All right...so I finally got to listen to the whole album on a decent system (no crappy laptop speakers) and it solidified my opinion that this is a very bipolar album. That being sad, I moved my vote from a 5 to a 6 which almost pains me.
God of the Sun, Labyrinth, and Divine Addiction are excellent songs. They save the album. Oddly enough, some of the keyboards fall into cheese territory. I personally think they sound great because I love that traditional synth sound BUT when I brought this up to my buddy he said his wife just started laughing during the first keyboard break in God of the Sun. He also says the album is 10/10.
Coming Home and Sign of the Times are pretty bad. I thought they were decent even though I didn't personally like them. I changed my mind. They are just bland, boring songs. Lost in Oblivion has decent moments.
Opus Maximus is underwhelming.
Figaro's Whore is dumb.
I don't dig Alive but I have to admit it is a decent song.
So there ya have it. 3 excellent songs. 1 decent, 1 with moments, 2 terrible, 1 irrelevant, and then Figaro's Whore is the Peter Criss solo album of the group. In other words, "Oh yeah, he also released a solo album"..."Oh yeah, Derek has an intro song"
The whole roll out of this album was screwed up from the moment Bumblefoot was figured out to be the guitarist to Mike freaking out that people found out to two very subpar releases to hype the album. Had they released God of the Sun or Labyrinth, it would have been the bold, progressive way to hype the album. It would have got me excited. Instead, two weeks later I'm trying to decide if I should buy it being the completist I am or just let it go.