Dream Theater is an American prog-metal band formed in 1985. Although they mainly focus on album work they scored a Top 10 hit in 1992 with "Pull Me Under".
In 1986 the band began touring and they recorded some of the material later released as The Majesty Demos. When When Dream and Day Unite was released in 1989 it fell into a chasm of disinterest. However, Images and Words (1992) found their first and only Top 10 hit with the single "Pull Me Under".
Awake (1994) was their third album, followed by the 1995 EP A Change of Seasons, which featured the 23-minute long "A Change of Seasons", but by their next album they were under pressure to produce a more accessible, commercial record. The result was Falling Into Infinity which was a pale shadow of the double-album they had originally written. The fans and critics were largely disappointed and the album failed to do as well as previous outings. The band would later admit that they had been discouraged by the creative compromises they had made to get this album released.
After a little time working with side project Liquid Tension Experiment, Dream Theater returned to the studio in 1999, this time with complete creative control. They took songs which had been put on the back-burner for the last album and reworked them into the concept album Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory. It achieved the credit they had hoped for and is regarded as their seminal album.
In 2002 Dream Theater finally had the chance to release the double-album they knew they had inside them. Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence was well received by both fans and critics, and entered in the Top 50 of the Billboard album charts. For 2003 there was a side step while Portnoy worked with OSI, a project which resulted in the album Office of Strategic Influence, but later that year he was ready to release Train of Thought with Dream Theater. It had a heavier metal sound and some of the Theater fans found it hard to stomach, but nonetheless it fared well with the critics. The tour for the album found them supporting their heroes, prog-rock stalwarts Yes.
Octavarium was released in 2005 and featured the Muse-compared track "Never Enough" and the more commercial tones of "I Walk Beside You" - tracks which caused consternation amongst die-hard prog fans.
Their 2007 album was Systematic Chaos, their first with Roadrunner Records. As a result of the support of their new label it achieved a respectable No.19 on the Billboard charts.
