EPISODE 2: IN SEARCH OF THE LITTLE PRINCE

Second part of this acclaimed rock opera named In search of the little prince from 2004 is a natural follow up of previous work. Spearheaded by Daniele Liverani , his band Genius did again a good job here, the music who is in my opinion something between melodic power metal with prog metal leanings has some fantastic characters here like Mark Boals (from Ring of Fire, ex Malmsteen), Daniel Gildenlow (Pain of Salvation),Russel Allen (Symphony X),Edu Falaschi (Angra),Rob Tyrant (Labyrinth),Eric Martin (ex Mr. Big), Johnny Gioeli (Hardline, Axel Rudi Pell),Liv Kristine (ex Theatre Of Tragedy) and the excellent drumer of Twinspirits - Dario Ciccioni +of course the main man Daniele Riverani. All these musicians , more specific the vocal department, (because the instrumental passages are provided only by Liverani who handle keys, guitar and bass and Ciccioni the drums), is very good, each vocalist has it's own range, own unique voice, but the album sount very strong and very tight. When I first listen to the album I was a little surprised to see Liverani in this light, because I know him from Twinspirits and Cosmics, and each band is diffrent from each other, is an example that Liverani musical horizon is very large, with great potential , from jazz fusion in Cosmics, prog metal in Twinspirits and melodic power metal in Genius. From all 3 parts this one , the second episode seams to me the weakest as a whole, I don't know but sometimes I have the feeling I'm listning to some chessy power metal band from the '90's, no every time, but some pieces falls in this category like the opening track He will die or You won't escape, even the cover art is very unintristing. From all the tracks I prefer the one where sings the guy from Mr Big - My dear son - is an excellent mid tempo piece whre Eric Martin shines. What was another surprised, was the fact Liverani use the keyboards very sporadic, only in back ground, just to keep the atmosphere right of the piece, no solos, no improvisations either. The guitar he handle here sounds very strong, very calculated guitar player, with many solos, twists and breaks, just to the spot when we wanted to hear this kind of music. The drumer of Twinspirits is excellent, and on their next release is even better, great and yet very unnoticed musician. I'm not gonna tell the story behind the release, the one's who wanted to discover their work will find what is going on here. So for this second part I will go with 3 stars, good album, but overall nothing realy groundbreaking. Similar with Avantasia or some Ayreon works.