Whom Gods Destroy – Insanium
Release Date: 15th March 2024
Label: InsideOut Music
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Genre: Progressive Metal
FFO: Sons of Apollo, Dream Theater, Redemption, Symphony X.
Review By: Eric Wilt
With Billy Sheehan going back out on the road with Mr. Big, and Mike Portnoy rejoining Dream Theater, Derek Sherinian and Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal of the progressive supergroup Sons of Apollo found themselves in need of a new outlet for their musical creations. Fortunately for them, they had been working on new music with singer Dino Jelusick since 2020. Together with bassist Yas Nomura and drummer Bruno Valverde, Sherinian, Bumblefoot, and Jelusick forged a new musical union called Whom Gods Destroy, and the group is set to release the resulting album entitled Insanium on InsideOut Records on March 15th.
Although Insanium leans more into prog metal than either of the Sons of Apollo albums, it still sounds like it could be album number three by Sherinian and Bumblefoot’s former band, albeit with a new singer. This is, no doubt, because Sherinian and Bumblefoot have such distinctive sounds that show through in any band setting. In fact, the same keyboard settings that have served Sherinian so well from Dream Theater through his solo stuff and into Sons of Apollo can be heard in Whom Gods Destroy, and Bumblefoot’s solos that transition between his fretted guitar and his fretless one abound on Insanium. New guys, Valverde and Nomura are more than up to the task of keeping up with their veteran counterparts. As Bumblefoot says, “These guys are all just mind-blowing…!,” and they really are.
The one part of the band that does not live up to my expectations is singer Jelusick, of whom Bumblefoot says, “He’s one of the greatest singers out there.” I am sure this is true in certain musical settings, but I don’t feel that the majority of the songs on Insanium do his voice justice. On most of the songs, Jelusick uses a gruff delivery that reminds me of Brian Johnson with more powerful pipes. For the most part, this singing style misses the mark for me. There are a few songs, the ballad Find My Way Back is one, where he backs off on the intensity of his delivery, and his clean singing voice is quite nice.
As for the songs themselves on Insanium, I would rank them somewhere in the middle of the progressive metal pack. The musicianship is definitely top-notch, but the songs are not overly memorable. They are good, but nothing on the album is drawing me back for repeated listens. Songs like In the Name of War and Insanium show the potential that a band made up of so many talented musicians has, but even these, the best songs on the album, are not five-star songs. Maybe with a different singer or if Jelusick used a different singing style, my opinion would be different. The one song on the album that I would rate five stars is the instrumental, Hypernova 158, which is 3:25 of sheer musical bliss. Overall, Insanium is only a good debut by a band that I expect to release great album after great album. Perhaps they are still finding their way and by the time album number two comes out, they will find themselves kings of the prog metal mountain.
(3 / 5)
