I hate to confess something very personal in a music review, but allow me to do this. Progressive Metal and progressive music in general has always made me uncomfortable. So I have consciously kept myself at a distance from the genre. But having been a reviewer at Metal Temple has made me take up albums from the genre that have constantly time and again impressed me and made me reconsider my uncomfortable feeling towards the genre. Fact is that the feeling has remained even after me giving highly raving reviews for some of the albums from the genre, and when I was again asked to do this review of the new album of the solo career of noted SAVATAGE's guitarist CHRIS CAFFERY, I was secretly hoping to change this bad taste or feeling in me.

The album starts with the title track "Your Heaven Is Real" and you can't help but just hope that it doesn't disappoint, and boy it doesn't! The riffs and vocals are really fast paced and heavy, almost piercing through your ears and often made me check if I wanted to lower the volume a bit down. The song was longer than I expected it to be and actually turned out more like an anthem and did excite me more as the song progressed. The music hits all the right spots, most importantly surprised me pleasantly and got me excited as most Power Metal albums with clean screaming vocals are usually a hit or a miss, but this sure was a hit. "Arm and a Leg" offers a bit of Thrashy style riffs, and is another anthemic song that simply should be played while walking alone in a deserted street to get that insane feeling! "Just Fine" is all about guitar eargasms as the boys try to get into a Zakk Wylde mode with all those solos, which actually work well without being overly used.  The song gets your hair raising and has shades of SKID ROW due to the cool backing vocals. Sometimes music shocks you pleasantly and that's what CHRIS CAFFERY is trying to do with songs like 7 min clocking "Why". As I write this this review, it's almost midnight here and the screaming vocals in "Damned If You Do, Dead If You Don't" has kind of woke me up from my sleepy mode and will surely rebound in my ears even after days listening to the song. Call me crazy, but some of the guitar work here reminded me of MICHAEL ANGELO BATIO! As if the already existing guitar work wasn't enough, the band plays a pure instrumental in "Hot Wheelz", and you will hear exactly what you expect. "Death by Design" sounds exciting and creepy (Yes! Listen to the lyrics closely) at the same time. As I start wondering still how many songs are remaining, the band brings in a small soothing instrumental in the weirdly named "2 26 15", and "Too Soon to Be Too Late" has a BON JOVI-ish feel to it! "Over and Over" is a near 8 minute epic song, with the song building on the tempo as it progresses, worth every second of your time - just beautiful! The album finally culminates with "Come Home" which is mostly like a rock-lullaby as the keyboards by Chris make their presence felt once again.

For an album over 1 hour, the album demands quite a lot from the listener, but does offer a lot to dig into and is a real treat for Rock Ballad and Power Metal fans. It's not the usual Power Metal record, but one that offers a lot more and has surely made me rethink my opinion on the whole word "Progressive Music", but frankly this is a must listen to any seasoned Metal fan irrespective of your genre affiliation, and not just the die-hard SAVATAGE fan.