Sons Of Apollo - Psychotic Symphony review
| Band: | Sons Of Apollo |
| Album: | Psychotic Symphony |
| Style: | Progressive metal |
| Release date: | October 20, 2017 |
| A review by: | Dream Taster |
01. God Of The Sun
02. Coming Home
03. Signs Of The Time
04. Labyrinth
05. Alive
06. Lost In Oblivion
07. Figaro's Whore [Instrumental]
08. Divine Addiction
09. Opus Maximus [Instrumental]
Sons Of Apollo is progressive metal mixed with Americana and retro sounding rock brought to you by insanely accomplished musicians. Read that again, that is what they are all about. Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian, known for meddling about with one reference band in the field whose name shall remain unspoken, teamed up with Billy Sheehan on bass, the powerful Jeff Scott Scoto on vocals, and the rather-insane Ron Thal a.k.a. Bumblefoot on guitars. I guess he is mostly responsible for the "psychotic" part of the symphony.
Front and center, the dynamic duo from the band that shall not be named bring back the sound circa 1997. Sheehan's sound is prominent on bass, not unlike another who we will refer as John M. But the overall brilliance of Psychotic Symphony is the bold addition of Thal on guitars and Scoto on vocals. As if they worked twice as hard to prove themselves working with renowned progressive musicians, they stand out as the factor that brings the album to another level. If you have ever wondered what Bumblefoot would sound like on a prog metal album, yeah he's bringing it alright. I just miss his jokes a little. Scoto is absolutely slaying on vocals, clearly comfortable all the way through all the tracks. Just listen to the opening track and tell me this guy was not meant to sing in a prog metal band.
The music is complex, riding on Sherinian's trademark heavy keyboard sound modulation and Portnoy's seemingly counter-rhythmic beats, with a good dose of groovy Americana and classic rock a la Led Zeppelin thrown in for good measure. "Labyrinth" and "Lost in Oblivion" have clear references to previous works involving Portnoy and Sherinian. Overall, the songs are deep and elaborate but leave room for the soaring voice of Scoto to not fall into technical wankery.
This Psychotic Symphony is completely unexpected and awesome. Straight from the heartland of the good ol' US of A (Well, New York actually) Sons Of Apollo have reached for the sun and managed to touch it. Do yourself a favor and check this out, even if you have never gotten into Portnoy's ventures since he left his former band. This might be the best album he has ever been involved in. I'm still looking for the hidden track where Bumblefoot insults everyone's mother in an hilarious way... Maybe that will be featured on their second album.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 8 |
| Production: | 8 |
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Written on 04.11.2017 by
Bringing you reviews of quality music and interesting questions such as: "A picture is worth a thousand words. How many words is a song worth?" I have only got so much patience and skills, you do the math. |
Comments
Comments: 5
Visited by: 205 users
| BloodTears ANA-thema Elite Posts: 11835  |
Is Dream Theater like Voldemort in this review? Ahah Either way, it's funny  This review kind of made me want to listen to the album. Initially, I wasn't too excited with the songs I've heard and dismissed this. Portnoy has so many projects and a lot of them are average stuff. But it might be worth a shot, after all.
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| devilstoy Posts: 25 |
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| Jagsey Posts: 143  |
I feel like this is something Mike is much more invested in than any other project he's done since his departure from Dream Theater. I'm curious if they can become a full fleshed band and not some throwaway project. The Del Fuvio Brothers have great chemistry.
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| BlueDragon Posts: 43  |
Written by BloodTears on 04.11.2017 at 11:35 Try it 'cause you won't regret it! I've been listening to it on and off, it's the best thing Portnoy launched since leaving DT! Great album! 
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| JoHn Doe Posts: 5091  |
Written by devilstoy on 04.11.2017 at 17:30 if you say you are a Dream TheatER fan, you should know how to spell their name. As for this band, it did nothing for me I'm afraid, it bored me to be honest. As for this album being better than anything DT did since Mike left, well DT's self-titled album from 2013 is more interesting than Psychotic Symphony IMO.
---- I thought the two primary purposes for the internet were cat memes and overreactions.
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