Platypus: Frigid But Not Rigid
by Martin Popoff

The prog metal collective called Platypus, featuring Ty Tabor from King's X, Rod Morgenstein from Winger and Dixie Dregs, Derek Sherinian, ex-Dream Theater, now with Planet X, and John Myung, bassist for Dream Theater, have emerged from the boiler room at Rod's house into what is hopefully a new dawn for its creators.

Central to the record is Ty Tabor's own personal Ice Cycle, Ty struggling through a tough year of relationship problems which have established wrenching lyrical anchors throughout this record, the new King's X, and very likely, judging from Ty's description of the album, his next solo record. But we shall say no more on that, and in fact, let affable drum legend Rod Morgenstein take the er, bike and ride with it.

"We are now officially a band," laughs Rod, given that there are now a pair of Platypus' to keep each other company. "I would say the main difference with this one is that with the first record, Pus Comes To Shove, you had a bunch of acquaintances coming together. With the exception of John and Derek, none of us really knew each other all that well, so I don't think any of us had a really clear picture of what this project was going to be. So we all came to it with a lot of musical ideas and some of us came with completed songs. So there wasn't really a concept of what these four musicians were other than a neat idea. And with this new CD, I think you now see a concerted band effort. Everything is falling into place where there is more of a similarity between the songs, even though you still feel the influences of all the band members. The writing was more communal."

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