Talking Into Infinity – Episode 126 – Ranking the Songs Of Awake!

The concert film of Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath’s finalshow from 2025 – billed as Back to the Beginning - was released in theaters on October 28th and we caught a local showing! Jon bought the pay-per-view last year and has seen the entire show, warts and all – but this is the first exposure Brian has had to the concert. We give our thoughts on this chronicle of the biggest day in heavy metal history!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #ozzy #ozzyosbourne#blacksabbath #tonyiommi #geezerbutler #billward #backtothebeginning

It’s a very special episode of TII as we invite an INCREDIBLE young musician onto the show! His name is Michael Lascu – he just started his freshman year at THE Ohio State University and, well… let’s just say that Michael can play a little bit of guitar. Jon saw him performing with his classmates in the School Of Rock All Stars band doing Fatal Tragedy and needless to say… he was impressed enough to ask him to be on the show! We’re going to be playing some of Michael’s videos, talking to him about what makes him such a big Dream Theater and John Petrucci fan… and the chat will be grilling him with DT trivia (at his request)! He’ll then run down hisranking of the DT catalog and give us his top ten favorite DT tunes! Give him a follow on Instagram at @micuguitar!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity

It’s 2016… you walk into the record store to buy DT’s newconcept album The Astonishing… and the clerk tells you that you CAN’T buy it! You HAVE to buy something else… what records are you buying? We give OUR choices for what we’d buy when we can’t have what we really want – the new Dream Theater record! We're joined on this episode by our good friend Bob Hurd from the Two Bobs Cast!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity

We’re back at it – throwing two Dream Theater records intothe Octagon and seeing which one comes out on top! On this installment, will it be the divisive – and most heavy – album in the band’s catalog – Train of Thought? Or will it be Mike Mangini’s swansong A View from the Top of the World? Let’s strap the gloves on and find out!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity#aviewfromthetopoftheworld #trainofthought #mikemangini

We’re back and venturing outside of the DT world – alongwith our friends Wayne Joyner and Chris Akin - with our next installment of deep-diving the Pantera catalog! This time we’re digging into the very first “extreme metal” album to ever hit #1 on the Billboard charts - 1994’s Far Beyond Driven!

Let’s face it… we all know that Dream Theater is a veritable cornucopia of guitar insanity. However, some of John Petrruci’s riffs are so damned good that they rise above the rest. On this episode, we’re each giving our lists of our top ten favorite DT guitar riffs!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #guitar #metal#progmetal #riffs

Our good friend and world-renowned guitar author Steve Rosen has written a new book called “The Original Punk –Jeff Beck Stories – From Yardbird To The Guitar Shop” and is coming back onto the show to discuss his new release! #johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #steverosen #jeffbeck#theoriginalpunk #author #guitar #yardbirds #jeffbeckgroupOur good friend and world-renownedguitar author Steve Rosen has written a new book called “The Original Punk –Jeff Beck Stories – From Yardbird To The Guitar Shop” and is coming back ontothe show to discuss his new release! #johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #steverosen #jeffbeck#theoriginalpunk #author #guitar #yardbirds #jeffbeckgroup

We’re forty years removed from one of the greatest in heavymetal history, 1986, and we decided to do some deep dives into some of the incredibly classic records that defined that year. On this episode, we’re digging into what is probably the best record to come out in ’86 – and an album some people call the greatest in metal history – Metallica’s Master Of Puppets!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #metallica #masterofpuppets#jameshetfield #heavymetal #1986 #kirkhammett #cliffburton #larsulrich#jasonnewsted #roberttrujillo

It’s our seventh installment of album song rankings and this time we’re tackling Awake! Brian is on record as not being a big fan of this album (and later deciding that he actually quite enjoys it) whereas Jon loves it – how will our lists compare? I mean, we already know that Brian will bewrong about Space Dye Vest, but…#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity

Geoff Tate is back with the final installment of his Operation: Mindcrime trilogy – this time told from the perspective of Dr. X! Some people are calling it the sequel that no one wantedwhile some fans are saying that this may be Geoff’s best post-Queensryche album yet! We’re digging into the record track by track with some help from our good friend - the mighty Chris Akin!#johnpetrucci #mikeportnoy #jordanrudess #johnmyung#jameslabrie #dreamtheater #podcast #talkingintoinfinity #geofftate#operationmindcrime3 #operationmindcrime2 #operationmindcrime #queensryche