SOLA SCRIPTURA

As far as Neal Morse's music goes, he often ties brilliant fun with tacky ballads, and often ties a lot of those sequences together into really long songs. Any fan of his from his Spock's Beard or Transatlantic efforts should not be surprised by the track listing. The dude likes his long songs. And, in truth, it seems that long songs really like him right back.

The Door is a pretty standard opening, with some killer overturial doodlings in the first four or so minutes. The rest of the song is pretty good, without nothing really standing out except the chorus of In the Name of God. Oh, and there's the closing solo from Paul Gilbert. It's easily the highlight of the album. This is the kind of solo you buy the whole disc for. This is the kind of ending to an epic that gives Neal every right to retire from writing 30 minute songs. Not that he would consider retiring from that, but the man has earned the right with this alone. The solo makes the whole song, no matter how rambling or disjointed it ends up feeling, seem like the perfect epic. You'll see, if you listen to it.

The Confrontation starts off with some serious metal guitar and Alice Cooper vocal work. The experimentation with this dark and heavy feel is another strong point of the album. The middle of the song is punctuated by a Latin-acoustic sort of piece, and while I love both Neal's acoustic pieces and his Latin vibes, it doesn't exactly fit the mood of a Reformation theological/political debate scenario. It sounds really, really neat, though, and almost makes up for the fact that it really doesn't make any sense for it to be in there.

I pretty much always skip Heaven in My Heart. Neal has written an overabundance of these ballads, and while a few are good, one or two or eight every album adds up to a lot of weak tracks that drag his discography down. I think the album would be better if this track had been left off entirely. If you've listened to Neal's music, there is nothing here you haven't heard before.

The Conclusion reprises a lot of stuff from The Door, with some excellent bass guitar and some crazy keyboards. It's a pretty standard album wrap up.

In all, I enjoy listening to this album. It's fun, it's epic, and it's got its progressive chunks of noodling like it's supposed to. However, there really is not that much to be offered by this album that can't be found elsewhere.

Share this NEAL MORSE review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to LiquidEternity
• Report this review (#184074)
• Buy NEAL MORSE music online with PA partners
• Show all NEAL MORSE MP3/Stream
• Go to NEAL MORSE page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to Sola Scriptura page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for NEAL MORSE related discussions