THE NEAL MORSE BAND: THE GRAND EXPERIMENT

Wow. It's been half a decade since I have been so blown away by an album I was expecting to be 3-4 stars in quality. I have long seen Neal Morse's importance to prog rock, but have never been a natural member of his fan constituency. This album tempted me as a Dream Theater fan, due to its billing as a team effort by the band including Mike Portnoy. And yes, this album has a DT-like drive and power beyond Morse's usual outputs. But added to that the melodies and variety are wonderful. Whenever an established artist modifies his formula, a slump in ratings often follows; I've noticed that on Prog Archives. So I'm not surprised that my own enthusiasm is not reflected in the consensus rating for The Grand Experiment. But he has a new fan here.

Verdict: the experiment worked!