Sons of Apollo (feat. Portnoy & Sherinian)

[IDontNotDoThings]

Hopefully I'll be able to get my pre-order this afternoon. I'll post first impressions when I listen to it for the first time.

[KevShmev]

I have a question for those who didn't like the album all that much. Would you guys still see the band live if they came to your city?

No.  Some might scoff at this, but I am not a fan of giving money to scientologists.  I never buy anything with Billy Sheehan's name on it.

For me this album has been a game changer and not in a good way.

1. It led to the MP forum being shut down.
2. It lowered my personal opinion of MP and DS
3. It's the first MP related album I'm refusing to purchase and listen to simply due to the actions and attitudes of the above 2 mentioned band members. I did hear the first 2 singles and they weren't enough to overcome the negativity
4. It will probably lead to the delay of MP's far superior projects (Flying Colors & Neal Morse Band)

Agreed.  It will be really annoying if the next Neal Morse Band album and tour doesn't happen for a while because Portnoy is dicking around with this mediocre project.

[Grappler]

I think a lot of people put way too much stock into what these guys say.  A bunch of DT fans.will foam at the mouth over comments like "redefining prog metal."  But to really expect them to?  I don't...not when I listen to DT, Symphony X, and stuff like Tesseract and Teramaze.  But I do agree that it's not going to be typical prog metal.

I haven't heard the full record, but I'm guessing that the two songs released are representative of it.  If you like it, great.  If not, move along.  But to expect some crazy, prog metal masterpiece just because the musicians say so and after hearing those two songs? 

[erwinrafael]

Already heard it.

What a waste of Jeff Scott Soto. He better focus on his solo album.

Rom Thal is amazing.

Billy Sheehan is not calling attention to himself, playing like how he did with Vai. Good.

Portnoy is stuck in the BC&SL era. Derek is stuck in the FII era.

It's bad when every song makes you go "it reminds me of something."

[rumborak]

Yeah, I essentially have mental nicknames for most tunes on the album. There's "Led Zeppelin writes Rocky II soundtrack", "that Deep Purple song", "Amob leftover tune" etc

[TAC]

"Amob leftover tune"

 

[erwinrafael]

And for some reason, I hear some Mr. Big.

[Adami]

I think this might be a problem of someone like MP calling the shots.

When you don't write actual music, and you're a HUGE music fan, then your directions become "I think a Haaken riff, followed up by a Deeper Purple solo and then closing it out with a FII type bridge."

[ReaperKK]

I've heard the album a few times already and it's pretty much right where BCSL left off with some FII keyboards. It's better than TA IMO but I don't see myself revisiting it often. I'm not a fan of JSS (this is my first exposure to him) and MP doesn't bring anything new to the table but is still a good listen.

Big fan of Ron though.

[rumborak]

I'm with what most people here have said, I think JSS is actually a lot better than what he shows on this album.

That said, I was really surprised how poorly he sung that soft section in Labyrinth.

[LTE777]

I think this might be a problem of someone like MP calling the shots.

When you don't write actual music, and you're a HUGE music fan, then your directions become "I think a Haaken riff, followed up by a Deeper Purple solo and then closing it out with a FII type bridge."

or the end of Labyrinth which is an EXACT rip off of a Haken and not even trying....

[erwinrafael]

I'm with what most people here have said, I think JSS is actually a lot better than what he shows on this album.

That said, I was really surprised how poorly he sung that soft section in Labyrinth.

Maybe he was "coached" to sing it in a peculiar manner. I don't know. I heard him sing soft sections like that very well. That's actually his forte now that he lost his range.

Labyrinth is my buggest frustration. There is a good song in there. Then it suddenly loses its identity.

[NoseofNicko]

Average album is average. $20 saved.

[Adami]

I actually looked up JSS's new solo album out of interest. I was listening to the song Breakout when he sang "Liar....those pants on fire" and I had to turn it off. I can take some bad lyrics, but those are pretty awful. And it was a prechorus or chorus, so it keeps getting repeated!

[Bertie_Wooster]

Opus maximus 👎👎👎👎

[NoseofNicko]

What is the point of Figaro’s Whore? There’s absolutely nothing enjoyable about that thing. It’s probably the most pointless instrumental I’ve ever heard.

[NoseofNicko]

he sang "Liar....those pants on fire"

Oh man...

[The Silent Cody]

So it's 20th of October in Poland so I can speak about my opinions freely now I quoted a few posts up what I think about Psychotic Symphony, now I only want to add some things. When I first heard it, I was dissapointed. Why? Songs were unmemorable, even after couple of listens one thing that I catched singing myself day after was chorus froom The God Of The Sun. And that's the best song on album for me, next to Signs Of The Times. Unfortunately, any other track didn't catched my attention for more than three listens... Labyrinth is weak and boring, Alive sounds like Coming Home, Lost In Oblivion... meh, Opus Maximus is really nothing special, nothing memorable. Figaro's Whore...

[faizoff]

Listened to this on google music. Hmm not sure what to make of it just yet. It starts out promising with the first few tracks and kinda ends on a sort of blandish note. I mean there's some great stuff in there. Not sure of it as an album on the whole. Will have to feel it out some more.

Also not sure why google music marked Figaro's Whore with an Explicit mark lol.

[Anguyen92]

Also not sure why google music marked Figaro's Whore with an Explicit mark lol.

Spotify also has the Explicit mark on Figaro's Whore as well.  Maybe, their program has flagged the word whore as explicit?

[ariich]

That's kind of a weird statement to be honest.  You had preconceived notions that it would be good album.

I did? Where?

Your opinion like everyones will have a degree of subjectivity but you saw things that you liked based off of preconceived notions and it got you excited.  That's great.  Same thing happens with every album for every band and every fan. 

If people shouldn't let interviews and statements and tweets color their excitement for something then should bands just not promote their albums at all?

There's a difference between getting interested or even excited in something (not that I was ever particularly "excited" in this case), or indeed feel disinterested, and having that affect our opinion of the thing itself. Besides which, hype from the artist or label? Literally every album has that so we'd be excited by every single album if we let that affect us.

Furthermore, how is this the fan's burden rather than the person making these statements?

I never said it was, but why is it not both? Especially when the artists are widely known to overhype everything.

I get that from an intellectual perspective, but think of it this way.

If you were going on a blind date that your friend set up, and he told you over and over and over how the girl looks JUST like (insert a beautiful celeb you like here). He went on for a while about it. So you're pretty excited for that thing. You were also told she loves DT or SW or whatever. Then you get on the date and the girl looks....fine, but not at all like what your friend hyped, and turns out she's not into DT or SW at all.

She's a fine girl, but a part of you is going to be disappointed and that will affect things at first, at least. I doubt you, or anyone else, would be 100% open minded and not even a little disappointed or let down when she didn't at all live up to the hype being given.

Odd analogy, but let's go with it. How reliable is my friend? Does he tend to say that about every woman he meets? Does he have a vested interest in getting me to like this girl, is she a friend of his for example?

In most cases, I wouldn't take someone's word for it. If my friend had a track record of reliable judgement, yeah I'd probably get a bit excited. And maybe I'd feel let down by him, although if I liked the girl for who she was then I don't imagine I'd care much.  But for the most part, I wait and make up my own mind, especially on subjective matters.

For my own part I don't really see anyone "taking silly hype and banter seriously", I think the people you're (ariich) talking about are simply mocking Derek's words now that they've heard the album. To me this album is dreary shit, an hour of insipid riffs awkwardly punctuated by shoehorned solo sections and unremarkable technical exercises, and Derek's perception of it only amuses me. I certainly can't describe myself as taking it at all "seriously". And in any case Derek enjoys internet repartee and has, I'm told, a quirky and sarcasm-based sense of humour, so I'm sure he also won't take any of this seriously.

As to your 2nd question about why an artist's words about their upcoming album affects people's enjoyment of it when it drops - I don't suppose it does. I think people will experience this album (any album) in two stages. First, they'll listen to decide if they enjoy it, and that will be 99.99% of their relationship with the record. Then, perhaps in an idle moment, they may remember how the artist described it before release and judge whether their own perception of the album matches the artist's. That's all really. I haven't really seen anyone say "I dislike this album because it isn't what Derek promised it would be". I've instead seen "I dislike this album, and by the way, on a separate issue, I don't feel it's what Derek promised it would be".

That's fine, then my statement doesn't apply to you. There are a number of people stating disappointment that the album is not what it was hyped up to be.

[Anguyen92]

Well, finished listening to the album now.  I think the album is a bit ehh.  I mean the playing is strong, and it should be strong given the caliber of musicians.  I think with the exception of Coming Home and Alive, I don't think there are really any songs I want to go and say I want to listen to that again.  I mean I probably would not listen to Opus Maximus as much as say "Stream of Consciousness" or even Enigma Machine.

I noticed Derek has taken some "subtle" shots, even if he is joking about it, about The Astonishing, but even in its 2+ hour "opera"-like format, there were plenty of moments and songs that I want to relisten to and have enjoyed. I really can't say the same for Psychotic Symphony.  I feel like the songwriting could have been a lot better and maybe there could have been much more memorable/enjoyable songs to me.

Heck, Bumblefoot had another album released earlier this year with Art of Anarchy and their "The Madness" album and I kinda enjoyed that better than Psychotic Symphony (and I don't like Scott Stapp, at all, and, oddly enough, in the build-up to that album release, he wasn't taking any public shots at all at either Mark Tremonti or Myles Kennedy or Alter Bridge on the level that Derek had delivered at DT).

So in the end, it's not a bad album.  It's just one that I would not see myself listening to again, but I hope the band does well, and maybe the next album, if there is a next album, will be enjoyable to me.

[SwedishGoose]

Listened once on Spotify..... some cool parts but overall it feels rather  unmemorable. Also some to me rather cringe worthy moments.....
It is definitely not "The new kings of Prog", it is definiteley not "redefining prog-metal"....
Had they said we have created a good hardrock album with prog tendencies I could agree but they did not...

Agree with what a lot of others have said that the album shows a severe lack of songwriters.

Will not be buying this album. There are so many other albums that I need to get. The savings from not getting this will get good use elsewhere. For instance.... I need to get the new Myrkur album.

Not even sure if I want to listen more times to this on Spotify

[erwinrafael]

The best song for me is Alive. Oddly the one with no prog elements. It has good JSS vocals.

[Polarbear]

There are some good parts, and you can hear the talent in the people involved..

But still, what a colossal waste of a great lineup! I like Signs of the Time and Alive. Labyrinth was good, up until it flies of the rails halfway through!

Every solo album from Sherinian sounds better than this.

What a disappointment. I'd love to hear a Winery Dogs 3 over this. Their second album was pretty awesome!

[Kwyjibo]

My first thoughts after hearing this record: Solid but generic.

It isn't a bad record but it isn't prog-metal and it isn't redefining anything. But that's not the problem. I think this record would work better as a pure rock record, the prog elements feel tacked on and are (mostly) not connected to the song itself. Gods Of The Sun being the prime example. You have an intro the reminds me strongly of Home and a little bit of Lines In The Sand, then they kick into a nice hard rock song. Enjoyable, even the out of the blue change to the softer section is ok, and then you have a passage which tries to emulate Metropolis' instrumental section and doesn't really fit into the song imo.

The instrumental is what I feared, apart from the beginning one or two minutes and the ending it's them trying to put as many notes as possible in seemingly random parts somehow glued together.

The rock song parts are actually quite enjoyable but have very predictable and safe melodies.

JSS is a good singer but shows very little variety in his singing, expected more from him.

Ron Thal is actually the positive surprise for me, didn't really know him before but he has some really cool solos going on. 

So overall a record I like and will probably listen to a couple of time, but really nothing special.

[?]

I have a question for those who didn't like the album all that much. Would you guys still see the band live if they came to your city?

If I was allowed in as a journalist for free, then sure.

The best song for me is Alive. Oddly the one with no prog elements. It has good JSS vocals.

Yeah, Alive is my favorite as well, and with the exception of God of the Sun I'd say the least proggy and more hard rock-oriented songs are actually the best.

[Elite]

quote author=Anguyen92 link=topic=50945.msg2367772#msg2367772 date=1508479594]
Things.
[/quote]

I listened to The Astonishing in the car this morning, because I bought it this week after not hearing it for over a year. I found it very enjoyable!
Oh - and Enigma Machine is actually one of the best tracks from DT12, as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not that interested in wasting my time with this SoA record, but I'll guess I'll put it on some time next week.

[Madman Shepherd]

That's kind of a weird statement to be honest.  You had preconceived notions that it would be good album.

I did? Where?

Oh really? You had absolutely no thoughts about whether it or any other album out there would be good? People buy albums based on speculation all the time. Why else would they do it? Why even click on a link to discuss your interest in an album if you are truly neutral?

[JLa]

Didn't care for the singles. Don't care for the album.

Luckily MP has like 50 bands going on simultaneously, so there's bound to be something for me eventually. 

[ganpondorodf]

Didn't care for the singles. Don't care for the album.

Luckily MP has like 50 bands going on simultaneously, so there's bound to be something for me eventually. 

Maybe if he could focus on one thing for five damn minutes he'd come up with something worth listening to

[Renzo]

Song ranking:
1. God of the Sun
2. Opus Maximus
3. Lost in Oblivion

4. Alive
5. Labyrinth
6. Coming Home
7. Divine Addiction

8. Signs of the Time

9. Figaro's Whore (why???)

I like this album, it DOES actually sound like BC&SL and FII but I find it enjoyable. Mike and Derek are OK, Ron Thal absolutely slays in this record, Jeff's voice suites very well, I expected more from Billy Sheehan to be honest, except in Opus Maximus his bass playing doesn't exactly suites his name.

8/10

If this was a DT album I would rank it at the 9th position, ahead of TOT but just behind DT12.

[svend_inge]

I have also received the CD and listened to it several time. I am very pleased  . I really like it. It is, in my humble opinion, a very good album!

Song ranking:

1. God of the Sun
2. Labrinth
3. Alive

4. Opus Maximus
5. Lost in Oblivion
6. Divine Addiction

7. Signs of the Time
8. Coming Home

9. Figaro's Whore

I think it is much better than post MP Dream Theater.

Overall: 9/10

[the_silent_man]

Really enjoy this album. Not sure why people believed the hype of it "redefining prog" or whatever, that's just usual pre-album hype that most artists do. It's akin to metal artists saying "this is the heaviest album we've ever done". To me, it's just foolish to buy into that.

Anyway...
Great album. No, it's nothing new, but it balances prog and hard rock/metal nicely and, to be completely honest, I found it more interesting and satisfying than both DT12 and Astonishing. Vocals are good, instrumentally it's great without too much 'wank'. Love Derek's sound, brings a lot of atmosphere. There are some real standout moments on the album aswell... the incredible bass solo on Opus Maximus instantly springs to mind as one. The singles are the weakest tracks, but they work better in the context of the album.

In short, not sure what people are complaining about. Plenty of prog here with a welcome dash of hard rock/metal to give it some 'balls' (no ass though ).

Highlights include:
God of the Sun
Labyrinth
Divine Addiction (deep purple? love it anyway, so catchy)
Opus Maximus

[nobloodyname]

No.  Some might scoff at this, but I am not a fan of giving money to scientologists.  I never buy anything with Billy Sheehan's name on it.

Fascinating.