studio album in 2021. About the direction of the album, guitarist John Petrucci stated in an August 2020 interview with Ultimate Guitar: "The eight-string project with Ernie Ball Music Man is something we are working on and hoping to have developed as this year goes on. I'm hoping that on the next Dream Theater record I'll be able to explore that." This would later be confirmed in an interview with Ultimate Guitar in February 2021. Also in August 2020, Petrucci also told Spain's Metal Hammer that the band would begin working on their new album in the fall. Recording sessions started at DTHQ (the band's own studio) in October 2020. The band was confirmed on November 27, 2020, to be writing the songs, while LaBrie was writing his parts back home in Canada. When asked in an interview, Petrucci said that the writing sessions were "off to a great start". Petrucci released his first solo album in fifteen years, Terminal Velocity, on August 28, 2020. The album was recorded at DTHQ earlier the same year. Its recording sessions marked the first time in ten years that Petrucci worked with his former Dream Theater bandmate Mike Portnoy, who played drums on all tracks from the album. This collaboration led to speculation of a Dream Theater reunion with Portnoy, which was denied by Petrucci, who told Metal Hammer: "I understand where people are coming from with that. One of the concerns I had, a little bit - not musically at all - but about Mike, is I didn't want people to get the wrong idea." On November 27, 2020, Dream Theater released their ninth live album, Distant Memories – Live in London, recorded at Hammersmith Apollo prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. On December 1, 2020, the band released the single "The Holiday Spirit Carries On", a medley of holiday songs played in a progressive metal style, exclusively through Bandcamp. The title references the fan-favorite song "The Spirit Carries On" from Scenes from a Memory. The proceeds from sales of the single benefited the band's road crew. On January 30, 2021, Dream Theater held a special streaming event titled Images, Words & Beyond Live in Japan, an online broadcast of a concert from the band's 2017 tour, which was originally recorded for Japanese television. On May 5, 2021, Dream Theater announced a series of albums titled the Lost Not Forgotten Archives, the first