Mike Portnoy may not have been welcomed back into Dream Theater and Avenged Sevenfold, but we knew he’d eventually find another project to sink his teeth into. It’s been revealed that Portnoy is working with Steve Morse (Deep Purple, Dixie Dregs), multi-instrumentalist Neal Morse (Transatlantic, Spock’s Beard), bassist Dave LaRue (Dixie Dregs) and vocalist Casey McPherson (Alpha Rev, Endochine) on a new as-yet-unnamed band. The ex-Dream Theater drummer confirmed the supergroup project via Twitter, while Neal Morse confirmed that the musicians will be entering a studio to record their first sessions shortly.
While Portnoy is keeping himself busy, so is his former band. Guitarist John Petrucci confirmed via Twitter that Dream Theater is recording new music, saying “First day in the studio and the dawn of a new era for DT. Can’t wait to get the music flowing.” Though Portnoy’s replacement hasn’t been officially announced yet, Petrucci confirmed last month that Dream Theater has found a new drummer without revealing a name. However, rumors that drummer Marco Minneman, who has played with Kreator, Necrophagist and many more, has joined the band have gained steam in the recent weeks. In addition to having the chops to pull off the job, Minneman is also a strong possibility since he and DT keyboardist Jordan Rudess performed together on a live webcast jam for BandCrashers.com on December 15. Granted, it’s not unusual for friends to jam just for fun, but it’s still enough of a coincidence to make one speculate.
As always, we’ll keep you updated when more is revealed.
