What Portnoy's Return to Dream Theater Means for Sons of Apollo

The hints have been there for a few weeks now, and it appears as though the supergroup Sons of Apollo has come to a halt, with drummer Mike Portnoy on his way back to Dream Theater after their reunion was announced earlier this week.

In a pair of recent interviews, guitarist Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal seemed to intimate that the supergroup had come to its conclusion, and singer Jeff Scott Soto then appeared to verify that with his congratulations message to Portnoy and Dream Theater after Wednesday’s reunion announcement.

In a mid-October interview with We Go To 11, Bumblefoot played a little coy while seemingly suggesting that Sons of Apollo was done. “When the pandemic hit, not everybody was on board to keep moving it forward and doing more with it. And I do have new music with Derek [Sherinian]. And I have [Art of Anarchy] with Jeff, so it’s kind of like it splintered off into other things,” Thal initially stated when asked about a new album. He then added, “Well, we managed to put out two studio albums and a live album and video, and I hope everybody enjoyed it. Past tense.”

During another interview with the Rock Interview Series, Thal was quoted as saying, “Everything has its lifespan, and you hope it’ll be a long one, and it just ends up being what it’s gonna end up being. And [when you have a bunch of] moving parts, if one of those parts is not on board, it can’t function.”

Now, Soto has seemingly confirmed that Portnoy’s return to Dream Theater also signals the end of Sons of Apollo. In a social media posting, he writes, “Welp, the cats finally out of the bag, I hope this gets shared on all the music sites so I don’t have to sugar coat or dodge the SOA inquiries anymore. First I wanna say Mr Mangini was and is a class act for his services and duties with DT, we’ve been friends for a very long time and his tenacity is rich and strong.”

“2nd, I have to congratulate DT for finding a way to make their fans go insane today, the boys are back together and will hopefully ride this out until they pull the plug completely on it, I had an absolute blast with MP in SOA, funny thing is I actually woke up this morning from a dream that I was going onstage with Sons again, coincidence to this news dropping today!!”

So while an official statement confirming a split has never come, it does appear from Bumblefoot and Soto’s comments that the group has come to an end.

Sons of Apollo, which included Soto, Portnoy and Bumblefoot, also featured keyboardist Derek Sherinian and bassist Billy Sheehan. They debuted in 2017 with their Psychotic Symphony album, following it up in 2020 with the MMXX album.

As for Art of Anarchy, Soto joined the band in 2020, playing alongside his Sons of Apollo bandmate Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal. A new album, Let There Be Anarchy, is reportedly en route for 2024.