Neverland is a challenging collaboration between Turkish prog metallers Dreamtone and the Greek orchestral vocalist Iris Mavaki. In the main, it works well with her sweeter tones blending well and where necessary contrasting perfectly with Oganalp Canatan's deep rich voice.

Huge production and a guest list featuring Hansi Kursch (Blind Guardian) Tom Englund (Evergrey) Mike Baker and Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery) as well as the entire Istanbul Philarmonia Orchestra should make this an essential album, however it all seems just a tad overblown.

There is no doubting the ability of each and every member, whatever they are playing but it's all too epic. Maybe it's a worthwhile experiment to properly amalgamate heavy metal music with the orchestra, one that many will consider genre defining but sadly for me, it's just too much. Can the symphonic metal sound be too big?

***

Review by Dave Hunter