Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy Names 10 Albums That Influenced His Drumming
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Consequence’s Drum Week continues with an exclusive “Crate Digging” list of 10 albums that influenced legendary Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. Check out our list of the 100 Best Drummers of All Time and enter our Drum Week Giveaway, then stay tuned for additional lists, artist-driven content, and more as we celebrate the visceral instruments that give us all the beat.
Mike Portnoy has certainly influenced countless drummers over the course of his 40-year career, as his wide-ranging skills behind the kit are nearly beyond comparison. In an exclusive feature for Consequence‘s “Drum Week,” the legendary stickman offers insight into his own inspiration by breaking down the albums and drummers who influenced him.
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As a founding member of progressive metal titans Dream Theater, Portnoy has established himself as one of the premier drummers of the past four decades. He recently returned to the band after a 13-year absence, and he and his Dream Theater bandmates are getting ready to embark on a 2024-2025 tour celebrating their 40th anniversary (pick up tickets here).
Outside of Dream Theater, Portnoy has built up a versatile résumé that includes stints in Avenged Sevenfold, The Neal Morse Band, Flying Colors, The Winery Dogs, Metal Allegiance, Adrenaline Mob, and Transatlantic, among other projects. And, of course, he also made Consequence‘s just-published list of the 100 Best Drummers of All Time.
When coming up with his picks for 10 albums that influenced his drumming, Portnoy made sure to equally divide his list between the three genres that had the greatest impact on him.
“I should probably start off by pointing out that this list is chronological, so it’s not in order of anyone having more influence than anybody else,” Portnoy told us before running through his picks. “It’s just chronological as I came through these albums in my life and my development as a drummer.
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He continued, “And the other thing is if you look at it stylistically, it’s broken up into three sections: the first chunk is more of the classic rock guys; the middle chunk is more of the progressive guys; and the third chunk is the more metal guys. And really, if you look at my style, it’s made up of those three areas: classic rock, prog, and metal. So, it’s really a good cross section of what makes me who I am.”
While you won’t see a KISS album on this list, Portnoy credits Peter Criss as one of his first drum heroes, telling us, “If I could expand this list to 11 or 12, Peter Criss and KISS would have been on the list, as well, ’cause he was a huge influence on me in my early development as a drummer.”
So, who did make his list? Let’s just say it ranges from the Beatles to Pantera. Check out the albums that influenced Mike Portnoy below, and stay tuned for more artist-curated content for Consequence‘s Drum Week.
The Beatles – Magical Mystery Tour (Ringo Starr)
I have to start with Ringo Starr and the Beatles. And it’s a weird pick, Magical Mystery Tour, because technically it’s not even a real Beatles album. The Beatles are my number one favorite band of all time. They have been since the day I was born. So, I can’t possibly give Ringo enough credit for the influence he’s had on me. He’s the guy who did it all first. Really, you never knew who the drummer in any bands were until the Beatles and Ringo. And suddenly now you had a drummer that was an equal fourth personality in the band and an equal presence with the other guys.
And even though Magical Mystery Tour isn’t like a real album, it’s just a real good sweet spot for me in terms of like their inventiveness and their daringness. “Strawberry Fields Forever” was such a sonic and inventive production, the way the drums were used, everything from marching snare drums to sped up tapes, slowed down tapes. “I Am the Walrus” has some amazing drumming on there. Every one of those fills, you can air drum them — the simplicity of songs like “Penny Lane,” where the backbeat is literally just a snare drum.
This is just one of those albums that’s got a little bit of everything and it’s a great spot of creativity for them, coming off of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which was the first album that came out after I was born in ’67. So yeah, I’m gonna have to go with Ringo, The Beatles, Magical Mystery Tour, to kick it off.
The Who – Live at Leeds (Keith Moon)
Whereas Ringo was my introduction to music and drumming, Keith Moon was the drummer that really made me listen and take notice to the drums in particular. When I was listening to the Beatles, I was mainly listening to the songs first, but when it came to The Who, the drumming was just something that you couldn’t take your ears off of. And then to take it a step further, when I saw them with my own eyes, when the movie The Kids Are Alright came out in 1979, I saw it in the movie theater.
This was shortly after Keith had passed, but it was my first time seeing Keith after listening to him for 10 years at that point. And he was just the sort of drummer that you couldn’t take your eyes off of. He was just so commanding. He played the drums like a lead instrument. It literally made me want to become a drummer. The reason I picked Live at Leeds is because I think that’s where you could really hear Keith going for it. He was very restrained in the studio. Tommy is one of my all-time favorite albums, but I think his drumming is still restrained on that. He’s playing straight back beats and grooves using a hi-hat. But if you listen to Live at Leeds, it’s like he’s just unleashed, like the chains are off. The arms are just going for full 16th notes for an hour on end. It doesn’t stop. It’s just completely relentless.
And not only Keith. You can hear the whole band sound so raw. I love when you listen to Live at Leeds, you have Pete Townshend’s guitar on one side and John Entwistle’s bass on the other side, and Keith right up the middle, just running circles around it all. So, I think Live at Leeds is a really great example of Keith’s complete and utter bombast and what made him such a unique style drummer.
Led Zeppelin – The Song Remains the Same (John Bonham)
I just picked Live at Leeds for The Who, and I have to go with a live album for John Bonham and Led Zeppelin, as well, mainly because if you listen to The Song Remains the Same, you could really hear Bonham in his element in terms of being a musical drummer. There are so many improvs and jams when you listen to live Zeppelin recordings, the 30-minute version of “Dazed and Confused” and the 30-minute version of “Whole Lotta Love.” And within those versions, you hear all these twists and turns, just improvising and jamming off of each other.
It’s really a great example of what a musical drummer John Bonham was. Obviously, he had such finesse, he had such power, he had such groove, but when you listen to them jamming on these songs and the live versions of these songs, you could hear how he’s listening and feeding off of Jimmy Page’s guitars or how John Paul Jones is working off of John Bonham’s drumming.
He never played any of these songs the same way twice. You could listen to any Zeppelin bootleg and every version of “Black Dog” or “Dazed and Confused” or “No Quarter,” they’re all different. They all go on different musical journeys. So, everybody knows that Bonham is the G.O.A.T., but I think this album is a great example to really show what an incredibly musical drummer he was.
Yes – Close to the Edge (Bill Bruford)
Now, we’re going to get into the prog albums of my youth. I cut my teeth on the classic rock stuff from when I was born, ’67, through the early ’70s, and all the classic rock stuff was such a big influence on me. But then came progressive music. Guys like Neil Peart, who was to come a little later, but Bill Bruford came first, and Phil Collins and Carl Palmer, the early days of prog with King Crimson, Genesis, ELP, Yes … that was just such a period for progressive music. That’s when it all began, and that was when it was really blossoming.
Yes’ Close to the Edge, as far as I’m concerned, is the ultimate prog album. It’s the quintessential prog album. It’s five musicians at their peak. It’s the lineup of Bill Bruford, Chris Squire, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, and Jon Anderson. It’s the classic lineup that only made two albums. They made Fragile and then they made this one, Close to the Edge, both of which are masterpieces. But for this list, I’ll go with Close to the Edge. Just three songs — all three are prog epics.
The side-long title track is amazing, and then the second side is just “And You and I” and “Siberian Khatru.” It’s just prog perfection. And Bill Bruford the whole way through is just carrying the band and he’s such a rhythmical force. At that point, these prog drummers were incorporating jazz and classical elements and fusion elements, and they were putting it into a melting pot, and that’s what made progressive music.
Bill Bruford was just so inventive, I had to have one of his albums on this list. I could have gone with so many, because he not only played with Yes, he was also with King Crimson, he toured with Genesis, he played on the first U.K. album, so he’s really “The Progfather,” as far as I’m concerned.
RUSH – A Farewell to Kings (Neil Peart)
As much as I just talked about Bill Bruford, as he came along chronologically first in the prog world, the biggest impact of all for me was Neil Peart. When I discovered RUSH’s music, it just changed my world upside down. It taught me everything I know about odd time signatures and how to create progressive music and be a very musical drummer. And Neil was such a musical drummer, the way that he would create his drum patterns and develop from verse to chorus, then the next verse, the next chorus. He just played so musically.
His giant drum kit was a huge influence on me. I had never seen a giant kit that big. And I would just stare at the Modern Drummer issues, just staring at the drum kit. The way other kids were looking at Playboy centerfolds, I was looking at Modern Drummer centerfolds.
Neil, I can’t state highly enough the impact he had on me as a teenager. And the album I chose is Exit Stage Left. Once again, like Keith Moon and like John Bonham, I picked a live album for Neil, as well, only because the track listing on Exit Stage Left really encompasses all of my favorite RUSH albums of that period.
You had A Farewell to Kings, Hemispheres, Permanent Waves, and Moving Pictures. And those are the albums that are captured here on this live album, Exit Stage Left. So for me, when I got into RUSH, this was the album that I learned inside and out because it had all of those great songs, everything from “Xanadu” to “Jacob’s Ladder,” and two instrumentals on there: “YYZ” and “La Villa Strangiato.” So to me, this, for that period, was the ultimate setlist and the ultimate one stop shopping for Neil and Rush.
U.K. – Danger Money (Terry Bozzio)
I had to have something from Terry Bozzio because he is one of my biggest influence of all time, big time. He, like Bill Bruford, had his hands in so many different things. It’s hard to pick one. But I’m going to go with U.K.’s Danger Money because maybe it’s his most traditional prog-iest. But obviously I need to also mention all the stuff he did with Zappa was a huge influence on me.
The albums he made, especially Zappa in New York and Shake Your Booty with Zappa were big for me, as well. Another huge album for me with Terry was Spring Session M by Missing Persons. After he went through Zappa and U.K., he wanted to put together a new wave pop band, so he put together Missing Persons. And even though the music is very straight ahead on that album, the drum fills and the drumming is just mind boggling.
But back to the album I picked here, which is Danger Money. He came into U.K. for their second album, taking Bill Bruford’s place, and this album was a trio. It was just Terry Bozzio, John Wetton, and Eddie Jobson. And the drumming on this album just encapsulates Terry Bozzio. Terry at his best. I think he might’ve had the Rototoms on this album, but he definitely had that sound. It was that late ’70s sound that he had with Zappa and with U.K. that was just so Terry and influential on me, the way that he played his patterns.
There’s a famous Mike Portnoy fill that’s just been used to death. Every drummer kind of references it and almost makes fun of me because of it. It’s become the cliché Mike Portnoy fill, but it really came from Terry. That’s where it stemmed from. He was the first guy I heard doing those fills with four on top, two on the bottom, four on top, four on the bottom. I got that from him, between the snare and the toms and the Chinas and the bells and the stacks, that all came from Terry. And if I had to pick one album, this is the one: Danger Money.
Frank Zappa – Joe’s Garage, Acts I, II & III (Vinnie Colaiuta)
As I mentioned, Terry was a huge influence and his work with Zappa was a huge influence. But after Terry came Vinnie Colaiuta. And this concept album of Zappa’s, Joe’s Garage, Acts I, II & III — Acts I and II was a single album, and then Act III came out, which was a double album.
Acts I and II were more of the satirical, funny lyrics talking about wet T-shirt nights and Catholic girls. And it was typical great Zappa stuff that for me as a kid. I felt like I was listening to a dirty comedian or something with these lyrics, but once you get into Joe’s Garage Act III, that’s when the chains came off. Act III is all about the musical dexterity of this incredible band.
And all of Frank’s drummers through the years influenced me: Vinnie, Terry, Chad Wackerman, Chester Thompson, because he always had amazing drummers. And therefore I always learned so much from the entire Zappa discography, not only from these incredible drummers and musicians he had in his band, but listening to Frank’s compositions and the way that he wrote polyrhythms and odd time signatures, it was just like a crash course in musical mastery.
In any case, you could throw a dart at the entire Zappa discography and no matter what you get, you’re going to have a winner. But I think this one is a great one because Vinnie’s drumming on this album just taught me so much. And if you listen to a song like “Keep It Greasy,” that was the first time I ever heard a drummer playing in 19/16 time and 21/16 time. So, it was songs like that on this album that really taught me about some of those crazy time signatures that took progressive music to a whole ‘nother level.
Metallica, Master of Puppets (Lars Ulrich)
Now, we’re at the metal portion of my list. This was a game changer. Actually, to be honest, I think Kill ‘Em All, Metallica’s first album, that was the first game changer. That was the first time I had ever heard music that intense, that heavy, that fast, that clean too, because you had Mot?rhead and stuff like that, but Mot?rhead was very sludgy rock ‘n’ roll, whereas Metallica was clean and tight and so fast and heavy.
So, Kill ‘Em All was the game changer for me, but Master of Puppets was where they perfected it. And that was when they made an album that had the production, and the song lengths were growing to more progressive lengths. The playing was just more and more challenging. So, Master of Puppets is when they really took that big step.
Master of Puppets blew them through the roof. I remember seeing them opening for Ozzy on that tour. The next album, …And Justice for All, was the first time they broke onto MTV and made a music video. “The Black Album” broke them to massive crossover success. So, every time they put out an album, they were writing the next chapter and they were the game changers for each and every step. But Master of Puppets is the one. And that’s the one, when picking an album for Dream Theater to cover in its entirety, that’s the one that I picked.
It just has it all. It just blew open the gates for everybody and everything in metal. And, as a result of this, they ultimately became the biggest band in metal history.
Slayer – Reign in Blood (Dave Lombardo)
This was the same year as Master of Puppets. They were both ’86. Megadeth also put out Peace Sells that year, and then Anthrax had Among the Living a year later. So, this was prime time for thrash metal and the “Big 4.” This is when all four of those bands were at their musical peaks. Obviously, they’ve continued on for 40 years now and they always grew and got better and bigger.
But I think this was the real heyday for all of those bands, and Reign in Blood by Slayer, of all the big four albums that came out that year or that period, this was the one that just was next level intensity. You thought Master of Puppets was heavy, and Reign in Blood was like a punk-rock version. It was like taking the Sex Pistols’ Never Mind the Bollocks, but applying it to thrash metal. It was like 30 minutes or however long it is of just “kick you in your teeth” intensity from start to finish. It’s relentless the whole time and Dave Lombardo’s drumming is just elevating it.
Obviously, what Lars Ulrich was doing in Metallica and what Gar Samuelson was doing in Megadeth and what Charlie Benante was doing with Anthrax, they were all breaking new ground. But I think Dave Lombardo kicked it up a few notches in terms of speed, in terms of technical dexterity, the speed of his hands, the speed of his feet, the intensity of the drumming, just as relentless as it was. I think that was the benchmark for metal thrash drumming at that point. And it’s been the benchmark ever since.
Pantera – Vulgar Display of Power (Vinnie Paul)
Vulgar Display of Power came out around the same time as [Dream Theater’s] Images and Words back in 1992. We were actually labelmates at the time. So, we were working on the same label with the same people. And I remember hearing this when it came out, it just floored me. I was already a fan from Cowboys from Hell that came out a year or two earlier, but this took their new sound and style and elevated it to a whole new level. To me, Pantera was the band that kept metal alive in the ’90s.
By the time I was coming up with Dream Theater in the early ’90s, thrash was starting to go away, grunge was killing all of us. We were all fighting grunge, whether you were metal or prog or whatever, so Pantera to me was the band that carried the flag. When Metallica was going through their changes and Anthrax were going through their changes, Pantera was carrying the metal flag throughout the ’90s. And I have to give credit to maybe Machine Head and Sepultura, as well.
Pantera, they took the heaviness of the thrash and speed metal world, but they really gave it a groove. I always appreciated that. They had a Texas swing and they had that swagger and they had the riffs and the heaviness of all these heavy thrash and speed metal bands, but they had the swagger of M?tley Crüe or Guns N’ Roses, as weird as it is to say. And that’s maybe why they toured with Skid Row when this album came out.
Vinnie Paul played with a swing and a groove that a lot of thrash and speed metal drummers maybe didn’t have. And I say that with all due respect, because a lot of those drummers blow my mind and are incredibly influential on me, but Vinnie, like a Mikkey Dee [King Diamond, Mot?rhead], had that swagger and that groove and really made these riffs that Dimebag was playing just really swing and groove.
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Dream Theater’s Mike Portnoy Names 10 Albums That Influenced His Drumming
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