Mike Portnoy’s Inner Sanctum Disclaimer

Alright – Here’s the deal: During the summer of 1985, some friends of mine in a local band called Inner Sanctum lost their drummer, and asked me to temporarily help them out. We did a couple of local shows and then they asked me to record some songs before I left for Berklee, (Where I ended up meeting John and John and formed Dream Theater). Those songs are tracks #1-8 on this CD.

You might be wondering how we got those brilliant drum sounds. Well, here’s how it happened: One of the guitar players came over to my garage, set up about 4 microphones and plugged the two of us directly into a Boom Box! At the time, I had no idea that anything would be done with these tapes. (Much less that it would come back and haunt me 10 years later!)

Although the production is horrible and the playing is pretty simple (when you can make it out!), I did get a kick out of hearing this music after so many years, the music was pretty damn heavy for 1985, and at the time, I thought it was some pretty cool stuff. (And yes, that is me on the far right of the photo!)

I really don’t think Dream Theater fans will get much out of this other than a bit of nostalgia from my past and some possible blackmail material! However, Be Forewarned: During the Xmas break of ‘85/’86 (while we were working with Kev for the first time & writing material for the 1986 Majesty demo), myself and the guitar player for Inner Sanctum laid down tracks for another 12 Inner Sanctum songs as well as about 30 songs for a goof side-project band called “MANGLED CLIT” (I swear!)

Let’s hope I never have to write a disclaimer for that stuff!!!