Year: 2022
Total Time: 46.46
Label: Inside Out Music

The famous keyboardist Derek Sherinian (ALICE COOPER, DREAM THEATER, WHITESNAKE, SONS OF APOLLO, BLACK COUNTRY COMMUNION etc) released this year his ninth instrumental album called “Vortex”, with Simon Phillips being the producer and drummer.

To be honest, I am not a big fan of instrumental albums no matter how great the musician is. I love vocals and I think that they can give prominence to music (and vice versa of course). Nevertheless, being a keyboardist myself ages ago, I listened carefully to “Vortex”. First of all, this is a full length album with a duration of more than 45 minutes and the 8 songs included give us the necessary diversity. From soul and jazz (“Scorpion” or “Key Lime Blues”) to harder or even metal music lines (“Fire Horse”). I will focus on the song “Die Kobra”, my favorite song of the album which I believe should be accompanied with vocals (clean or not). It starts with an addictive eastern melody and then it is skyrocketed thanks to two guest musicians, Michael Schenker and Zakk Wylde. Guest musicians is another big advantage of this album since Sherinian does not try to show off, but creates music that would fit to each and every one of the musicians that participate (besides Schenker and Wylde, Nuno Bettencourt, Joe Bonamassa, Ron Thal, Steve Stevens etc). On the other hand, the relatively long duration (for an instrumental album) gives us some indifferent songs that can bore someone who wants to listen to the album in its entirety.

The truth is that instrumental albums mostly address to musicians who try to copy their mentors’ techniques. Sherinian, one of the top 10 keyboardists of all time, provides music lessons to keyboardist wannabes but at the same time gives some very interesting songs to the rest of us.

Rating: 7/10
Editor: Kostas Boudoukos
Related Link: Derek Sherinian – Facebook Page