Dream Theater Drummer Mike Mangini Expects New Album Will Come Out in 2021

Dream Theater drummer Mike Mangini has shed some light on the group’s follow-up to Distance Over Time, and expects that the album will come out later this year.

This upcoming album will be Dream Theater’s 14th studio release, and Mangini’s fifth as their dummer. During a chat with Rock Overdose, he explained how the band has grown in regards to songwriting and overall involvement with the creative process.

“People just can expect another upgrade,” the dummer said. “Another upgrade in everything that we did before, taking the best of. So you take the best of each of the four albums and combine it, and here you go — here’s my fifth one. Because there were different ways that we made each of the albums. Distance Over Time was the only one, to me, that I was involved with to the level that I was.”

“And I don’t mean to say ‘I,’ it’s not about me. It’s everybody. So, by default, everybody was more involved in a way where you go around a room and express anything you wanted to express right at that moment for that part in the song. So it was really cool like that,” he continued.

As for a slated release, Mangini guesses that the album will be out sometime in September. He teased that fans will likely get their first taste of the new material in the weeks leading up to it, so hopefully sometime in the summer.

Listen to the full episode below.

Rock Overdose Interview With Dream Theater’s Mike Mangini