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Derek Sherinian"Mythology" Former Dream Theater keysman Derek Sherinian has issued his latest solo outing. It is an instrumental affair (except for one song), and features the talents of many well known rock musicians, including Zakk Wylde, John Sykes, Allan Holdsworth, Steve Stevens, Tony Franklin, and Steve Lukather, among others. It is quite an impressive effort, with Derek and the boys exploring a number of different musical styles. There are, of course, straight ahead rock songs, like "Day Of The Dead", "Alpha Burst", "God Of War", "One Way Or The Other" (which has some Sabbath style fuzztone guitar), and "The River Song", a blues influenced number, which is the only song to feature vocals. There are also a couple of ballads, "El Flamingo Suave", which features some soulful piano playing and is reminiscent of the Black Crows' "Seeing Things For The First Time", and "A View From The Sky", which is a bit new age-y, and the guitar playing reminded me of Steve Vai. We also have "Goin' To Church", which is very different. This is a bouncy little number with a lot of "world music" influence, including Latino, African, and jazz, with some Flaminco-style guitar playing and hand beaten percussion. And finally, we have "Trojan Horse", a fast and bouncy keyboard oriented song, that also features some violin playing. All the playing on this album is brilliant. There's a lot of technical guitar wizardry, and of course some good keyboard playing as well, and all the songs are very well written and crafted. Every note is done to perfection, and there's never a dull moment. Derek and his compatriots have turned out a fine piece of work here. |
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