Customer Reviews

Universe

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album is an infernal machine, a time bomb in your stereo just waiting for a virtuosic detonation. The guitar playing is a unique blend of hybrid picking, position shifting, scale-combining, and string-skipping at supreme quality. Virgil Donati(drummer)is undoubtly one of the few drummers in the business with the alacrity of a cheetah on the double bass pedal, and the skilled hands of a stonemason. As for Derek Sherinian(former Dream Theater keyboardist), his odd time signatures and warm tones complete the trinity of these incomparable musicians. This is a classic for any Macalpine/Donati fans, and any connoisseur of technical/avante-garde music.

Planet X's Universe is a truly outstanding progressive metal instrumental effort. Tony MacAlpine's heavy riffing and throwback shredding bode well with Derek Sherinian's typical stellar synth playing. Drummer Virgil Donati also displays his considerable chops and has solo writing credits for two of the songs. One of them, Dog Boots, is in many ways the album's standout tracks. It's riff-heavy intro is quickly punctuated by the incoming keyboards with a nice melody. It gets stuck in my head a lot. I think it would be a good song to use in a film. Other standout tracks include Clonus, Bitch, King of the Universe, Pods of Trance, and 2116. My only complaint about the album is that there isn't that much actual variety. Most of the songs have the same basic sound. Still, this is a worthwhile purpose for fans of heavy instrumental music or of any of the musicians involved.

This is a joint venture of Derek Sherinian (keys), Tony McAlpine (guitar), and Virgil Donati (drums). If you know the solo album "Planet X" of former Dream Theater member Derek Sherinian, you know at least the musical category of this album - except that it's got more heavy guitars on it, thanks to Tony McAlpine. This album is so loud, heavy, dissonant, dense, depressive, and ear-hurting, that it's a real joy to listen to it. Stylistically, the music is probably a mixture of progmetal and fusion. Anyway you might name it, it's a breath-taking tour-de-force for your ears. Not for the faint-hearted!

A good album by Sherinian, MacAlpine and Donati. It is guitar, drum and keyboard fusion, but it has a much harder edge than anything I've heard. It sounds somewhat like Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment. Lots of solos and high energy music. I only wish there was a little bit more contrast. Although not as good as the Liquid Tension Experiment albums, it is a very good album for anyone who wants to hear a diffrent slant on fusion.

Apart from the opener of the album Planet x Moonbabies this cd is far superior to that work. It is more focused, more direct, more heavy. In this case these adjectives are all compliments. Moonbabies is a good album but its music is too pointless in the end. Time signature changes for the sake of playing it without any musical reason are a bore after the first 2/3tracks! The formula isn't too different in the case of this "Universe", but the point here is a little bit more centered. It is industrial, metal, fusion music with awkward chord progressions but delivered with good chops and attitude. Sure what you can find here is still cold robotic, meaningless technical music, but it's funny, enjoyable, more than Moonbabies' music, for what I am concerned. It is really "space" music, when you start to listen to this cd it seems that a strange brutal space alien should come out of your speakers one minute or the other!! The sounds, expecially keyboards sounds really come from that same outer space. Oh, funny Derek boy c'mon dude, be serious next time!!

This right here is the evolution of prog music, folks. They, along with Altera Enigma, are the frontrunners of this genre. Universe and Moon Babies are two of my all time favorite albums right now. I think Moon Babies is slightly better, but I still gave this one 5 stars. My favorite track on here is number 6, "Inside Black".

I had read many of the words of praise heaped on Virgil Donati in magazines like Modern Drummer, but had heard little from him. This CD has changed it all. The first track I listened to was Her Animal. This made me believe that he was set to live up to the hype that preceeded him. Dog Boots is my favorite track, and is a chilling reminder of Quadrant 4 by Billy Cobham in its relentless double-bass drumming. If you want to hear something absolutely cool...dig this!

If the music of Allan Holdsworth, Dream Theater or Rush is your kind of music, by all means pick this up today. Not that this sounds anything like the above mentioned bands. In fact, this music is in a class all by itself. If you want a comparison check out U.K.'s first album and imagine it with seven string guitars. This music is brilliant. It is created by three of best musicians ever and I hope one day it will be appreciated by the masses.

When Derek Sherinian was leaving Dream Theater he said that his new band will be the "sickest" musical project ever created. He gathered some of the most incredible playing musicians that are walking on Earth and formed Planet X. With virtuosos like Tony MacAlpine one guitar, Virgil Donati on drums and Tom Kennedy on bass as a guest, he recorded the first output by his band titled "Universe".

The album starts with "Clonus". When I heard this track for the first time it blew my head of through the window. The heaviness of this tune and the whole recording as well is overwhelming. But well, that's the major problem: there isn't actual much variety through the record. Most of the songs have the same basic sound. We are attacked by heavy riffs one after another and after some time you can't even recognize them. There is only one small beautiful middle-section in the "King Of The Universe" and some slow down in the "Poods Of Trance", but that's all. Because of that some songs on "Universe" become boring, predictable and repetitive. Come on guys, sometimes the listener wants to rest from instant rocking.

This supposed to be an fusion-metal release. To me it's more metal then fusion, so probably that's the reason I'm not fully pleased while listening to this recording. If you're more a prog-metal fan this CD will certainly appeal to you. If not, head for "MoonBabies". It's a much more fusion oriented, adventurous and better CD.

After buying this album based on the merit of the three players in the band, I was not at all shocked at what I heard- heavy, progressive fusion unlike anything ever made. It did not take long before I realized this was and will be the future of rock music. Technically there is nothing to be desired. These guys have the chops and are not afraid to exploit them. But what sets this album apart from most other "prog" albums is the atmosphere created within. At times it is seething and relentless, other times melodic and introspective but always other-worldly in it's overall sound and vibe. I could go on and on about the three players in the band but I'm sure if you're reading this you already know of them. This type of music will always have a place in my cd player and as long as these guys keep making music I will never be bored. Look out for their next album!