John Petrucci has always struck me like one of the most balanced guitar players ever. He is not only a master of playing really fast and technical stuff, but unlike many fast players, he also can also play slowly, and with a lot of melody and feeling. This is one of the reasons that has brought me back to listen to his music ever since I was a teenager. He’s definitely one of the greats.
So first of all, the most obvious and notable thing going on in his new and second solo record, Terminal Velocity, is the presence of the one and only Mike Portnoy on drums. As everyone knows, Portnoy was the original drummer for John Petrucci’s main band, Dream Theater, and also for Liquid Tension Experiment, another notable side project of them.
Portnoy left Dream Theater in 2010, and since then, the pair have not released any more music together. Finally, after 10 years, here’s the first official reunion of the pair.
Portnoy’s drumming brings a lot of joy to the record, a joy that is evident in the way he plays, and it permeates this record through and through. I think joy is a good word to define the overall feeling of the album. There’s even a song called Happy Song, which is one of my favorites of the bunch.
Portnoy is always pushing the beat, never playing behind it. It’s almost as if he wants to lead the musical adventure.
The fact that these 2 guys played together for more than 20 years also gives it a very unique kind of gel to their playing. They definitely understand how to seamlessly fit together.
You might get the impression that, even with this all-important reunion going on, Portnoy doesn’t get much of a spotlight. He’s not there to outshine Petrucci. This is a bit of a shame, as Portnoy is known for his amazing drum skills, but I understand that is not the point of this record.
But on closer listening, Portnoy is doing something just as great, just in a different way. Pay close attention and listen to how Portnoy complements John’s playing perfectly. He’s definitely not just mindlessly keeping the rhythm and letting John do his thing, but he is with him every step of the way, almost forming the perfect backdrop to every inch in every song. He adapts and changes. His drumming has many different layers and textures. He really knows what he’s doing.
So what about Petrucci then? Well, it is exactly what you can expect from him. There’s his familiar guitar sound, with its Mesa/Boogie flavor. Then there’s also, of course, a lot of crazy guitar pyrotechniques everywhere. The songs are laden with nice melodies here and there. All this is wrapped in the same kind of prog-metal that Petrucci has been playing for all his career.
He does throw us some short curve balls every now and then, like a sudden short flamenco part, a Van Halen-esque riff at the beginning on Snake in my Boot, and most prominently, a blues number, the aptly titled Out of the Blue.
I thinks it’s a very enjoyable album. The songs are really good. I get the impression that Petrucci really put a lot of thought when creating each and every song. At first I thought it would be an album of Petrucci’s generic metal riffs and progressions, with him improvising on top, but I’m happy to report it’s not the case. This is top notch song-crafting and playing.
