TESTIMONY

I snapped this album up a while back in 2003 right after it came out. After I got out of college, I wasn't feeling to great about my situation or my future at that point. Before I almost went insane with a 65-70hr/wk, 6 day work week for several months, I resigned and had spradic part-time work. During this "transitional" period, I picked up this 2 disc gem from Tower one evening on the way home from the helljob. It literally got me through a few months of bare-knuckle depression.

The two hours I got to myself each evening when I got home were spent listening to this album. I used it again for the same reason when I moved away from home last year, since the future was again uncertain and my mental state frazzled (sensing a pattern? :-) Avoid grad school and night work). Again, I was drawn out of some murky depths by listening to this album and thinking of good ol' time religion.

Christian symphonic prog, you inquire? Absolutely. Some of history's most important and enduring music was inspired by The Good Lord, and I didn't see the need to categorize this as more than adventurous music with an inspiration source that spawned such works as The Messiah," Mahler's Resurrection Symphony (No. 2), and Coltrane's A Love Supreme (among countless others). The songs contained there in are transcendent and uplifting. I expected nothing less from Neal, whose work with Spock's Beard and Transatlantic I had grown to love passionately. I could do a song-by-song review, but that would be too tedious here (Click here for something like that). I will attempt to impart the emotional UMPH of the album, or at the very least, its effect on me.

Taken as a whole to the novice listener, it may be as overwhelming as reading both Testaments of the Bible in a single day. That is OK - like the Good Book, this album will shed and reveal shining treasury gold after repeated listens and years of internalizing the melodies and nuances (all of Neal Morse's stuff is like this, by the way - seek and ye shall find). It is broken up into five parts, and each is a symphonic prog archetype in its own right. the overtures and instrumental passages are going to hook a prog listener as well as a mainstreamer. I am not kidding. Morse is perhaps the only composer in the prog idiom that has consistently put out thoughtful, melodic (if not poppy) neo-prog that has made his former band Spock's Beard a pariah among some prog purists (who feel they are too mainstream). Personally, I believe that if you're having a bad day, (Neal's) Spock's Beard will put a smile on yor face. This is insider musical baseball - not very interesting except for the nerds like me, so I'll move along).

The pieces of this album serve to accentuate a massive and astoundingly complete whole. I am not one for lyrical analysis, but these lyrics are not meant to shade or hint at anything - they are direct, heart-on-sleeve type vignettes that document the artist's struggle with inner emptiness, and his eventual acceptance and conversion to Christianity (Mormonism, if I'm not mistaken, is actually more accurate). The highs and lows of Neals's life are visceral, and the song "Somber Days" spoke right to me to the point of tears at one point during my troll through the underdark. The religiosity of the lyrics really doesn't matter - any Christian or prog enthusiast can enjoy this set. The drums, thanks to Dream Theater lead drummer (and one of my musical idols) Mike Portnoy, are bombastic, light, fast, full, accurate, clean, and completely devastating to your preconceived puny notions of what a drummer is. The personnel assembled to perform the pieces (apart from Morse who plays everything except for the strings and drums) range from independent musicians to members of the Tennessee Philharmonic to Kerry Livgren of Kansas fame. And it is that good. I would not steer you all wrong.

The mysterious and shape-shifting song forms all have repeating themes and pursue directions that the fully intend to move where they move. Like a force of nature, they will not be stopped or contained. Your cup will runneth over with good-natured and inspiring content - truly refreshing in the age of the endlessly vapid bubble gum popper and the Ford-pickup-wreck-like aging has-been rocker. I can't remind you all enough that I am serious and passionate about this album. It will take you places, if you are willing to go. Sit down with the thing on and clear out 20 minute blocks in your schedules (no biggie - if I can do it, you can too) and dive into this meaty and wonderful package. Five stars, Neal. Bravo.

And a few stars to the guy upstairs, too. Cross Posted at I snapped this album up a while back in 2003 right after it came out. After I got out of college, I wasn't feeling to great about my situation or my future at that point. Before I almost went insane with a 65-70hr/wk, 6 day work week for several months, I resigned and had spradic part-time work. During this "transitional" period, I picked up this 2 disc gem from Tower one evening on the way home from the helljob. It literally got me through a few months of bare-knuckle depression.

The two hours I got to myself each evening when I got home were spent listening to this album. I used it again for the same reason when I moved away from home last year, since the future was again uncertain and my mental state frazzled (sensing a pattern? :-) Avoid grad school and night work). Again, I was drawn out of some murky depths by listening to this album and thinking of good ol' time religion.

Christian symphonic prog, you inquire? Absolutely. Some of history's most important and enduring music was inspired by The Good Lord, and I didn't see the need to categorize this as more than adventurous music with an inspiration source that spawned such works as The Messiah," Mahler's Resurrection Symphony (No. 2), and Coltrane's A Love Supreme (among countless others). The songs contained there in are transcendent and uplifting. I expected nothing less from Neal, whose work with Spock's Beard and Transatlantic I had grown to love passionately. I could do a song-by-song review, but that would be too tedious here (Click here for something like that). I will attempt to impart the emotional UMPH of the album, or at the very least, its effect on me.

Taken as a whole to the novice listener, it may be as overwhelming as reading both Testaments of the Bible in a single day. That is OK - like the Good Book, this album will shed and reveal shining treasury gold after repeated listens and years of internalizing the melodies and nuances (all of Neal Morse's stuff is like this, by the way - seek and ye shall find). It is broken up into five parts, and each is a symphonic prog archetype in its own right. the overtures and instrumental passages are going to hook a prog listener as well as a mainstreamer. I am not kidding. Morse is perhaps the only composer in the prog idiom that has consistently put out thoughtful, melodic (if not poppy) neo-prog that has made his former band Spock's Beard a pariah among some prog purists (who feel they are too mainstream). Personally, I believe that if you're having a bad day, (Neal's) Spock's Beard will put a smile on yor face. This is insider musical baseball - not very interesting except for the nerds like me, so I'll move along).

The pieces of this album serve to accentuate a massive and astoundingly complete whole. I am not one for lyrical analysis, but these lyrics are not meant to shade or hint at anything - they are direct, heart-on-sleeve type vignettes that document the artist's struggle with inner emptiness, and his eventual acceptance and conversion to Christianity (Mormonism, if I'm not mistaken, is actually more accurate). The highs and lows of Neals's life are visceral, and the song "Somber Days" spoke right to me to the point of tears at one point during my troll through the underdark. The religiosity of the lyrics really doesn't matter - any Christian or prog enthusiast can enjoy this set. The drums, thanks to Dream Theater lead drummer (and one of my musical idols) Mike Portnoy, are bombastic, light, fast, full, accurate, clean, and completely devastating to your preconceived puny notions of what a drummer is. The personnel assembled to perform the pieces (apart from Morse who plays everything except for the strings and drums) range from independent musicians to members of the Tennessee Philharmonic to Kerry Livgren of Kansas fame. And it is that good. I would not steer you all wrong.

The mysterious and shape-shifting song forms all have repeating themes and pursue directions that the fully intend to move where they move. Like a force of nature, they will not be stopped or contained. Your cup will runneth over with good-natured and inspiring content - truly refreshing in the age of the endlessly vapid bubble gum popper and the Ford-pickup-wreck-like aging has-been rocker. I can't remind you all enough that I am serious and passionate about this album. It will take you places, if you are willing to go. Sit down with the thing on and clear out 20 minute blocks in your schedules (no biggie - if I can do it, you can too) and dive into this meaty and wonderful package. Five stars, Neal. Bravo.

And a few stars to the guy upstairs, too.

Also posted at Mein BlogoVault on December 17, 2005.

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