Tag: Jeff Scott Soto

Sons of Apollo – ‘Psychotic Symphony’ (2017) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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The roots of Sons of Apollo stem back to the band Dream Theater as both Derek Sherinian and Mike Portnoy were once members. They both left Dream Theater (Sherinian fired in 1999 and Portnoy left in 2010) and eventually teamed back up for a short-lived instrumental project called PSMS with Billy Sheehan and Tony MacAlpine. Billy had played with Mike in the band The Winery Dogs. Eventually, Derek, Mike and Billy decided to make it a full time band (not a project) and they started Sons of Apollo. They needed a guitarist and Mike suggest Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal because why not, he’s fantastic. They also needed a singer and Mike suggested Jeff Scott Soto as his band had opened for The Winery Dogs and I am guessing Mike was impressed. The band was complete and ready to go.

The band recorded in only 10 days as their schedules were busy. They were produced by the dynamic duo called The Del Fuvio Brothers. What? You never heard of them…well…it is the nickname that both Derek and Mike had while in Dream Theater so they used that as the Producer name since they both produced the album. The band’s sound is a pinch of early Dream Theater and a dab of pure Classic Rock. Musically, the songs were written mostly by Portnoy and Sherinian with help from Bumblefoot and Billy. Soto handled most of the lyrics, but there was input Sherinian and Portnoy on a lot of the songs as well. It was a team effort (led by Derek & Mike).

The cover art work on the album was handled by Mike Portnoy. He had the vision. It was going to be two lions facing each other, but Derek suggested that his lion be an eagle and you can see it holding the keyboard while the lion is holding the drumsticks. There is a crown with a bunch of Bumblefoot and Billy’s headstocks form their guitar and bass behind it. I am not sure what part represents Soto. Is it the crown because he is the king of vocals or are the 3 spikes in the center actually pipes which would represent his vocal pipes? I don’t know, I’m making things up as I go along. The album title comes from the song “Lost in Oblivion” which has the line ‘Psychotic Symphony” in one of the verses. The album was released on October 20, 2017 to much critical acclaim and was a resounding success.

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SOTO – ‘Divak’ (2016) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Jeff Scott Soto has said this is a working band and not a side project and will be around for a long while. He is proving that fact by releasing a second album in just over a year after the debut. This one, called ‘Divak’, was released on April 1, 2016. The debut album, I didn’t feel was a band album as the band never really played on any of the songs. It was a solo album with a lot of guests if you ask me. This time around, Jeff makes it a band. And who is in that band? Aside from Jeff, it is the same guys from the debut artwork (as they weren’t really on the album). You get Jorge Salan on guitars, BJ on guitars and keys, David Z (Of ZO2) on bass and Edu Cominato on drums.

There are still a ton of guests, but this time they are really guests. They are additional guitarists, some solos, keyboards and backing vocals while the band handles most of the grunt work…as they should if this is a band. The album is just as heavy as the last, if not heavier. It rocks out as it is both melodic and a little proggy at times. Jeff usually does more melodic, rock and doesn’t get this heavy or hasn’t in a while, but he missed this stuff and that is why Soto exists. It fulfills his desire to really go full tilt and it certainly delivers that and more.

The album kicks off with, “Divak”, a symphonic, dramatic and totally intriguing instrumental piece. The intensity builds and totally makes you feel like you are in to an adventurous journey. The biggest problem is that it ends…it just stops. It doesn’t bleed into the next song which I think is a huge missed opportunity as this was a really fantastic piece and would’ve flowed better with that seamless transition.

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Joel Hoekstra’s 13 – ‘Dying to Live’ (2015) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Joel Hoekstra might be one of the best hired guns in the business. From his time in Night Ranger, to Whitesnake, to Cher, to Trans-Siberian Orchestra (TSO) to now Revolution Saints. And in between he has done several solo albums of instrumental music. This time, he wanted to showcase his songwriting abilities and so he started a new project called Joel Hoekstra’s 13 and he brought along some heavy hitters. Helping on this album were none other than Tony Franklin (Blue Murder, The Firm, Whitesnake) on bass, Vinny Appice (Last in Line, Heaven & Hell, Dio & Black Sabbath) on bass and then on vocals he brought in the great Russell Allen (Symphony X, Adrenaline Mob, Allen/Lande, TSO) to handle the vocals. But the reason for the post is the final connection with Jeff Scott Soto.

Jeff was brought in to do backing vocals, but Jeff being the powerhouse and force of nature he is, ended up singing about half the songs on the album. Yes, he is that good. Now, Joel wrote all the songs including music and lyrics which is why this has his name stamped on it. He did have help on one song that he did with Russell called “Changes”. This has been treated as a solo project, but really this is something more. Heck, in fact all of these people would be back for second album a few years later (except Jeff would be only backing vocals on that one – and we wont’ review if for this series as a result.

Even with all these major players on the album, there is still some more help brought in. We get the great Derek Sherinian on keyboards, Charlie Zeleny on percussion and Dave Eggar on the cello for the final song on the album “What We Believe”. And that isn’t all. He also wrangled in Toby Hitchcock (Pride of Lions) and Chloe Lowery (TSO) to do some duets with Mr. Soto. This line-up is pretty damn impressive so the music has to be good…right? Ahhh…you are damn straight!! I missed this album when it came out, not realizing Mr. Soto was on it and if I did, I would’ve been all over it. But I am going to say something that surprises even me, my favorite parts of this album aren’t Jeff Scott Soto…no sir. They are Russell Allen. I forget how awesome he is vocally and this stuff really makes him shine. Alright, let’s get to it, shall we.

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SOTO – ‘Inside the Veritgo’ (2015) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Jeff Scott Soto has been around for over 30 years now and he started out singing for some heavy bands like Yngwie Malmsteen and Axel Rudi Pell. Then he was more melodic with bands like Talisman, Eyes and W.E.T. and he evened funked things up with his solo albums on occasion, but he has always liked the heavy stuff. For his next project, it wasn’t another solo album, but instead it was a new metal band called SOTO. Hmmm…where did he come up with that name? Jeff has said this is a working band and not a side project and will be around for a long while and there is definitely a band. In SOTO are of course, Jeff, but you also get Jorge Salan on guitars, BJ on guitars and keys, David Z (Of ZO2) on bass and Edu Cominato on drums.

However, there are so many guests and extra musicians on this album, that I’m not sure you can really count this as a band album as the “band” isn’t on every song. Now, that doesn’t take away from anything on the album, I’m just saying I don’t really see this particular SOTO album as a band more of as a project. The album came out on January 30, 2015, but I don’t see a physical release of the album in the States so they only had digital. My copy of the album is actually from Mexico and is a digipack. No bonus or nothing extra, but I will take what I can get. Let’s jump right and get in to the meat of it all as the music is why we are here.

The first track is “Final Say” and it is written by Jeff Scott Soto and Adrenaline Mob member Mike Orlando who does all the instruments on this song (see, no band members but JSS). And like I said above, that doesn’t take away from the music as this song kicks some major ass. The guitars are heavy, the drums are thunderous and Soto is aggressive and lethal with the vocals. An explosive opening that tells you right away this is a heavier, darker JSS and I’m all for it.

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Jeff Scott Soto – ‘The Authorized Biography’ by Frank Tunney and Ronny Hahn’ (2014) – Book Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Back in December 2021 when I announced I was doing a Jeff Scott Soto Series, I got a lot of response on the picture of my collection. One such person contacted me on Facebook and offered to send me a hard back edition of a biography on Jeff Scott Soto, so I quickly thanked him and agreed. He quickly mailed out this glorious copy of the book. His name was Sundeep Pooni and that book has been a massive reference guide for my review series up to this point. So, a big thank you to Sundeep and his very generous gift!! From here on out in the review series, we are past the date of the book so none of the albums I’ll be reviewing from ere on out are in the book, so I am on my own.

Before we get to the next review, let’s go through this book. It was originally written by Ronny Hahn and it was written in German and only an electronic book. For the 30th Anniversary of Jeff’s career, it was released thanks to Frank Tunney who took the original book and added more chapters and re-organized the structure. It is now a hard back book and chock full of the details of his career that all hardcore fans love to know. The book is called “Authorized” so it has the blessing of the man himself and that is good enough for me.

The book starts off with the original foreward written by Ronny Zahn and then there is a great dedication to the late Marcel Jacobs who played with Jeff in several bands and was a very close personal friend. It was a terrible loss, but thankfully he left behind a great legacy of music. Afterwards you get a brief biography of Jeff’s very early life, but the rest of the book is all Jeff’s music career.

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W.E.T. – ‘One Live – In Stockholm’ (2014) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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The band W.E.T. consisting of Robert Sall (Work of Art), Erik Martensson (Eclipse) and Jeff Scott Soto (Talisman) was originally going to be a one off project. However, the success of their debut and the fun had by the three main guys has turned in to a band. With two albums under their belt, the band hit the road and for only their second show ever as a band, it was captured in video and released as both a Live Double CD and a beautifully filmed DVD. What we get is ‘One Live – In Stockholm’!!

Recorded on January 17, 2013 at a really small club in Stockholm, Sweden called the Debaser Club and the reason behind the small venue is interesting. The guys only were expecting less than 100 people and so they figured a smaller venue would still look full on camera. What they got was hundreds of people and they had to delay the show by an hour to make sure everyone got in that wanted to (and hopefully legally could for fire codes and all). The band’s second album, ‘Rise Up’, hadn’t been released yet, but it was about too so the band had 2 full albums of material to now draw from plus they few in several surprises along the way. And to top it off, the CD version of the show has two bonus tracks of previously unreleased songs from the last album. Now, there is absolutely no reason a fan of this band wouldn’t want it. A live show on 2 CDs, two bonus studio tracks and a DVD of the show…DAMN!! What is not to like about this release.

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Jeff Scott Soto – ‘LA Rocks Demo / Vinnie Vincent Demo 1988’ Bootleg (2008) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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I was scouring eBay for a few of the remaining Soto albums I don’t have, and sadly, none were for sale at the time. However, I cam across something I had never seen before. It was a bootleg of Jeff Scott Soto demos. And to top it off, it was actually signed by Jeff Scott Soto. The person I bought it from lives in Germany and his name was Stefan. It turns out, Stefan is the lead singer of the band Speed Limit (check them out, they are pretty cool) and he had opened for Soto on a tour and actually met Jeff and got him to sign the CD. I thought all that was pretty cool and I love having a story behind my purchase.

LA ROCKS DEMOS:

So, what is this CD? It is a bootleg, mostly of demos from Jeff’s early years with LA Rocks and with Vinnie Vincent. We never got any albums out of those two projects, but at least we have some demos. The first set of songs say they are from his band LA Rocks. Back in 1986, Aldy Damian approached Jeff about joining the band. Jeff was busy with his own band called L’amour at the time and so he wasn’t really interested in joining LA Rocks. However, he did agree to do a couple demos for them and they paid him, so how could he say no. After Jeff, turned it down, they went after James Christian and he agreed. James became known for his other band House of Lords later.

The project didn’t end up going anywhere and the band later on became known as something you are more familiar with as we have discussed them in this series and that is the band Eyes of which Jeff sang on a couple of their albums. It all comes around full circle in the end. These set of songs here under the LA Rock Demos section, are a mixture of LA Rocks and Eyes demos and some aren’t even either band. The tracks “Hands of Time” and “Heart of the Fire” were demos for songs used on the movie ‘Rich Girl’. The songs “For You”, “Till the End of Time” and “Nobody Said it was Easy” are all demos for the band Eyes. And the song “Hold On”, not really sure where that is from but maybe it is from LA Rocks.

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W.E.T. – ‘Rise Up’ (2013) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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W.E.T. includes Robert Sall of the band Work of Art (The “W”); Erik Martensson of the band Eclipses (The “E”) and Jeff Scott Soto of the band Talisman (The “T”). All three bands are Swedish bands and all on Frontiers so it made it easy to bring these three guys together. They were originally going to be a one-off project, never tour and never do another album. Well, they did a small tour and here we are now reviewing their 2nd album, ‘Rise’. And this time, they are giving more credit to Robben Black and Magnus Henriksson as full time members. Both guys are also from the band Eclipse along with Erik.

The album came out on Frontiers Records since it was all Serafino Perugino’s idea anyway. It was released on February 22, 2013 and was actually produced by Mr. Erik Martennsson himself. Along with the songwriting, guitar playing, bass playing, keyboards, he was rather busy on this album. But Erik wasn’t alone on the songwriting as Robert Sal was heavily involved as well as Jeff Scott Soto and Magnus Henriksson. Come to think of it, everyone who did songwriting on the debut, pretty much contributed here as well. The sound on this album didn’t change, it is pure 80’s melodic rock or AOR if you want. Think Journey, Bon Jovi and the like and you pretty much have an idea of what this album will sound like.

The album opens with “Walk Away”, a lusciously sounding lick and then some heavy drums goes right in to a groove that brings it all together. Soto’s vocals are so smooth and slick you are transported to another era. With a hook that has you singing along as you ride down the rode with this beautiful melodic rock extravaganza.

Then we get the delicious “Learn to Live Again” which is a duet between Erik and Jeff and it is nothing short of delightful. You get more of the same hummable, singable magic as they figure, if it ain’t broke, why fix it. Jeff, again, sounds fantastic with his almost falsetto singing at times, and with this wicked riffs and a killer solo backing him up, it is more greatness.

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Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Damage Control’ (2012) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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It had been 3 years since Jeff’s last solo album, 2009’s ‘Beautiful Mess’. That album was good, but a lot of people didn’t like it’s direction as it wasn’t the hard, melodic rock that fans of Jeff love. And I get it, but let’s be honest, Jeff should be able to make whatever music he wants to make. I wasn’t a massive fan of that album, but it had some great moments for sure. ‘Damage Control’ sees Jeff listening to his fans and giving them what he they want. He is always good about that. And I wonder if the title is in reference to that fan reaction from the prior album. It seems pretty tongue-in-cheek if you ask me.

I want to say the album dropped around January 6th, 2012, but I could be mistaken. But before that release date, Jeff put in a lot of work on this album and he worked with a ton of writers and a ton of musicians (and sometimes both). Some of the writers were old friends such as Jamie Borger (Talisman) and Gary Schutt (solo band) and then there were names we hadn’t heard yet in his career like Joel Hoekstra (Whitesnake/TSO). Jeff has known Joel for awhile and Jeff would return the favor a couple years down the road (which we will review as well.

Jeff had a total of 21 songs ready for the album, but they needed to dwindle it down to 11 which somehow he did. The songs were recorded all over the world on three different continents including Europe as well as North & South America. The album wound up on Frontiers due to the long standing relationship he has had with Serafino Perungino. They agreed to do a Deluxe Edition where Jeff could actually include 14 of the 21 songs as long as there was a DVD with an EPK (Electronic Press Kit) and some music videos and that is the copy I have and will review.

The album kicks off with “Give a Little More” and it is nasty piece of a rock with that gritty guitar riff, the heaviness of the bass the drums. Jeff attacks the vocals with in equal intensity. An almost anthemic, melodic rock song that is proof that Jeff can still deliver the heavy rock like fans complained about. This song is a statement and the guitar solo by Leo Mancini is the exclamation point on that statement.

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Jeff Scott Soto – ‘Live at Firefest 2008’ (2010) – Album Review (The Jeff Scott Soto Series)

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Firefest is festival in Europe that came about after the end of another festival called The Gods of AOR. Firefest started in 2004 and it was bigger and even better than the Gods festival. Jeff Scott Soto performed at the Gods festival in 2002, and even released the show on a live CD/DVD. Jeff got the call again to do the festival in 2008 and he said Yes, obviously or this discussion would be ridiculous.

It wasn’t easy for Jeff because at the time of the festival, he was in the middle of rehearsals for the Trans-Siberian Orhcestra’s annual Winter Tour. TSO rehearsed 12 hours a day and Jeff was probably exhausted, but he jumped on a plane on a Friday in the U.S and landed in London by Saturday morning. He had to rush to Nottingham and meet his band. Luckily, it was his band so it was Howie Simon, Gary Schutt and Dave Dziaklak, but they hadn’t played in over about year and had like an hour to rehearse and get ready for the show. Did they pull it off…well, of course they did! They are professionals. It is a great show and another great live album from Jeff.

But…I have a major problem with this release and it isn’t the quality of the show as Jeff sounds amazing and the band is tight and all is good. It is the fact that this setlist is almost identical to Jeff’s last live release ‘One Night in Madrid’. Every song on here was played at that show in this order. The only difference is that the Madrid show had more songs (and was a totally killer show). I feel like I just reviewed this show and not really sure what new I can say about it. I could basically cut & paste that review here, delete out the songs that aren’t on here and BOOM!…the review and you probably wouldn’t know the difference.

So what I will do is walk through the little differences between the shows so I at least give you something different. Like the Madrid show, this one kicks off with the opening track “21st Century” from his latest album ‘Beautiful Mess’, but the big difference is when Madrid goes in to the next song “Colour My XTC” you get the whole song while her you get a small prelude portion before going in to the great “Soul Divine”. One of the highlights on this and the other live show is “Our Song” from his latest album. Jeff sounds amazing on this one and the band nails the song. A power ballad with a lot of Jeff’s powerful vocals. Such a great song.

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