ADRENALINE MOB — the band featuring featuring drummer Mike Portnoy (DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD), SYMPHONY X frontman Russell Allen, guitar virtuoso Mike Orlando (SONIC STOMP) and DISTURBED bassist John Moyer — has been added to the third installment of Samson‘s “Metal Masters” series, which will be held on Thursday, April 12 at the Key Club on the famed Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, California.
Having blown audiences away at “Metal Masters 2” in New York City with surprise appearances by Philip Anselmo (PANTERA, DOWN) and Scott Ian (ANTHRAX), as well as a full ANTHRAXperformance, Charlie Benante and Frank Bello (both of ANTHRAX), David Ellefson (MEGADETH), Mike Portnoy (ADRENALINE MOB, ex-DREAM THEATER), Kerry King and now Dave Lombardo (both of SLAYER) are back on the West Coast with an exclusive metal experience that’s bigger than ever. Artists will perform both individually and collectively, demonstrating their personal techniques and how they all come together to create the music that millions bang their heads to every day.
Tickets are available for $20 (on a first-come-first served basis) at the Key Club’s box office, located at 9039 Sunset Boulevard, or via www.keyclub.com. With door giveaways and surprise guests, all should purchase their tickets early for this all-ages event to witness the return of the “Metal Masters”.
Musicianews conducted an interview with DEEP PURPLE/FLYING COLORS guitarist Steve Morse at the 2012 NAMM (National Association Of Music Merchants) show, a massive music-products convention that took place January 19-22 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California. You can now watch the chat below.
FLYING COLORS — the spectacular new virtuoso prog/pop/metal rock band formed by drummer Mike Portnoy (ex-DREAM THEATER) and Steve Morse — will release its self-titled debut album via Music Theories Recordings in the U.K. on Monday, March 26, followed by a U.S. release on Tuesday, March 27.
FLYING COLORS is Mike Portnoy (drums, vocals), Dave LaRue (bass), Neal Morse (keyboards, vocals), Casey McPherson (lead vocals, guitar), and Steve Morse (lead guitar).
DEEP PURPLE announced plans to extend its writing and recording period through the summer of 2012. A new studio album is tentatively due in 2013, to be followed by a world tour.
DEEP PURPLE‘s 18th studio album, “Rapture Of The Deep”, was released in November 2005. It was the fourth studio CD from DEEP PURPLE since guitarist Steve Morse joined the band in 1994. It was also the second album to feature veteran keyboardist Don Airey.
The much-anticipated new band featuring drummer Mike Portnoy (DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD, ADRENALINE MOB) and guitarist/vocalist John Sykes (WHITESNAKE, BLUE MURDER, THIN LIZZY) is no more.
Portnoy and Sykes announced their collaboration during a July 2011 taping of season eight of VH1 Classic‘s “That Metal Show”. The program’s co-host Eddie Trunk tweeted about the project at the time, “I heard demos. Sounds like killer BLUE MURDER meets ‘1987’ WHITESNAKE. Amazing!” He also said that the new group would perform some BLUE MURDER material when it hits the road.
The project last year demoed more than a dozen songs at a Los Angeles studio, with Portnoy describing one track as “copping the [LED] ZEPPELIN/[BLACK] SABBATH vibe” and another as “[PINK] FLOYD meets [DEEP] PURPLE!!! Some serious old-school classic rock.”
In a new posting on his official web site, Trunk writes, “There has been much speculation on the status of the band and this project since we first revealed it, and as a friend and fan of both musicians I was very much at the center of it helping where I could and serving as a sounding board with all involved. Sadly, I can confirm that as of now this project is no longer moving forward.
“When I first talked about Portnoy and Sykes working together, I joked with them that I had never met two guys with such different work ethics. Mike wants to do everything yesterday and John really takes his time and is much more conservative. That truly is the only reason why what could have been a killer band has dissolved.
“Obviously, bands are like any relationship — some click, some do not. This was simply a case of two different people not only getting to know each other musically but also personally, and the schedule and timing for making this work just fell apart. Mike and the band’s bass player were ready to go, and John simply was not on the same timetable. There is truly no bigger story or any drama to report. It just didn’t work and everyone is moving on. Mike has several amazing projects in the works, including the killer ADRENALINE MOB album coming in March, and John may very well do a solo album or something else. He has some great material written and was singing and playing in top form when this dissolved. They both remain friends and I wish them both nothing but the best going forward and who knows what the future holds?”
Commented Portnoy on Twitter, “Sad but true… I tried my best to make it work… Me and the bass player [Billy Sheehan] couldn’t wait around any longer… [Billy and I] moving on and now working with another guitarist/singer.”
Portnoy, who co-founded DREAM THEATER more than 20 years ago, abruptly quit the band in September 2010 while on tour with AVENGED SEVENFOLD. He has since been replaced by Mike Mangini (ANNIHILATOR, EXTREME, JAMES LABRIE, STEVE VAI).
Portnoy played on AVENGED SEVENFOLD‘s latest album, “Nightmare”, following the death of that band’s drummer, Jimmy “The Rev” Sullivan, and toured with them for the entire second half of 2010.
Sykes announced his departure from THIN LIZZY in July 2009, explaining that “I feel it’s time to get back to playing my own music.”
ADRENALINE MOB — the new band featuring drummer Mike Portnoy (DREAM THEATER, AVENGED SEVENFOLD), SYMPHONY X frontman Russell Allen, guitar virtuoso Mike Orlando (SONIC STOMP), bassist Paul DiLeo and STUCK MOJO/FOZZY axeman Rich Ward — will release its full-length debut, “Omertá”, on March 13 via the newly formed Elm City Music in conjunction with EMI Label Services. The 11-song CD — which was produced by ADRENALINE MOB and mixed by Jay Ruston, who has previously worked on ANTHRAX‘s “Worship Music” and STEEL PANTHER‘s “Balls Out” — includes a blistering reinterpretation of DURAN DURAN‘s classic “Come Undone” featuring guest vocals by Lzzy Hale of HALESTORM. “Omertá” track listing:
01. Undaunted
02. Psychosane
03. Indifferent
04. All on the Line
05. Hit the Wall
06. Feelin’ Me
07. Come Undone (feat. Lzzy Hale)
08. Believe Me
09. Down to the Floor
10. Angel Sky
11. Freight Train
The self-titled debut EP from ADRENALINE MOB, which was released last summer, is available via iTunes and is being sold in physical form at the group’s shows and online store. Self-produced by the band, the effort features four original tracks as well as a cover of the Ronnie James Dio-era BLACK SABBATH classic “The Mob Rules”.
ADRENALINE MOB‘s first-ever headline tour made stops in various markets, including Chicago, Denver and San Francisco. ADRENALINE MOB also opened for GODSMACK on select dates of the Massachusetts act’s headlining tour.
ADRENALINE MOB formed in early 2011 when Orlando approached Allen with some material the guitarist had written. Allen and Orlando refined those ideas, at which time Allen reached out to longtime friend Portnoy to see if he had any interest in playing with them. Portnoy jumped on board and soon thereafter DiLeo and Ward were recruited to join the family. From the very first note, the chemistry was apparent and the beast that is known as ADRENALINE MOB was born. Source: Blabbermouth.net
A registered user of the DreamTheaterForums.org web site, which is described as the largest unofficial DREAM THEATER fan community on the Internet, has pointed out the alleged similarities between “Feed The Machine”, the opening song on “Until We Have Faces”, the third full-length studio album from American Christian rock band RED, and “Build Me Up, Break Me Down”, a track from the latest DREAM THEATER CD, “A Dramatic Turn Of Events”.
“Until We Have Faces” was released this past February and was selected by DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci as his favorite album of 2011. The musician, who is responsible for the bulk of the songwriting in DREAM THEATER, told the Roadrunner Records web site, “I just love everything about the RED album. The songwriting, playing and production are all stellar!”
After a link to Petrucci‘s list of top albums of 2011 was posted on the official forum of former DREAM THEATER drummer Mike Portnoy, Portnoytook it upon himself to comment, “Check out the first song on [John Petrucci‘s] fave album of the year…. WOW, the arrangement and orchestration sounds awfully familiar!! Surely it must be an intentional ‘nugget’ for the fans… It couldn’t possibly be blatant formula plagiarism, now could it…?? I just have to laugh…”
Portnoy‘s post was met with a mixed bag of reactions from the fans on his forum, with some expressing their disappointment over the “classless” way he chose to bring up the topic and some suggesting that DREAM THEATER has always drawn “inspiration” from other bands, even while Mike was still a member of the group. This led to Portnoy‘s follow-up message in which he wrote, “Hey…I’m not trying to start a war…. and I am indeed totally in a happy place in my life and career… I’m just merely making an observation and posting openly on my own forum like I always have and always will… If anybody ELSE wants to blow this up, it’s their choice and doing…not mine!”
He added, “And PS – to defend music that I co-wrote/arranged (that were cited previously in this thread), there’s a difference between ‘inspiration corner’/’copping a certain vibe’ and blatantly re-writing an existing song or formula section by section…”
He continued, “Hey, I’m not mad…just merely sharing an observation as a listener…sorry, when I heard that RED song, it immediately jumped out at me and was pretty obvious.”
This past September, a longtime DREAM THEATER fan posted an article online which pointed out the alleged musical and structural similarities between “A Dramatic Turn Of Events” and the group’s breakthrough 1992 release, “Images And Words”.
When asked by Ultimate-Guitar.com for his response to the article, Petrucci said, “I think our fans enjoy analyzing our music and looking at things under a microscope and stuff, and it shows the level of passion from the fans for what we do. They look at what we’re doing, and they wanna know what’s going on. With every album people wanna try to find hidden messages and new meanings, secret nuggets and things like that. People have always searched for those types of things in our music. It shows how much our listeners are strongly interested in what we’re doing in a very detailed manner.”
He added, “We really like music. We have a certain thing that we try to accomplish musically, a certain sound that makes us who we are. The core elements of DREAM THEATER, of who we are and how we make music. Those are elements that are identifiable. That’s what gives the band its sound, and keeps the band having an identity.”
After being pressed to comment on the fan’s allegation that DREAM THEATER “simply rewrote ‘Images And Words’” for “A Dramatic Turn Of Events”, Petrucci said, “We wouldn’t rewrite an album, no. That wouldn’t be something that we would do.”
Drummer Mike Portnoy, after 25 years, has decided to quit Dream Theater.
In his long press release he brings out that “To many people this will come as a complete shock, and will also likely be misunderstood by some, but please believe me that it is not a hasty decision…it is something I have struggled with for the last year or so” …”Please don’t misinterpret me, I love the DREAM THEATER guys dearly and have a long history, friendship and bond that runs incredibly deep with them… it’s just that I think we are in serious need of a little break.”
And this is what Dream Theater says in their press release:
“To all of our loyal fans and friends: It is with profound sadness — regret — we announce that Mike Portnoy, our lifelong drummer and friend, has decided to leave Dream Theater. Mike’s stature in the band has meant the world to all of us professionally, musically, and personally over the years. There is no dispute: Mike has been a major force within this band.
While it is true that Mike is choosing to pursue other ventures and challenges, we can assure you that Dream Theater will continue to move forward with the same intensity — and in the same musical tradition — that you have all helped make so successful, and which is truly gratifying to us.
Fans and friends: File this episode under “Black Clouds and Silver Linings.”As planned, we begin recording our newest album in January 2011, and we’ll follow that with a full-on world tour. “The Spirit Carries On.”
All of us in Dream Theater wholeheartedly wish Mike the best on his musical journey. We have had a long and meaningful career together. It is our true hope that he finds all he is looking for, and that he achieves the happiness he deserves. He will be missed.”
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