SOLA SCRIPTURA

After spending 2006 concentrating on non-prog endeavours - putting out more worship music, a collection of cover versions, and a singer-songwriter album - Neal Morse put out his next prog album in the form of Sola Scriptura. As with his previous prog solo album, "?", this avoids the all-too-common pitfall of explicitly Christian-themed music by actually doing a deep dive on some subject from the rich history and literature of the faith, rather than just harping on the same limited set come-to-Jesus themes that all too many "Christian rock" bands limit themselves to.

This time around, he's offering a concept album about Martin Luther's theological confrontation with the Catholic Church. This is a thorny subject - in the liner notes Neal mentions he almost reconsidered the project after he learned about some of the virulently antisemitic writing Luther put out, but then decided to go ahead since that isn't the aspect of Luther's career the album is about, merely adding the caveat that Luther was a flawed man trying to reform a flawed system.

That shows a level of nuance which suggests a thoughtful approach to the subject matter, and largely that's what you get here. The album doesn't flinch from criticising some of the stuff the medieval Church said and did in very stark terms, but I don't think this extends to being knee-jerk anti-Catholic so much as it involves portraying the central conflict (and it would be disingenuous of Neal to try and be "both sides"-y about this when he clearly believes that on many of these questions Luther was in the right). Also, it should be remembered that the Catholic Church of today isn't the Church that Luther was rebelling against - they actively implemented a bunch of reforms since then in part to shift away from some of the excesses he was objecting to.

So much for the concept: what about the music? Well, Mike Portnoy's on drums, as he had been for all of Neal's prog solo albums to date, and Randy George is on bass again as he had on the previous two prog albums from Neal; having cemented themselves as Neal's regular rhythm section, they accompany Neal throughout the album, with other instrumental offerings from a pool of the usual suspects (the string section have all appeared on past Morse albums, as has Michael Thurman on French horn, and the backing singers include a number who also sang on "?").

With personnel like that, you'd be right to expect that this is more or less business as usual for Neal - indeed, he's shifted back to the sort of long songs he likes to tackle, after "?" was made up of shorter songs (though those could be seen as short sections in one long piece).

As has been the case since the earliest Spock's Beard material, he goes broad when it comes to the range of influences he throws in, rather than focusing on one approach exclusively, which is helpful: there may well be bits here and there you don't enjoy (for instance, All I Ask For drags on a little long to my taste) but you at least have the consolation that it won't be like this throughout, and if some of the sections go on for a bit Neal at least does a good job of using them to build to appropriate emotional climaxes.

There's the odd touch from gospel here and there, especially in terms of the use of the backing singers, but this is quite tastefully done (and it's not like Neal hasn't been dipping into the worlds of gospel or musical theatre from time to time to add a flavour to his prog material that other prog artists don't touch on so much.) For instance, Keep Silent feels a lot like a somewhat more upbeat take on Pink Floyd's Dogs combined with a gospel chorus, which works surprisingly well.

Some of the material also hits harder than much of Neal's prior solo material, Neal making good use of Mike Pointer's talents to work on some heavier and more metallic sections. Do You Know My Name? has this dirty-ass funk metal air to it, which then lurches into a sort of prog metal transition section as it shifts into Party To the Lie, which has this sort of jaunty Kansas-esque note to it, or perhaps a whiff of Genesis circa Trick of the Tail.

Taken as a whole, the album is another solid effort in the same general style that Neal had been working since he left Spock's Beard, and whilst some of the individual moments are somewhat shaky, he pulls off the trick again of bringing it all together in a big emotional conclusion right at the end. I'd certainly put it on a par with "?", and whilst I don't think it quite gets the fifth star, it comes awfully close.