| .......................................THE BAND AND RECORD OF THE MONTH |
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| . | SEPTEMBER 2002 |
| Comments:
Spock´s Beard a important band that emerged by 1992, it´s easy to say nice words about the band and all the releases, if a research will be made certainly we will find several reviews about the band and their fantastic works. Neal Morse continues being an excellent songwriter, also the arrangements are stellar. The band is still able to play exciting and pompous Progressive Rock Music. Spock´s Beard has a magnificent blend of various musical directions and influences of which some make me think of bands like "Yes", "Jethro Tull", "King Crimson", "Gentle Giant", "Genesis", "Pink Floyd" and many other progressive rock greats from the 70's! Small wonder that Spock's Beard seems to command such respect from fans of those bands. "Snow" is a double disc release and represents one of the best works that I already heard until the moment. Excellent and indispensable work, highly recommendable. 
Spock's Beard are: Neal Morse - Lead Vocals, Piano, all Synth, Acoustic Guitar Ryo Okumoto - Hammond and Mellotron Dave Meros - Bass, Vocals, French horn Alan Morse - Electric Guitars, Vocals Nick D'Virgilio - Drums, Percussion, Vocals |
SPOCK´S
BEARD
Formed in Los Angeles in the Spring of 1992, Spock's Beard built a solid and loyal following with their first two releases, The Light and Beware of  Darkness.
The group now introduced themselves to a wider audience with their first
nationally distributed release, The Kindness of Strangers on Metal Blade/Radiant
Records.
Consummate and seasoned professionals, individually the members of Spock's Beard have performed or recorded with Eric Clapton, Phil Collins, Genesis, and Tears For Fears. Drummer Nick D'Virgilio is one of the more high profile members of the band. He is currently featured on the latest Genesis record and recently recorded with Peter Gabriel. Ryo Okumoto brings his Hammond Organ and Mellotron to the band after stints with Phil Collins and Eric Clapton. Bassist Dave Meros joined the band after working with Eric Burdon and Gary Myrick. Rounding out the band is Al Morse on guitar, cello and Mellotron, and Neal Morse, who writes all the band's material and contributes lead vocals, piano, synths, and guitars. Neal is the creative mind behind the band, writing the majority of its material from standard four minute tunes to 15 minute rock suites. "Writing this music is so much fun because you can follow the music to wherever it seems to want to go," says Morse "On The Kindness of Strangers, we do have a few shorter tunes along with the epics." Neal Morse has jumped over his own shadow. "Until now I've always been absolutely against making a concept album," he admits. "It's so difficult getting the lyrics and the music into the proper balance, and so hard to really combine these two worlds into one unit. But in this particular case I felt that we had a story linking all of our new songs and needed enough room to make something really special." Morse is speaking about Spock's Beard's new double album Snow, a monumental work with over 26 songs and more than 115 (!!) minutes of playing time. Snow is certainly not for the superficial, musical fast-food loving fan. However, for fans of passionately played, diversely arranged, orchestrated rock, this album will open up a world into which one can happily plunge and, for almost two hours, leave the horrors of today's one-dimensional music landscape far, far behind. So it's no wonder that drummer legend Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater) spoke about Snow so enthusiastically in the July 2002 edition of the French 'Rock Hard' magazine: "I think that Spock's Beard's seven year career has been continuously developing and leading up to this album. Snow is an exemplary concept album in the tradition of The Who's Tommy or Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway and has earned the right to be mentioned in the same breath as these classics in the annals of Rock' n 'Roll." The Limited Edition contains the 2 CD digibook version of "Snow" with a 28 page four color booklet. It comes in a special box plus an extra Bonus disc with a cover song, live acoustic versions, and some outtakes and dialogue. Also a 4 page booklet with the story of "Snow" and 3 stickers with the album cover of Snow, V, and Day For Night (all color). |
.New
Release
SNOW DISC
1
DISC
2
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