His latest album 'The Phoenix' end date 2020 and keyboard player from 'Sons Of Apollo', 'Derek Sherinian', brings out a new opus with again an impressive list of renowned guitarists who each participate in at least one composition: we find 'Joe Bonamassa', 'Michael Schenker', 'Mike Stern', 'Nuno Bettencourt', 'Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal', 'Steve Lukather', 'Steve Stevens' and 'Zakk Wylde'. Built on a patchwork of different styles, he offers us 8 titles ranging from rock to funk through jazz and metal, all this of course being part of sought-after and quite complex progressive paths in which our artists deploy all their talent, the whole always remaining very melodic. We are therefore embarked on an instrumental whirlwind taking us from energetic hard-rock with 'The Vortex' to an exotic 'Die Kobra' mixing East and West via a catchy 'Fire Horse', merging rock and jazz, climate which we also find in 'Seven Seas' but which this time alternates rock and jazz without forgetting the funky 'Key Lime Blues' and 'Nomad's Land' mixing jazz and funk reminiscent of 'Herbie Hanckock' in the 80s. And for fans of long developments, 'Aurora Australis' summarizes the whole by bringing together all the styles present on the album with a complex and imaginative construction in which 'Derek Sherinian' and 'Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal' demonstrate a very nice complementarity. In short, as he had already done with his last opus 'The Phoenix', 'Derek Sherinian' continues to offer us sought-after and imaginative compositions highlighting his talent as a composer and his virtuosity as an interpreter that he shares with the cream of the guitarists invited for the occasion, which makes 'Vortex' a very rich and very dense album intended for an informed public who like instrumental progressive music... | |
