NEWS: Supergroup Sons of Apollo to make Irish début

METAL supergrouop, Sons of Apollo are to play their début Irish show at Limelight 1, Belfast on Tuesday, July 3rd.
The stellar line-up features members of Dream Theater, Mr. Big, Guns ‘N Roses and Journey.

Reuniting Mick Portnoy and Derek Sherinian of Dream Theater the band recruited guitatist Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thai of Guns ‘n’ Roses, bass sensation Billy Sheehan (Mr Big, Dave Lee Roth), and singing superstar Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Journey).

Their debut album, Psychotic Symphony, is out now on InsideOutMusic/Sony Music.
Psychotic Symphony was produced by the dynamic production duo of Portnoy and Sherinian, also affectionately known as “The Del Fuvio Brothers,” the nickname given to them over 20 years ago during their time together in Dream Theater.

Sons of Apollo formed very organically, its seeds planted with a predecessor group, as Portnoy explained: “Derek and I reunited shortly after I left Dream Theater in 2010 and we put together an all-instrumental touring band with 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.”

With Portnoy, Sherinian and Sheehan having previously toured together in the aforementioned line-up that came to be known as PSMS, playing instrumental versions of various songs drawn from each member’s history, Sons of Apollo was the next logical step. They kept that fire burning and stoked it higher by bringing in a different guitarist, adding a vocalist, and creating all original material. The nine songs comprising Psychotic Symphony incorporate the progressive style and individual technical prowess 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 InsideOutMusic. “However, the album they ended up recording exceeded my already high expectations by a long mile! We couldn’t be happier about it!”

“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 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!”

SONS OF APOLLO play Limelight 1, Belfast as part of their world tour and will be their first ever show in Ireland. Ticket’s priced £20+B/F go on sale this Thursday at 9am from www.Ticketmaster.ie and all usual outlets including DV8, Beflast and Katy’s Bar.

NEWS: The Neal Morse Band set to release 'The Similitude Of A Dream' new album in November

THE journey of Neal Morse has seen three decades of musical accomplishments, the latest being the inception of The Neal Morse Band. Morse has forged many relationships over the years with his other bands, Spock’s Beard, Flying Colors, and Transatlantic.
However, the most compelling and fruitful efforts have been those with drummer Mike Portnoy (The Winery Dogs, Flying Colors, Transatlantic, ex-Dream Theater).

Now the current line-up of “The Neal Morse Band”— Morse, Portnoy, bassist Randy George, keyboardist Bill Hubauer and guitarist Eric Gillette - brings forth ‘The Similitude of a Dream’, a concept album to be released 11th November on Radiant Records via Metal Blade Records/SONY.
This will be the eighth studio album with Morse, Portnoy and George, and the second as a true collaboration with this current line-up.

Anyone who pre-orders the new album will automatically receive two free MP3 tracks. Fans can pre-order ‘The Similitude of a Dream’ directly from Radiant Records - 

Clocking in at over 100 minutes, this amazing piece of PROG storytelling will leave you breathless, exhilarated, amused and fulfilled in a way that only inspired music can. It will be available in various formats: a two CD package, a Special Edition with the two CDs and “The Making of a Dream” DVD, or as three vinyl records along with two CD's.  

Watch the official lyric video for the songs - "Long Day" and "Overture" below.

Together, Morse and Portnoy have launched four bands, but the one that has endured the longest and thus with the most musical output has been The Neal Morse Band.
Over the years, Morse, along with Portnoy and George, always assembled musicians as needed to support Neal’s solo music. In 2012, they held auditions to find the musicians needed to fill out the band as a permanent line-up that would write music collectively. Hubauer and Gillette joined the band after three days of auditions. The fivesome went on to release The Grand Experiment in 2014, and the Alive Again live DVD/2 CD in 2015.

‘The Similitude of a Dream’ is loosely and sometimes directly based on the book, Pilgrim’s Progress by John Bunyan,” explains Neal Morse. “The book’s original title was The Pilgrim’s Progress from this world to that which is to come, delivered under the similitude of a dream, and was originally published in 1678. The book chronicles the spiritual journey of a man from the City of Destruction to a place of Deliverance. Someone had suggested to me that I do a concept album based on this book, but I kind of forgot about it. Then when I began writing new songs last December, the suggestion came to my mind. I had never read the book, so I Googled the SparkNotes story outline and began to write some little song bits and instrumentals based on what I had read. Those bits combined with the ideas that the other guys brought to the table then miraculously exploded into this double concept album. Funny thing is, this album only really covers about the first 75 or 80 pages. Maybe we should've made a five disc collection! Well, we'll save that for later. Ha.”

Album Track Listing:

Disc 1:

1. Long Day

2. Overture

3. The Dream

4. City Of Destruction

5. We Have Got To Go

6. Makes No Sense

7. Draw The Line

8. The Slough

9. Back To The City

10. The Ways Of A Fool

11. So Far Gone

12. Breath Of Angels

Disc 2:

1. Slave To Your Mind

2. Shortcut to Salvation

3. The Man in The Iron Cage

4. The Road Called Home

5. Sloth

6. Freedom Song

7. I'm Running

8. The Mask

9. Confrontation

10. The Battle

11. Broken Sky / Long Day (Reprise)

The Neal Morse Band tours worldwide almost yearly and continues to grow in popularity, attracting new listeners everywhere they go. The band has toured in North America, Central America, Europe, Israel, Mexico and India. The shows are filled with excited and extremely loyal fans, some which have regularly travelled very long distances to see the band. The band has an extensive catalogue of live shows on Blu-Ray and DVD as well.

Their latest round of worldwide tour dates start January 15, 2017 in Morse’s current hometown of Nashville, TN. More dates will be announced in the coming weeks on the band’s official website

EP REVIEW: Metall Allegiance pay tribute to the fallen...

WHILE the trend has been of late for releases of cover versions - such as the recent run of Six Feet Under albums - the revolving door metal super-group Metal Allegiance have doffed their cap to those we have lost recently.

With the core of Skoknick, Menghi and Portnoy in place they drafted in three heroes to pay tribute to Lemmy, Bowie and Frey.

Released slightly ahead of the Metal Allegiance Bloodstock appearance it is a three-track homage appropriately entitled 'Fallen Heroes'.

But is it worth it? Is it - and dare we whisper it - cashing in?

No, it is fucking not cashing in, and yes it is fucking worth it!

All three tracks are hammered out with vim, with vigour, and with the horns raised to the great gig in the sky, where Lemmy, the Great White Duke and Frey are jamming and raising merry hell (Editor's Note: excuse the mixed metaphors please).

With Portnoy and Menghi laying down a rhythm beast and Skolnick adding flourishes and licks (including some of his jazz touches in places), it is left to the guests to hammer the rest down.

Troy Sanders strains á la Lemmy to extract every ounce of energy from a rousing version of 'Iron Fist' that takes the verve of the original and takes it up a notch. A glass of Jack and Coke will be well deserved by all the players after this.

Of course, Bowie will be remembered as the only man on earth who could almost be as cool as Lemmy, albeit in a different way.

Harkening back to his 70s heyday 'Suffragette City' is given the metal treatment, the glam elements stripped away to let the riff hold sway. Osegueda reverts away from his Death Angel tones to deliver a top notch version.

Also, it is a stirring performance from Arch Enemy's Alissa White-Gluz's who takes the intonations of Frey, gives it a metallic twist (with clean vocals). You feel compelled to join in the fast life with her and damn the consequences. And, that riff from the original Eagles track sounds so fresh, with just the right amount of ferocity.

This is just a three-track. This is not just any three track. It is a worthy metal salute to our fallen idols.

Review by Jonny