Sons of Apollo – MMXX

Rock into the decade with Sons of Apollo

Superstar packed, Sons of Apollo is composed of Guns N’ Roses guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal, drummer Mike Portnoy, Dream Theatre keyboardist Derek Sherinian, bassist Billy Sheehan and Jeff Scott Soto on vocals. With a rock ‘n roll famed group like this, fans know they’re in for something epic with Sons of Apollo’s newest album release MMXX.

At a high-frequency level, the band manages to produce eight songs filled with a range of vocals, and a whole lot of talent. They even manage to create a plethora of futuristic sounds that they intertwine with progressive, metal staples. Albeit with some repetitive instances throughout the album, the songs produced by the band really allow for “Bumblefoot” and Sheehan to show their abilities and technical skills on the guitar and bass.

The band portrays their angsty energy on multiple tracks throughout the album, but especially on the opener, “Goodbye Divinity.” With a couple of switch-ups from heavy metal to hard rock, the consistency of the drums by Portnoy helps to keep the album together and keep the sounds flowing properly. We even get a beautiful piano intro in the eight-minute and forty-eight-second song, “King of Delusion,” that transcends the band and their specialty of mixing classic rock and roll sounds with progressive tunes.

Sons of Apollo are definitely in a league of their own with their high-intensity sounds. It’s a type of grunge rock mixed with heavy metal and warped with some alternative, melodic choices. In some parts of the album, Soto’s vocals get drowned out by the intensity of the background instruments, but he changes that and really showcases his pipes on “Resurrection Day.” The band closes out the album with the absolutely epic, sixteen-minute jam, “New World Today.” Rock into the new decade with Son of Apollo’s futuristic and time-warping, new album MMXX.