December 25, 2010 – Independent musicians, graphic artists, and a computer graphics demogroup have collaborated on a grand scale multimedia tribute to Mike Portnoy, in celebration of over a quarter of a century of highly influential musicianship. Mike Portnoy’s early investment into the internet, as well as his relationship with the global fanbase, created a fad-transcending musical community that
continues to grow past the post quarter century mark.
Mike Portnoy has always possessed a strong commitment to bringing a diverse lineup of “under the radar” support bands on the road. These tours introduced hundreds of thousands to some truly genre-defining music, and inspired a new generation with music that would have otherwise remained outside the public
view. “Mike, over the years, has fueled an online community with tireless energy and effort, of which it has been a pleasure to be a part of. Members of the community feel that paying some of that energy forward is the least they could do to show their appreciation,” says
compilation producer Anthony Morse.
The multimedia tribute appears in the form of a free three disc digital album, interviews, and some stunning music videos graphically generated by the legendary Greek demogroup Andromeda Software Development.
Honor Thy Drummer: A Tribute to Mike Portnoy contains 3 digital discs, 2 new, and a bonus 2009 retrospective disc featuring choice selections from the previous digital release MPF 2009. Honor Thy Drummer features a diverse range of styles and approaches, drawing inspiration from Mr. Portnoy’s award winning approach to music, created by acts inspired by his musical influence. The resulting music seamlessly crosses many musical boundaries
weaving from heavy time-spanning progressive metal to concise folk.
The Honor Thy Drummer multimedia collection is available for free download at
http://www.spaceprog.com. It contains the digital album in MP3 format, a digital PDF booklet featuring photos, lyrics, and bios of the contributing artists. Two of three interviews with contributing artists Relocator, In Progress, and S.A. Adams, are included, and shed light on their collaborations with progressive metal superstars Derek Sherinian, Mark
Zonder, and Mike Portnoy himself, all of whom play on the artists‘ tracks featured in Honor Thy Drummer. The third interview will be released in January.
The scope of this endeavor reaches across the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and the American continent. This project, fueled by the hard work and dedication of all of the participants, resulted in a quality work free to the world, and without the complications of revenue generation. The collection is, simply put, a high quality independent project available freely to all that desire the audio/visual experience.
