Rock royalty produce something regal
There is a rule in journalism. The way you are supposed to order a news piece. The who, what, when, why rule. Usually it doesn’t apply in music reviews but, strangely, it does here.
The who is the most important question, because Mike Portnoy, Derek Sherinian, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, Billy Sheehan and Jeff Scott Soto are in Sons Of Apollo.
The what, will become evident to everyone in time, but trust MV when we say brilliantly played heavy progressive, yet hard rock infused music is the order of the day.
The when is right now. This is a real band, not a supergroup and the five are committed to touring throughout 2018.
Most of the important points out of the way, leads us finally to the question of why. The flippant answer is “why not?” but the better response is that these men are so talented that they absolutely needed to make “Psychotic Symphony”.
And since we’re here we might as well deal with the elephant in this particular room head on. Dream Theater. There are those who still can’t cope with the fact that Portnoy isn’t the fulcrum of that band anymore, and now he is joined by his former DT bandmate Sherinian, the point is simply too big to ignore.
It’s not like SOA are trying to hide it either to be fair. The record starts with an 11-minute-long epic in “God Of The Sun” and it ends with a ten minute instrumental called “Opus Maximus”, but even that doesn’t tell the whole story about those songs.
“…Sun” begins with an Eastern flavour, it has wonderful keyboards and the solo from Thal is quite stunning. As a welcome to the band it is an incredible one. And yet, this isn’t the outright prog metal album you might assume.
Instead “Coming Home” is a genuine, no holds barred hard rock thumper. Arena filling chorus and a hook you could hang your coat on, before it does builds to a crescendo in a similar way to The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again”.
Honestly, this band cares not a jot for your expectations. “Signs Of The Time” crushes, but does so with an odd rhythmic pattern and if Soto sounds just a touch like Russell Allen here, then it is a muscular affair that benefits from such bombast.
If mostly you couldn’t second guess this if you tried, then you probably could reckon that a song called “Labyrinth” that goes on for nine and a half minutes written by these men, will be quite a journey. This one is too. With classical overtones, it is driven by keyboard riffery and sees Bumblefoot excel again.
Not that “…Symphony” ever feels overbearing. “Alive” is a fairly simple ballad initially. But even here, the skill is such that they can play with the formula and have it do something altogether more fun.
“Lost In Oblivion” – which mentions the album title in the lyrics – is unsettling. A driving, pulsing urgency, with all manner of mind-bending sounds, is at play here, and it is perhaps the only four-minute song in history to include a drum solo.
“Figaro’s Whore” is almost the palate cleanser. A minute-long organ solo. It says much for MV’s love of 80s “classics” that it reminds of Bon Jovi’s “Let It Rock”, but before we can start singing “the weekend comes to this town, seven days too soon” the sublime “Divine Addiction” jolts us from our reverie. Either a very heavy Deep Purple song or something from Led Zep’s later period, whichever you choose, there’s no denying it is a copper-bottomed triumph.
So is the album. The band let themselves go with “…Maximus” to finish and it is the full stop to one of the most ambitious, yet accessible and classy records of the year. A symphony of destruction but so much more. You can pay “Psychotic Symphony” no higher praise than it adds to the legacy of the members of the band.
Rating 9/10
