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Ex-Spock's Beard frontman, and everybody's favorite Christian,
prog-rock, minister, Neal Morse, has hit another home run
with his latest concert DVD masterpiece, Sola Scriptura And
Beyond. Morse abruptly quit the mighty Beard in 2002 in order
to follow his born again Christian heart in pursuit of some
of the most righteous Christian-prog the world has ever witnessed.
Sola Scriptura And Beyond brilliantly captures the results
of that pursuit.***
I was expecting Morse's Christ-inspired hybrid to sound
closer to Jars of Clay, than the old Spock's Beard, but his
solo material has actually gotten increasingly heavier and
more progressive. Morse's lyrics still almost exclusively
deal with aspects of his Christian faith, but if an atheist,
heathen like myself can still enjoy all of the man's albums
and DVDs, in spite of his lyrics, then, believe me, anyone
can. The music is just too good to pass up.***
Although Morse had only achieved moderate success during
his 10-year tenure in Spock's Beard, it was his short stint
in the prog-rock supergroup, Transatlantic, which also featured
Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater, Royne Stolt of The Flower Kings,
and Pete Traveres of Marillion, that I though would finally
give him the stardom he deserved. It just may have, but he
also quit Transatlantic around the same time he quit Spock's
Beard. I only hope that his solo career brings him enough
success to allow him to continue touring and recording into
the distant future.***
Sola Scriptura And Beyond captures Morse on tour in the
Netherlands last year, with a mostly Dutch backing band, performing
songs from every phase of his career, including an almost
entire performance of his latest solo album, Sola Scriptura.
The title is Latin for "by Scripture alone", and the lyrics
tell the story of the Protestant Reformation, led by the controversial
German monk Martin Luther. Just your standard rock & roll
subject matter.***
Morse's performance on this DVD is gloriously long, nearly
three hours, and that doesn't even include the live bonus
material. He even jokes about how his wife just doesn't understand
why he has to play for three hours at every show now - "Well,
I'm glad you understand", he tells the crowd.***
Morse kicks off the show with, "The Creation", a four-part
song that also opens his 2004 album, One. After a couple of
classic Beard songs, "The Good Don't Last" and "Open Wide
the Flood Gates", Morse digs into the three, multi-part, Sola
Scriptura epics, "The Door", "The Conflict", and "The Conclusion",
which left me transfixed for nearly 60 straight minutes.***
For a band that was thrown together right before the tour,
these guys (and gal) sounded incredibly tight. British guitarist
Paul Bielatowicz, who also plays in The Carl Palmer Band,
really sneaks up on you throughout the show, and then nearly
steals it with his amazing guitar wizardry during "The Door".
He also lends some excellent backing vocals that are so crucial
to many of Morse's songs. Drummer Collin Leijenaar was also
particularly impressive in his handling of all of Mike Portnoy's
not so rudimentary drum parts.***
Morse really heats up the crowd when he takes them through
some extended medleys that highlight two of his recent solo
albums, Question Mark (or ?), along with his first post-Beard
solo album, Testimony. After already giving the appreciative
Dutch crowd more than two and one-half hours worth of energized
performances, Morse and band return for an encore of the Transatlantic
ballad "We All Need Some Light", and then close out the show
with "Wind At My Back", from his last album with Spock's Beard,
Snow.***
The only disappointing thing about this DVD for me was
the lack of any 5.1 surround audio track. Your only option
is a 48 KHz, 16-bit, PCM stereo track, but, fortunately, it
is a really good one. The audio sounded excellent played back
in either regular stereo mode, or using my amplifier's Dolby
Pro Logic II processor. The widescreen video presentation
looked superb and the camera work captured the energy and
intimacy of the concert perfectly.***
If disc one wasn't enough for you, you also get a second
DVD filled with behind-the-scenes footage from the Sola Scriptura
tour, an acoustic version of "Bridge Across Forever", and
bonus live footage from the 2006 Question Mark tour, which
was recorded at Columbia Club, Berlin on July 14, 2006.***
Sola Scriptura and Beyond provides a wealth of great material
from one of progressive rock's most unsung heroes, and it
is easily one of the best concert DVDs of the year. God bless
Neal Morse.
Paul M. Roy - November 2008
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