Sons of Apollo was an American

progressive metal Progressive metal (often shortened to prog metal) is a broad fusion music genre melding heavy metal music, heavy metal and progressive rock, combining the loud "aggression" and amplified electric guitar, guitar-driven sound of the former with t ...

supergroup formed in 2017 and composed of drummer

Mike Portnoy Michael Stephen Portnoy (born April 20, 1967) is an American musician who is primarily known as the drummer, backing vocalist, and co-founder of the progressive metal band Dream Theater. In September 2010, Portnoy announced his departure fro ...

, bassist

Billy Sheehan William Sheehan (born March 19, 1953) is an American musician known for playing bass guitar with acts such as Talas, Steve Vai, David Lee Roth, Mr. Big, Niacin, and The Winery Dogs. He is also known for his "lead bass" playing style, includ ...

, keyboardist

Derek Sherinian Derek Sherinian (born August 25, 1966) is an American keyboardist who has toured and recorded for Alice Cooper, Billy Idol, and Joe Bonamassa, among others. He was also a member of Dream Theater from 1994 to 1999, is the founder of Planet X (ban ...

, vocalist

Jeff Scott Soto Jeff Scott Soto (born November 4, 1965) is an American Rock music, rock singer of Puerto Rican descent. He is perhaps best known for being the vocalist on Yngwie Malmsteen's first two albums, and the lead vocalist for Journey (band), Journey i ...

, and guitarist

Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal Ronald Jay Blumenthal (born September 25, 1969), better known by his stage name Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal or simply Bumblefoot, is an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. He adopted his nickname from the Bumblefoot (infection), bacterial inf ...

History

Sherinian and Portnoy played together in progressive metal band

Dream Theater Dream Theater is an American progressive metal band formed in 1985 in Boston, Massachusetts. The band comprises John Petrucci (guitar), John Myung (bass), Mike Portnoy (drums), James LaBrie (vocals) and Jordan Rudess (keyboards). Dream Theat ...

, from which Sherinian was asked to leave in 1999, while Portnoy left in 2010, and rejoined in 2023. Sheehan and Portnoy formed rock group

The Winery Dogs The Winery Dogs are an American hard rock supergroup formed in 2012. It consists of Mike Portnoy (drums), Billy Sheehan (bass), and Richie Kotzen (vocals and guitar). Background The band was conceived by drummer Mike Portnoy and bassist Bil ...

with Sheehan's former Mr. Big bandmate

Richie Kotzen Richard Dale Kotzen Jr. (born February 3, 1970) is an American rock guitarist, singer, and songwriter. As a solo artist, Kotzen has a back catalogue of more than 20 album releases. He was signed to California-based Shrapnel Records from 1988 to ...

. Portnoy, Sheehan, and Sherinian also worked together on a short-lived, live instrumental project with Tony MacAlpine called PSMS. Because of this, Portnoy considers MacAlpine to be part of Sons of Apollo's history as well as "part of the extended family". While touring, Sherinian asked Portnoy to join him in a full-time project. When Portnoy's schedule allowed, he agreed, and suggested

and

to complete the line-up, having previously worked with Bumblefoot on Metal Allegiance and knowing Soto after his solo band opened several The Winery Dogs shows in South America. The members had insisted in multiple interviews that the supergroup was a full-time band and not just a side project. The name of the band was proposed by Sherinian after he scrolled through a list of suggestions by Portnoy and saw the word "Apollo" among them. It was picked due to

Apollo Apollo is one of the Twelve Olympians, Olympian deities in Ancient Greek religion, ancient Greek and Ancient Roman religion, Roman religion and Greek mythology, Greek and Roman mythology. Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, mu ...

being the god of music. But because the band suspected there could be another band called Apollo, they thought of possible variations, which is how the name was chosen. Their debut album, '' Psychotic Symphony'', was produced by Portnoy and Sherinian (as "The Del Fuvio Brothers") and was released on October 20, 2017, via

Inside Out Music Inside Out Music is a German progressive rock record label originally based in Kleve, North Rhine-Westphalia, and dedicated to the publication of progressive rock, progressive metal and related styles. In 2009, it formed a partnership with Cen ...

Sony Music Sony Music Entertainment (SME), commonly known as Sony Music, is an American multinational music company owned by Japanese conglomerate Sony Group Corporation. It is the recording division of Sony Music Group, with the other half being the ...

. On August 30, 2019, the band released their first live album, ''Live with the Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony'', filmed at the

Plovdiv Roman theatre The Roman theatre of Philippopolis (; , ''Plovdivski antichen teatar'') is one of the world's best-preserved ancient Roman theatres, located in the city center of modern Plovdiv, Bulgaria, once the ancient city of Philippopolis. It was constru ...

Plovdiv Plovdiv (, ) is the List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, second-largest city in Bulgaria, 144 km (93 miles) southeast of the capital Sofia. It had a population of 490,983 and 675,000 in the greater metropolitan area. Plovdiv is a cultural hub ...

, Bulgaria. Their second album, '' MMXX'', was released on January 17, 2020. In an interview with ''We Go To 11'' on October 13, 2023, Thal claimed that the band had broken up, claiming, "When the pandemic hit, not everybody was on board to keep moving it forward and doing more with it. ..I hope everybody enjoyed it. Past tense." In an early 2024 post on his Instagram account, Sherinian referred to ''MMXX'' as the band's "second and final album". Sherinian and Thal have since formed a new band, Whom Gods Destroy.

Members

Lineup

– lead vocals, acoustic guitar *

– electric guitar, vocals *

– bass guitar, vocals *

– keyboards, string arrangements *

– drums, percussion, co-lead vocals

Touring members

Felipe Andreoli Felipe Andreoli (born March 7, 1980) is a Brazilian musician best known as the bassist for the power metal band Angra. He also acted as a fill in bassist for progressive metal supergroup Sons of Apollo in August 2022. Andreoli first started p ...

– bass (2022)

Discography

Studio albums * '' Psychotic Symphony'' (2017) * '' MMXX'' (2020) Live albums * '' Live with the Plovdiv Psychotic Symphony'' (2019) Extended plays * ''Alive/Tengo Vida'' (2018) Singles * "Signs of the Time" (2017) * "Coming Home" (2017) * "Just Let Me Breathe (Live)" (2019) * "Labyrinth (Live)" (2019) * "Goodbye Divinity" (2019) * "Fall to Ascend" (2019) * "Desolate July" (2020) * "Asphyxiation" (2020)

References

External links

* * {{Authority control American progressive metal musical groups Musical groups established in 2017 2017 establishments in the United States American rock music supergroups Inside Out Music artists American heavy metal supergroups American musical quintets