THE NEAL MORSE BAND: ALIVE AGAIN

Neal Morse is a well known figure in the Prog world of the last 2 decades, so there's not a lot I can say about him that hasn't been said before. He playes on Spock's Beard, plays on Transatlantic and has a solo career that spans over 15 years.

It is also no surprise that this Alive Again album is being released this year. Since the beginning of his solo career, and more prominently so in the last 5 years or so, after each studio album he goes on tour and release a live record out of that tour. Recorded in Match 6, 2015 in the netherlands, Alive Again catches Neal Morse and band on the tour of his latest studio album The Grand Experiment (2015). The line up is still the same: Neal Morse (vocals, keyboards, guitars), Mike Portnoy (drums, vocals), Randy George (bass, vocals), Eric Gillette (guitar, vocals) and Bill Hubauer (keyboards, guitars, vocals).

I would like to point out how nice is the package on this Double CD/DVD bundle. I am not sure if this is something new or not, but I have a bunch of triple discs bundles and it's the first time I see this new 3 discs jewelcase and I must say it looks great. The Digipack model can be very fragile and be damaged easily, not with this set!

Anyway, when it comes to the music Neal Morse is at the same time walking new paths while keeping firm in his own ground. That means that you'll find his classic sound on this album, nothing really changed sonically, but the repertoire is very different from the last tours. You will hear on this album the whole of The Grand Experiment (with exception of 'Agenda'), including the mammoth that is 'Alive Again' and its 34 minutes, and tracks from his solo career like 'Leviathan' or 'In The Fire' from ? (2005). But you'll also hear an old Spock's Beard tune 'Harm's Way' from the album The Kindness Of Strangers (1998) and plenty of his Christian music.

And that my friends, is my warning and the big difference here. Neal always walked through a thin line between secular and 'faith music' (vide 'Lifeline', for instance) but he usually left this tracks out of his Prog tours. It seems to me that since he started his Morsefest events this changed a lot. Now he's mixing his church music into the set. If that's a problem for you it can be hard to go through the whole set.

The DVD is my favorite part, aside from the show that is very competent, my favorite part in Neals DVDs is always the extras, the Making Of. The fact he and the band shot everything themselves makes you really into their daily lives on tour. For this alone Alive Again (2016) is well worth your money, honestly.

All in all, if you're a fan you should get this bundle. If you're not a fan of Christian music maybe you should get the Blu-Ray version only. Anyway, I think it portraits very well where Neal Morse is right now as a musician.

The first thing that strikes you when you listen to this live release is how the stereo sound is loud and clear. The picture is also clear with vibrant colors. I was happy to have a live release from that tour because I have enjoyed the first output of The Neal Morse Band. The music has that Neal Morse symphonic grandiose style but being written in collaboration with the others musicians, there is still more than the symphonic approach. "The Call" is a dynamic opener with a break in the middle where Neal is singing with all the emotions we all know is capable too. The bass sound is huge, with some heavy guitars and keyboards lines. The first part of this song is rather inoffensive, but in the second half, it goes in the complex progressive style. And we won't talk about the impressive playing of Mike Portnoy on drums. "Leviathan" is a heavy and fast track from "Lifeline" of Neal solo career with a rather dark intro. "The Grand Experiment" is a good old rock song with some Styx vocal harmonies, repetitive but catchy. Next is a song from the Spock's Beard material, it's "Harm's Way" that show the typical change of moods of a Progressive Rock epic. Then comes a nice Keyboards/piano solo of Bill Hubauer remind me of Gentle Giant. After another song from Neal's solo stuff, it's time for an acoustic pause that is apparently different each night. In this, Neal is crying and if this song means something lyrically for him, it's not very challenging musically. Then the epic song of the last album "Alive Again" brings us some heavy instrumental parts that show the musicians exchanging instruments with some surprising results in an improvisation mode. We are greeted with a bass pedal solo from Randy Gorge with his hands! Bill Hubuauer delivers some beautiful vocals harmonies in this.The show ends with an emotional medley of Neal's solo songs.

I think this product is the closest a Neal Morse project has come to perfection if we take into consideration the sound/visuals and music. The editing and camera work is still very professional. The only criticism I could add is a subjective one, I would have replaced some songs from Neal's career for others and play the song "MacArthur Park" from the last album.