Genius: A Rock Opera - Episode 1: A Human Into Dreams' World

This could very might be the best of all these "metal operas" albums (if you exclude Ayreon), it's cheesy as hell but music wise it's holds for the most part a very high standard. There are some weak moments, "Paradox" is a 10 minute mess and "The Right Place" sounds like a Disney ballad gone wrong. Then we have the good stuff, "Without Me Today" and "I'm Afraid" are both very proggy and has a excellent flow to them with great solos and melodies. The fastest track on the album is "Terminate" and it features the one and only John "Midnight" Mcdonald and he owns this track, a fast prog metal winner. Or wait "There's a Human" is also damn fast and nearly as good. "The Glory Of Our Land" got Chris Boltendahl on vocals giving us a catchy verse and chorus. "Dreams" sounds like a good Royal Hunt track, "All of Your Acts" got some AOR touch to it and "Father" is a dramatic ballad-like number with no one other than John Wetton on vocals (that raises the album a whole star!).

As I said it's extremely cheesy, the story is boring and there's a annoying guy between the songs telling a bit of story. Apart from that this is a excellent and forgotten cd. Daniele Liverani plays all guitar, bass and keyboards, impressive stuff!