Semantic Saturation is a progressive rock/metal project founded by guitarist Shant Hagopian, featuring progressive metal gurus Virgil Donati (drums), Ric Fierabracci (bass), with guests; Derek Sherinian (ex-Dream Theater - keyboards) and Andy Kuntz (Vanden Plas - vocals). Shant Hagopian is a Canadian songwriter/guitarist, of Syrian/Armenian heritage. From 1996 to 2003 he specialized in Jazz guitar studies, and in 1997 he founded the progressive rock/metal band Nu.Clear.Dawn along with musicians in the Syrian city of Aleppo, as one of the first and very few bands to emerge out of the Syrian scene. Touring throughout the Middle East and playing in large festivals such as "Rock the Nations" in Istanbul along many international names like Pain of Salvation, Epica, Sentenced, Vanden Plas and more, their 2003 album "Poem of a Knight" which also was the first officially released metal record in Syria, received positive reviews from acclaimed webzines such as Metalstorm and the Metal Observer and others. Shant moved to Canada in 2005 and recently started working on his solo project “Semantic Saturation” with the debut album “Solipsistic” which is set to be released on January 21, 2013, featuring progressive rock and metal gurus such as drummer Virgil Donati, bassist Ric Fierabracci with guests; keyboardist Derek Sherinian (ex. Dream Theater) and vocalist Andy Kuntz (Vanden Plas). Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.