Alexandra Zerner - Opus 1880 (CD Review)

Disc 1
1. Overture
2. Chaos of Cards
3. The Oracle
4. Mirrors
5. Quest of Light
6. The Sound of Dreaming
7. Questions
8. Letter to Nowhere
9. Diamind
10. Pinch of Time
11. The Missed Dance

Disc 2
1. Desaturation Point
2. Master of Lightning
3. The Other Side of the Sky, Pt 1
4. Unfairlytale
5. Cumulonimbi
6. Dolphins
7. Electric Kisses
8. Sensosphere
9. Five Gardens
10. The Other Side of the Sky, Pt 2
11. Youtopia

Alexandra Zerner - All instruments

Guest musicians:
Angel Wolf-Black (Vivaldi Metal Project) – vocals on "Chaos of Cards", "The Oracle", "Quest of Light", "The Sound of Dreaming", "Questions", Letter to Nowhere", "Pinch of Time", "The Missed Dance", and "Master of Lightning"
Bobby Koelble (Death) – lead guitars on "Desaturation Point"
Franck Hermanny (Adagio) – bass on "Electric Kisses"
Gretchen Menn – lead guitars on "Unfairlytale"
Iavor Pachovski (Yuvigi) – lead synth on "Master of Lightning"
Ivan Ivanov (Velian) – vocals & narration on "Overture", "The Oracle", "Questions",
"Master of Lightning", and "Sensosphere"
Misha Iliev – vocals on "Dolphins"
Mistheria (Vivaldi Metal Project) – piano on "The Sound of Dreaming"
Nora Kalcheva (The Strings) – cello on "The Sound of Dreaming"
Svetlana Bliznakova (Sevi) – vocals on "The Other Side of the Sky, Pt.1 & 2"

Bulgarian prog-rock solo artist Alexandra Zerner presents "Opus 1880", the third full-length and a double CD concept album, combined with a steampunk sci-novel written by herself in collaboration with Slav Georgiev. "Opus 1880" offers an experience of two hours of colourful progressive rock and more than 100 pages of science fiction.

The album, which took about two years and a half of production time, was written, recorded, mixed, mastered, and produced by Alexandra Zerner in her own home studio, except for the guest musician parts.

A very mixed album, some neo classical piano based works act mainly as fills, then some symphonic rock that at times borders on commercial rock, tracks such as ‘Chaos Of Cards’ have ‘Heart’ like harmonies blended with sumptuous keyboard work.

‘The Oracle’ on the other hand is full on heavy metal, prog tinged of course and towards the end almost Dimmu Borgir sounding melody and spoken passage.

For vocal and piano perfection then the mournful ballad ‘The Sound Of Dreaming’ is by far one of the best examples I have heard for quite a while.

Then there are songs that are pure acid folk that just flow through the speakers, ‘Letter To Nowhere’, ‘Cumulonimbi’ & ‘The Missed Dance’ could be from an old ‘Trees’ album in 1970.

Superb jazz guitar work can be heard in the power metal, progressive, hybrid ‘Desaturation Point’.

So as I said a very mixed album, this is what can happen when you plan a double album and have so many guests, often playing very different styles of rock music.
The question is of course: does it work? The answer is “Yes”, whilst the styles range from folk and prog to power and symphonic metal, they flow in and out you don’t get a chance to get fed up with one style before a different one comes along, it’s almost like listening to a various artists compilation album, but, providing of course you like these styles, never a duff track.
Not being a great fan of the Power Metal genre, there was enough progressive influence to make this a highly listenable album.

Rating 9/10
For Fans Of: Heart, Tristania, Epica, Purson, Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil, Nightwish