Psychotic Symphony

Vocalist Jeff Scott Soto said the band kept their sound as simple as possible. When Soto himself tried out more sophisticated ideas (for example, on the songs "Coming Home" and "Lost in Oblivion"), the band decided to keep things simple and straight.[2] Sherinian also commented on the album's overall sound, stating that it has both the virtuosity of progressive metal and the straightforwardness of classic rock.[8][12] Portnoy however admitted that when he and Sherinian started forming the band, they thought it would go in a direction closer to that of Dream Theater, only to realize it would end up completely different.[13]

According to Bumblefoot, the album is influenced by Deep Purple ("Divine Addiction"), Van Halen ("Coming Home") and U.K.. When asked about it being a progressive rock album, he said:[4]

I think it's Prog, it's not continuous every moment Prog, I think it's more... You know, there's a lot of classic stuff, there's like a classic rock, there's classic Prog there's classic old school-ish, maybe not old school but definitely some metal in there. So how do you describe it? It's like you can't call it Prog metal because that would make me think something a little more continuously mathematical and fast. I would almost say just kind of... I would just call it Prog Rock. To me it fits mostly calling it that.

The album title is taken off a line from the track "Lost in Oblivion".[5] When asked about the artwork, Sherinian explained: "[...] credit goes to Mike Portnoy. He was in charge of the cover art. He had a vision of doing a strong press, clean press and then his symbolism - the eagle and the lion and then you can see all the headstocks of Billy and Bumblefoot."[14] Originally, the cover was to have two lions facing each other (each representing Portnoy and Sherinian), but the keyboardist suggested they replace his lion with an eagle.[5]

The album recording took ten days; Bumblefoot, Sherinian and Portnoy started work initially, with Sheehan and Soto joining the band halfway into the recording sessions due to touring commitments.[4][15] Most of the lyrics were written by Soto, while some song titles were suggested by Sherinian.[8]

The opening and longest track, the Perfect Strangers-influenced "God of the Sun", was mostly written by Sherinian and was the first track to be recorded, since it was the only song that was already sketched before the album sessions.[7][14] It contains Sherinian's favorite keyboard solo in the album.[16]

According to Portnoy, the Van Halen-influenced[14] "Coming Home" illustrates how Sons of Apollo is a contemporary progressive metal band influenced by classic rock bands.[7] A promotional video of the track was released on September 15, 2017, and shot at Ocean Studios, where the album was recorded. The video shows all five members in a circle performing the song live in studio. According to Portnoy, "'Coming Home' immediately felt like the Sons of Apollo 'grand entrance' as soon as we wrote the song. Almost like a fighter entering the ring. I knew this had to be the first video and first time people see us playing together."[6] The lyrics were mostly written by Soto.[14] The riff at the chorus was inspired by the main bass riff of Digital Underground's "The Humpty Dance".[17]

"Signs of the Time" was the first song to be written by the band together[14] and the first to be revealed to the public, on August 11, 2017. According to Portnoy, the track opens with Bumblefoot, Sheehan and Portnoy playing a Sepultura-like riff[7] and is followed by verses that he wrote, and sang in unison with Soto. The chorus lines were written by Soto and sung by Soto, Bumblefoot and Portnoy, who compares it to Kansas.[7] The lyrics see Soto "taking a closer look at the world".[10] The song's riff was given the working title "Korntera" by Bumblefoot due to it sounding like a mixture of Korn and Pantera; while Sherinian saw it as a modern-day Kansas song.[18]

"Labyrinth" is Portnoy's personal favorite on the album and features unusual time signatures and orchestrations.[7] "Alive" was suggested by Soto, and the band's response to it was so positive they barely changed the song,[2] although in another interview Portnoy stated that the song was composed by all the instrumentalists and had its lyrics and melodies written by Soto.[14] The band envisioned the song as a more commercial song and as a potential radio hit.[7][8]

"Lost in Oblivion" was written around a Bumblefoot riff that Portnoy describes as "Rush meets Meshuggah", with a Rob Zombie verse and an Eat 'Em and Smile-like instrumental breakdown. Pornoy pointed it out as "one of the hardest patterns I've ever had to cop".[7] The song was the subject of a promotional video directed by Vicente Cordero and released simultaneously with the album.[19]

"Figaro's Whore" is a short keyboard instrumental track that serves as a prelude to "Divine Addiction" and was compared by Portnoy to Van Halen's "Eruption". According to Sherinian, the title comes from the fact that "there's one part where I start shredding but then when it starts going down low, it's like, 'Fig-aro, fig-aro, figaro, figaro, figaro' – it reminds me of The Barber of Seville"; while "whore" was added simply because it's "a fun word to say", although it earned the album an "E" rating for "explicit language", even though the track has no lyrics at all.[7] "Divine Addiction" talks about sex addiction from the first person perspective of a girl.[7]

The ending track "Opus Maximus" is an instrumental[7] that the band composed "section by section" with "no destination",[11] in a process that probably took two days, according to Sherinian.[20]

Loudersound's Fraser Lewry reviewed the album positively, stating that the band "is very much the sum of its parts. The musicians are as good as you'd expect, especially Portnoy, who almost seems to drag the rest of the band along with him, and Thal, whose playing veers from ugly metallic crunch to stunningly fluid solo.. (the album is) fierce, loud, bewildering, brilliantly performed and monstrously entertaining".[21]

In a less favorable review for Metal Injection, Jordan Blum felt the album was competent overall, but lacked originality. He said the album was "filled with in-your-face intricacy, uninspired lyricism, and raucous vocals, [...] packed with impressive performances from start to finish, as well as a few standout moments; however, it also fails to go beyond mere sufficiency in every respect, resulting in a forgettable effort that’s lazily innocuous and overwhelmingly familiar".[23]

Sons of Apollo

• Jeff Scott Soto – lead vocals
• Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal – guitar, backing vocals
• Billy Sheehan – bass, backing vocals
• Derek Sherinian – keyboards, backing vocals, string arrangements on "God of the Sun" and "Labyrinth"
• Mike Portnoy – drums, backing vocals

Production

• Mike Portnoy - production
• Derek Sherinian - production
• Jerry Guidroz - engineering
• Greg Foeller - assistant engineering
• Corey Mast, Brent Woods, Simone Sello, Thomas Cuce - additional engineering
• Jay Ruston - mixing[12]
• Paul Logus - mastering
• Thomas Ewerhard - artwork and cover illustration
• Hristo Shindov - photography

Additional Musicians

• Ashwin Batish - sitar and chanting
• Keshav Batish - Tabla
• Artyom Manukyan - cello
• Armand Melnbardis - violin
• Kiara Perico - viola
• Enrico Cacace - additional orchestration