Album View: Sons Of Apollo Debut Release "Psychotic Symphony"
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- Category: Reviews
- Published: Sunday, 29 October 2017 15:03
- Written by Dewa Nugraha
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Heading into the end of 2017, a new exciting super group emerging once again, this time involving top quality musicians from former Dream Theater's duo, Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian combining with ex- Guns N'Roses recent axeman, Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal, Billy Sheehan (Mr. Big and The Winery Dogs) along with Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Yngwie Malmsteen band, ex-Journey). Those top names in the music industry decided to join forces and name themselves Sons Of Apollo, a very intimidating label indeed, but pretty much worth it considering their musical qualities. The rockers' combination resulted in a thrilling debut album entitled "Psychotic Symphony", consisting of nine progressive metal/hard rock tracks that will blow the mind of any music fans from all over the globe.
Starting the psychotic musical adventure, Sons Of Apollo immediately hit things heavily with 'God of the Sun', which brought that strong metal attitude throughout the whole track. Unique middles eastern scales being implemented along with Bumblefoot creative guitar sound somewhat create that mysterious and intriguing atmosphere. This 11 minutes plus track won't bring any boredom for metal lovers as they will enjoy creative musical arrangement combined with quality vocals blending in such fine manner. 'Coming Home' is a shorter and hard rock oriented but the heavy riffs will continue to make listener headbanging themselves from start to finish. Not only providing complex arrangements, this track also possessed exciting riffs and catchy hooks that can easily capture the attention of many music enthusiasts.
'Signs of the Time' once again taking music lover into that intriguing journey filled with headbanging feel with that slight progressive element that make things much more fun. A more epic musical piece can be heard from 'Labyrinth' which starts off with fine orchestral melodies combined with catchy vocal hooks and that prog-metal approach that simply enrich the whole track. The exciting musical runs creating that labyrinth like atmosphere as it's filled with complex riffs and simply mind blowing arrangements as the guitar-bass-drums and piano combo were just brilliant. 'Alive' offers a more melodic rock side of this rockers with lovely guitar melodies and ballad like hooks that showcase their song writing qualities instead of just pursuing full musicianship. Strong progressive and modern metal combination being introduced on 'Lost In Oblivion', creating that intense kind of atmosphere with somewhat dark and emotional feel.
Neoclassic guitar solo combined with unique and modern sounding created the one minute plus musical piace 'Figaro's Whore', before the futuristic piano display enter the fray taking fans into the next track 'Devine Attraction'. A fun hard rock feel can be felt through Ron Thal's guitar riffs that continue to entertain and bring tons of joy, especially for any guitar heads who always enjoy melodic shredding plays in rock/metal songs. The final track from this debut album is 'Opus Maximus', a full musical piece without any vocals which combines several different approach from complex prog stuff into more melodic and epic kind of music. In all, Sons Of Apollo certainly presented a high quality music which brings out freedom of expression from all of the members to showcase their musicianship, but without completely ditching the song writing process which is certainly enhanced with Jeff's strong vocals.
This super group might not be pursuing the commercial realm as their complex music at times might not be something everyone can enjoy. However, the rockers still have some fun songs that can be enjoyed more globally, while even their more technical pieces actually have quality vocals, fine melodies and nice hooks as well. Nevertheless, this new band have produced a musical master piece that should be checked out by any hard rock/metal lovers from all over the globe who are looking for something exciting to end their 2017.
Full Track Listing for Sons Of Apollo Debut Album “Psychotic Symphony”:
God of the Sun
Coming Home
Signs of the Time
Labyrinth
Alive
Lost in Oblivion
Figaro's Whore
Divine Addiction
Opus Maximus
Official Release date : October 20, 2017
More info about the band and their stuff can be checked out at:
www.sonsofapollo.com
Check out the music videos for Sons Of Apollo's songs:
'Coming Home'
'Lost in Oblivion'