John Petrucci’s Done Recording Guitars for the New…

Yet another building block’s been laid down for the upcoming Dream Theater record, as it was announced earlier today by guitarist John Petrucci that the guitar work for the band’s as of yet unnamed studio album is complete.

In a video posted to his personal YouTube page, Petrucci shared a video message letting fans know his contributions to the record were completed.

“I’m here to tell you that I’m actually officially done recording all of the guitars for what we will for now call DT16, the latest Dream Theater album.

“I’m so happy with how the guitars came out. Our extraordinary, talented engineer Jimmy T [James Meslin] and I, we set out to create and capture what we call the Mount Rushmore of guitar tones. I think we did it. It’s up to you guys to decide. But anyway, we had so much fun recording the guitar.”

This news comes weeks after the band announced that Mike Portnoy’s drum tracks were completed. As they keep plugging away at the band’s 16th full-length effort, we keep getting closer and closer to hearing what Dream Theater sounds like with their classic lineup in the year of our lord 2024.

And while it will still be a while before we’ll hear any new music from the band, Petrucci said they opted to implement some old tools from the band’s classic albums.

“I wanna nerd out for a second. So, in striving to get there, and with Mike Portnoy rejoining the band, we decided we’d kind of look back a little bit. So we contacted our longtime friend and engineer Doug Oberkircher, who recorded Dream Theater classic albums such as Images And Words, Scenes From A Memory, Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence, Train Of Thought. And it turns out that Doug still had the original Neve preamps that he used to record the guitars on those records. And so we contacted Doug and we acquired the preamps, and, man, we got all the gank, all the aggression, but it still sounds really warm, smooth top end, expressive, layered. It’s like a T-Rex made out of chocolate cake lit on fire.

“Anyway, it came out great. So I can’t wait for all of you to hear that.”

While the world waits to learn more about the new Dream Theater record, they’re planning on going on tour. So far, they’ve got a European run set up, but I wouldn’t be surprised if a North American run is in the cards down the line. You can check out the full list of concert dates below.

An Evening With Dream Theater 40th Anniversary Tour 2024 – 2025

October 20 – London, England – The O2
October 22 – Berlin, Germany – Uber Eats Music Hall
October 23 – Koln, Germany – Palladium
October 25 – Milan, Italy – Forum
October 26 – Rome, Italy – Palazzo dello Sport
October 28 – Munich, Germany – Zenith
October 29 – Zagreb, Croatia – Arena Zagreb
November 1 – Budapest, Hungary – Budapest Arena
November 2 – Prague – Czech Republic – Fortuna Arena
November 3 – Lodz, Poland – Atlas Arena
November 6 – Helsinki, Finland – Metro Areena
November 8 – Stockholm. Sweden – Waterfront
November 9 – Oslo, Norway – Spektrum
November 10 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Poolen
November 12 – Luxembourg – Rockhal
November 13 – Zurich, Switzerland – The Hall
November 14 – Lyon, France – Halle Tony Garnier
November 16 – Lisbon, Portugal – MEO Arena
November 17 – Madrid, Spain – La Cubierta de Leganés
November 20 – Stuttgart, Germany – Beethovensaal
November 21 – Frankfurt, Germany – Jahrhundderthalle
November 23 – Paris, France – Adidas Arena
November 24 – Amsterdam – AFAS Live