During the unveiling of the ProgPower USA 2017 line-up, it was announced that Mike Portnoy (Shattered Fortress, Flying Colors, Ex-Dream Theater) would be forming a band of “some of the best musicians in prog today, some great friends, great musicians.” No names have been given as to who will be involved with the project, but given who he has worked with recently it’s guaranteed to be a collection of amazing, talented musicians.

The announcement was greeted by cheers throughout the entire audience, gathering the most positive reaction of all the bands announced, which was good because he was actually in attendance of the festival at the time. That said, it seems like it’s all aboard the hype train from here! Although little is  still known about the newly announced project, Portnoy had this to say about it:

“When I came up with the idea of writing a multi-part suite that spanned five Dream Theater albums, (which ended up taking eight years to complete), it was always part of my master plan to perform it in its entirety, live on stage. Unfortunately, after completing the final piece of my conceptual puzzle, I was never able to perform this creation with Dream Theater. Now I’ve decided that I owe it to the fans to finally bring my ”12 Step Suite to life on stage as I always had dreamed.”

ProgPower USA XVIII Roster Presentation from ProgPower USA on Vimeo.