After he accepted the position, another friend from home, Chris Collins, was recruited as lead vocalist after band members heard him sing a cover of "Queen of the Reich" by Queensrÿche.

[11] With the stability that Dominici's appointment brought to Majesty, they began to increase the number of shows played in the New York City area, gaining a considerable amount of exposure.

Mechanic ended up breaking the majority of the financial promises they had made to Dream Theater before signing their contract, so the band was restricted to playing around New York City.

[17] On June 9, 1990, at a gig at Sundance in Bay Shore, New York, Dream Theater introduced Steve Stone as their new singer after playing half the set as an instrumental band.

Additionally, a video compilation of their Japanese concerts (mixed in with documentary-style footage of the off-stage portion of the tour) was released as Images and Words: Live in Tokyo.

The band released A Change of Seasons as an EP along with a collection of cover songs from a live show recorded at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club in London earlier that year.

Although Portnoy did not speak out publicly at the time, he later revealed in the 2004 DVD commentary for 5 Years in a Livetime that he had been so discouraged during this period that he had considered disbanding Dream Theater altogether.

In 1997, Magna Carta Records' Mike Varney invited Portnoy to assemble a progressive "supergroup" to work on an album, which would become the first in a long string of side-projects for the members of Dream Theater.

Its eight songs included a continuation of Portnoy's "Twelve-step" saga ("The Root of All Evil", steps 6–7 in the 12-step plan), as well as the title track, a musically versatile 24-minute epic rivaling "A Change of Seasons".

Dream Theater started the Octavarium Tour extensively throughout 2005 and 2006 to celebrate their 20th Anniversary as a band, including a headlining spot on Gigantour alongside Megadeth and put together by frontman Dave Mustaine, also featuring Fear Factory, Nevermore and Symphony X.

During a show on August 2, 2005, in Dallas, the band paid tribute to Pantera's late guitarist Dimebag Darrell by performing the song "Cemetery Gates" as an encore.

Unlike most greatest hits compilations, Dream Theater was actively involved with the album, coming up with the track listing that they felt best represented their musical careers.

On October 7, 2008, Dream Theater returned to Avatar Studios to begin work on their tenth album, resuming their relationship with Paul Northfield to engineer and mix the record.

In December 2009, during their Black Clouds & Silver Linings tour whilst visiting Australia, Dream Theater appeared with one support act, Pain of Salvation.

The drummers who auditioned were Mike Mangini, Derek Roddy, Thomas Lang, Virgil Donati, Marco Minnemann, Aquiles Priester, and Peter Wildoer.

[49] The candidates were notified whether they had been chosen on November 5;[50] however, the results of the audition were not made public until April 2011 via a three-part YouTube documentary series called The Spirit Carries On.

In addition, the album cracked the top 10 in 24 countries including Japan, Germany, Argentina, The Netherlands, Finland, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Denmark, Norway, Austria, Australia and United Kingdom.

[78] The set list for the tour featured the entire second half of Awake, in celebration of the album's 20th anniversary, including the song "Space-Dye Vest", which had never been performed live.

[92] About the direction of the album, guitarist John Petrucci stated in an August 2020 interview with Ultimate Guitar: "The eight-string project with Ernie Ball Music Man is something we are working on and hoping to have developed as this year goes on.

Its recording sessions marked the first time in ten years that Petrucci worked with his former Dream Theater bandmate Mike Portnoy, who played drums on all tracks from the album.

[102] On January 30, 2021, Dream Theater held a special streaming event titled Images, Words & Beyond Live in Japan, an online broadcast of a concert from the band's 2017 tour, which was originally recorded for Japanese television.

[103] On May 5, 2021, Dream Theater announced a series of albums titled the Lost Not Forgotten Archives, the first release of which is the second set of the Images, Words & Beyond Live in Japan concert.

Prior to Portnoy's departure, Dream Theater "rotated" its set lists to ensure that fans who attended multiple shows in the same area would not see too many (or any) songs repeated.

They usually performed a cover of Deep Purple's "Perfect Strangers," and, on one occasion, Ozzy Osbourne's "Suicide Solution," At some shows, Sherinian, Petrucci and Portnoy would take the stage together under the name "Nicky Lemons and the Migraine Brothers."

[139] In "The Dark Eternal Night" from the Chaos in Motion DVD, the band battles against a monster by shooting fireballs from guitars, throwing drum sticks, and screaming.

[146] On April 22, 2023, Dream Theater announced the first edition of DREAMSONIC, taking place in North America throughout June and July and celebrating the summer's ultimate progressive metal line-up.

A Change of Seasons features Elton John, Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Kansas, Queen, Journey, Dixie Dregs and Genesis live covers.

Through YtseJam Records, the band have also released full album live cover performances of Metallica's Master of Puppets, Iron Maiden's The Number of the Beast, Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon, and Deep Purple's Made in Japan.

[149] The special edition of Black Clouds & Silver Linings includes a bonus disc with Rainbow, Queen, Dixie Dregs, Zebra, King Crimson, and Iron Maiden covers.

[162] In the liner notes for the 2008 Greatest Hit compilation, Mike Portnoy cited artists such as Peter Gabriel, U2, and Journey as inspirations for Dream Theater's softer songs.