Yeah, my experience of the album is separate from Derek's public display of insecurity.
I'm actually listening to the songs again now as I type this, and here is a perfect example of why I think this album is quite poor but nevertheless shows the band has potential: the section of God of the Sun from 4:55 to 6:52 is quite beautiful. I like it a lot, it's a wonderful, emotional stretch of music. But then why on earth do they abruptly end it, break out the chugging riff, and then segue awkwardly into the most generic instrumental wankery? The same thing happens 5 and a half minutes into Labyrinth. As much as I love them, this was exactly the thing I found a bit tiring about some of the later MP Dream Theater albums, where songs would be 'interrupted' in order to go on long-winded tangents.
As I wrote yesterday, I hope this band makes it to a 2nd album, and takes its time to compose it, because there are flashes of good ideas on this album but too often they get interrupted or drowned out by some apparent need to start playing lots of notes quickly.