December 16th, 2019 – Singapore – SONS OF APOLLO — 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) – has launched the Christian Rios-directed video for second single “Fall to Ascend”,
“Fall to Ascend” follows the release of lead single “Goodbye Divinity”, which reached over 1.5 million play in just over two week, watch it now here. Both tracks will be available on their second studio album, appropriately titled, ‘MMXX’ (pronounced: 20/20). Produced by The Del Fuvio Brothers (Portnoy and Sherinian), ‘MMXX’ will be released on the 17th January 2020 via InsideOutMusic/Sony, pre-order is available.
“Stylistically, we have followed the same path as the debut,” outlines drummer Mike Portnoy. “But we feel that it has come out stronger, simply because we know one another better. ‘PSYCHOTIC SYMPHONY’ was the first time the five of us had worked together, so there was bound to be an air of experimentation happening. Now, we can draw on having the experience not only of recording that album, but also of touring together a lot. And now there is clearly a lot more obvious chemistry going on.”
“We did 83 shows on the last tour,” adds keyboardist Derek Sherinian. “And it was so worthwhile, because we came out of it with a stronger bond, and that is certainly reflected in what we wrote.”
There are eight tracks on ‘MMXX’, with variations in length totalling 60 minutes. “The final song is ‘New World Today, which is 16 minutes long,” says Portnoy. “This one has elements similar to ‘Opus Maximus’ and ‘Labyrinth’ on the previous album. It has some insane, brilliant instrumental moments, which I am sure the fans will love.”
“We wanted to do something epic here, as we did with ‘Opus Maximus’ last time around,” adds Sherinian. “You have to remember that Mike and I come from Dream Theater, where we never bothered about how long a song was. So, for us doing a 16-minute track is not a problem.”
‘MMXX’ Track List
Goodbye Divinity
Wither to Black
Asphyxiation
Desolate July
King of Delusion
Fall to Ascend
Resurrection Day
New World Today
‘MMXX’ will be released as a standard CD package, Limited Edition 2 CD package (which includes instrumental mixes and a cappella excerpts), 2 LP + CD package, and on all digital formats. Pre-order the album on digital services here.
