Label: Insideout Music
Release date: 9/18/2020
Production: Derek Sherinian
Album length: 42:36 min
Genre: Jazz-Rock Fusion/Progressive Rock
Rating: 10/10
Derek Sherinian needs no special introduction, just the realization that nine years of waiting for his new solo studio album was far, far too long. The former Dream Theater and Planet X keyboardist, and a member of superstar outfits Sons of Apollo and Black Country Communion, is tireless in his musical pursuits. He’s the Caligula of the world’s rock and metal keyboardists. In recent years he hasn’t even let the dismal sales of his records slow him down, a slump made worse by the ongoing explosion of music offerings on digital platforms. And to top it all off, Covid-19 took away the last guaranteed income from touring, since Sons of Apollo had to cancel all their live activity this year. Still, there’s a silver lining: otherwise Derek would most likely never have found the time for his new studio album, called “The Phoenix”. Truth be told, a new album beats Covid-19 any day, even if the wait for it has been 30 years.
Derek basically conceived his new album as a jazz-rock fusion trio. That’s not even surprising. He actually brought his old partner in crime, the endlessly fascinating Simon Phillips, back onto the new record, and pulled Phillips’s Protocol bassist, the “golden-handed” Ernst Tibbs, into this powerhouse trio. The new album delivers eight tracks that, compositionally, basically grow out of jamming. At the same time they carry an exceptional dose of cleverly and wisely packaged variety, setting clear artistic landmarks among them. To achieve such vividness, Sherinian brought a pile of guest musicians onto the album. For anyone familiar with this musician’s previous seven studio albums, that’s not surprising either. Let’s run through them in a flash right here in this piece: Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal, Joe Bonamassa, Kiko Loureiro, Steve Vai and Zakk Wylde. Add contributions from Tony Franklin and Billy Sheehan on bass guitar, and the picture of the new album gets even clearer.
You guessed it. At least one track on the album goes straight for exactly what Simon Phillips does with his Protocol: brilliant jazz-rock fusion, with the warm, organic sensuality of fully lived-in playing in the track Dragonfly. Why is it so organic, so uniquely velvety and warm? Because Derek uses nothing but piano on this track, exclusively.
Another special detour on the album comes with the vocal track Them Changes, a cover of the Buddy Miles original. Buddy Miles was the first musician to take Derek out on his first concert tour. Yes. “The Phoenix” is an album full of Sherinian’s nostalgia and memories. “Temple of Helios” is a typical track from his solo work, once again drawing inspiration from the favorite themes of Greek mythology. But back to “Them Changes”: the vocals and guitar come from the new deity of modern blues rock guitar, Joe Bonamassa. That makes him Sherinian’s Black Country Communion buddy, and the track naturally ties into the essence of that super rock lineup, especially their latest album “BCCIV” (2017). It’s not the first such move in Sherinian’s solo career (those who know the album “Blood of the Snake” will know), but it brings a welcome shift in mood and style to the record.
Anyway, the album opens with a bang! It kicks off by demolishing everything with the title track. Like finding yourself in the middle of a hurricane. Toxic chaos. The finger warm-up, with hellishly fast scale runs between Sherinian (you can’t miss the sound of the Nord keyboards), Wylde and Sheehan, who recklessly “push” each other on, naturally settles down as it goes on. Zakk Wylde builds on the glaring, bristling, at times fully metal sound with his fat, thick Gibson guitar “gear”, and he doesn’t fall short in the shredding acrobatics department either. Sheehan’s presence pulls the track toward his own songwriting contributions within Mr. Big. In this track, the product of unruly sprawl is joined with feather-light ease by “Octopus Pedigree”, teamed up with the sensitive Tony Franklin on bass guitar! The thing absolutely evokes the good old Planet X days, but it’s decidedly and markedly syncopated, full of sudden upheavals and pronounced pranks, in the sense of endless inspired wit generated by the unique musical flexibility of a top-notch crew of gathered names. “The best of the best”. A moment of the album, then, that is especially breathtaking.
On “Empyrean Sky”, Sherinian’s Sons of Apollo bandmate Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal plays guitar. The track follows the fusion line, and with its fascinating and highly inspired interplay between the two musicians, it offers a glimpse of instrumental work that would hardly fit on a Sons Of Apollo record, taking the listener behind the scenes to show what else the pairing can offer, carrying the character of their mutual jam to a never-before-heard level of jazz-rock fusion artistry. The illustrious Zappa “apprentice” Steve Vai also steps onto the album himself. That’s the track “Clouds of Ganymede”. Sherinian and Vai were part of the Generation Axe project together in 2016, with Derek as the keyboardist on the Asian leg of that tour. In terms of musicality, the track has the most polished lead phrase of all, standing out musically on “The Phoenix”. The collision of soloing escapades within this track, from both musicians, is a singular experience on this album and one more proof of the boundless virtuoso playfulness of a top-tier “showdown” between two musical geniuses. The album closes with “Pesadelo”, seasoned with South American temperament, a dash of flamenco and the traditional melos of Brazilian music, where current Megadeth guitarist Kiko Loureiro teams up with Sherinian, and the track doesn’t skimp on moments of neoclassical arrangement. Yet another striking detour on the album, delivering a magical, even mildly mystical finale.
With “The Phoenix”, Derek Sherinian has delivered another fantastic achievement. None of this would exist without the Sherinian-Phillips partnership. It’s the guarantee that sustains and capitalizes on a shared musical vision. That vision is once again the core starting point on the new album, which, with breathtaking skill, managed in just eight tracks to weave in a host of extraordinary musicians, draw a distinctive voice out of every guest, and at the same time pour oil on the fire of the compositions’ stormy dynamism, which goes just as much for the contrasting shifts of mood and the at times unpredictable turns the album takes. Above all this spectacle, though, the most valuable quality of the album is the fact that Sherinian managed to keep the artistic character that, in its eclectic expression, adorns the past studio works of this brilliant musician. “The Phoenix” is, to put it “mildly”, a new top-tier achievement for Derek Sherinian and his musical vision!
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. The Phoenix
2. Empyrean Sky
3. Clouds Of Ganymede
4. Dragonfly
5. Temple of Helios
6. Them Changes
7. Octopus Pedigree
8. Pesadelo
Lineup:
Derek Sherinian – keyboards
Ernst Tibbs – bass guitar
Simon Phillips – drums
Guest musicians:
Ron ‘Bumblefoot’ Thal – kitara / Guitars
Joe Bonamassa – guitar, vocals on track no. 6
Zakk Wylde – guitar
Kiko Loureiro – guitar
Steve Vai – guitar
Tony Franklin – bass guitar
Jimmy Johnson – bass guitar
Billy Sheehan – bass guitar
