Planet X

Headed by Derek Sherinian, famed sideman for power/showy acts such as Kiss and Alice Cooper, Planet X takes metal-esque music and bends it with some rather spacey jazz twists to create Euro-dub-prog music that is plausible despite using conventions already proven to be successful years ago. They touch upon sounds created by Canada's Saga, early to mid-period Rush and, most certainly, Emerson Lake and Palmer, weaving a type of weak dramatic vibe that would stir the eardrums of Quebecois and Europeans into a frenzy. All songs are instrumental in nature, with the keyboards kept low and guitars wailing high in the clouds, but the entire ordeal suffers a little too much from synthesis in general, making it play like an experiment in variations within one single theme. Fans of Dream Theater and Ozric Tentacles should take notice though, as they may find something deep within these tracks that should allow them some retro-relief in a world where every other type of music out there seems more progressive than they are.