Dream Theater (SUA) will play at ARTmania Festival which will take place on 26-28 July, 2019, in the Large Square of the medieval citadel of Sibiu.
The Americans, pioneers of the progressive metal genre, will be bringing at ARTmania Festival “Distance over Time, their next studio album, their fourteenth album released in over 30 years of music.
James LaBrie (vocals), John Petrucci (guitar), Jordan Rudess (keys), John Myung (bass) si Mike Mangini (drums) have just finished recording their next album, Distance over Time and say the brotherhood between them is stronger than ever.
For the first time in the last 20 years, the five super-musicians have written and recorded an album by basically living together for over four months in a studio in Monticello, New York. Between barbeques and long talks breaking into the 14 hour studio days, the music for their fourteenth album came naturally, spontaneously and laid over their strong bond like a mark. Chemistry was essential for Dream Theater during this time, especially after the major break the band went through in 2010, when one of the founding members, drummer Mike Portnoy, left the group. Mike Mangini, his replacement behind the drum kit has truly become a member of the Dream Theater family, for the first time bringing his contribution to a studio album, including lyrics.
Dream Theater was founded in 1985, around Petrucci, Myung and Portnoy. At that point, they were all students at the Berklee College of Music, and the band was named “Majesty”. After 33 years, two Grammy nominations and 15 million albums sold, the group considers itself completely mature creatively and promises a monumental album, in which, with today’s impressive virtuosity, the band goes back to its origins, reviving the heavy part, as well as the proggy one. Everything, as Petrucci says, for a music played with super excitement.
Alongside thousands of completely fascinated fans, Dream Theater has another reason for a strong bond with Romania: their first concert here, in Bucharest, in 20112, was recorded and released as an “official bootleg” in the band’s discography.
Those who will see them live in the Large Square in Sibiu might actually enjoy some songs from the classic Metropolis II: Scenes from Memory, their 1999 album, which the band will play in its entirety (at least, in the first part of the tour, which will only include shows “an evening with”) as to mark its 20 year anniversary.
On the ARTmania Festival stage in the Large Square of Sibiu, Dream Theater (SUA) will play alongside Opeth (Sweden), Madrugada (Norway), Wardruna (Norway) and Myrkur (Denmark), other well-known international artist waiting to be announced in the future.
Passes for the 2019 edition of the ARTmanai Festival are already available on the official website, www.artmaniafestival.ro. For the moment, there is a limited number of special priced tickets, at 190 lei, available until sold out, but no later than November 30th 2018, the next sale price being 250 lei.
ARTmania Festival, the first Romanian festival that developed the idea of joining art and entertainment, is a platform dedicated to promoting all forms of artistic expression inspired by the rock culture. Over the years, ARTmania has established itself as a regional promoter of contemporary musical projects. But, ARTmania Festival does not mean just concerts from big international or local artists. Music is a base component that started everything, but it represents just a part of the experience the festival has tried to offer Romanian and international art lovers.
From the beginning, ARTmania was built as a cultural platform destined to offer the public as many events and modes of experiencing various forms of artistic expression: concerts, exhibitions, book launches or film projections. This common meeting space of artists and audience at a sound, color, image or literary level, hosted by the Large Square and by the medieval citadel, create the space where the story and magic represent, in essence, the festival spirit.
As the longest rock festival in Romania and one of the traditional brands in the regional cultural scene, ARTmania has outlined its own identity through a bold concept an a special medium: the Large Square of one of the most beautiful medieval citadels in Eastern Europe – Sibiu citadel.
ARTmania constantly explores new paths, capitalizing from previous editions, when on the festival stage a series of important bands played; from Steven Wilson Serj Tankian and Devin Townsend, to Die Toten Hosen, Nightwish, Within Temptation, HIM, Tarja Turunen, The Gathering, The Sisters of Mercy, Lacuna Coil, Helloween, Lacrimosa, Poets of the Fall or Deine Lakaien, along many others.
