The Neal Morse Band
Alive Again
Radiant Records
2016
Neal Morse used to be in prog darling Spock’s Beard and also in the highly regarded super-prog formation Transatlantic. Following an epiphany or something the already religious Morse was re-born again as a “christian”, leaving the band he was in and embarking on a solo career, with a bunch of rather tiresome, quite acoustic oriented albums and some a bit closer to his prog pedigree, depending on which one we’re talking about.
Never as good, on a songwriting level as the early Dream Theater, (before they got lazy and bloated – ie when JR took over half the band) Morse is here aided by one Mike Portnoy (also ex-Dream Theater) and the performances are as expected, pretty stellar, well recorded and mixed, but due to the material’s style and mood it can’t be seen as an utterly exciting experience, but rather a spiritual almost religious experience.
I do have a bit of an allergy towards religions, but damn me if I could find any other fault with this other than the fact that it’s preaching to the converted. I wouldn’t expect an uninitiated “fan” to be picking something like this up, but Morse’s fans from his band dates or the solo period will surely find something here to sink their teeth in. If you’re not a fan keep away, it will bore you to tears, but if you are... then you’ll be delighted.
Never as good, on a songwriting level as the early Dream Theater, (before they got lazy and bloated – ie when JR took over half the band) Morse is here aided by one Mike Portnoy (also ex-Dream Theater) and the performances are as expected, pretty stellar, well recorded and mixed, but due to the material’s style and mood it can’t be seen as an utterly exciting experience, but rather a spiritual almost religious experience.
I do have a bit of an allergy towards religions, but damn me if I could find any other fault with this other than the fact that it’s preaching to the converted. I wouldn’t expect an uninitiated “fan” to be picking something like this up, but Morse’s fans from his band dates or the solo period will surely find something here to sink their teeth in. If you’re not a fan keep away, it will bore you to tears, but if you are... then you’ll be delighted.