A really solid album for those curious to experience how beautiful and well-executed Operatic Heavy Metal can be.

Taking three years to release a follow-up to the ambitious and adventurous 'Symphony For A Hopeless God,' it becomes very clear that Whyzdom's latest opus proves that their time away was spent wisely and crafted another album that is not only definitive but a hallmark of the genre.

Marie Mac Leod (Rouyer) has a beautiful voice and can deliver both in a straightforward manner and can tap into her classically-trained, Mezzo-Soprano range with ease. When revisiting their previous album, I noticed that this time, she is much more conservative with regard to breaking into that full-blown, operatic head voice. As a matter of fact, she refrains from utilizing that vocal technique until three songs into the album with the chorus on 'Fly Away' and then not again until almost three-quarters into the album with 'Free As A Bird.' 'Armour Of Dust,' 'Armageddon,' 'Angel Of Tears' and 'The Mistchild' stand to be the most straightforward tracks of the set, yet they possess all of the earmarks so closely associated with the band.

In addition to the captivating vocals, Whyzdom's music possesses a clear penchant for the dramatic. Their arrangements feature Wagnerian-style brass, layered guitars, lush keyboards and a massive drum sound. Among those available here, 'Fly Away' is one such song to feature all of these elements and best showcase how well Whyzdom incorporates the antithetic genres of Heavy Metal and Classical. Furthermore, the song, 'The Page' convincingly separates the album into two distinct movements which further illustrates their ability to maintain a Classical approach in the context of Heavy Metal music.

Although 'As Time Turns To Dust' is somewhat more accessible with regard to the song structures as compared to its predecessor, it still demands a focused ear in order to process all that is occurring. As a matter of fact, it only consists of nine tracks but no song clocks in less than five minutes. The music is so dense that a contemplative pause between songs is suggested in order to digest everything before moving forward. If you do attempt to inhale it all at once, any distraction will cause you to miss something. While existing fans of Whyzdom might miss more of the full-blown operatic vocals, 'As Time Turns To Dust' is still an absolute required purchase and is a really solid album for those curious to experience how beautiful and well-executed Operatic Heavy Metal can be.

Brent Rusche