Mike Portnoy's "Prog Metal" supergroup: Sons of Apollo

[ariich]

I'm not a MP.com user and only recently went over there to check it out, based on reading things in this thread.  So I'll offer an opposing view on the situation and move on... maybe hosting a forum is just not worth it.  If he/mods were slowly banning discussions, I can only imagine that was slowing traffic to the website.  There must be some cost associated with running that website.  Maybe he's slowly been reaching the point where the cost benefit wasn't there anymore.  There's plenty of other social media platforms (also DTF) where people can discuss MP more freely so hosting your own distorted conversion probably doesn't make much sense.  Sucks for the community, I think I'd be bummed to wake up and find DTF down for good. 

Anyway, I'm seeing MP this weekend with TSF in NYC, so I'm looking forward to a more positive MP week personally.

Facebook has also decimated the need for a discussion forum, especially as fans create official or unofficial groups, it's easier for them to congregate on those forums rather than a web-based one. 

The older I get, the more I understand why bands and musicians close official forums - their websites are a place for them to promote their new material, not get slagged on by fans.  Even constructive criticism can become grating as a bunch of armchair quarterbacks argue about what they think is best for someone else's artistic talents.  Yes, it's a good way to keep your finger on the pulse of the fanbase, but at the same time, when is it enough?  In Portnoy's place - he can't win.  Just like the Queensryche split, it seems like fans are completely rabid for one side or the other and 7 years later (in MP's place) fans just can't let go of the vitriol. 

Is some of it his doing?  Absolutely, but he doesn't have to host it and let it occur on his sites. 


PS:  I'm digging the tunes.  Don't care one way or the other about the social media drama.  I just want to rock.

This is a really excellent post, I agree with literally all of it.

Here's the thing...Bumblefoot, Billy Sheehan and JSS aren't prog guys. I mean, yeah, JSS does TSO, which has prog leanings for sure. But really, the only two "prog" guys in the band are MP and DS. And if they truly wanted to do prog, they should have gotten guys known for that.

If you mean "prog" as a genre, then yes, but Bumblefoot is arguably more experimental and quirky (which I would call proggy) than any of them. But from what we've heard so far, I wonder if his songwriting is different when working with others than when he's writing just for himself.

You can't use 'prog' in every other sentence in your posts and interviews and then expect not to get called out and catch some grief when the first two singles you release have near zero prog elements.

Not sure I agree with this. There's nothing "prog" about Coming Home, but that's just one song - there are plenty of DT songs that statement would apply to as well. But I would definitely call Signs of the Time prog.

[Kotwoboy]

+1 for me on " why does Billy have a double neck bass when both necks are fretted 4 strings ? "


If they're both  E A D G - then it was a massive waste of the luthier's time.

[ariich]

Kotowboy!!!

Ko TWO boy actually.

Woah, wait, what?

Why are you using a duplicate account? Only one account per member.

[King Postwhore]

Holy cow, I missed that.   Yes what Rich said.

[MinistroRaven]

Where's Stadler?

[Kotwoboy]

Kotowboy!!!

Ko TWO boy actually.

Woah, wait, what?

Why are you using a duplicate account? Only one account per member.

Then just delete the other one...




I can't post from it anyway.

[antigoon]

yes hello i would please like to request one (1) alt account to pose as the leader of max portnoy's greenlandic fan club. thank you for your time

[Kotwoboy]

yes hello i would please like to request one (1) alt account to pose as the leader of max portnoy's greenlandic fan club. thank you for your time

My name is Mr Thompson.

[Dave_Manchester]

Where's Stadler?

Collecting his personal belongings and saying goodbye to his cellmates.

(serving the last few hours of his ban, he'll be around tomorrow I think)

[Kotwoboy]

Stadler got banana'd ?

[rumborak]

Where's Stadler?

Stadler was like an Obscurus from Harry Potter. Now that the negativity from the MP forum has been released, Stadler no longer exists.

[MinistroRaven]

LOL at Dave and Rumbo posts

[Kotwoboy]

Oh... THAT Dave

[King Postwhore]

Where's Stadler?

Stadler was like an Obscurus from Harry Potter. Now that the negativity from the MP forum has been released, Stadler no longer exists.

Like shooting fish in a barrel on this forum.

[bosk1]

Kotowboy!!!

Ko TWO boy actually.

Woah, wait, what?

Why are you using a duplicate account? Only one account per member.

Then just delete the other one...




I can't post from it anyway.

Nice try.  But since you were banned on the other account, you don't get to sneak back in with a different account. 

[Adami]

But he put the two in there. That has to count for something.


Anyway.

So I've listened to both singles a few times. I honestly have no idea what either sounds like at the moment. I remember the keyboard riff from coming home  and I remember JSS's very cool vocal scream in the beginning. That's literally it.

[rumborak]

Anyway.

So I've listened to both singles a few times. I honestly have no idea what either sounds like at the moment. I remember the keyboard riff from coming home  and I remember JSS's very cool vocal scream in the beginning. That's literally it.

Yeah, others have commented on it, and I have to agree. I don't think this is a function of us being prog heads and not being able to appreciate good rock. I think even as rock tunes they are kinda weak, especially the second one.

[Adami]

Yea, I'm not even a huge prog guy. I love good groovy rock/metal. So my criticism of the songs isn't based at all on the progness or lack their of.

[Zook]

Actually it's because we're misogynists.

[As I Am]

I actually really like both songs....just disappointed in the style.

[WheyWaffles]

So I've listened to both singles a few times. I honestly have no idea what either sounds like at the moment. I remember the keyboard riff from coming home  and I remember JSS's very cool vocal scream in the beginning. That's literally it.

You don't remember the fucking awesome part where Soto goes "I'm coming hooooome" and Portnoy goes "I'm coming hooooome"?

[Adami]

So I've listened to both singles a few times. I honestly have no idea what either sounds like at the moment. I remember the keyboard riff from coming home  and I remember JSS's very cool vocal scream in the beginning. That's literally it.

You don't remember the fucking awesome part where Soto goes "I'm coming hooooome" and Portnoy goes "I'm coming hooooome"?

Nope. I remember the those lines from Alter Bridge and James LaBrie though. Oddly enough.

[WheyWaffles]

So I've listened to both singles a few times. I honestly have no idea what either sounds like at the moment. I remember the keyboard riff from coming home  and I remember JSS's very cool vocal scream in the beginning. That's literally it.

You don't remember the fucking awesome part where Soto goes "I'm coming hooooome" and Portnoy goes "I'm coming hooooome"?

Nope. I remember the those lines from Alter Bridge and James LaBrie though. Oddly enough.

What about the overbearing old-man-cool distorted bass line?

[Adami]

I remember that it existed, but can't remember any actual riffs.

[WheyWaffles]

I'm afraid I'm going have to diagnose you with a selective memory that discriminates against run-of-the-mill butt rock.

There is no treatment. Make the best of your remaining days.

[KevShmev]

I was on MP's forum for close to the 20 years. Had some good times. I was more of a reader than a poster. Kina got disappointed there in the last few months.

Now I'm here. Been an avid DT fan since Awake.

All the crud aside, I am looking forward to SoA release. I'll wait to give my final verdict when I can hear the album in its entirety.

Welcome! 

Man, I'm having a hard time thinking of a celebrity less discerning of criticism than MP. You either love him and everything about him or you're a hater bashing him. I almost feel bad for the guy, as he has no choice but to do what he does, it's in his nature, but what he does will always expose him to criticism of all sorts, which he has absolutely no ability to handle.

Well said.

He certainly has the right to not host a forum on his own site that he feels doesn't reflect positively on him, but this is now the 2nd time in the last 10 years that he has, out of nowhere, with ZERO warning, cut the cord on an online forum comprised of fans.  Not exactly fan-friendly, is it?  As much as he pats himself on the back for supposedly being fan-friendly, he sure does a lot of things that are contradictory to that mantle he has given himself.

[bl5150]

From Blabbermouth comments:

"Within days after shutting it down, he'll beg the webmaster to put it back up saying he just wanted a break."

[gzarruk]

From Blabbermouth comments:

"Within days after shutting it down, he'll beg the webmaster to put it back up saying he just wanted a break."

 

Meanwhile, will he create an account on the A7X forum?

[lonestar]

 

Oy shit, where to begin... ok, so I've listened to the SoA songs, they do nothing for me.


I never was on MP forums, so while I do feel the pain of others, like SoA, this really doesn't do anything for me either.

I do have to say though, the last two or three pages have been some brilliant reading.

[JayOctavarium]

HEY! KOTOWBOY IS BA--

Goddamnit.



Okay.. my thoughts: Meh.  Mike cant take people's criticism. That's okay. His right. It's shitty but he paid to keep the lights on over there. I just hope that the people who migrate over here are chill.

[MinistroRaven]

An admin disallowed comments on the Blabbermouth post over MP FB page and said:

1) Negative critics about SoA were not the reason MP decided to shut down the forum. It was the constant attack between users that never stopped, regardless of the countless warnings and the hard work of the moderators on that site.

2) If you want to discuss the Blabbermouth news, go to Blabbermouth and do so there.

3) If you STILL (after almost 8 years) want to compare every single thing MP releases with DT stuff in a negative way, please go to any of the DT forums to do so.

4) We are happy to see a lot of the familiar faces from the mikeportnoy.com forum joining this page. We are getting a lot of join requests since last night. You are all welcome and we hope we can be as fun as that place used to be for many years... But now, if you just want to continue with the unnecessary negativity, the ad hominem arguments, and the childish ego wars that caused the end of that place, please don't come here.

5) Check your FB inbox, we are sending some final warnings to some of the people that insist on the behaviour mentioned above.

[The Walrus]

Mike Portnoy's Shattered Feelings?

[w_marano]

Samsara - around 95% of the 'negativity' and 'bashing' towards SoA on his forum was directed at Derek's behaviour, which a lot of people found petty and spiteful. If MP had simply had a word with his bandmate and told him to tone it down, the 'negativity' would have ended and the discussion would have been on the music. But he didn't. Instead, he wrote a post chastising the users for not entering into the spirit of Derek's "quirky humor".

Which is fine, he can do that, but consistency matters. He can't find it hilarious to have his bandmate randomly decide to hurl unnecessary dig after dig at Dream Theater, and then when he receives some negative feedback, resurrect his usual shtick about 'negative trolls', 'why can't we all just get along?', 'why is everybody so mean and hateful?', and so on. It can't be "quirky banter" when Derek trashes The Astonishing, but criticism of SoA is 'uncalled-for negativity'.

Totally agree with that!

[DT2003]

I joined the MP forum back in 2003 (hence my username) to try to sell an extra pair of tickets I had for a DT show, and I quickly fell in love with the place. I've been a HUGE fan and supporter of MP since 1993 and I don't know that there is an album he has played on since then that I did not buy. I have enjoyed all of his bands (even AMob to some degree) and I always get excited to see what's next for him.

With that said the recent events have left a really bad taste in my mouth. There were a few times in the past week where I started to post a message to get my feelings off my chest, but I just couldn't as I didn't think it was right to do in Mike's house. More or less there have just been several times since the split that I have found myself very disappointed and letdown by Mike's actions. It just got to be too much lately on his forum where you basically were not allowed to say anything negative about his music or anything positive about DT.  I always had the impression that the reason Mike left DT was because he thought he'd get the full time gig with A7X and then when that fell through he realized he made a big mistake, but it's just been disappointing the way he has handled himself.  I will still continue to support his music as he is one of my favorite musicians of all time, but I just don't know that I can ever view him the way I used to and it's a sad feeling.

[WheyWaffles]

Mike Portnoy's Shattered Feelings?

Or Mike Portnoy's Shattered Focus.

If only he could ignore what we think and concentrate on what matters: producing pseudo-angry politely-in-your-face post-manopausal dad rock with world-class session musicians who aren't known for masterminding amazing music.