It\'s well known that Dream Theater initially started under the name of Majesty. But before Majesty, drummer Mike Portnoy (mis)spent some time of his youth recording with S.A. Adams.\"I never hid the fact that we had worked together, and I was content to re-examine, re-arrange and re-record some of the tracks throughout my six-album catalog. But ever since I mentioned that \'Two Steps\' off my 2001 \'Stovepipe\' CD was originally done with Mike back in \'86, more people than usual said they were interested in hearing the original Portnoy version. (...) Well, after a bit of back and forth e-mailing with Mike, it\'s time to dust off some musical history.\"
S.A. Adams\' \"Unearthed: The Mike Portnoy Sessions, Volume 2\" were recorded between December 28, 1985 and January 11, 1986 (during Majesty\'s off time) at Mike\'s Long Beach apartment. The recordings will be a big surprise for Dream Theater/Mike Portnoy fans and a feast for those starved for pure metal mayhem. According to Adams the material is definitely not progressive rock/prog-metal:
\"It\'s serious sledgehammer-in-the-balls metal. Fans of Motörhead, Exciter, Raven, early Megadeth, Venom and Tank will definitely find a home with this disc. It still amazes me to this day is Mike was able to do Dan Beehler/Charlie Benante-style drumming before he could legally touch a bottle of beer! If anyone has any doubts of Mike\'s talent, just listen to what he was doing at 18 years old. It might be a surprise to some people that Mike got inducted into Modern Drummer magazine\'s Hall of Fame, but definitely not a surprise to me.\"
\"Unearthed: The Mike Portnoy Sessions, Volume 2\" will be made available in 2006 in select markets through a license via NIR America Recordings. In advance, very rough mix versions of the songs School\'s Out and Too Far Gone are currently available as free downloads here.
According to Mike Portnoy the release comes with his thumbs-up approval. Comments the drummer:
\"Keep in mind it was recorded on no budget when I was 18 and is very much in the old-school metal vein described in the press release, but if you are cool with those disclaimers, then it surely is worth checking out for the [Mike Portnoy] completist!\"
