DEEP WATER

Cosmic Cathedral is a new band featuring Neal Morse with guitarist Phil Keaggy and bassist Byron House (both people Neal had worked with before) plus former Genesis live drummer Chester Thompson, who Neal met at a Steve Hackett gig in November 2023. The four of them got together to jam and the album Deep Water is the result. It consists of five songs, the first of which is a 13 minute mini-epic and the last a 38 minute, multi part piece, with three shorter songs in between. This seems like a favourite pattern for Morse, off the top of my head I can think of The Grand Experiment, No Hill For A Climber, and Transatlantic's Kaleidoscope using the same formula.

Speaking of formula, this album is pretty similar to any other Morse prog album, albeit with some jazzy elements added, probably courtesy of Thompson's drumming style. Also, the Christian lyrics that Morse is renowned for are pretty prominent here. Hardly surprising having read the liner notes I see that all the band members are Christians. So if you don't like Morse's more direct Christian references, it's maybe not the album for you. If you do, however, Deep Water is as good as many other albums he's made, and better than some.

So, let's dive in track by track:

1. The Heart Of Life - written solely by Neal and it could be on any prog album by him really. It starts with an extended instrumental section followed by a pause before the vocals come in. Very familiar Morse territory. It's an excellent start 8/10

2. Time To Fly - A decent tune, very catchy, less proggy than some of the other tracks. Nice use of saxophone and female backing vocals 7/10

3. I Won't Make It - another Morse-only composition and quite honestly I don't think it belongs on this album. It's very much in the vein of his singer/songwriter stuff. Not a bad song though. 6/10

4. Walking In Daylight - Phil Keaggy takes lead vocal on this one (and he shares the writing credit for the lyrics with Neal). It's the most jazzy song on the album, a funky intro, some jazz piano, and even a bass solo. I like it a lot. 9/10

5. Deep Water Suite - so we come to the centre piece of the album, a 38 minute song divided into 9 sections. And what a journey it is! Beginning with the lyric "Launch out into the deep water," a phrase that recurs throughout, not just in the three sections labelled Launch Out parts one, two and three, but also midway through Fires Of The Sunrise and at the very end of the piece, the phrase refers to trusting God. In Neal's autobiography Testimony he describes his conversion as a vision of standing at the top of a waterfall and being encouraged to jump into the water below. Clearly he is referencing this here. Following the initial "Launch Out" lyric (sung through a vocoder) there follows a typical Morse overture. The vocals come in with launch Out Part One, and following this is a more acoustic section, Fires Of The Sunrise. Storm Surface is an instrumental interlude which reprises one of the riffs from Launch Out Part One and highlights Keaggy's tasteful lead guitar style. Then we have Nightmare In Paradise which is a bit different to Morse's usual style. Following the brief Launch Out Part Two, New Revelation is another upbeat track. Then we revisit the Launch Out theme again before the closing section, The Door To Heaven, which sounds like any other Neal Morse closing track with lots of build-up to a climactic ending. The whole piece is a masterpiece. 10/10

To summarise, these are four excellent musicians. I was familiar with Morse, Keaggy and Thompson before but Byron House is a phenomenal bassist. Chester Thompson brings a more jazzy feel to the music than Mike Portnoy would have done, but all in all this is a typical Neal Morse project and if you like his music you will like this.

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