Customer Reviews

Molecular Heinosity

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Molecular Heinosity is Derek Sherinian's sixth solo album. Much like its predecessor, Blood of the Snake, it sees the skilled keyboardist opting for a predominantly guitar-based album, enlisting the services of guitar heroes that include the ever-present Zakk Wylde, the terribly underrated Brett Garsed, and Rusty Cooley among others.

The first three tracks sort of recall the trilogy on Sherinian's first album Planet X. Written and arranged by the great Virgil Donati, they inevitably lend themselves to fusion territory, often evoking the material presented on Planet X's last album Quantum. "Antarctica" is an expansive number, with a strong rhythmic backbone and tasty synth elements. "Ascension" is comparatively more psychedelic, and a welcome change to Sherinian's often guitar-driven new sound. With "Primal Eleven", the drumming becomes more prominent as does Tony Franklin's beautiful fretless bass playing. Sherinian elicits myriad synth tones out of his instrument, while the guitar work is subtly integrated into the composition.

New recruit Rusty Cooley, the amazing shred god, appears on "Frozen By Fire", which he helped co-write. Sadly though, the tune turns out to be yet another neoclassic shred fest, bringing little novelty to the table. It's a shame the duo couldn't come up with more interesting ideas; actually the material on Cooley's self-titled solo album is much better if we are talking about shred for shred's sake.

Though this album has been marketed as a more 'metal' release than Sherinian's previous outings, the only tunes that really present unbridled aggression would be "Wings of Insanity", for its rhythmically stupefying intro, and the amazing title track, obviously influenced by the great Meshuggah. After repeat listens, it is only this track that qualifies as something new from Derek Sherinian. It boasts challenging guitar work, dense synth experimentation, and brutal onslaughts of drum and bass dominance. It would have been great if he had further experimented with this idea.

Sadly without Simon Phillips co-writing and arranging with Sherinian, Molecular Heinosity proves to be merely a mishmash of songs, partly Quantum-era fusiony tunes with the compulsory neoclassic shred (performed much better on the previous tunes by Yngwie Malmsteen) and the occasional ethnic influences.

Zakk Wylde sings on the only vocal track "So Far Gone", laced with elements from Sherinian's Armenian roots. It's an average song in which Wylde attempts to revive the classic Sabbath sound, but honestly the mix of cello, metal, fusion, and 'Ozzy' on vocals does not quite work, rendering it somewhat overwrought.

Maybe it's about time Derek Sherinian sat down and actually tried to compose songs on his own, without relying on big names who will help sell albums easily. There is a reason why Sherinian has never quite matched the brilliance of his first two albums, particularly Inertia. Bringing in countless shred heroes and relying on their technical proficiency obviously doesn't cut it anymore. It seemed to work with Black Utopia and Mythology, and even Blood of the Snake to an extent, but in time these records have certainly paled in comparison to the more compositional works on the first two discs.

When I buy a Derek Sherinian album, I either want to see him compose songs that highlight his keyboard playing (like Jordan Rudess for example) or do something really interesting rather than repeating past glories. Still, for an instrumental album, Molecular Heinosity is well worth checking out. It's just that I feel he can do better.

if he and the old line up from planet x would have stuck it out they all would of really had something. has to be about the money,that's the only reason i can come up with.same old thing that he has been doing for the past few albums,and each one gets less and less interesting.

Derek's sixth solo record Molecular Heinosity may not top his acclaimed album 'Black Utopia', but it is a fine instrumental record that any fan of rock-fusion and instrumental prog-rock can appreciate.

As in most Derek Sherinian records, the songs always take front stage over mindless shredding and never ending masturbatory solos... so if that is what you are looking for, you can purchase any Jordan Rudess solo album to keep you happy. LOL
Let's do a round-up track by track:

The opener song Antactica could have easily been featured in any Planet X album, (thanks no doubt to being co-written by drum virtuoso Virgil Donati, who writes most of Planet X's songs) and is a fine departure for a solo Derek Sherinian album, because we know Virgil has a very stylistically defined way of writing songs, with his shifting tempos and multi-part writing.

The next track, Ascension is a two-minute ambient keyboard and solo guitar song, which could have easily been featured in a Planet X album, which creates a nice mood for the following track: Primal Eleven, which is another Virgil Donati fusion tune in the Planet-X vein featuring a great chorus that stuck in my head days later after listening to this CD. This is one of the best songs Virgil has ever written.

At this point the album takes a metal turn, Fusion gives way to the usual Zakk Wylde metal guitar in the next track Wings of Insanity, which is followed by a memorable neo-classical fusion track, "Frozen by Fire", featuring another great chorus. In this song Derek just rips out some insane soloing, but unfortunately, whoever was the guitarist soloing on this track, he just couldn't keep up.

Next comes a solo piano vs. solo guitar song: The Lone Spaniard, which creates a welcome break from all the guitar and keyboard shredding

The title track of this album is a quasi death-metal driven by syncopated rhythms, not my favorite track in the album, but an interesting song.

The last and only less-than-stellar song in this CD is the last track, "So far gone" featuring Zakk Wylde doing his usual awful and horrid Ozzy Osbourne vocal impersonation.
I am not really sure why Derek keeps on featuring Zakk Wylde singing in his solo instrumental records, but i am fairly sure most listeners wouldn't mind if Zakk just stuck to playing his guitar in Derek's albums.

This is a great instrumental album, with somewhat uneven songwriting, but Derek's playing always keeps thing interesting in the many musical styles he touches.
Sure there are the fusion purists who can't really get into the whole metal thing and viceversa, but you just can't keep everyone happy, especially when writing this type of challenging music, but one truly has to appreciate Derek's inmense talent as a songwriter, more than just a mindless keyboard shredder.

Every album by Sherinian was fantastic (Mythology being the best in my opinion),he opted in this one for more of a guitar based album which did not fare very well and unlike the others it was too predictable in some songs,hopefully he goes back to his roots.

Derek Sherinian has produced another fine album of instrumental progressive rock with more than a hint of intense fusion thanks to his collaboration with Australia's own Virgil Donati on drums. I always love what these two virtuosos come up with and I think their songs on this album are much better than the more neo-classical influenced songs which tend to get a little tired and repetitive. Brett Garsed's playing is awesome as usual and Tony Franklin's fretless bass work sounds great too. This isn't Sherinian's best solo album but it is certainly worth checking out. I would love to see Derek Sherinian do a slightly more keyboard focused solo album in the future!

Black Utipia and Mythology had good playing and songwriting to make the music rock and roll.

Molecular Heinosity is the most non music CD release yet. In my opinion, a major letdown and waste of money.

Derek Sherinian is criminally overlooked in the instrumental rock world. His amazing shred-fusion is easily some of the best music of the decade. Derek's "Black Utopia" and "Inertia" albums are in my ears more often than almost anything else. "Molecular Heinosity" is another great outing. The guest stars are amazing, especially the newcomer Taka Minamono. Bret Garsed kills on the first three tracks. (Although I would like to hear Tina Guo's cello a bit more. It got a little lost in the mix IMO.)

I have to disagree with the other reviewer about the guest stars. While I wouldn't mind the keyboards coming some more to the forefront, the composition is what makes these tunes. And the tunes all have Derek's stamp firmly upon them.

Excellent band, songs and talent. Straight ahead. How do they come up with this stuff?