Short Reviews [Whom Gods Destroy - 2024 - "Insanium"]

For those of you who have yet to come across this debut album, but enjoy prog metal at its very best, you had better sit down and pay attention as this is a blaster from beginning to end. What we have here is a new band which has been put together by Sons of Apollo bandmates keyboard player Derek Sherinian and guitarist Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal. Although Sherinian is often thought of by many as being the keyboard player in Dream Theater prior to Jordan Rudess, or being a founder member of Black Country Communion, I actually think back to his solo albums as he is the one keyboard player I have always thought of as actually playing the wrong instrument. He is a wonderful musician, but he has always come across to me as someone who really wishes he played electric guitar to the same level, and this has impacted his own work so that he works best when he is the company of master guitarists, also bringing the best out of them. Of course, that means he has always been in demand with rock and metal musicians, and here he has allowed himself to continue his relationship with Thal which means we get complex keyboard and guitar interplay which is more like two guitarists combining than a guitarist and a keyboard player. The bane started coming together when they were joined by Croatian singer Dino Jelusick who only fronted Animal Drive but is a touring member of TSO and is backing singer for Whitesnake. Soon afterwards the rhythm section of bassist Yas Nomura and drummer Bruno Valverde (Angra) came into the fold, giving us something which is a shredder’s delight as they mix styles from the likes of Meshuggah and Dream Theater into a potent mix of prog metal, mathcore, and djent, all with a close eye on commerciality and melody with a singer whose voice is broad with wonderful range. This is album where the band manages to keep mixing it up so there is no idea where they are going next, apart from knowing there will always be incredible note density and a band who are blasting from one song to the next. One can only hope these guys stay together as a full band as opposed to a one-off project as anyone who can switch from classic Seventies rock ballads like “Find My way Back“ to the many shredders are someone to look out for. This is fun from beginning to end, turn it up!