Derek Sherinian - Inertia - 2001
intro
First CD of the most undervalued Dream Theater´s keyboardist. After Planet X project, Sherinian is surrounded in "Inertia" by big names of the music's history: Tony Franklin (The Firm, Whitesnake, Blue Murder) plays the bass along with Tom Kennedy and Jimmy Johnson; Steve Lukather (Toto) and the overvalued Zakk Wylde (Ozzy Osbourne) are the guitarists; Simón Phillips (Asia, Camel, Jon Anderson, Jeff Beck, Big Country, Brian Eno, Judas Priest, Mick Jagger, Mike Oldfield, The Corrs, Mr. Big, The Pretenders, MSG, Satriani, etc, etc, etc) plays the drums; and Jerry Goodman (Dixie Dreggs) plays the violin.
review
Nowadays it seems that every prog musician want to blend jazz rock, progressive, metal and all that one could fit inside a song, a la Liquid Tension Experiment, Bozzio-Levin-Stevens or all the Dream Theater´s members side projects. Fortunately this music is quite more difficult than the progressive metal or neoprog, so we can still continue delighting with the all the creators of the style without having to listen to an invasion of clono-bands. These words advance that this CD is worthwhile.The tracks (instrumental, of course), fluctuate among the energetic and tense moments of "Inertia" (4:20), "Frankestein" (3:31), "Evel Knievel" (3:17); the demonstrations of technique of "Mata-Hari" (6:21), "Astroglide" (4:35), and the wonderful "Rhapsody in black" (6:40), with great work of guitars and keyboards in the intro (1:41) and a quasi-film development; and the instrumental frivolities of the musicians like the hard-jazzy "La pera loca" (5:06), - impressive Sherinian and Phillips- ; or the Jeff Beck´s psycho-blues "Goodbye porkpie hat" (6:23). The most curious track is "What to shame" (5:01), a beautiful composition in crescendo and the only one in which Lukather and Wylde share protagonism. It is obvious to say who win this battle. After 10 years, I can´t explain myself the reputation of Zakk. Of course Steve smashes Mr. Wylde without a blink.
conclusion
Adding good musicians' names in a project doesn't necessarily imply quality, but this is not the situation. With a spectacular production of Phillips and Sherinian, great musicians, and some amazing tracks without cheap exhibitionism, Sherinian has made a good and highly recommended CD.