Dream Theater: A journey from 1985………. (Part III)

Continued from ‘Dream Theater: A journey from 1985………. (Part II)

Dream Theater returned to studio in May 1994 to record new material. The band’s third studio album, Awake, was released on October 4, 1994. Although, the record failed to live up to the expectation, it is said to be one of the finest albums of the American progressive metal band.

Prior to the launch of the record, Kevin Moore announced that he would be leaving the band, and would not be available to tour with the group.

Jordan Rudess, who was recognised as the best new talent in a keyboard magazine, was asked by John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy to perform at a gig in their pursuit to find a new keyboard player. The show went incredibly well, and the band asked the young keyboard player to join the band.

However, he refused to join Dream Theater and opted to tour with the Dixie Dregs instead, and the band hired Derek Sherinian as their new keyboardist to fill in the vacant position for the promotional tour of their third studio album. By the conclusion of the tour, the band decided to take Sherinian on as full-time replacement for Moore.

At the end of the promotional tour of ‘Awake’, the band did not start working on new material immediately. ‘The YtseJam Mailing List’, the most admired form of communication between the band and the fans at that point, was filled with mails, urging the band to release the 18-minute song ‘A Change of Seasons’.

It had been written in 1989, but failed to feature on ‘Images and Words’ due to its epic length. However, the band did regularly play the song live on many occasions.

Continued in ‘Dream Theater: A journey from 1985………. (Part IV)

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Posted by Haris Ansari on Aug 15 2012. Filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.