the minds and processes of some of the greatest musicians of our day and age.

[Martti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rich Wilson is a fan writing a book for fans about the beginnings till a dramatic turn of events around 2010-2012. In some cases we get some comments and background song by song, but mainly it's interviews with the bandmembers and their stories from their touring, recording in the studios and maybe some other public drama. They are very private and the book doesn't delve away from the band's affairs.

I liked that we got some interesting background on their musical process and lyrics. I wouldn't have minded a more deep dive song-by-song, but then again it's not the main reason any of us probably listen to their music, so it's not a big deal.

So, I guess read, but more importantly listen to the music!

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed retracing the band’s history and reading some stories I was not familiar with. The companion photo book was great. The writing was subpar and it got a little repetitive at times with the same themes and cliches being repeated. I was a little suspicious of the journalistic integrity when quotes by members of the band made it seem like they were all British.

[Joel Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing story of Dream Theater, my favourite band. There are a lot of surprising things in there such as Labries situation in the early 2000s and many more. I wish this could be updated with all the other albums that have been released and portonys return.

5 stars for sure, if you are a fan like me don’t sleep on this!

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly I'm being petty, this was a really interesting read but whenever the author described their music and threw in his opinion as though it was part of the factual narrative it really irked me. Especially since I pretty much always disagreed with it.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Possibly the best biography of a band I've read.

[Silverluna · Rating 3 out of 5]

:)

[Yoruk Ilhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

From starting days till the first LP with Mangini. Good to read yet can not escape the cycle of LP-Tour-LP narration.

[Alan Giles · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every second of this book. An extremely interesting, uplifting, inspirational, deep dive into the history of my favourite band of all time.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Dream Theater... Like most people who read this book, likely. As such, it is an extremely complete story from their beginnings to "A Dramatic Turn of Events". You'll learn more about the band than any other single source. I like the layout and his writing style is very good. So why only 4 stars?? It is a lot of words and after 50-100 pages becomes very tiring and repetitive. Again, I love the band, but I found it hard to stay engaged with the book because there's just so much in here and there aren't many "stories" to keep you interested... It's a lot of interviews and behind the scenes details.

Overall, a good read for any die hard fans, but if you don't already love Dream Theater, this book won't change that abs you won't enjoy it.

[Kevin Krajewski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Being a huge fan of Dream Theater I was very excited to get my hands on this book, and now having read it I am very glad I did. Having spent most of their carrier with a small but highly devoted fan base and really no mainstream ex-poser its hard to find any information about their beginnings. Thankfully this book helps shed light on those beginnings, devoting a third of its text chronicling those early years.

After discussing their rotation of early singers until they found current singer James LaBrie, the book changes gears and basically gives one chapter to each album and following tour. These chapters are interesting and give a good insight into the writing process of the band as well as shines the light on the meanings behind a lot their lyrics.

This being an updated edition it covers the departure of founding member Mike Portnoy and follows the band as they searched for a drummer and finishes with the recording of "A dramatic turn of events" which was there latest album until their self titled album "Dream Theater" was released this past September.

I enjoyed this book immensely and would definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys Dream Theater and wants to know more about the band behind the music. For those that have never listened to Dream Theater I feel this book wouldn't have much to offer, but a must read for the Dream Theater die hard.

[Alexis Vélez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dream Theater es una banda muy diferente a lo usual, su música es bien estructurada y son altamente perfeccionistas. Sus integrantes no son los clásicos rock stars que sucumben al sexo y a las drogas, son padres de familia desde casi los comienzos de la banda y así se han mantenido. Comencé a ser un fanático acérrimo desde el 1992 con el álbum Images and Words y desde ese día he digerido todas sus variantes en la música, que no han sido tantas en mi opinión. Este libro me lo disfruté completo. Está estructurado por álbumes, el proceso de creación, explicación de las canciones y anécdotas de las giras, esto me permitió leerlo escuchando de fondo el álbum correspondiente. La única queja grande que tengo de esta edición es que para ser una biografía no tiene ni una simple foto y realmente hacen falta en un libro como este. En cuanto al contenido aparte de los álbumes, está bien completo y al fin pude entender varias cosas sobre ellos como por ejemplo la más que me inquietaba que era la fragilidad de la voz de James durante el período de Falling into Infinity hasta casi Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence, creando esto que desafinara muchas veces en muchas de las presentaciones. En resumen, una biografía bien hecha, recomendada.

[Janne Paananen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dream Theaterin virallinen bändihistoriikki on varsin kelvollista luettavaa. Wilson luottaa hyvin pitkälle bändin jäsenten kommentteihin ja haastatteluihin. Harvakseltaan tapahtumia kommentoi myös muita asianomaisia. Wilson kirjoittaa kronologisesti käyden läpi niin kiertueet kuin levytkin. Tyyli ja rakenne muistuttaa "kuivuudessaan" ja asiapainotteisuudessaan Mick Wallin kirjoittamia bändikirjoja. Bändin alkuaikojen kiistat ja levyjen tekemisen haasteet olivat erittäin mielenkiintoista luettavaa. Uran keskivaiheilla bändivelvollisuudet sujuivat seesteisemmin kunnes muutama vuosi sitten tultiin kovaan paikkaan alkuperäisrumpalin, Mike Portnoyn, erottua. Tätä olisikin voinut kertoa seikkaperäisemmin, mutta ehkäpä erosta on kulunut sen verran vähän vuosia, että rehellisempiä ja syvempiä mielipiteitä on ollut vaikea saada. Joka tapauksessa DT-fanille erittäin mieluista luettavaa ja muutenkin ihan toimiva musiikkihistoriikki.

[Jeff Koskinen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the detail and honesty of this book. I am not a musician, but even just being a simple fan who loves their music I can hear and appreciate how complex it is and how ridiculously talented they are. To get an understanding of just how much went into this both from the musical training aspect (John P, John M and Mike P attended Berklee, Mike M taught at Berklee and Jordan was at Juilliard at one point) and from sheer perseverance was so interesting. Struggles with satisfying and melding together different personalities (Mike P’s departure in particular), the challenge of staying true to their passion for their blend of progressive and metal music in the 90s (when it was not what the record companies were looking for), and the in-depth honest discussions of each of their albums gives the DT fan about everything you could want from a book. I loved it and as a bonus I am enjoying going back and listening to each album from a more informed perspective.

[Martin Krajč · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pri tomto hodnotení budem trochu dlhší, ale inak sa nedá. Prvýkrát som si DT vypočul pred rokom a pol, a stala sa z toho láska na prvý posluch. Odvtedy som si vypočul celú ich diskografiu aj so živými albumami, a 16.7. tohto roku (2019) som bol aj na koncerte v NTC. Keď som zistil, že majú aj oficiálnu biografiu musel som ju mať hoci aj v angličtine. Veľa informácii o skupine som mal už predtým, ale táto kniha obsahuje všetko. Od úplných začiatkov na Long Islande, štúdium na Berklee, odchod zo školy, vznik skupiny, hľadanie speváka, dvojnásobná výmena klávesakov, a nakoniec odchod zakladajúceho člena bubeníka Mikea Portnoya. Dúfam, že o pár rokov bude pokračovanie, keďže stále fungujú a vydávajú nové albumy.

Update 2024: Tento rok ma čaká už piaty koncert DT, tentokrát aj s meet&greet. Medzitým som začal zbierať aj vinylové platne a samozrejme najviac ich mám od DT. Jednoducho mi otvorili nové záľuby ako koncerty a vinyly. Za toto im ďakujem.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

It really is a must read for any fan of Dream Theater. I loved reading about their early days before "Images and Words" came out. I especially loved any time James LaBrie was describing something. He's intelligent, motivated, and really speaks his mind.

I only wish that the author had included more statements from the other members of the band. The book tends to center around Portnoy a bit too much. While it's interesting to hear him tell about the 90's and his perspective, he really comes across as loving the spotlight. Jordan Rudess and John Petrucci come across as down-to-earth, and some more in-depth questions and conversations with them would have balanced out Portnoy's bluster.

But still, a great read.

[Renato · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a must read for Dream Theater fans. It is great to hear the stories behind all the albums, the recording sessions, the members selection processes, the perfectionism that the band holds to this day...it is amazing to realize how much effort they put into their songwriting, being all this for the fans and for themselves. Not going mainstream - and not caring about that - is what all their fans want: that DT continues to be the ProgMetal force that they have always been.