Talking Into Infinity: A Dream Theater Podcast

It’s our fourth installment of ranking the songs on a Dream Theater record, and this time – as always, at random – we’ve been tasked with Systematic Chaos! It’s one of the most eclectic records in the band’s catalog and Brian and Jon can’t agree on whether or not In The Presence of Enemies needs to be considered as separate tracks – but how do these songs rate when pitted against each other? **NOTE: Everything said here, and on every episode of all of our shows are 100% the opinions of the hosts. Nothing is stated as fact. Do your own research to see if their opinions are true or not.** Please SUBSCRIBE, click the notification bell, leave a comment or a like, and share this episode!

It’s back for the third time and it’s better than ever – the annual Fan Hangout show! Gorilla Farts will be flowing, Brian will be swigging off of some unholy swill he’s created, but… best of all – we get the FANS on to host the show and we spend a few hours talking about Dream Theater and anything else that comes to mind! It’s our chance to say “thank you!!” to everyone who TRULY makes the show happen, so grab yourself a festive beverage, warm up those chat fingers – and get ready for the most spirited episode of the year on Talking Into Infinity!

It’s our third installment of ranking the songs on a Dream Theater record, and this time – as always, at random – we’ve been tasked with Octavarium! It’s the backbone of the band’s infamous 20th anniversary tour, it contains one of their most celebrated epics – but how do these songs stack up when ranked one through eight? **NOTE: Everything said here, and on every episode of all of our shows are 100% the opinions of the hosts. Nothing is stated as fact. Do your own research to see if their opinions are true or not.**

It’s our 6th Album Cage Match, and this time Brian – since it’s his birthday - has picked the opponents and a special guest cohost! We’re stepping outside the realm of Dream Theater with our good friend Chris Akin and pitting two classic Iron Maiden albums against each other as Powerslave takes on Seventh Son of a Seventh Son! It’s Two Minutes to Midnight as these two Duellists go head to head. Are you Clairvoyant enough to see what our picks will be? (OK, enough puns for one show description…) **NOTE: Everything said here, and on every episode of all of our shows are 100% the opinions of the hosts. Nothing is stated as fact. Do your own research to see if their opinions are true or not.** Please SUBSCRIBE, click the notification bell, leave a comment or a like, and share this episode!

It’s a very special episode on TII as we bring on legendary guitar writer Steven Rosen to discuss the second edition of his FANTASTIC new Eddie Van Halen book Tonechaser – Understanding Edward: My 26-Year Journey With Edward Van Halen! It’s 500+ pages detailing EVH as no other author has, and Steve is here to give us all of the incredible details about this unique, riveting and extremely personal work! It’s DEFINITELY a must-have for any diehard Edward Van Halen fans!

It’s a very special episode of Talking Into Infinity as we chat with the alien himself – Mr. Mike Mangini! He’s got a solo record coming out later this year titled Invisible Signs and recently dropped the killer first single Freak of Nature – he’s here to tell us all about his newest musical adventure! After that it’s fan vs. fan on TII as a grudge match that has been boiling for months on the show finally explodes! Longtime listeners and sometime cohosts Sean Faust, Chastadi Crawley and Cael McLeish jump into the Octagon to settle it once and for all – is the title track to 2005’s Octavarium an absolute masterpiece – or an overblown, bloated mess? Jon moderates this once-in-a-lifetime battle of DT superfan heavyweights!

Well, it’s official… Dream Theater co-founder Mike Portnoy is returning to the fold and will be back behind the kit!! What does this mean for the immediate future of the band? We’re giving our instant reaction to this monumental announcement!

After having ranked the songs on DT’s debut record, we’re back with another song ranking – pulled at random – and this episode we fall on 1999’s masterpiece Metropolis Pt.2: Scenes from a Memory! How do you rank the songs on a concept album? We’re about to find out!

It’s been 35 years since the release of Metallica’s masterpiece …And Justice For All, so we decided to deep dive the album and give our thoughts on this absolutely classic slab of metal! This is one of the two most influential records in Jon’s life, and fans worldwide have continually ranked this album either #1 or #2 in the band’s entire discography! We give our thoughts on this landmark album!

Brian is back and we are FINALLY talking some Sons Of Apollo on TII! We’ve dug into some seriously kickass records on the show and it’s about time that we talk about Psychotic Symphony, the amazing debut from SOA! Sheehan, Soto, Bumblefoot and, of course - Sherinian and Portnoy – what’s not to like? We go track by track and give our thoughts on one of the most criminally underrated prog records (and bands) you’re likely to find!

Brian had a last-minute commitment come up – so we’re switching gears on this week’s show! One of Jon’s good musician buddies – a self-professed huge Van Halen fan – is just NOW discovering the David Lee Roth era of the band! What are his impressions of the seven DLR records? How do they stack up against the Sammy albums? And, most importantly – how can this happen?? Grab your brown M&M’s and get ready to dance the night away as we dig into some untouchable rock classics! Booz-de-booz-de-bop!

It’s the next entry in our series of “you can’t have DT”, so… it’s 1997 and you walk into the record store to buy Falling Into Infinity… and the clerk tells you that you CAN’T buy it! Jon, of course, stages a boycott and refuses to purchase anything until he’s allowed to snatch up FII, but… YOU have to choose something else… what records are you grabbing? We give OUR choices for what we’d buy when we can’t have what we really want – the new Dream Theater record!

We're digging into one of the final DT albums we haven't touched on yet - 2013's self-titled record! The band were trying to incorporate all of their huge prog ideas into a much more concise, to-the-point song format for this release - did they nail it or did they miss the mark? We discuss! www.talkingintoinfinity.com

It's a big double episode on TII! We welcome bassist Conner Green of prog technicians Haken onto the show to discuss their upcoming tour in support of their new record Fauna! After that we bring on the mighty Chris Akin for a spirited discussion about Metallica's brand new album 72 Seasons! www.talkingintoinfinity.com

We are back from our trip to the suburbs of Pittsburgh to catch Queensryche and Marty Friedman! The show was killer… and we’re going to tell you all about it! (There WILL be setlist spoilers, so if you’re like Jon and want to avoid those – fast forward.) After that, we dig into Queensryche’s latest record Digital Noise Alliance… is this another solid step for the La Torre lineup or have QR lost a step? We give you our thoughts!

Brian is off, but we have a very good friend of the show filling in – creator of the stage production and music videos for the last two Dream Theater albums/tours… Wayne Joyner! Wayne has been gracious enough to come on a few times in the past and now that he’s filling in for Brian, we decided to let him pick the topic and he decided to deep dive one of his desert island records – Pantera’s killer major label debut Cowboys From Hell! Grab a few Black Tooth Grins and getcha pull, because we’re about to do it Lone Star State style on TII!

Portnoy vs. Mangini, Mangini vs. Portnoy – it doesn’t matter. Both drummers are INCREDIBLE and have given us several records of kickass prog rock – highlighted by some AMAZING drumming, no matter who is behind the kit. On this episode, we give our picks for our favorite drumming moments throughout the Dream Theater catalog!

We are celebrating Jon's birthday (a few days early) by letting him pick the topic - so, of course, he decides that it's finally time to deep dive his favorite record - Falling Into Infinity! This has been a somewhat polarizing record among the DT fanbase - is it a top-3 album as Jon thinks it is, or is it near the bottom due to it's obvious attempts at a hit single? We discuss!

On this episode of TALKING INTO INFINITY, Jon and Brian count down their favorite non-Dream Theater albums of 1995. Get all of their episodes at www.talkingintoinfinity.com.

We are back with our first show of 2023… and we’re heading back to 2010 and the start of a whole new era in DT history! This was the band’s first effort not to feature fan favorite and band leader Mike Portnoy – and just so happens to be one of Brian’s favorite records (spoiler alert!) We dig deep into Mike Mangini’s first outing with Dream Theater – A Dramatic Turn Of Events!

It’s a very special episode of TII as we belatedly celebrate Brian’s 94th birthday! Since it’s his special day, he got to pick the topic – and he decided that he wanted to pose a question. If you were stranded on a desert island (he also said “have you ever seen a desert with an island? I digress…”) – what ten albums would you want with you? On this episode, we give OUR list of must-have desert island albums!

We return from seeing JP absolutely tear down the House of Blues in Cleveland, Ohio with Dave LaRue and Mike Portnoy and give our thoughts on an incredible performance! This got us thinking… what are some of our favorite all-instrumental records? We each give a list of albums we think everyone should check out! Get all our episodes at www.talkingintoinfinity.com.

Coming off of the critical and commercial success that was Distance Over Time, Dream Theater were under pressure to deliver a follow-up that lived up to its predecessor’s standards. Their offering was 2021’s A View From The Top Of The World… how did it fare? Did it live up to the lofty fan expectations or was it a letdown? We give our thoughts on DT’s most recent studio release! Get all our episodes at www.talkingintoinfinity.com.

It’s 1994… you walk into the record store to buy Awake… and the clerk tells you that you CAN’T buy it! You HAVE to buy something else… what records are you buying? We give OUR choices for what we’d buy when we can’t have what we really want – the new Dream Theater record!

In our third episode discussing bands that influenced Dream Theater, we dig into one of the best-selling rock records ever (and the album Jon lists as the most influential of his life) – Van Halen’s 1984! From Panama to Hot For Teacher to Jump – the band’s only #1 single! – this record is jam-packed with phenomenal tunes and, of course, is one of the absolute highlights of Eddie Van Halen’s recorded work!