Portnoy slams Floyd album as 'disrespectful'

Mike Portnoy has slammed news of a first Pink Floyd album in 20-years as "disrespectful".

The former Dream Theater and current The Winery Dogs drummer is a self-proclaimed Floyd fanatic and he took to his official Facebook page to hit out at the news that Floyd will release new album The Endless River in October.

He says: “What’s this about a new Pink Floyd album? Last I checked, Waters is no longer in the band and Wright and Barrett are dead. If these are leftovers from The Division Bell sessions, then just put them on a The Division Bell special-edition release.

“It’s disrespectful to Roger and everything he built for all those years. Just do a solo album, Dave. In my opinion, the Pink Floyd heyday was Atom Heart Mother through The Wall, and those were mainly driven by Roger – conceptually, musically, everything.

”A Momentary Lapse Of Reason and The Division Bell are essentially David Gilmour solo albums ‘as’ Pink Floyd – granted, just as The Final Cut was a Roger Waters solo album ‘as’ Pink Floyd .

“If you really want, I’ll meet you, Gilmour fans, halfway and at least concede with saying, okay, ‘real’ Pink Floyd is really only when Waters and Gilmour work together.”

Floyd’s first album since 1994’s The Division Bell was revealed via Twitter by Gilmour’s wife Polly Samson and later confirmed by the band.