"HAVING MIKE BACK, AND ALL OF US BEING TOGETHER IN THE STUDIO MADE US FEEL LIKE WE WERE 18 AGAIN"

FOR DREAM THEATER, it was a nightmare scenario. On September 8, 2010, after months of emotional turmoil, original drummer Mike Portnoy announced he was leaving the band. The move came as a shock to the band's fans, many of whom viewed Portnoy as the group's heartbeat, the precise, polyrhythmic pulse that anchored the songs and gave guitarist John Petrucci a colorful, well-lit lane in which to fervently speed, randomly meander, or passionately roll.

The natural chemistry between Petrucci and Portnoy dates back to their early days jamming together. The story began when the guitarist and his middle school buddy and bassist John Myung met the drummer in 1985 at the Berklee College of Music in Boston and started the band Majesty. For nearly 25 years, they had a nearly insatiable hunger for writing, recording and performing experimental prog-metal and rarely allowed personal matters to interrupt their musical ambition.

"We had lofty goals from the very beginning," Petrucci says from his hotel room in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where Dream Theater just finished a show with Portnoy for their 40th Anniversary Tour. "We looked up to bands like Iron Maiden and Rush, who had long careers and were always putting out records. We wanted to do the same thing."