Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Awesome line-up, good musicianship, weak production, December 11, 2003
Human into Dreams' World is the first album of Italian prog metal guitarist Daniele Liverani's project called Genius (Rock Opera). This is planned to be a trilogy so we can expect at least two more CDs from them in the upcoming years. I have been familiar with Liverani through his band Empty Tremor, who have two albums out as I type this, and I really like their work. When I found out, a tad late, that Liverani was also behind this project featuring an amazing line-up like Mark Boals (Yngwie Malmsteen), Daniel Gildenlow (Pain of Salvation), Midnight (ex-Crimson Glory), Lana Lane, Chris Boltendahl (Grave Digger), Oliver Hartmann (ex-At Vance), Steve Walsh (Kansas), John Wetton (Uriah Heep) and many others. Being a big fan of prog metal, needless to say I was more than interested in checking this project out, especially since one of my favourite prog vocalists, who is very picky in joining side projects, Daniel Gildenlow was on the bill. Midnight's work with Crimson Glory in the 80's has always impressed me and Mark Boals possesses an incredible range. I was also rather intrigued by the inclusion of singers like Boltendahl and Wetton who were obviously brought in to balance things out. Lana Lane's work in Ayreon proves that she is the perfect fit for such concept albums, and Steve Walsh from legendary band Kansas needs no explanation. Philip Bynoe is a good choice to fit the role of narrator too.
Despite the wide cast of singers present on this debut album, the music is performed by merely two guys: Daniele Liverani and Dario Ciccioni. Liverani has written all the songs by himself; he just got some help with the lyrical work, and he also plays every instrument you could possibly think of except the drums, which are handled by Ciccioni. Liverani plays the guitar in his prog band Empty Tremor and he's played on several tribute albums like Jason Becker and has got solo releases as well. Interestingly enough he's even a better piano/keyboard player. That's because he started out as a piano player and practised for years before switching to the guitar in his late teens. Additionally he plays the bass as well. Considering that all the instruments were played by him is enough proof that he is a fairly advanced musician as far as musical performance is concerned. The drumming is also very competent, though a bit more regular judging by the standards of some other drum gods such as Portnoy, Zonder, Reinert or Christy. Still he does a great job. Concept wise the album deals with the theme of friendship. There's a wide range of singers, all with quite diverse ability, and they all serve the purpose of this concept right. I do not want to go into the details of the story, because most of the lyrics in the booklet are self-explanatory and every listener should bring out his or her own intrepretation.
The one and only problem with the album is the weak production. This entails the recording, the mix, and song arrangements as well. It is understandable that Liverani's budget probably didn't allow him to make this album exactly the way he'd wanted to, since almost every singer recorded their parts in their own countries using their own recording equipment. What Liverani did is put the pieces together and produce the album by himself. That's unfortunately where some songs fell short on production. The mix suffers too. There's no consistent balance. Philip Bynoe, as the narrator, speaks in between songs (like Ayreon - The Final Experiment and Nolan & Wakeman - The Hound of the Baskervilles) but whenever the spoken parts are followed by the music there's a serious difference of sound. Bynoe's voice is mixed too low forcing you to crank up your stereo and then when the music kicks in it's like your speakers are going to blast. The instrumentation and vocals aren't blended too well either. The drum sound is very dry and very 'independent'. It's like they were recorded the last, as opposed to first, and they fail to back up the vocal melodies sufficiently. The guitar solos and riffs are good in their own right, but again they're weakly arranged within the context of the songs. I think that's the biggest setback of this CD. Also I feel some of the vocalists were chosen a bit too randomly to sing their parts. I think Boltendahl is a great singer but his role in the CD sounds a tad out of place. I would have loved to hear more from Midnight personally. Mark Boals sings within a certain style through the entire album - never too high. Gildenlow also seems to give the song what it needs by staying within a certain mid-range. That's good though, cause his ultra versatile vocals would be too much for this concept. I quite like Oliver Hartmann's singing but then overall it makes Genius sound like Avantasia trying to adapt a sharper tone straying from their prog roots slightly. Nevertheless it's a good effort and contains lots of intricate and powerful riffing enriched with melodies that are peculiar to some European prog bands only. Recommended but not essential in my opinion. It will be interesting to see where they head in episode 2.
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Maybe average, July 17, 2005
The album is not particularly original. Sounds a lot like like a rip off of Ayreon, Pain of Salvation, and prog metal/rock in general. I was very interested in this album because of Pain of Salvation's prodigy singer Daniel Gildenlow and his incredible voice. The instrumental aspect of most of the songs is average, but the singers were not used at their max. Lyrics are absolutely HORRIBLE. I can't believe somebody like Daniel accepted to sing that garbage.
Please, if you consider yorself a serious progressive rock/metal and prog opera fan, do NOT absolutely buy this album. Arjen Lucassen and Ayreon is what you want to listen to. Buy Ayreon - The Human Equation or Ayreon - Into the Electric Castle and you'll see who real genius is :)
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3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Good cast, major problems, June 16, 2004
By A Customer
It was a nice idea in theory . . . unite the strong melodic metal and prog-metal talents of Italian guitarist Daniel Liverani with big-name English language vocalists such as Steve Walsh of Kansas, John Wetton of Asia, and more. The vocalists give game performances, but the music suffers from a production point of view. A rock opera really demands a keen sense of dynamics, and Liverani doesn't deliver that here. Consequently, while there are fast and slow songs, the album's mood stays in one place, and there's never any sense of drama. Compouding this problem are the witless and utterly banal lyrics. I can imagine the vocalists giving game attempts to sing these songs, but never again should anyone attempt a full rock opera in their 2nd language. For a better attempt at a modern rock opera, fans should seek out Nikolo Kotsev's brilliant 2 CD "Nostradamus" featuring Glenn Hughes, Joe Lynn Turner and more. The Genius project apparently has two more installments coming. Cover your ears.
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