The Scene Magazine Features Semantic Saturation

We’re featured on the homepage of the Canadian music and entertainment website “The Scene Magazine

The article features the track Stardust from the debut album Solipsistic, with a short review and a rating of 4/5 -Too Hot to Trot

The new single Stardust from Montreal based Semantic Saturation is a fabulously produced track that evokes strong imagery in the listener.

Fantastic musical sensibility provided by a stellar line up including Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater) help to make this track a stand alone masterpiece.

The band released their debut Solipsistic in January of this year to rave reviews:

” If you are an instrumental Prog Metal lover, this is the first masterpiece of 2013 and a real must! ” – Power Prog

” The music will come to you and slap you hard in the face,
a sweet punishment, painfully delicious. Music that goes beyond magic and reality, a prog-fairy-tale.
Passion, wisdom, crazy theory… Solipsism. ” – Lady Obscure

” I can verify right now that ‘Solipsistic’ is the epitome of progressive rock/metal. The album is boundless, and will forever stand the test time. Absolutely brilliant and well worth the wait. Do not let this one slip by. ” – Metal Buzz

The sheer brilliance created by this unique line up make Solipsistic an album that should be on your radar.

Shant Hagopian (guitars)
featuring:
Virgil Donati (drums)
Ric Fierabracci (bass)
special guests:
Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater – keyboards)
Andy Kuntz (Vanden Plas – vocals)

source:??http://www.thescenemagazine.ca/semantic-saturation-stardust/

Solipsistic Reviewed on Danger Dog

Joel Rittberg from “Danger Dog Music Reviews” published a review about Solipsistic yesterday July 29, 2013. Joel loved the album so much he gave it a score of 5 out of 5!

Here’s the full review.

Solipsistic Album Cover

Semantic Saturation: Solipsistic
Instrumental Progressive Rock/Metal
5.0/5.0
Website Facebook
by Joel Rittberg, 07.29.2013

Semantic Saturation is the project of Shant Hagopian. He is a guitarist from Canada, who has played with other musicians throughout other parts of the world. What we have here is his self-produced debut.

Shant Hagopian (guitars)
Shant Hagopian, guitarist

Ambivalence starts off this disc, with a very heavy groove riff, that leads into an awesome melodic lead, that becomes an instrumental version of a verse. The entire song builds upon this melody, and each time leads itself into a new part of this six minute plus opener. Make Believe, shows off Shant’s amazing melodic songwriting skills. This song feels part-Rush, part-Dream Theater in its ability to change tempos. A great keyboard/guitar trade off at the two and a half minute mark, showcases the extremely talented Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater and many others) on keyboards. Sherinian and Shant go at each other, like its a heavyweight boxing fight, trading blows.

Lost and Found Insanity has a very cool keyboard melody that repeats throughout this intro, that reminds me of an old eight-bit video game. With a very warm guitar lead that joins the song a minute in. Around the minute and a half mark, Shant shows you his project is not about how fast he can play, but how great of a songwriter he truly is. The next song Stardust shares the same common melodic sensibilities as Lost and Found Insanity. Blessing in Disguise will remind listeners of John Petrucci from Dream Theater, especially the 2000, Metropolis Part 2, Scenes From A Memory. Its a truly beautiful melodic piece of instrumental progressive rock. The last twenty seconds again, showcases his idea of less is more, substance over quantity of notes played.

Armchair Activist, has a very Surfing with the Alien Satriani meets Passion and Warfare-era Steve Vai, a solid rocker, that showcases Shant’s abilities. This is probably the most technical song on the disc so far in my opinion and it also showcases a short break between drummer Virgil Donati and bassist Ric Fierabracci. Point of Singularity is a beautiful clean guitar and atmospheric keyboard piece that introduces a melodic guitar solo near the last minute of the song, that takes the song to new heights. This song would not be far out of place in an old sci-fi movie, with its keyboard tones.

Time Is An Illusion, is another masterpiece like Make Believe, without writing the same song twice. The last song, What if We All Stop, is the only song that features vocals. Those vocals are provided by the very talented Andy Kurtz of the German band, Vanden Plas. The open features a beautiful melody with Kurtz’s vocals coming in. The song turns into a full on prog-a-thon halfway through, and its definitely a welcome addition, to the instrumental tracks before it.

Solipsistic is an amazing piece of art. It’s a journey of musical emotions that reaches amazing heights, that brings us back down to earth when its ready too, not any sooner. Easily recommended for fans of Derek Sherinian’s music, or for those who appreciate instrumental guitar music, that isn’t about how fast you can play through every song.

source: http://www.dangerdog.com/2013-music-reviews/semantic-saturation-solipsistic.php

Prog Magazine Reveiws Solipsistic

It’s really a great honor to be reviewed in the classic Prog Magazine (issue #36) which is out today.
Special thanks to Grant Moon for all the help and amazing support.

SolipsisticSEMANTIC SATURATION
All-star calling-card from talented Canadian fret-wrangler.

Enterprising Canadian/Syrian guitarist Shant Hagopian brings us a work of mind-blowing complexity and technical proficiency.Solipsistic features prog-metal keyboard maestro Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater) and monster drummer Virgil Donati (Planet X). That title is perfect for this work – a convincing stall-setter like this comes only from relentless self-belief and focus. Hagopian takes his thick-toned, solo metal guitar on a dizzying lap of the musical labyrinth on nine intense tracks with titles such as Ambivalence, Make Believe and Lost And Found: Insanity. There’s something earnest and affable in his
expression throughout, even in the knottiest moments of workouts. Stardust and Point Of
Singularity, while in parts there are shades of Joe Satriani, our My Prog Hero guest this month. Ballad Blessing in Disguise and feelgood jam Armchair Activist in particular evince a lyrical ear, elevating his fretwork above the many wannabes launching themselves daily over the Prog ramparts. Vanden Plas’ Andy Kuntz gives an impassioned performance
on What If We All Stop, the sole vocal number on this pleasingly nerdy, dazzlingy proficient record. -GRM

Here’s an extract from the magazine.

Prog Magazine #36 - Semantic Saturation Review
Prog Magazine #36 – Semantic Saturation Review

Virgil Donati

This past Saturday night Eddie Jobson and the band UK (reunited) was playing here in Montreal at a very intimate theater with 400 seats, the line-up was??Eddie Jobson (keys/violin) – John Wetton (bass/vocals) – Alex Machacek (guitar) – Virgil Donati (drums)

So I had the chance to meet with the drummer Virgil Donati who played on the Semantic Saturation album “Solipsistic” and snapped picture with him, that I very much like to share with you.

Virgil Donati and Shant Hagopian
Virgil Donati and Shant Hagopian

Thanks to my wife for the great picture! 🙂