Derek is back with yet another all-star lineup. Derek and his friends never seem to disappoint and this honestly has to be his best solo album to date. Derek is amazing as a keyboardist and his songwriting skills are also a fully flexed muscle. Some of the writing on here is as impressive as the special guests that he has playing the parts. It’s really hard to pick favorites on al album as great as this but if I must, I’d say my favorites are the opener and closer, “Day of the Dead” and “The River Song,” respectively. A cool addition to the already amazing music is the debut of vocals on any of Derek’s solo albums. “The River Song” contains the first vocals ever recorded for Derek’s solo material and is sung by Zakk Wylde. Zakk literally came up with the song and the lyrics completely on the spot, he was just sitting around playing and started singing along with the music he was playing. Zakk is good with that “on the spot” kind of stuff which was a plus for Derek because it definitely will have opened some doors to having vocals on future releases (as Derek told me himself, in our last interview with him.)
Derek’s solo albums never disappoint me, and this is no exception. Go out and grab this immediately…because I said to! Go!
