1411 - Dream Theater Beneath The Surface 2011

"A Dramatic Turn of Events" is the eleventh studio album by American progressive metal band Dream Theater. It is the band's first recording to feature drummer Mike Mangini following the departure of founding member Mike Portnoy in September 2010. For "A Dramatic Turn of Events", Dream Theater underwent a self-proclaimed musical change, reevaluating and restructuring themselves. The album's style veers toward progressive rock and has been called reminiscent of the band's past albums "Images and Words" and "Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory". Petrucci called Portnoy's departure one of the hardest things Dream Theater have had to face. Speaking of when he first heard the news, Jordan Rudess recounts, "You know, just to give you an idea of how deep this was to lose him, how difficult it was... after we got off the phone with him... I literally sat on the steps of my studio and cried. This is a guy who's a friend of mine, who we all love and admire. We didn't want to see it come crashing down". A little more than a month after Portnoy's departure, Dream Theater began auditioning for a new drummer in New York City. The drummers invited to audition were Mike Mangini, Derek Roddy, Thomas Lang, Virgil Donati, Marco Minnemann, Aquiles Priester, and Peter Wildoer. Each candidate was given three songs to learn for the audition – "A Nightmare to Remember", "The Dance of Eternity" and "The Spirit Carries On" – and was given only a few weeks to prepare. Each audition lasted for around three hours and included a jam session, song test, and riff test where drummers were asked to play along with a selection of pre-written riffs. The candidates were notified whether they had been chosen on November 5; however, the results of the audition were not made public until April 2011 via a three part YouTube documentary series called The Spirit Carries On. In the last episode of the series, it was revealed that Mangini was the drummer selected. Album closer “Beneath the Surface” is a surprisingly affecting ballad, and one of the best quiet songs the band has created in years. The song is vocally-driven, highlighting LaBrie in his best light. Petrucci and Myung stick to acoustic instruments for the entire song, and the string quartet accompaniment is masterfully arranged.