PSYCHOTIC SYMPHONY

Sons of Apollo is one of the manifold Mike Portnoy-led projects following the charismatic drummer's departure from Dream Theater in 2010, ideally a supergroup conceived by him and fellow former DT keyboard player Derek Sherinian as an outlet for their heavier musings and as some form of return to the progressive metal world. The duo is joined by Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal on guitars, Billy Sheehan on the bass (and MP bandmate in The Winery Dogs, a great modern hard rock band), and Jeff Scott Soto as the singer. Unsurprisingly the music of Sons of Apollo is complex and heavy, with a very strong classic rock edge, described by the band members simply as "progressive rock". And while such a collective is able to cause a lot of excitement, the promise and the expectation is quite fairly said, lived up to by the actual music on their debut album titled 'Psychotic Symphony'.

As mentioned before, the band's music is a mixture of progressive metal with hard rock writing, the result of which is a satisfactory collection of songs that would be able to excite anyone interested in this kind of music (which resembles what Deep Purple would attempt to compose if they were pretending to be Dream Theater). Initially impressive and memorable, repeated listens seem to wear out some of the songs (and riffs), however, which ultimately render the album a bit too predictable and one that may be seen as mediocre when compared to the music Portnoy and Sherinian have been involved in over the years. Still, one could not dismiss the fact that the entire thing is consistent, engaging, powerful and technically impressive, with some great highlights in the face of 'Signs of the Time', 'Alive', 'Lost in Oblivion', or the straightforward hard-rocker 'Divine Addiction'. Furthermore, the album is framed by two mini-epics, the closing one of which is entirely instrumental, which is a fine way for the band to honor their progressive backgrounds and interests.