Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to, Sons of Apollo, Metal Allegiance and former Dream Theater Drummer Mike Portnoy at The NAMM Show 2018 on January 26 2018 at the Tascam and Nuclear Blast Booth. Portnoy talked about the formation of the Metal Allegiance, Sons of Apollo shows and his 18-year-old son Max Portnoy following his dad’s footsteps as a drummer.
Watch the interview here:
When asked for some background on the Metal Allegiance for the fans who are unfamiliar
“It started many years ago as a bunch of friends, me and the guys from Testament, Megadeth, Pantera and Anthrax, we are all buddies for so many years. We are all still Metal fans we still love Kiss, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Black Sabbath, so we started doing these shows where we started jamming for fun, playing covers and after a few years, a few of us the core four, David Ellefson, myself, Alex Skolnick from Testament and Mark Menghi who is the mastermind behind it. The four of us decided let’s make an album of original music we did that with the first album a couple of years ago, great experience and now we have a second album coming out at the beginning of the summer. The Album is done and it will be out June 1018.”
When asked if Sons of Apollo is a real band in the traditional sense
I think Sons of Apollo will be very similar to the Winery Dogs. Winery Dogs went on the road for years playing hundreds of shows really building up the fan base as a band. Sons of Apollo will have the same work ethic. Everything I do there is a fine line between a project and a band, it’s just a title. To me everything I do is a band; it is just a question of how much we can work together. We are committed to it in Sons of Apollo and we are going to spend all of 2018 on the road together.”
When asked why he has decided to go back to the Prog Style with Sons of Apollo after leaving Dream Theater
“I never abandoned it, it is always going to be a part of me, and it is just after leaving Dream Theater I wanted to try different styles, different sounds. Metal Allegiance is Thrash and Winery Dogs is more Classic rock. That style of music that Dream Theater does is always going to be a part of me. It was Derek Sherinian that was nudging at me let us do it. Then, we did it. Once we started writing it went beyond the Dream Theater world, now it is sort of a hard rock, Metal progressive thing and Jeff Scott Soto brings a whole lot of soulful anchor to the whole thing.”
When asked if he would ever consider doing a Sons of Apollo, Dream theater special night
“It is not out of the question, it might be weird for me to be opening for the band that I formed and built for 25 years. However, I never say never. “
SONS OF APOLLO’s debut album, “Psychotic Symphony”, was released October 20 by InsideOut Music.
Jimmy Kay from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently spoke to DREAM THEATER‘s Keyboardist Jordan Rudess. Rudess spoke about his classical training as a child, his induction into the Hall of Heavy Metal History, how he joined Dream Theater, their latest album The Astonishing, the departure of Mike Portnoy and the bands future plans.
Watch the interview here:
When asked about his induction into the Hall of Heavy Metal History in 2018
“It’s very exciting, awesome, how flattering. You go about you life you do your thing, you do your best and now and then somebody wants to give you a little bit of an honour for something. It’s all really nice. Especially in the music business where it’s very much about the community and all the different people you know and make music with. So I am very honored by that it’s cool.”
When asked about the polarization of their fan to their latest album The Astonishing
“I think that musically there is so much in it. I think what polarized people the most actually is the nature of the story. A kind of story that was a little difficult for some people to deal with, kind of a Game of Thrones ish, Lord of the rings ish, Maybe it was a little lite for our more Metal fans. ”
When ask how his role changed in Dream Theater when drummer Mike Portnoy left the band
“Mike is so talented in so many different things, he had his finger on a lot of the pulses of what was making the band work even though there is so much capability in the band between all the guys. Still losing Mike everyone had to rise to the occasion if you will. From a strictly music situation I was already writing a lot of the music of course John Petrucci was writing so much of the music that was not the biggest challenge at all. The bigger challenge was understanding how we were going to operate this machine and deal with the fact that Mike was such a big presence that the fans certainly needed to be really conscious of that so we could keep our business intact. ”
“Mike in so many ways was a lovable character that when he left it was like the foundation of the earth was changing. I remember sitting on my steps at my studio and not understand this change. But it all worked out we kind of came into our own and I walk on stage every night and I have an incredible relationship, especially musically with drummer Mike Mangini, we bond in a way that’s really fun and really cool and I feel like Dream Theater is in a really strong position.”
When asked about the future plans for Dream Theater, possible new album
“We have been on the road for almost two years and now we are going to take a break and go to the studio and make a new album around May and see what happens.”
Last week saw the announcement of SONS OF APOLLO, the highly anticipated new band featuring former Dream Theater members Mike Portnoy and Derek Sherinian, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal (ex-Guns N’ Roses), Billy Sheehan (The Winery Dogs, Mr. Big, David Lee Roth) and Jeff Scott Soto (ex-Journey, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force). Their debut album ‘Psychotic Symphony’ is due for release on 20th October 2017 via InsideOutMusic / Sony, and now they are pleased to reveal their first track titled ‘Signs of the Time’.
Listen now here:
Mike comments: “Signs Of The Time was the very first thing myself, Derek & Bumblefoot wrote when we got together to begin writing for Sons Of Apollo in March of this year.
It starts with this heavy, brutal Bumbleriff (initally coined “Korntera”), then goes into a cool verse with a 2-Pt vocal melody that I wrote sung by Jeff and myself…which eventually opens up to a HUGE vocal hook in the chorus that Jeff wrote (sung in 3-Pt harmony by Jeff, myself and Bumblefoot)
The middle section riffs are a few things that Derek brought in and show why he is the most BADASS keyboard player in the biz (playing the keys like a guitar player on fire!) and then we have the long extended breakdown and guitar solo which shows why Bumblefoot is one of today’s greatest GUITAR HEROES! This album is going to get him the recognition he truly deserves and this particular guitar solo is one of the tastiest, most insane solos I’ve EVER heard…
So all in all, this song has a little bit of everything that makes Sons Of Apollo so special…great heavy riffs, amazing solos with individual instrumental virtuosity and a big, catchy chorus with more hooks than a tackle box!!
I figured this would be a great “first taste” to introduce the world to this amazing new supergroup…and there’s a whole lot more of different musical styles and twist & turns still to come all throughout the album…”
The debut album, PSYCHOTIC SYMPHONY is now available to pre-order on 2CD Mediabook (featuring a second disc of instrumental mixes), Gatefold 2LP vinyl + CD, Standard Jewelcase CD & digital download. Pre-order now here: http://smarturl.it/SonsOfApolloPS
The full track-listing is as follows:
1. God of The Sun
2. Coming Home
3. Signs of the Time
4. Labyrinth
5. Alive
6. Lost In Oblivion
7. Figaro’s Whore
8. Divine Addiction
9. Opus Maximus
An album teaser can be seen on InsideOutMusic’s YouTube page here:
PSYCHOTIC SYMPHONY was produced by the dynamic production duo of Portnoy and Sherinian, also affectionately known as “The Del Fuvio Brothers,” which is the nickname given to them over 20 years ago during their time together in Dream Theater.
SONS OF APOLLO got together very organically, as Portnoy explains: “Derek and I reunited shortly after I left Dream Theater in 2010 and we put together an all-instrumental touring band with he and I, 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.”
Mike Portnoy, Derek Sherinian and Billy Sheehan previously toured together in 2012 and 2013 as PSMS (along with guitarist Tony MacAlpine), playing all instrumental versions from each of their previously recorded music. SONS OF APOLLO is the next logical progression by adding a vocalist and creating all-original material. The band incorporates the progressive style and individual technical prowess that Portnoy & 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!”
SONS OF APOLLO will hit the road in 2018 for their first worldwide tour.
“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 all 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!”
DREAM THEATER‘s John Petrucci, James LaBrie and Jordan Rudess recently performed a stunning acoustic version of PINK FLOYD‘s “Wish You Were Here” for the TeamRock cameras (courtesy of Classic Rock Magazine). The footage was shot last week in Oslo, where the band were touring their new album, The Astonishing. Watch it below.
“Wish You Were Here is one of my favourite Pink Floyd songs of all time,” says Petrucci. “I have many memories of playing that back in high school at parties. It was the one song that everyone seemed to know and sing along.
“Pink Floyd is a huge influence, not only on me but on the rest of the guys. The Astonishing is a concept album, and Pink Floyd’s The Wall was definitely an inspiration.”
Michael Sweet of STRYPER joined The Metal Voice in reviewing the new 2 hour and 11 minute concept album by DREAM THEATER entitled “The Astonishing”.
Sweet tells The Metal Voice,”What is incredible about Dream Theater and they show it so well on this album is everybody is playing for the song. They have all these parts worked out. That is musical thinking from another world. The time changes and the note changes, the chord changes, its insanity, it’s unbelievable. It just shows you the talent of this band.”
“It’s almost like when you read the bible you can read it a hundred times and continue to get something out of it each time you read through it, that is how this album is. You can listen to this album a hundred times and you are always going to hear new things, there is do much depth.”
Michael Sweet goes on to tell The Metal Voice that he will begin a short acoustic solo tour in the first week of February in the US and is just almost finsihed his new solo album which will be coming out on Rat Pack Records in May or June 2016.
The organisers of Metaldays Festival 2015 have confirmed to this summer’s edition DREAM THEATER, ARCH ENEMY, FEAR FACTORY, ANVIL, VREID, KROKODIL, DR. LIVING DEAD, DIVIDED MULTITUDE, EMERGENCY GATES, DEMONIC RESURRECTION and MANNTRA to this summer’s edition, to be held on July 19-16 in Tolmin, Slovenia.
Check out more on line-up and running order HERE. Ticket pre-orders HERE.
The METALDAYS Festival will present you a friendly and absolutely relaxed atmosphere, perfect for you to just forget about all worries and enjoy your most likely best holiday ever!
The festival is located at Sotocje, which lies inbetween the two mountain rivers called Tolminka and Soca. METALDAYS has two “festival-owned” beaches for you to relax on. But the two rivers aren’t the only reason Sotocje. Tolmin is located only approx. 65 kilometers off the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, which really gives you that holiday feel. Also the road you’re travelling on will lead you through the Alps, a scenerie that will astonish both full grown metalheads and families with children alike. The METALDAYS area is also part of the Julijske Alpe National Parks, and the river Soca is one of the cleanest in Europe.
Chief Shock Video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Ads
Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 