PLANET X

Over a decade ago I bought this album because I was (and still am) a huge DT-fan and since Mr. Sherinian had only just left that band at the point of the release of Planet X I almost felt obliged to go for this one. I thought I couldn't get disappointed because I absolutely loved Sherinian's contribution on DT's Falling into Infinity. But where I went wrong in my contemplation is that Derek of course was never the songwriter of DT so assuming that this album was automatically a bull's eye was not correct.

Does this mean we are dealing with a poor effort here ? Not really, it's merely different than poor. I mean, this album Planet X is actually a sort of prelude for the later "band" Planet X which means the style on this release is going towards fusion. I recently reviewed Quantum by that band but I have to conclude that Sherinian's style has improved in the 8 years that lie between both albums. Compared to Quantum this debut sounds a bit sloppy and even though most songs are ok and have their moments at least I still feel the overall quality is way less than on Quantum.

I wouldn't want to call this a disappointment but it's certainly no masterpiece. Personally I have my doubts between 3 and 4 stars and since I just stated that Quantum is a lot better and gave that one 4 stars, I feel I have to round down here. Let's say almost 3,5 for this but certainly no excellent addition to any prog rock collection. So 3.