Ok, have had this for a few days now so my early verdict is that it is a lot better than I was expecting especially after seeing some 3/10 ratings and below on here. They seem very, very harsh but clearly everyone is entitled to their opinion.
I was not keen on the first 2 singles released, they weren't terrible but nothing especially exciting either. Was also not excited about the line up apart from Portnoy/Sherinian (I refuse to call them the Del Fuvio Brothers!). Not a massive fan of Sherinian in DT but have always loved his lead tone which is almost as cool as lead guitar (intro into LITS is one of the great keyboard moments of all time imo). Was less of a fan of some of his in song playing though and FII is one of the patchier albums for me even if it does have some great songs on it. When I say I was not a fan of the line up, this should not be taken as a slight on Jeff Scott Soto who I have been a huge fan of in his days with Yngwie Malmsteen and Axel Rudi Pell, I even enjoyed his Soul Sirkus album with Neal Schon but I just assumed his voice would be shot by now and also felt that he was not heavily involved in the songwriting for most of the projects I listened to so was unsure what he'd add.
Lost in Oblivion was the first single that got me a little more excited as Soto sounded great on the chorus which I also thought was catchy and melodic.
Listed to the album initially on Apple Music and and God Of The Sun just sounded great (apart from the instrumental section) classic DS intro and riff and, when Soto kicked in on the chorus, it was like welcoming an old friend back, been so long since I'd heard him and I fell in love with his voice again. Don't understand the criticism on here for Soto, I really think he elevates these songs immensely especially in the choruses. I do accept that his vocals sound rough at the beginning of Labyrinth and they should not really be on the record in that form for me but, apart from that, he sounds great considering he's been around since the early-mid 80's. Like I said wasn't initially keen on the chugga chugga instrumental section but it has grown on me to the extent that it doesn't detract from the song anymore.
The two singles that follow remain just ok, don't feel the need to skip them but they are nothing special imo, I do enjoy Ron Thal's soloing in Signs of the Time though. Labyrinth took a while for me as no real huge hooky chorus to hang on to and it just seemed to be all over the place. I have gradually come to really appreciate it though and it's now a highlight of the album.
Alive is a decent radio friendly rocker which should really have been the single for me ahead of Coming Home, much more crafted and accomplished for me. Really enjoy Lost In Oblivion and Divine Addiction is just great, love the Purple sound and the chrorus could have been pulled from Soto's time in Yngwie/Axel. He would have killed this chorus even more in his pomp.
Still struggling to come to terms with Opus Maximus although I like bits of it. Compare this though with something from LTE and it is not even in the same league.
Overall I would give this around 8 out of 10. It's not perfect by any means and not on the level of DT (this would be DT's worst album if it was by DT). I do agree that the songs are not as meticulously crafted as DT in that the songs don't flow as well from section to section but there's a lot to like for me and I am not an MP fanboy (JP fanboy all the way!). I really don't see this as 2 or 3 out of 10 if you are a fan of DT.
Some of the "banter" has been over the top, childish and unseemly but, in some ways, Derek is entitled to be bitter about the way DT treated him, it's more surprising though as he has never acted like this previously since he was fired, so why now?. MP's part in it is less surprising considering how he acts in general and more disappointing considering how thin skinned he is himself to any criticism. It does seem silly strategy though to take a group of fans who you'd think would be biased towards this band and excited to hear them as they have two former members of DT and turn them against you. If DT fans are biased against a prog metal band featuring Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian then MP/DS have got something badly wrong!
Hope these guys can stick it out and we then have two decent prog metal bands releasing music.
On a side note this is head and shoulders above any of Mike's other post DT bands imo (I don't include TA and NM in this as these were in existence prior to him leaving DT)
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Topic: Sons of Apollo (feat. Portnoy & Sherinian) (Read 469389 times)