Sons Of Apollo - Portnoy, Sherinian, Bumblefoot, Sheenan and Soto

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/mi...erek-sherinian-join-forces-in-sons-of-apollo/

For the past few months, rumors have been circulating about a new secret project including former DREAM THEATER members Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian. Now, the time has come to make the grand and highly anticipated introduction to their new band, SONS OF APOLLO.

Reuniting to form SONS OF APOLLO, Portnoy and Sherinian have joined forces with Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal (ex-GUNS N' ROSES), Billy Sheehan (THE WINERY DOGS, MR. BIG, DAVID LEE ROTH) and Jeff Scott Soto (ex-JOURNEY, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN'S RISING FORCE). Their debut album, "Psychotic Symphony", will be released October 20 on InsideOut Music. An album teaser can be seen below.

"Psychotic Symphony" was produced by the dynamic production duo of Portnoy and Sherinian, also affectionately known as "The Del Fuvio Brothers," which is the nickname given to them over 20 years ago during their time together in DREAM THEATER.

SONS OF APOLLO got together very organically, as Portnoy explains: "Derek and I reunited shortly after I left DREAM THEATER in 2010 and we put together an all-instrumental touring band with he and I, Billy Sheehan, and Tony MacAlpine. That was my first time working with Derek since the '90s when he was in DREAM THEATER and it was just great to be working with him again. Ever since that tour, which was really just a one-off live thing, he has been nudging me to start a real, original, full-time band. The timing just had never been right, because I had too many other things on my plate. Long story short, the time was finally right to take the bait and put together a band."

"Mike and I work at a relentless pace in the studio," continues Sherinian. "The music is modern, but we have an old-school soul. What is unique about SONS OF APOLLO is that we have true rock 'n' roll swagger along with the virtuosity — a lethal combination!”

But what to call the next great supergroup? "Derek was mainly the one behind the name," says Portnoy. "I have a list that I keep on my phone of about a hundred different band names, which I constantly have to refer to every time I have a new band every year. [Laughs] So, I pulled up the list and APOLLO was one of the names on the list. It was a word that both of us really liked. We started fiddling with different variations of the word. One of the original band names we were working with was APOLLO CREED, the character from the 'Rocky' movies, but after lots of different discussions on different variations, Derek suggested SONS OF APOLLO and it seemed to stick. Apollo is the God of music so with that in mind it seemed like a fitting name."

Mike Portnoy, Derek Sherinian and Billy Sheehan previously toured together in 2012 and 2013 as PSMS (along with guitarist Tony MacAlpine), playing all instrumental versions from each of their previously recorded music. SONS OF APOLLO is the next logical progression by adding a vocalist and creating all-original material. The band incorporates the progressive style and individual technical prowess that Portnoy and Sherinian shared together in DREAM THEATER combined with the swagger and groove of VAN HALEN, DEEP PURPLE and LED ZEPPELIN.

"I have known Mike and Derek for a long time, so when they came to me with SONS OF APOLLO, I jumped on this straight away," says Thomas Waber, label manager/A&R international of InsideOut Music. "However, the album they ended up recording exceeded my already high expectations by a long mile! We couldn't be happier about it!"

SONS OF APOLLO will hit the road in 2018 for their first worldwide tour.

"This is a real band," Portnoy declares. "This is going to pick up for me and Billy where THE WINERY DOGS left off, in terms of this being the next logical full-time thing for us. I'm not saying THE WINERY DOGS have broken up, because we haven't, we're just on a break. SONS OF APOLLO is absolutely going to be a full-time band and we plan on touring all over the world all throughout 2018 and, honestly, it is the priority for all five of us."

Sherinian agrees: "We will go on a worldwide crusade in 2018 to bring SONS OF APOLLO to as many people as possible. Apollo was the God of music, and we are his mighty offspring!"


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any group with Jeff Scott Soto automatically gets my attention! Portnoy was on Eddie Trunk's show on SiriusXM's Volume today. Portnoy plugged the ProgPower festival while on there!!
 
This is gonna be interesting... JSS was a nice surprise on vocals. Never saw that coming... And wow, never knew Bumblefoot had those kinda chops... Bring it on!
 
This sounds promising. The vocals sound great and glad JSS is keeping busy. I hope the production is not as muddy as it sounds on here. I am a little nervous that it will be because they want that bass sound to come through. Besides that - I am excited about this.

Brand
 
Supergroups have a tendency to leave me cold. I like all the individual pieces of this band...but can they make a cohesive album that's greater than the sum of the parts? The teaser has me interested so I will try to be hopeful.
 
Pretty solid. I don't care for the deep, heavy tones during the verses, but the chorus really comes alive in contrast. The latter half of the song (from the keyboard solo on, really) has a VERY strong FII vibe to it.
 
Honestly, this could not be any more middle of the road. Not bad, just super generic prog metal. Remember Derek said this was the band that would help him and Portnoy regain the prog metal crown. You could click on a random thread here and get a song of this caliber.
 
Remember Derek said this was the band that would help him and Portnoy regain the prog metal crown.

Hard to EVER take a quote like this seriously though. In my mind, Derek NEVER had part of the crown aside from riding coattails with DT for their weakest album to date. There are enough brilliant young prog bands out there (Haken, Leprous, Redemption.... OK, maybe not YOUNG on that one!) that it's unrealistic to expect them to break the mold. If they can deliver a solid album in this vein, I'm satisfied.
 
Knowing Derek's sense of humor, this was probably partly tongue in cheek. But part of it is serious, I think they wanted to put together a super group to challenge the top dogs. While it is too early to judge the album, this was more of a stumble than planting their flag in the ground.
 
I liked the song (and I'm NOT really a prog guy). Jeff's vocals sounded really good.
 
I really like this song... Was wondering how Jeff's vocals would fit in... Sounds great! You can hear Portnoy singing with him in the beginning. Bumblefoot is also singing background vocals, he has an amazing scream behind Jeff's vocals towards the end of the song... Can't wait to hear the rest of this album!!
 
Digging the dark tones. I was really uncertain how he'd work out, but JSS fits nicely.

Admittedly it's not an absolute fireworks piece, but it's definitely good. Better than I was expecting.