"There’s definitely magic and chemistry with this group of guys, that’s undeniable,” says Jordan Rudess. “Even the first day when we started to jam, oh yeah, we’re back.” The group of guys in question is Rudess, guitar monster John Petrucci, master of the bass and Chapman Stick Tony Levin, and prog’s reigning drum champ Mike Portnoy, known together as Liquid Tension Experiment. The last time this quartet released an album Bill Clinton was in the White House, the euro had just debuted as an international currency, and The Matrix was in cinemas. It’s taken a long time to get the band back together, a situation no doubt complicated by Portnoy’s departure from Dream Theater back in 2010, but then last year the drummer played on Petrucci’s solo album, Terminal Velocity.
“If it wasn’t for music as a creative outlet, I think I’d go completely mad,” says Petrucci when asked how he’s coping with being off the road for so long. But the upside to the suspension of touring has been the opportunity to resurrect the long-dormant LTE.
