Holy crap they are good!

John Petrucci and I play the same model Ibanez.

True story.

Damned straight they are. What'd you listen to?

Dream Theater is my favorite band of all time.

John Petrucci and Mike Portnoy are absolute masters of their instruments, can't wait for Octavarium.

I can't wait to hear Octavarium. It's rumored to be very prog a la the Kevin Moore years.

I was listening to Once in a Livetime. I don't know how I didn't find out about them sooner. They just blew me away. Reminds me a little of Yes, Rush, etc. Damn good stuff!

If you're a Portnoy fan check out Liquid Tension Experiment, don't know alot of their stuff but what I've ehard is pretty dang sweet.

Been a fan since the early '90s. They are the paragon of heavy metal vulture.

Another similar band I dig is Fates Warning. A less technically talented yet brilliant songwriting group. Jim Matheos, the guitarist, has some nice solo work in "Away with Words".

Eat your heart out, Dust-G!

borski99 -

SOPHOMORES! IMPRISONING ME! ALL THAT I SEE! ABSOLUTE HORROR! ...

Pain of Salvation, Spock's Beard and Symphony X are all great prog as well.

I may be alone on this, but I get a little annoyed with the lead singer's (don't know enough about the band to know his name) voice. Sounds like he's trying to copy Geddy Lee from Rush. I love everything else about them though.

Office of Strategic Influence is a cool side project w/ Matheos, Kevin Moore and Mike Portnoy.

James LaBrie couldn't be any more different than Geddy Lee! I guess they both sing in the ball-pinchin' octave, so maybe that's the similarity you see.

Queensryche is another great band in the same style of influence (did someone mention that already?).

Did anyone catch that mega-prog-band a few years back? They were called Unicorn Stampede. It consisted of Mike Portnoy and Neal Peart on drums, they rocked! I heard they only lasted a few months because Portnoy kept trying to butt in on Peart's drum solos and would juggle his drumsticks during Peart's solos taking attention away from him.

HAH! EAT THAT BORSK!

Dustin -

That's about as far as it goes for me. The award has to go to Geddy Lee for the Premier Castrati/Eunuch-esque Singer in my cd collection.

Dream Theater still rocks though.

[This message has been edited by Scriffer (edited 3/17/2005 4:20p).]

alphamale - we must have gone through the corps together. I remember that line. Who's you be?

LaBrie takes getting used to, but I've always loved his voice. He sounds awesome on Scenes From a Memory (especially on "The Spirit Carries On".