You can check out John showing off the new “13” below.

Source: YouTube

Thanks to the incredible cyberdrummer over on DreamTheaterForums.org, who keeps track of all this stuff, the two nights in Buenos Aires consisted of the set lists below. Obviously no word yet on what will or will not be included in the Blu-ray.

Oh yeah, here’s the trailer:

August 19, 2012 at Luna Park in Buenos Aires, Argentina:

1. Bridges in the Sky
2. 6:00
3. The Dark Eternal Night
4. This is the Life
5. The Root of All Evil
6. Lost Not Forgotten
Drum Solo
7. A Fortune in Lies
8. The Silent Man (w/ string quartet)
9. Beneath the Surface (w/ string quartet)
10. Outcry
11. Surrounded
12. On the Backs of Angels
13. War Inside My Head
14. The Test that Stumped Them All
15. The Spirit Carries On
16. Breaking All Illusions
17. Metropolis, Pt. 1: The Miracle and the Sleeper

August 20, 2012 at Luna Park in Buenos Aires, Argentina:

1. Bridges in the Sky
2. These Walls
3. Build Me Up, Break Me Down
4. This is the Life
5. Caught in a Web
6. Lost Not Forgotten
Drum Solo
7. A Fortune in Lies
8. Wait for Sleep (w/ string quartet)
9. Far From Heaven (w/ string quartet)
10. Outcry
11. Surrounded
12. On the Backs of Angels
13. War Inside My Head
14. The Test that Stumped Them All
15. The Spirit Carries On
16. Breaking All Illusions
17. Pull Me Under

Sources: YouTube, DTF.org

The full interview is here, a preview is below.

How prepared are you going into sessions? Are songs fully plotted out, or are there just vague ideas that get shaped in the studio?

JORDAN: Well, with Dream Theater, we really like to write together, but that’s not to say we have no ideas going in. We’ll have seed ideas, things to get us started. Riffs, motifs, eight bars, maybe 16 bars. For the most part, that’s how Dream Theater works. Occasionally, John will bring in a ballad he wants to put on the album, but we enjoy having these seeds that whoever came up with them did, and then we all work on them together.

JOHN: We always talk about the concept for the album, so we always come in with a plan, the direction of the album, the type of album we want to make, and we get everyone literally on the same page, so that we’re all focused in a general sense and even in some specific senses. But as far as actual ideas, throughout the touring year, as we’re playing live, if someone has an idea and they bring it into soundcheck and we start jamming on it, we always record it, and so those little recordings, whether they’re jams or chord progressions or whatever, we’ll archive them and have them ready to go. And then, ideas that I come up with by myself at home, in the hotel room or whatever, I archive them in a special folder, New Album Ideas, whether they’re completed demos or just little seeds or riffs or whatever, but those are good starting points. We’ll go through all that stuff and use what we want, and at the same time we come up with fresh stuff in the studio, just having nothing to do with previous ideas. So it’s a combination.

What’s Mike Mangini’s role in the writing process this time around? Are you looking forward to having him be a participant in the creative process?

JORDAN: Well, we just got started, so it’s hard to answer that. I will say that Mike comes into this being very respectful of all of us, understanding that we’ve been a functioning organization without him for all these years. So Mangini comes into this knowing that the compositional forces are alive and well in the band [laughs]. And yes of course he’s somebody we want there, because we think he’s fabulous, but he’s coming in with some care and understanding. That’s first of all. But Mike Mangini is one of the biggest rhythm experts on the planet Earth right now. He can do things with rhythm no one else can do. He’s inspired; for him, math and music is totally one thing in his brain, and it’s an incredible thing for us to have that mixed into the writing process. It’s exciting. Because somebody like myself, I’m really terrible at math, but somehow when it comes to rhythm, I’m really good. Not as good as Mike Mangini – I don’t think anybody is. But having that skill, as part of a band that already has a fairly high skill set when it comes to different aspects of writing music and making music, is pretty cool. It’s major for us. I feel like it brings in this element that will put us even more on top of our game. So that’s what I’m looking forward to in the writing, and so far, even though we’re just getting started, I can tell that’s the way it’s going to go.

JOHN: First of all, it’s been going great with him, and as much as we’ve been a band together for about 15 years, we haven’t really experienced that process together. We’ve been in the studio for a few weeks now, and he’s been amazing. Amazing chemistry is great, the writing process and the whole vibe is great, and his role is to let his personality shine as a drummer, creatively and to have his input and his musical personality really come through. And I gotta tell you, it’s happening. When people hear the drumming on this album, they’re gonna be pretty freaked out. On the last album, he did a great job, but he wasn’t there for the writing process and he was interpreting drum parts that I had programmed. Even though he used his creativity, of course, to change them up and do his thing, I feel like now he’s just Mike Mangini unleashed. It’s all him. It’s all his creativity, all his decisions and ideas and man, the guy’s an animal.

Source: Roadrunner Records

Source: YouTube

For the first time ever, I&W will be available on vinyl, but only 2000 copies will be made. A post on Brookvale’s website says that based on the sales of SFAM, they fully expect this to sell out very quickly.

“1500 [of the 2000 copies] will be on BLACK VINYL,” writes Brookvale. “Those 1500 will be going out to stores across the world. 500 of them will be make special on a RED/GOLD SWIRL vinyl. This pre order is for one of the very limited RED/GOLD Swirl vinyl. This color will be exclusive to only this website!!”

You can pre-order the album for $30 here.

Source: Brookvale Records

The band has re-signed with Roadrunner Records, they’ve got a drummer, and as James LaBrie posted to Facebook earlier today “the vibe is incredible.” How can you not be excited?

Source: Facebook

First and foremost, DT will be in the studio in January:

Being a month out or so, we have a handful of ideas we compiled while we were on the road, and we have those archived. And since I got back from the road, and have had some off time, I’ve been spending more time compiling, writing and demoing some things. There are a bunch of seeds, a bunch of ideas, and a definite direction. Everybody is hired, the studio is locked, and the vision for the type of album has been talked about and secured.

And of course Mangini will be much more heavily involved:

…We’ll write together as a full group. The tapes that we have from doing that a bit on the road have been incredible. At soundcheck, if I’d come in with an idea and we’d start jamming on it, he was really quick and had great creative concepts. I think it’s going to be a very cool experience.

Petrucci said the schedule of the upcoming year would likely be similar to their last album, which they also started recording in January. A Dramatic Turn of Events was eventually released in September.

In the interview, JP also expands on the numerous factors that went into re-signing with Roadrunner even though the label has experienced numerous changes recently.

You can read the full review here.

Source: Metal Insider

Track listing:

1. Overture – When Dreams Come True (composition by Michał Mierzejewski)
2. Hell’s Kitchen
3. Sacrificed Sons
4. Beneath The Surface
5. The Ministry of Lost Souls
6. Losing Time/Grand Finale

According to the SToD’s facebook page, Warner Music Poland will be the distributor. There will be a live performance of the album at Baltic Opera, in Gdansk, Poland on December 7.

Sources: Facebook, ProgMag

“We are all very excited to be re-signing with Roadrunner Records!” said the band. “Over the past 5 years from the release of Systematic Chaos to our latest A Dramatic Turn of Events, we’ve developed strong creative and professional bonds with everyone at Roadrunner as well as many great friendships along the way.”

Anticipation for the next album is bound to be high as it will be the first written with Mike Mangini behind the drum set.

DT has been with Roadrunner since Systematic Chaos. You can read the full release from the band here.

Source: DreamTheater.net

This time around, they covered “Fatal Tragedy” off of Scenes from a Memory, which you can watch below.

You can find links to each player’s own YouTube page and more about the covers in the video’s description.

Source: YouTube