Neal Morse - Sola Scriptura And Beyond
Performance
Production
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Neal Morse - Sola Scriptura And Beyond
Performance
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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. Reviewed by Paul M. Roy - November 2008 |
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Set List Recorded May 26, 2007 at De Boerderij, Zoetermeer, The Netherlands. |
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Running Time: 169 Minutes |
DVD Release Date - July 2008 |