Mat Maurer comment (excerpt)

Mat Maurer, frontman of now-defunct Sydney thrash metallers Mortal Sin, has a legitimate claim to being Dream Theater’s first Australian fan – prior to them even adopting that moniker – having corresponded by mail with founding drummer Mike Portnoy.

He explains: “Sometime back in 1986, Mortal Sin was getting noticed quite a bit in the United Kingdom, and Metal Forces had run a piece on our debut album, Mayhemic Destruction, in their magazine. They told metalheads they could contact the band via our PO box, which was listed on the back of the album. I got tonnes of letters from people wanting the album, and in amongst those letters was one from a certain Mike Portnoy, who was in a band called Majesty. He wanted a copy of our album, and sent his band’s demo tape for me to have a listen. Well, at the time I didn’t know of Mike Portnoy and I certainly had not heard of Majesty. I gave the tape a whirl in my ghetto blaster and my first impression was that it was reasonably good.

“It was a few years after that when Majesty became Dream Theater, and I had heard that they were going to release their debut album. By this time, I had my record store The Metal Factory open in Parramatta and I had imported some copies of the album. I was completely blown away, and anyone who came into the shop was bound to hear that album on replay for most of the day. I would say to my customers, ‘You gotta check this band out, they’re incredible!’ No one had heard of them, and my constant and insistent hounding sold many a copy in my store.”

So, does Maurer still own that original demo?

“I sold the demo and the letter to a Dream Theater fan club in Europe,” he admits, “Probably about 10-12 years ago. I think I got $350 USD for the package.”

As for his favourite Dream Theater songs, Maurer says it’s “incredibly difficult” to select a single cut, but if he had to name a top five, “it would look something like this: ‘6:00’, ‘Surrounded’, ‘I Walk Beside You’, ‘As I Am’ and ‘Through Her Eyes’.”