So does Harris rate? As a guitarist and all-around musician, definitely. Playing electric, acoustic and classical guitars; keyboards, bass and percussion, Harris knows his way around both a fretboard and recording studio. His introductary acoustic guitar trio update, "Chamber Noire," segues into the dramatic opus "Transmigration Of Souls." If progressive metal music is really a showcase for guitar and drums, Harris and drummer Rob Stankiewicz do nothing to dispel the theory in this seven minutes of neo-classical riffery. Guest player Adam Nitti states his case for the bass on "Identity Crisis," with its metal-meets-be-bop undertones featuring Mike Haid's driving drums and Harris' fluid soloing. By the subsequent chops-fest "Centurion," with Harris on both guitar and bass and Clint Barlow on drums, you've heard three different rhythm sections on consecutive songs. But continuity - and a change of pace - come with "Questions," a tribal and mostly acoustic duet featuring Matt Thompson on congas and percussion and Harris on just about everything else imaginable. Thompson adds drums (and Harris downgrades to just guitar and bass) for "Axcalibur," featuring a ham-fisted riff the Scorpions would've killed for; "Mozart's Ghost" offers more classical theory through Dawn Oyedipe's added violin, and "Stun Gun" mimicks its title through an instrumental speed-metal assault.

"Blue Tokyo" is a well-placed slow blues change of pace; "Winterlude" is an excerpt from Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons," with Thompson's drums augmenting Harris' one-man orchestra, and Barlow returns to play drums on the final full-band piece, "The End Of Forever." It's a three-part suite with some impressive Harris histrionics, but by this point you've come to expect that.