Dream Theater’s upcoming release, “Distance Over Time”, comes out in February 2019. To announce the details of the band’s most recent offering, Dream Theater has enlisted the help of fans to spread the word about the release and even to break the news of the record release date, cover artwork, and to share the first taste of never before heard music. With this album, a return to the band’s roots, Dream Theater hoped to create a fan engagement experience unlike any previously undertaken.
To lead into the initial release of material, an Alternate Reality Game was launched. This game encompassed a “treasure hunt” whereby fans were able to search for clues hidden in various photos, video, social media posts, and more. Cooperation to host the Alternate Reality Game focused on various fan communities. The band’s fan club, forum members and Reddit each brought in technical expertise to create puzzles for the participants. Each and every week, a new puzzle would be released, often in the form of a candid photo or video from the studio where Dream Theater recorded their latest album. This would contain a piece of the puzzle – a clue to be used in the process of solving that week’s mystery. The puzzles were usually based on some encryption scheme or hiding information in the files, such as hiding a zipped file with text in an image file or hiding text within the spectrogram of an audio file. One puzzle had the fans decoding Morse Code on a light diode of recording equipment, while another had the fans decoding a touch-tone number from a phone call. Fans had to solve a sonogram, sudoku puzzle, reverse engineer an encryption scheme to find a key that would decrypt a specific text. They had to solve crosswords and trivia games. Fans were eager to participate and often worked together to collectively solve the puzzles within hours of their release.
Ultimately, there would be one person – one fan who would be the first to solve the final clue. As their prize, this fan would be the first person to possess previously unreleased Dream Theater content. The very first person outside the band to have possession of any new music, new artwork, new album title. It would be the fans who would solve the puzzle, complete the game and break the news of the release, disseminating this brand new Dream Theater news to the world from their personal online presence.
It is the hope of Dream Theater to have created a fun and engaging fan experience. A unique manner to amp up the excitement for the new release, and to involve the band’s fanbase in a new and interesting way. On behalf of Dream Theater – congratulations to the winner, and thank you to everyone who participated.
Dream Theater to enter studio in 2018 for ‘New Album’
During the recent stay in Budapest, Dream Theater singer James LaBrie talked in recent interview.
The band is mostly focused on touring by the end of the year. LaBrie said:
“We do this tour for the rest of 2017 and in 2018 we’re gonna make a new album. And we’re pretty psyched because we’re already know what we’re gonna do. But I’m not gonna tell you. [laughs] It’s really important for us that the new album will be our best effort. It should be who we are at that particular moment. We still want to create something that’s better than what we did before. That’s what keeps you interested in what you do. But if along the way we feel that there is another album we should recognize once again, then we’ll do it.“
He also added:
“We’re just planting seeds for now. We’re just putting some stuff together but it’s pretty cool what’s happening. The real nuts and bolts aren’t gonna happen until we’re done touring. Then we will go to a studio and be together every day just to write songs. But we have a lot of ideas already.“
Later in the year I will be doing a 25th Anniversary Retrospective of Dream Theaters Images & Words, 15th Anniversary Retrospective of Dream Theaters Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence right here on Power Of Prog.
James Labrie is also on the recent Ayreon The Source as ‘The Historian’
Labyrinth are currently working hard on the songwriting for their highly anticipated comeback album, which is planned for release on Frontiers Music Srl in 2017.
“We have written, so far, seven complete songs which we are very pleased with,” says guitar player Olaf Thorsen. “We have some very heavy and fast songs and a few more proggy and melodic. We will end up writing 10 or 11 songs for the new album. We think we know what the fans are expecting from us and I am absolutely confident that everyone will love the new songs. There are lots of killer melodies and the sound will be definitely and recognizably 100% Labyrinth!”
LABYRINTH’s reunion line-up features founding members Olaf Thorsen and Andrea Cantarelli on guitars and the return of Roberto Tiranti on lead vocals along with none other than John Macaluso (Yngwie Malmsteen, James Labrie, Riot, Symphony X, Starbreaker, TNT and ARK) on drums, Oleg Smirnoff (Eldritch, Vision Divine, Death SS) on keyboards, and Nik Mazzucconi on bass.
“The new line-up is stronger than ever!” continues Olaf. “Me, Andrea and Roberto are enthusiastic for the contributions that the new guys are bringing to the band and their style will certainly enhance the Labyrinth sound and bring it into 2016 and beyond!”
LABYRINTH first show with this new line-up will be at the Frontiers Metal Festival at the Live Music Club in Trezzo Sull’Adda on October 30th. The band will be exclusively playing their entire hit album “Return to Heaven Denied” plus a few more fan favorites!
More international shows are planned for next year in support of the release of the new album. https://www.facebook.com/labyrinthitaly/
This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these cookies, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may have an effect on your browsing experience.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.
