After the 'Dream Theater' guitarist, 'John Petrucci' who released 'Terminal Velocity' a couple of months ago, it was the turn of keyboardist 'Derek Sherinian', ex 'Dream Theater' and member of 'Sons of Apollo' to release his instrumental album, the last 'Oceana' already dating from 2011. For the occasion, he surrounded himself with prestigious artists among which the guitarists 'Steve Vai', 'Joe Bonamassa ' and 'Zakk Wylde'.
And all starts with the eponymous title of the album, with a small keyboard solo with guitar tones close to 'Eddie Van Halen' which serve as an introduction to a raging rhythm in which Derek shows all his velocity, then, the tempo calms down with 'Empyrean Sky' which brings us back to keyboard sounds close to 'Deep Purple' in a bass / drums rhythm section allowing all possible disgressions to keyboards and 'Clouds Of Ganymede' highlights' Steve Vai 'on guitar which shows a nice fusion with Derek's accompaniments. With 'Dragonfly', we feel the jazz-rock influences of the keyboardist who takes us on the piano in sounds close to the late 'Keith Emerson' reminding me of the awesome 'Trilogy' which already dates from 1971, then, 'Temple of Helios' continues in an atmosphere mixing progressive with jazzy intonations and 'Them Changes', which is a cover of 'Buddy Miles', highlights 'Joe Bonamassa' on vocals and guitar (always as magical) in this catchy track mixing rock, jazz, soul and funk. The end of the album offers us 'Octopus Pedigre', in a muscular progressive rock reminiscent of the sounds of keyboards and the rhythms of 'Emerson Lake & Palmer' with intonations mixing East and West but also eyeing in some places towards modern jazz more difficult to tame then, 'Pesadelo' which returns to progressive metal and which this time highlights the guitar playing of 'Kiko Loureiro' in, first of all beautiful duets with Derek and also a very nice central Hispanic part.
In summary, with this new album which is ultimately more a team album than a solo album (and what a team !), 'Derek Sherinian' shows us once again his talents that we already knew but in an instrumental universe and, 'The Phoenix', given its rather technical character in certain places, will necessarily be intended for an audience favoring compositions not necessarily accessible to all... | |
