Dream Theater’s John Petrucci reunites with Mike Portnoy in new “Terminal Velocity” music video

Dream Theater’s John Petrucci has announced his first solo album in fifteen years! Terminal Velocity, the full-length instrumental record will be released on August 28th via The Orchard Music on his Sound Mind Music record label. A video for the title track is now available. The follow-up to 2005’s Suspended Animation was written and produced by Petrucci, recorded by James ‘Jimmy T’ Meslin and mixed and mastered by Andy Sneap (Judas Priest, Killswitch Engage, etc.). Petrucci has reunited with former Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy to work on this album, which marks a first in over a decade since Portnoy left the band in 2010. Additionally, the record sees the return of bassist Dave LaRue who appeared on his debut solo effort.

Petrucci said the following about reuniting with Mike:

“Having Mike play drums on this record was really special for me and he did an absolutely incredible job navigating the various styles and technical challenges my music presented in the way that only he can do. It was very cathartic for the both of us, I think, to be playing music together again after all these years and it really felt great! Mike’s spirited, intuitive and energetic playing truly helped to elevate these new songs to a level that I couldn’t be happier with.”

Petrucci comments on the title track:

“Terminal Velocity was actually the first new song that I wrote for the album when I entered the studio in March of this year. It stemmed from one of the many ideas and seeds that I had collected over the past several years. I literally began with the opening motif and built the rest of song from there. I think it’s a great lead-off single and nicely represents a few of the different stylistic sides of this record that I wanted to explore as a guitar player; The melodic/thematic side, the riffing side, and the shred side. Mike and Dave both did an amazing job bringing this song to life as well, with all of the energy that they injected when recording their performances. The video was created by Wayne Joyner who made all of the promotional videos for Dream Theater’s Distance Over Time album as well as all of the 2019/2020 DT live tour visuals including all of the updated Scenes From A Memory video content. The tracking footage of me, Dave and Mike in the studio has a play-through sort of vibe while Wayne did his magic adding amazing 3-D graphics and special visual effects to help tell a story. I think the end result is a really unique and engaging video that captures the song’s energy and definitely does the first single justice. Really excited for people to see and hear this!”

Watch the video below: