Mike Portnoy has turn into a star of Drumeo’s extremely entertaining “For the First Time” movies, which problem notable drummers to play alongside to songs they’ve by no means heard earlier than.
Possibly it’s due to Portnoy’s immense expertise, however the Drumeo hosts appear to get a kick out of tormenting the Dream Theater drummer specifically — like once they pressured him to cowl the drum components from Software’s “Pneuma” and Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” after listening to each for the primary time, minus the drum tracks.
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Portnoy has now enacted his revenge, flipping the script and making Drumeo host Brandon Toews be taught a Dream Theater track on the spot: the band’s newest single “Midnight Messiah,” which was unreleased on the time of the problem.
Within the clip, Portnoy is behind the studio board in Toews’ standard seat and prefaces the track reveal by stating that he threw Toews a bone by choosing one of many solely new DT songs that’s virtually all in 4/4 time.
“I’m positive you’re gonna have some components in there which can be gonna be a little bit of a doozy,” stated Toews, to which Portnoy replied: “I’ve religion you’re gonna be capable to do that.”
Toews listens intently earlier than intentionally training every part of the track. Though Toews is a talented drummer in his personal proper, mimicking Portnoy’s components proves to be fairly difficult, because the session pushes three hours in size. That stated, there was one factor he didn’t want a lot observe on.
“You’ve acquired the Portnoy fills down,” enthused the Dream Theater drummer, eliciting a remark from Toews’ colleague: “He’s solely been doing them for 15 years.”
After three hours and 22 minutes behind the equipment, Toews ultimately knocks out the ultimate take with a clear run, a lot to the thrill of Portnoy.
“That’s all you get from me, Mike,” Toews stated in exasperation. “I’m solely a person.”
Dream Theater formally launched “Midnight Messiah” final week, and notably, the track options the primary lyrical contributions from Portnoy since 2009 — as he returned to the prog-metal act in late 2023 following a 13-year absence. The one arrives forward of the discharge of the brand new album, Parasomnia, and DT’s extremely anticipated fortieth anniversary tour. Get tickets right here.
Under you may watch the Drumeo clip that includes Portnoy difficult Toews.