Progressive Metal Resurrected Part #1
In the race of life and career there is a saying. "It does not matter where you start but how and where you finish. " This seems to have been the case with Majesty - later (Dream Theater). Before their clean, refined majestic and polished sound, there were some immense sound , line up and other changes.
In this section I will revisted and explore the growing pains through which the band endured from the first Majesty demo to their major label ACTO release of (When Dream And Day Unite). There will be a review of the four original demo's from 1986-1988 . I will also give a brief history of the formation of Majesty and its manifestation into what we now know as Dream Theater and how they were Progressive Rock/Metal's saviours of their time.
Growing up in Kings Park New York, childhood friends John Myung Bass and John Petrucci , Guitar would make their way to Berklee College Of Music in Boston Mass in 1985. While at Berklee Myung and Petrucci were walking by a room where this drum virtuoso was belting out RUSH's Bastille Day from Caress of Steel. This rhythm beast was Mike Portnoy on Drums. The three would bond very quickly over having many musical styles and theories in common. While home on Christmas holiday in 1985, another childhood friend and Keyboardist, Kevin Moore would join Petrucci, Myung and Portnoy to form the nucleus which would be known as Majesty. In March 1986 Chris Collins, Vocals , another childhood friend of John Petrucci would round out the full Majesty lineup. While home for the summer of 1986 no band member would return back to music college in order to pursue practice time and career in music.
During this time Progressive Metal was a real hot commodity to the Heavy Metal community. Some bands successful in the genre were Queensryche out of Seattle Washington, Watchtower out of New York, Savatage and Crimson Glory out of Florida. Dream Theater performing as Majesty would play any dive or club including New York's legendary Lamour Club. In Spring 1986 they would record their first ever self titled demo. It would be called Dream Theater performing as Majesty 1986 demo.
You could already see the progressive ethereal direction the band was going in on this first demo. Songs such as Your Majesty, A Vision and March Of The Tyrant would see Dream Theater already displaying the heavy blast beats of Portnoy that perfectly complimented John Myung's bass. Other elements were the wicked and very different odd time signatures that would be incorporated by John Petrucci's guitar and Kevin Moore's keyboard. Majesty would be rounded out by the vocal style of Chris Collins.
The 1986 Majesty demo was very critically acclaimed in the Atlantic Northeast of The USA and took off like a wildfire through the underground tape trading circuit of that time. It would produce a future staple in future Dream Theater live performances titled Another Won . The infrastructure was now in place. In the coming weeks we will explore the original 4 Majesty demos and how they led to Dream Theater getting signed.
To Be Continued .........
Progressive Metal Resurrected Part #2
1987 seemed to be a pivotal year for both heavy metal and progressive music in general. On the heavy metal front you had two of the landmark albums of that year. Guns N Roses would release probably the biggest single debut in the history of metal. Meanwhile Whitesnake were making their own way with their now legendary self titled release of that year. Def Leppard were about to make history with Hysteria which would go on to sale over 13 million.
On the progressive metal front Crimson Glory were celebrating a full year of what would become a blueprint for Prog/Power metal with their second album Transcendence 1986. Queensryche were working on their opus that would become known as Operation Mindcrime. Fates Warning were about to recording what would be their most commercially successful album to date in No Exit , which by the way would yield Progressive Metal's first 20+ minute epic in Ivory Gate Of Dreams. With vocalists like Geoff Tate, Jon Oliva, Midnight, Axl Rose, etc ... I believe the members of Dream Theater were seeing the proverbial writing on the wall and soon parted ways with Chris Collins. The ensuing task to find the proper replacement turned into a long ongoing process. Dozens came and went however fell short of the bands needs and standards. While writing at practice Majesty would develop a rather extended catalog of songs. Without a vocalist this was what the band had to do at this time. In 1987 they entered the studio where 2 and 3 of the first 4 Majesty demos would take shape. Half the instrumentals the band crafted would show up n their first major label release When Dream and Day Unite on ACTO Records. Ytse Jam, Afterlife, The Ones Who Help Set The Sun , were not only on WDADU , they would also become staples on future Dream Theater live setlists. Meanwhile the band's quest for the proper vocalist continued.
In late 1988 the ensuing quest for a replacement to Chris Collins was complete when Charlie Dominci joined Dream Theater. Charlie later came across the "vocalist wanted" ad that Dream Theater, then called "Majesty", had placed and decided to check out the band before responding. Dominici was suitably impressed by their demo, but stymied by Mike Portnoy's request to bring a PA system to the audition. Dominici, however, ran into John Myung at the music store he worked at and introduced himself by singing the song Your Majesty, which perplexed Myung.
Dominici's attempts to get an audition with Majesty were eventually successful, much to the chagrin of Myung, who found his constant attempts to be irritating. His audition was for the most part unsuccessful, as he fell into the same trap most vocalists did and tried to do an impression of the band's previous singer, Chris Collins, which was well out of his range. He managed to finally impress the band with his improvisation skills, singing The Killing Hand without having heard it before, and was offered the position.
Charlie's role in Dream Theater is under debate, as he gives a different account than his former bandmates. Dominici was said to have been arrogant, with an attitude that he knew all about the music industry already. Dominici's account claims he did try to steer the band, but in an attempt to help them cross over into the mainstream, much like Rush did. Dominici wrote music and lyrics for the band, and even played guitar live in some cases, such as the intro to The Killing Hand.
After appearing on the band's first album, When Dream and Day Unite . Dream Theater decided to let Dominici go, citing creative and personal differences, and his poor on-stage persona. This was a difficult decision for the band, as Dominici had just gotten The Majesty Symbol tattooed on his arm, and had indeed contributed much to the band. Dominici took the news well. In previous (unreleased) documentary footage, he had acknowledged that he saw himself eventually being kicked out of the band, stating that they were meant for great things.
1987 seemed to be a pivotal year for both heavy metal and progressive music in general. On the heavy metal front you had two of the landmark albums of that year. Guns N Roses would release probably the biggest single debut in the history of metal. Meanwhile Whitesnake were making their own way with their now legendary self titled release of that year. Def Leppard were about to make history with Hysteria which would go on to sale over 13 million.
On the progressive metal front Crimson Glory were celebrating a full year of what would become a blueprint for Prog/Power metal with their second album Transcendence 1986. Queensryche were working on their opus that would become known as Operation Mindcrime. Fates Warning were about to recording what would be their most commercially successful album to date in No Exit , which by the way would yield Progressive Metal's first 20+ minute epic in Ivory Gate Of Dreams. With vocalists like Geoff Tate, Jon Oliva, Midnight, Axl Rose, etc ... I believe the members of Dream Theater were seeing the proverbial writing on the wall and soon parted ways with Chris Collins. The ensuing task to find the proper replacement turned into a long ongoing process. Dozens came and went however fell short of the bands needs and standards. While writing at practice Majesty would develop a rather extended catalog of songs. Without a vocalist this was what the band had to do at this time. In 1987 they entered the studio where 2 and 3 of the first 4 Majesty demos would take shape. Half the instrumentals the band crafted would show up n their first major label release When Dream and Day Unite on ACTO Records. Ytse Jam, Afterlife, The Ones Who Help Set The Sun , were not only on WDADU , they would also become staples on future Dream Theater live setlists. Meanwhile the band's quest for the proper vocalist continued. 
Dominici's attempts to get an audition with Majesty were eventually successful, much to the chagrin of Myung, who found his constant attempts to be irritating. His audition was for the most part unsuccessful, as he fell into the same trap most vocalists did and tried to do an impression of the band's previous singer, Chris Collins, which was well out of his range. He managed to finally impress the band with his improvisation skills, singing The Killing Hand without having heard it before, and was offered the position.
Charlie's role in Dream Theater is under debate, as he gives a different account than his former bandmates. Dominici was said to have been arrogant, with an attitude that he knew all about the music industry already. Dominici's account claims he did try to steer the band, but in an attempt to help them cross over into the mainstream, much like Rush did. Dominici wrote music and lyrics for the band, and even played guitar live in some cases, such as the intro to The Killing Hand.
After appearing on the band's first album, When Dream and Day Unite . Dream Theater decided to let Dominici go, citing creative and personal differences, and his poor on-stage persona. This was a difficult decision for the band, as Dominici had just gotten The Majesty Symbol tattooed on his arm, and had indeed contributed much to the band. Dominici took the news well. In previous (unreleased) documentary footage, he had acknowledged that he saw himself eventually being kicked out of the band, stating that they were meant for great things.
No comments:
Post a Comment