Hit The Lights has featured many great guitarists in its brief existence thus far, including G3 alumni Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert and Billy Sheehan. Now, another name can be added to that list. John Petrucci has been a part of Dream Theater for nearly twenty-five years, an act that has been a flag-bearer for progressive metal in recent years, aiming to further expose the genre via its "Progressive Nation" tour package. The group's songs generally defy commercial conventions, though "Black Clouds & Silver Linings" nonetheless cracked the top ten of the Billboard 200. For that, Dream Theater deserve recognition.
"Black Clouds & Silver Linings" marks Dream Theater's tenth full length studio album, and second full length to be issued through Roadrunner Records. Work began during October 2008 at Avatar Studios in New York City, and concluded during March 2009. Produced by drummer Mike Portnoy and guitarist John Petrucci, mixing was handled by Paul Northfield. As part of special issues of the album, six recorded covers were available, comprising; "Stargazer" by Rainbow, "Tenement Funster" / "Flick Of The Wrist" / "Lily Of The Valley" by Queen, "Odyssey" by Dixie Dregs, "Take Your Fingers From My Hair" by Zebra, "Larks' Tongues In Aspic" by King Crimson, and "To Tame A Land" by Iron Maiden.
Portnoy and Petrucci handled lyrics, lyrics that touch upon a wide array of topics. "A Nightmare To Remember" was about a car accident Petrucci was involved in as a child, whereas "The Count Of Tuscany" concerned an encounter he had in Tuscany. "Wither", meanwhile, comments upon the creative process, whereas "A Rite Of Passage" delves into Freemasonry. "The Best Of Times" was written by Portnoy about his father, who succumbed to cancer, whereas "The Shattered Fortress" marks the conclusion of Portnoy's Twelve-step suite which began upon 2002's "Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence". In late March, a music video was shot for "A Rite Of Passage".
In its first week of release, "Black Clouds & Silver Linings" shifted forty-thousand copies in the United States, and went to number six upon the Billboard 200, their highest position upon that chart. The "Progressive Nation" 2009 North American tour pairs Dream Theater with Zappa Plays Zappa, Bigelf and Scale The Summit.
On July 28th at 21:00 GMT, Hit The Lights' Robert Gray telephoned an individual in production through his mobile, who subsequently handed the phone to John Petrucci. Discussing "Black Clouds & Silver Linings", the act were due to perform that night in Atlanta, Georgia at The Tabernacle.
John Petrucci: Hello?
UG: Hello. This is Robert Gray from Ultimate-Guitar.com. How are you John?
How are you?
I'm ok. Thus far, how has the 'Progressive Nation' 2009 North American tour progressed?
So far, so good. As part of the North American 'Progressive Nation' tour, we've performed three shows thus far. Also, we performed a whole European leg back in June, and that was totally awesome. It's going great.
How does Dream Theater approach composing a set list?
Actually, we leave all that up to Mike. Years ago, when we didn't have too many songs, we used to all talk about it together, and compose set lists. As we recorded more and more albums, we had more songs, and so it was more difficult to select songs. We became involved in a lot of arguments about songs, so eventually, we just let Mike compose set lists. He just selects our set lists, and these set lists are based on a lot of factors, including what we played last time in the area and whatever. Mike is really good at composing set lists.
Will 'Progressive Nation' become a regular tour package?
Every time we tour, it's something we'd like to do. We won't have this occur on every leg, but will just have this happen several times as a part of each tour. Sometimes the concert will be 'Progressive Nation', and then sometimes the concert will be just Dream Theater. We'll try to include 'Progressive Nation' with every touring cycle, though, and will attempt to include at least one run. For the first time this year, we'll bring 'Progressive Nation' to Europe as well, which'll be interesting.
