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Helion Prime have been pumping out solid Sci-Fi Power Metal for years now, with their previous release, Terror of the Cybernetic Space Monster, being a big step up for the band in terms of energy and quality. With former vocalist Heather Michele Smith returning for songwriting duties and a concept celebrating those who defied conventions and stayed steadfast in their beliefs, this album had all the signs of a band getting ready to take another big step from a fun band to a great one. That's also a good sign of a band about to miss the mark in that effort, which is what happened here.

Having said that, there's no big change in the band's formula here. It's still European Power Metal in the mold of Blind Guardian and Helloween with solid performances and some snappy vocal work from new singer Mary Zimmer. However, where previous releases had enough bombast and energy to get past the need for novelty, this one overloads on the former so much that it throttles the latter, making for a sound that's less interesting and more generic. Whereas songs like "Into the Black Hole" and "Urth" exploded out of the speakers with enthusiasm and gusto, most of the music on here tries too hard to sound grand and important with its choirs and slower paced sections while landing squarely on pompous and ridiculous. Every now and then, you get a solid tune like opener "The Final Theory" and the title track, but you mostly get tunes like "Madam Mercury" and "The Gadfly" where the band overloads their compositions to the point of making them tedious and dull.

On their older works, Helion Prime were refreshing in that they could stand out in the scene simply by being better at what they did than most of the contemporaries. Unfortunately, in their attempts to break out into something more serious, they've turned themselves into another generic Power Metal band, and we already have too many of those as it is. What a letdown.