Dream Theater Slams British Press!

Dream Theater, the East Coast progressive rockers who have been compared to Metallica, have slammed the British metal press as narrow-minded. The quintet – who are popular enough to sell out London’s Forum despite the bare minimum of media coverage and precious little airplay to speak of - have become major stars all over the world. But here in the UK they’ve found it harder than expected to shrug off their “cult muso” tag.

“The English market is pretty lame right now,” claims drum maestro Mike Portnoy. “Everywhere else around the world we’re in all the magazines and we sell records, but here in England it’s pathetic. Go to Italy, Holland or Brazil and we’ll be selling more records than the Foo Fighters or No Doubt. If it’s a hair thing, well, Derek [Sherinian, keyboards] and I both have short hair now. Thank God our fan-base is still there and is capable of sniffing things out without the help of the press.”

“With us it’s not really about whether our singles make the chart, it’s more about people hearing our stuff,” agrees guitarist John Petrucci. “But as songwriters, it’s frustrating to not get that recognition.”

1992’s Images And Words went Gold in America, selling around 500,000 copies, and their latest and most mature album to date, Falling Into Infiniy, is shaping up to be their biggest yet.

“I don’t think there’s anybody else out there doing anything like what we’re doing,” shrugs Portnoy. “But what’s wrong with originality? I wish there was more of it around.”