Well, hardly prog metal I suppose but Eddie Jobson gets my vote for consistently having the best synth textures in a prog context. And Geoff Downes might be 2nd.
Well, hardly prog metal I suppose but Eddie Jobson gets my vote for consistently having the best synth textures in a prog context. And Geoff Downes might be 2nd.
Originally Posted by Yves
I believe he's woefully underrated. Good call, guys!
No, they have to use a Mellotron...
Gnish-gnosh borble wiff, shlauuffin oople tirk.
Trent Gardner of Magellan is an excellent keyboardist - when he gives his keys some breathing space. I really like his work on both Explorers Club albums and some of the Magellan records.
I definitely agree that the best Sherinian solo albums are the first two. Rudess is great on his own Feeding the Wheel and Rhythm Of Time.
Derek Sherinian's work on Relocator is fantastic.
As is Jem Godfrey's on Frost albums.
The keyboards on the first two Spheric Universe Experience records are good, also the first Circus Maximus album.
Pagan's Mind keys player is excellent.
I don't know if it's prog metal, but Ephemeral Sun is worth a mention.
There are also bands like Shadow Gallery and Mind's Eye.
Anybody who has not heard them, should check out the band Hexatonica and their album "El Visionario" - very interesting instrumental prog metal and keyboards are very much the front instrument.
selmer:
I just pulled out Rudess' Feeding the Wheel after a very long time. I had forgotten what a wonderful album it was. Rudess is easily one of the most inventive players the genre has seen. People complain about his overtly technical playing, but albums like Feeding the Wheel and Rhythm of Time are testament to his diversity and compositional flair.
I never got around to checking out Sherinian's work on Relocator. As for SUE, to me, they never topped their debut. And while the second disc was also good, the third one was awful. I've also never heard any work by Hexatonica. I will have to sample some tunes.
Thanks!
Hexatonica have two albums, they're also working on a DVD. The first of their studio albums did not impress me, but "El Visionario" is good.
As for SUE - the first two albums are good, the other ones are either mediocre or just poor, in my opinion.
Relocator is as good as any of the Planet X albums.
And the thing with Rudess is that he hasn't done anything that I've liked since the covers album The Road Home. I'm not much into his DT stuff, I rather prefer his solo or smth like the Rudess Morgenstein record.
Not a huge prog metal fan, but I have to give the thumbs-up to Kevin Moore (DT, also unquestionably the best songwriter the band ever had, they were never as good songwise after he left) and...I-can’t-remember-his-name from Haken. Also, a bit on the obscure side, but the Mexican band Toccata (one album, Circe, from 2005) had a really fine keyboardist. Their female vocalist was their best feature, though, she was incredible!
Confirmed Bachelors: the dramedy hit of 1883...
There was a discussion on one of the DT threads about their keyboard players and somebody said that it doesn't make a difference who is the keys player in the band. I guess there are people who think that the sound of the band develops or is different just because they evolve and change and it doesn't make a difference who plays what. Or maybe in the case of DT it was Portnoy and Petrucci who dominated proceedings - I guess saying something like that is already a cliche.
Why exactly did Moore and Sherinian leave? I understand that the later one did not leave because he himself wanted it.
Moore quit because he was no longer interested in making shredding prog metal (and everything he has released since then has been very subtle and atmospheric). Sherinian was originally recruited as a second choice because Jordan Rudess wasn't willing to join DT at the time, so he got the boot once Rudess became available later on.
I've also heard that the other members of DT weren't very comfortable with the increasing amount of lava lamps and feather boas on stage during the Sherinian era. On the commentary track of 5 Years in a Livetime DVD they point out how Derek usually wore a black t-shirt and jeans on stage while he was still billed as a guest musician in the early part of the Awake tour, but things started to change very quickly after he became an official member.
Why can't Sherinian be normal and have an odd half-black half-green beard like a NORMAL rock star!!!
"Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)
I read the same thing about Moore - that he became disinterested.
About Sherinian - they fired him because his sounds did not fit with what the band wanted (that's what I read). It almost sounds like the usual "creative differences".
It's just that I don't always believe what I read somewhere so that's why I'm asking - sometimes there are people who might know more.
Recently I came across an interview with Portnoy where he said that he likes the guy (well, now they play together in that supergroup), but he still thinks that Sherinian was not the right choice for DT.
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