This news is kind of shocking, Mike Portnoy, founding member of Dream Theater, has quit the band. In a statement through his website, Mike Portnoy had this to say:

After 25 years, I have decided to leave Dream Theater... the band I founded, led and truly loved for a quarter of a century.

"To many people this will come as a complete shock, and will also likely be misunderstood by some, but please believe me that it is not a hasty decision...it is something I have struggled with for the last year or so....

"After having had such amazing experiences playing with Hail!, Transatlantic and Avenged Sevenfold this past year, I have sadly come to the conclusion that I have recently had more fun and better personal relations with these other projects than I have for a while now in Dream Theater."

I think you can take a few things from this statement:

A) the decision wasn't made on a whim. It was carefully thought out and it makes sense for Portnoy at this time to split with Dream Theater.

B) it is not money driven. Portnoy, through his endorsement, touring revenue from Dream Theater, and Dream Theater royalties is going to be ok. No need to leave Dream Theater for Avenged Sevenfold because of the money.

C) Avenged Sevenfold just got a top notch drum replacement for their deceased one.

Dream Theater now has a tough job of replacing an integral part of their band. Without Portnoy, I would contend they are no Dream Theater. This would be like Rush replacing Peart or Genesis replacing Phil Collins or Nickelback replacing Daniel Adair. Obviously, the last one was a joke because you could replace all of Nickelback with a bunch of Organ grinder monkeys and it would be about as entertaining as the real Nickelback.

Well Portnoy, you have saddened me. I am disappoint. We will always have the music though.