I discovered them back in the early 2000s, I want to say some dude I was friends with brought them up and I hadn’t heard of them yet. My introduction was “Images and Words” and I’ve gotta say, I still prefer that album to all their others. Maybe it’s the early 90s prog aesthetic, I dunno. This isn’t to say I don’t enjoy their other stuff - I do.

I will say since getting Mangini I haven’t been the biggest fan. He’s a phenomenal drummer - better technically than Portnoy - but there’s something about Portnoys style that brings me back to his drumming.

Being off work sick or injured linked to higher suicide risk… dude, I don’t even want to go back to work after a weekend. The sheer dread I had going back to work after being off for 3 months(paternity leave)… the realization that my life is reduced back to spending so much time at work… I can see where that would drive someone to consider suicide.