Orchestral metal.
The orchestral prelude to opening track ‘Shooting Star’ sounds very much like the music to long forgotten PS1 fantasy adventure game “Medievil” and it seems that this is the kind of thing that Greek/Turkish dream-metal sextet Neverland are going for; floaty, magical orchestral backing with metal riffs and ‘fantasy’ lyrics. The band was born from Turkish prog-metal band Dreamtone with the added vocals of Greek vocalist Iris Mavraki and the result is something like Meatloaf in style; theatrical, over-the-top, epic and with emotional vocals.
The epic, operatic feel of the album is helped along by the impressive talent of the Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra and some solid guitar riffs along with the ever present dual vocal attack. Guest turns from Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Tom Englund (Evergrey) and Mike Baker and Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery) also help to give the record some additional depth and variety.
The harp, violins and saxophone on closing track ‘Transcending Miracle’ are particularly effective when mixed with the jagged off key rhythms of the down-tuned bass and guitars to create a crescendo of melodic noise and tracks such as ‘Mankind Is A Lie’ are like a journey in themselves with the orchestra backing up heavy guitar riffs and some interesting instrumentation adding an exotic feel, with twinkling piano, glocs, violin and Iris’ huge vocal range swimming over it all. The result is huge in scope, oddly cinematic and really seems to achieve the goal of the band which apparently (according to their press release) is to “venture into the waters of fantasy driven melody and songs from magical places that come alive every time we close our eyes”.
The fantasy/orchestral element that is at the core of what makes this album so epic and sweeping means that quite a few of the tracks here have moments that could be reminiscent of the soundtracks to myriad fantasy films, Tangerine Dream’s music for Legend perhaps or like on ballad, ‘Everlasting Tranquillity’ the guitar sound really brings to mind the theme from The Princess Bride (Mark Knopfler), they don’t usually bring to mind specific films though, you just get an overall feeling that takes you into that fantasy realm. The mix of this dreamy angle with the power of Dreamtone’s complex and solid metal riffs and solos and heavy drumming means some genuinely exciting moments are created.