Dream Theater – Sultans of Shred

When guitarist John Petrucci met drummer Mike Portnoy in the famous Berklee Music College in 1985, the first name they took for the group they formed was ‘Majesty’. Though it was under the name of Dream Theater that this band eventually came to prominence, any of the group’s fans will happily attest that these auteurs have reigned as monarchs in the field of Prog-Metal for nearly two decades.

At any rate, the adoration of Australia’s prog set – and the depth of longing with which they have been awaiting Dream Theater’s forthcoming tour – was made pretty clear to Petrucci when, performing as a solo artist with backup from Mike Portnoy, he joined fellow guitar luminaries Joe Satriani and Steve Vai for the G3 tour of late ‘06. “We got such a great welcoming,” Petrucci recalls. “We ran into a ton of Dream Theater fans, and we felt the anticipation. Of course, we’re very much looking forward to coming as well. There’s always something really exciting about playing a country for the first time, (and now) there’s not too many countries we haven’t been to yet. So it’ll be a unique experience.”

At 40, Petrucci has been a member of Dream Theater for the greater part of his life. But even for all his career longevity, he is remarkably humble when asked what his personal contribution to the field of virtuoso rock might be. “When I jam with guys like Joe and Steve, or Eric Johnson, I almost feel like they’re going to recognise where my licks came from, because they sound like theirs...” says Petrucci, probably selling himself a little short. “I think of myself as having taken a lot of eclectic influences and bringing them into a style... (one) that might have existed before, but maybe wasn’t as popular. You know, we’ve always been about taking ‘70s progressive, instrumental music, and marrying that with riff-based metal. If I pioneered anything, I think it would be along those lines.”

Petrucci also acknowledges that Dream Theater have been moving steadily towards the ‘Metal’ side of ‘Prog-Metal’ in recent years; their latest release Systematic Chaos characterising the shift. “If there’s anything I’ve learned as we’ve gained more experience playing live and recording,” Petrucci observes, “it’s that the heavier style is, for me, a lot more fun to play. It really pumps up the audience as well...”

But Petrucci also stresses that Dream Theater’s reputation for go-for-broke instrumental bravado doesn’t exclude them from taking a more reserved approach if it better serves the intensity of the music. “We definitely reel ourselves in...” he says. “I mean, on the latest album, you have a song like ‘Dark Eternal Night’, which is about breaking all the (musical) rules, and anything goes. But you also have a song like ‘Repentance’, where it’s very restrained, and very hypnotic and groove-oriented, and it shows a different side. For us, it’s always about what the song calls for.”

What the songs of Systematic Chaos seemed to call for, as far as Petrucci’s role as a lyricist was concerned, was epic fiction. “For this record, my inspiration was all fantasy,” he declares. “I wanted to do things that were completely removed from reality – ridiculous, fantastic stories about good and evil (that are) a lot of fun to write.”

Vocalist James La Brie, however, had other ideas, and ventured down an uncharacteristically political path with an impassioned (though hardly controversial) tirade against the Iraq occupation in ‘Prophets Of War’. “It definitely threw a curve ball,” Petrucci says of LaBrie’s decision. “Here I am writing all these songs about monsters and vampires, and then all of a sudden we’re talking about war. But it’s not a concept album, so he certainly didn’t have to go along the same lines that I did...” But was Petrucci in agreement with the sentiments expressed in the song? “To be honest, not really. Obviously, ‘Prophets Of War’ is kind of critical of the US administration. I don’t agree with him on that. But hey... freedom of speech!”

Petrucci is a little less laisez-faire when it comes to production, Systematic Chaos marking the fifth of Dream Theater’s albums that he has co-produced with Portnoy. Indeed, if there’s one thing to be gleaned from the ‘making of’ footage included in some pressings of Systematic Chaos, it’s that Petrucci, and Dream Theater at large, can regard making music as a science as well as an art. “There’s definitely a fine line between recording something that’s really well-played, and recording something that’s sterile,” Petrucci observes. “You have to know when to stop if you’re losing the soul part of it. But as far as the technique is concerned, I’m 100% anal in the studio. You know, anything can happen live, (so) I look at the studio as my opportunity to have control, take my time and get it right. And that’s what drives me and what makes me happy as a player and as a songwriter.”