DREAM THEATER guitarist John Petrucci is featured in a new interview with Ultimate-Guitar.com. An excerpt is available below:

UG: For the A Dramatic Turn of Events album you talked about wanting to do something on a grand scale that was musically interested. Did you continue with that approach on the new Dream Theater album?

JP: "I think it's building on it but taking it to the next level. One of the things I really wanted to do on A Dramatic Turn of Events was to create something that was sonically very rich and high-def and powerful and I think we accomplished that. But on this album I wanted to take that even further."

UG: In what ways?

JP: "Get more cinematic with it and more earthy and aggressive and bigger. I wanted a bigger, more forward in-your-face kind of sound. I think that kind of dictated the sounds we went for while we were writing and recording and then ultimately how it was mixed. So yeah, it was kind of building on that but taking it to the next level. You always need to progress and to try and do something different and kind of have a little bit different take on it and a different perspective. But hopefully make it better as you go."

UG: You talked about how you wanted the album to sound in the mix and for this album you brought in Richard Chycki (RUSH). What did he bring to the final sound of the album?

JP: "From the beginning and the way we set up and started writing and recording this, the concept was to have all of the sounds that would ultimately be contributing to the mix. To have them filed in from day one so while we were writing and building the album we could really hear what it was gonna sound like and how it was shaping up realistically."

UG: That's a very interesting approach.

JP: "Yeah, so when the songs were in their early stages, they already sounded like kinda what you hear today. So it was like Rich is so intimately a part of what's going on here from day one and it already sounds the way we want it, so it made sense to move forward with him doing that. 'Cause he was kind of already there."

Go to this location for the complete interview.

Dream Theater's forthcoming self-titled album – the band’s 12th studio release overall, and fourth with Roadrunner Records – will be released September 24th. The band have released a few teaser photos for the album package artwork. Check out one of the shots below, and see more photos here.

The nine-track disc was recorded at Cove City Studio in Glen Cove, Long Island, with guitarist John Petrucci producing and Richard Chycki engineering and mixing. It’s the band’s second album with drummer Mike Mangini, and the first on which he was a part of the writing process from day one.

Dream Theater tracklisting:

'False Awakening Suite'

i. Sleep Paralysis

ii. Night Terrors

iii. Lucid Dream

'The Enemy Inside'

'The Looking Glass'

'Enigma Machine'

'The Bigger Picture'

'Behind The Veil'

'Surrender To Reason'

'Along For The Ride'

'Illumination Theory'

i. Paradoxe de la Lumière Noire

ii. Live, Die, Kill

iii. The Embracing Circle

iv. The Pursuit of Truth

v. Surrender, Trust & Passion

'The Enemy Inside' lyric video:

Dream Theater will be available in a wide range of distinctive versions, including standard and special edition CDs, 180 gram double LP, and a limited edition boxed set.