SONS OF APOLLO (Portnoy, Sherinian, Bumblefoot, Sheehan, Soto) - Psychotic Symphony (20 octobre)

Et hop, encore un nouveau supergroupe monté par Portnoy, peut être pour remplacer The Winery Dogs. Ça a l'air plus prog.



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!"

Joli casting, ça va bien astiquer le manche et en foutre partout comme il faut!

Chiant.
Rengaine.
Fouillis.

Et pourtant j'ai envie d'aimer ce projet.

Il va être bizarre cet album ...trop de genres musicaux !

Pietro a écrit:

C'est bien masturbatoire comme on pouvait s'y attendre mais ça envoie bien! Rien de franchement original par contre

J'ai écouté que le premier titre. Mais mes craintes ce sont révélées assez juste sur le côté technico-chiant du truc. Je suis scepticisme.

C'est le groupe de Portnoy et il a envie de le faire savoir !

MIKE PORTNOY On SONS OF APOLLO: 'It's The Way It Was In DREAM THEATER Where I'm Calling The Shots And I'm In Control'

En réalité il est pas mal ce disque. Je suis relativement agréablement surpris.

J'ai écouté le premier morceau qui fait 10 putains de minutes.
Le début est franchement pas mal, accrocheur et tout, mais putain, vers 6 et quelques ils se lancent dans un duel de turbobranlette absolument inaudible et inutile, ça m'a dégoûté et découragé quant à ma tentative d'écoute. Je ne sais pas si j'y retournerai...

Ouais mais va au-delà de ça. C'est quand même pas si mal, même si ça se branlouille bien.

Bah franchement, les premières minutes du morceau passaient bien, JSS chante pas mal, ça ressemble par moments à du SX époque "ballz of faïeur" de Russell, et ça envoie. Mais ce looooooooong moment d'autotouchage musical coordonné m'a franchement donné envie de partir loin et de ne jamais revenir...

Ils ont commencé les concerts.


Comme prévu ils jouent du DT:



Et JSS est toujours aussi fan de Queen :

Ce passage calme sur Lines In The Sand, il me colle toujours des frissons de ouf!

J'étais tombé dessus sur spotifist sans la moindre foutue idée de ce que c'était mais ça m'a fait tout de suite fait penser à portnoy puis à sherinian... bref pas très original tout ça et pas mega inspiré mais peut être que dans les bonnes conditions d'écoute, ça pourrait passer.

(version espagnole du morceau Alive)

Je ne connais pas (encore) l'originale, mais le fait que ce soit en espagnol a attiré mon attention.
Et j'aime beaucoup.
En revanche, sans devenir Larry Müllen, Portnoy épure énhaurmément son jeu sur ce genre de chanson.
Je ne suis pas sûr qu'il y prenne beaucoup de plaisir.

En tout cas le projet a l'air de lui tenir à coeur. Il doit quand même y trouver son compte! (et il en fait des caisses sur plein d'autres morceaux de l'album)

Ce morceau est peut être un peu orienté single donc plus simple mais le reste de l'album c'est du pur metal prog démonstratif à la Dream Theater, Portnoy et ses amis en mettent partout !

Je vais donc y regarder de plus près.

Bon, bien chauffé par le morceau Alive que je trouve vraiment cool, je me suis lancé dans l'écoute du machin (que je n'avais que très lointainement entraperçu). Et c'est pas mal quand même!
Certes, ça branlouille pas mal, mais on sent que les mecs ont du bagage, Soto assure vraiment, et certaines pistes sont vraiment cool!