Review
Keyboardist Derek Sherinian was a founding member of the prog metal band Planet X and hard hock supergroup Black Country Communion, and longtime member of Dream Theater (1994–99). Sherinian solo albums feature numerous, well-respected guest musicians (guitarists such as Slash, Yngwie Malmsteen, Allan Holdsworth, Joe Bonamassa, Zakk Wylde and Al Di Meola). Now Armoury Records will be reissuing five of Sherinian’s solo albums starting with Inertia, his second solo album originally released in 2001.
Toto guitarist Steve Lukather and drummer Simon Phillips were key elements to the recording of Inertia (Phillips co-produced and mixed the album). And the cover of Edgar Winter’s “Frankenstein” brings a lot of fun to a dinosaur track, thanks to guest guitarist Zakk Wylde’s riffy crunch.
At times there’s an overload of fusion influences — for instance, Mahavishnu Orchestra’s electric violinist Jerry Goodman is a guest musician here — but teaming with a hard rock drive proves to be, for the most part, a nice combination. Seemingly, Derek Sherinian needs to constantly challenge his own talent against the massive skills of others. The only real fault is the title of the album. The music is hardly stuck in an inertia.
A direct-to-consumer store will be available for all future Sherinian reissues at www.theomegaorder.com/dereksherinian.
