Theater Of Life is the debut album of this Norwegian power metal outfit and it shows. Most of the songs are pretty boring with a huge amount of repetition and they are all pretty bland. The best example is probably the never ending “Haloes And Wings” which drags on and on. The worst of it all is that this song is barely even four minutes long, yet it manages to bore me out of my skull.

It’s not that this CD doesn’t have any good moments; it’s just that these moments are few and far between. Once in awhile Memorized Dreams definitely come up with some nice melodies or riffs, only to drown it all endless repetition. But the worst of all are the far below par vocals that utterly obliterate any redeeming qualities of Theater Of Life.

Even though you might get slightly used to them, there’s one song that immediately corrects that misconception: “Gates Of Heaven” which features Olaf Hayer of Luca Turilli and Dionysus on vocals. It’s pretty cool to have such a talented vocalist as a guest performer, but when he completely outdoes Terje Haroy, it turns more into an embarrassment than anything else.

Memorized Dreams have some okay ideas; unfortunately writing good songs requires more than just good ideas. Theater Of Life is a pretty mediocre melodic power metal album that I’d steer clear off if I were you; there are enough good melodic power metal releases to spend your money on.