What is it about fairytales that provides such inspiration to the progressive power metal world? Everything from the logos and artwork to lyrical concepts and at times the music itself all sounds as though it’s come from some fantasy world dreamt up by a small child. There are no less than ten Neverland’s listed on the Metal Archives and typically all fall under the power metal banner though to distinguish this one from the rest the full title is actually “Dreamtone and Iris Mavraki’s Neverland.” Dreamtone themselves didn’t do very much; one album, in fact, before teaming up with fellow Greek singer Iris Mavraki to form this band and are now on album number two.
The album begins with ‘This Voice Inside’ which true to form creeps in until the spoken words of Mavraki lead us in to the track proper. There is that narrative story-telling feel to this that fits in with the theme of the album and once things really get going you can see there’s plenty of power behind the guitar driven melodies. I felt that Reversing Time was a bit weak and wishy-washy in parts but this isn’t so much the case with Ophidia and on the whole it’s a much stronger album. ‘Invisible War’ is by far my favourite track on the album; it has a really fierce thrashing drum rhythm that leads the way through some meaty fist-pounding moments and skips down a jovial sing-along ‘lai-lai’ passage. It definitely has the power and vivacity to be a hit in the metal world at least.
‘Speak To Me’ has a nice bouncy spring in its step and is almost jazzy in places, while ‘Silence the Wolves’ plays out with an Irish jig that has me torn between wanting to headbang and do the riverdance. The keyboards on ‘Ashes to Fall’ start things off highly reminiscent of Dimmu ‘Progenies…’; the symphonic elements on this album are at times quite bombastic while at other moments play out with much more of a folky flavour. ‘Will of God’ is rather pleasant and with its flutes there is something of a renaissance vibe to it. Sadly the vocals on ‘Ashes…’ just sound odd to these ears and even has me pausing to check it’s not playing over something else in the background.
‘Final Odyssey’ begins with a cool, danceable groove mixed with a Spanish guitar. In fact, this is another one that has me somewhat perplexed thinking it wouldn’t sound out of place on KISS FM or some other radio station. It’s not true of the entire track through, and later on it goes a little bit proggy for a brief moment, though thankfully there’s not too much of this on the album as a whole. Ophidia shows considerable improvement from the 2008 debut which I also reviewed; stronger, heavier and with more focus and direction in the overall sound. I’ve neglected to mention that there are a couple of guest performances from label mates Jon Oliva and Edu Falaschi (Angra) though I’m sure this is quite a selling point among power metal fans. If you’re adverse to progressive power metal then this isn’t going to win you over, but otherwise it’s an enjoyable listen.
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