Metal Wani's Carl O'Rourke recently sat down with legendary drummer Mike Portnoy ahead of his show with Sons Of Apollo at Dublin' Ireland's Tivoli Theater. Among some of the topics Mike spoke about were Sons Of Apollo, a follow up album to Psychotic Symphony and reflecting on his friend Vinnie Paul who recently passed away.

On Sons Of Apollo versus his other many projects:

Portnoy: "We have full intentions of being as full time as we can be with something like this. We all obviously still have other things; Billy is still in Mr. Big, Derek is still in Black Country Communion, Jeff still does T.S.O, and I still have Neil Morris, Flying Colors, Trans Atlantic, Metal Allegiance and The Winery Dogs, so we all have other things. But, our intention is to be as full time as we can. We're all focused on it this year and have carved out the majority of 2018 just focusing on this. Then once we get through this tour we have full intentions to reconvene and start a second album and do it all over. So that's what we're all hoping for. As long as people still support this then we'll keep doing it."

Reflecting on Vinnie Paul:
 
Portnoy: "Vinnie was a friend of mine for a long time. We became friend right around the timer they (Pantera) put out Cowboys From Hell and we (Dream Theater) put out Images And Words. I became good friends with not only Vinnie, but all four of the guys in the band and to this day remain good friends with all of them. When I heard Cowboys From Hell and Vulgar Display, it was like okay, this is fuckin' great metal drumming. I was already listening to Charlie Benante (Anthrax), Dave Lombardo (Slayer), Lars Ulrich (Metallica) but by the early '90s Vinnie was kind of the next guy in line to carry the torch for the thrash or groove metal movement."

Sons Of Apollo kicked off their first ever European live dates last month. To celebrate, the band launched a video for the track "Signs Of The Time", filmed during the band's recent North American tour.

Mike Portnoy commented: “The ‘Signs Of The Time’ video was shot on the recent US tour and is a good taste of what the band is like on stage. We are about to embark on the band’s first tour of Europe and the UK and can’t wait to bring this 5-headed musical monster to our fans overseas all throughout the summer.”

Sons Of Apollo tour dates:

August
3 - Wacken Open Air - Wacken, Germany
18 - Prog in the Park 2018 - Warsaw, Poland
19 - Barba Negra Track - Budapest, Hungary

The band have further live dates planned for later in year, including an appearance at ProgPower Festival in the US, the band’s first Japanese shows, and more live appearances in Europe including a very special performance at the Roman Theatre in Plovdiv Bulgaria alongside the orchestra of Plovdiv State Opera.