On October 7 , 2008 , Dream Theater returned to Avatar Studios to begin work on their tenth album , resuming their relationship with Paul Northfield to engineer and mix the record . The album , entitled '' Black Clouds & Silver Linings '' , was released on June 23 , 2009 . In addition to the standard CD , the album was made available on vinyl LP , as well as a 3-disc Special Edition CD that includes the full album , a CD of instrumental mixes of the album and a CD of six cover songs from artists such as Queen and Rainbow . On July 1 , 2009 , the album debuted at No . 6 on Billboard 's Top 200 album chart , with first week sales totalling 40,285 , making their highest entry on the chart . The album featured " The Shattered Fortress " , the last in Mike Portnoy 's series of songs about his 12-step recovery from alcoholism , as well as the song " The Best of Times " , described by Portnoy as " a real heavy personal subject about my dad who passed away during the making of the album ... He was battling cancer throughout its making . " The band also embarked on a second Progressive Nation tour , including the tour 's first performances in Europe . Opeth , Unexpect and Bigelf supported Dream Theater in Europe , while Zappa Plays Zappa , Pain Of Salvation , and Beardfish were slated to perform on the North American leg . However , Pain of Salvation and Beardfish were unable to tour with Dream Theater and Zappa Plays Zappa because of financial troubles within their respective record labels . The two new bands that filled the vacated slots for the Progressive Nation 2009 tour in North America were Bigelf and Scale the Summit with Bigelf performing on both European and North American legs
Progressive Nation 2009
Progressive Nation 2009
Dream Theater