NEVERLAND is a fusion of the Turkish band DREAMTONE with Iris Mavraki's NEVERLAND. Basically, this band hails from Turkey and when you get this album in your hands you see the cover and instantly what it is about. This is their second album, called "Ophidia". So what is "Ophidia" about? Progressive Metal with strong traces of heaviness (mostly going to the BLIND GUARDIAN way). Their first album "Reversing Time", apart from the fact that it kinda confirms the band's admiration for BLIND GUARDIAN, was a great album where Hansi Kürsch (BLIND GUARDIAN), Tom Englund (EVERGREY) and Gary Wehrkamp and Mike Baker (SHADOW GALLERY), together with Instabul's symphonic orchestra made it an amazing work. Sadly, that album did not gain the publicity it was expected, but it gained enough to attract the attention of AFM Records. Following the same recipe, there are some guest musicians in this CD, like Jon Oliva, and this action unavoidably makes it more interesting,

The first moments of this release are quite good. The intro is quite catchy in its simplicity and "Silence The Wolves" enters dynamically filled with progressive melodies that are connected with bands like DREAM THEATER, and sometimes KAMELOT. "Ophidia" has lot of elements from FATES WARNING, too. "Invisible War" and "Speak To Me" are amongst the top tracks of the album, they combine melodies between folk and Progressive Metal in a fantastic way. "Places Unkown" moves in the same motive. "Ashes To Ashes" is surrounded by a darker veil. The first moments of "Into The Horizon" sound similar to MACBETH.

What we have to underline about this album is that it has invested in bands that have marked their path in the progressive (mostly) genre, and by doing something that is sounding quite similar to it we can call it "mission accomplished". It is a plan that can not possibly fail. No one can dispute the fact that the musicians here are quite talented and that a remarkable job in the console has been done. The vocals are more that fitting and the guest musicians are attracting more attention in this second effort from NEVERLAND. Definitely the Prog followers will have already invested in it.