| The
Review |
Neal Morse NEEDED to create Testimony.
He had obviously been dealing with personal feelings about
his faith, and place in the world. Testimony may be his “catharsis”,
his release, in music, about everything he went through. Testimony
is 100% autobiographical tracing his life from his early years
growing up and partying in California, all the way up to his
conversion, his being “born again” to Christianity.****
Perhaps the greatest thing about
“Testimony” is its evidence that Neal was not going to abandon
progressive rock for boring run of the mill Christian rock
or worse yet, acoustic guitar strumming Kumbaya type of stuff.
From the very first bars of “The Land Of Beginning Again/Overture
1” you know you are going to get progressive music. Plus,
just looking at the length, and make up of the musical compositions
on the CD; if you are a normal listener to progressive music,
you notice right away that Testimony is divided into five
long movements each being broken down into shorter segments.
Basic progressive music structure.****
Looking back on Testimony it is
not his best work, that was still to come; but the length
and breadth of the work is pretty astounding. (Even though
not his best, Progressive World still placed it in the top
5 for 2003, but keep in mind we hadn’t heard “One” and “?”
yet) Not only is it nearly one continuous uninterrupted piece
of music but it contains a seemingly endless display of different
types of musical form. You name it, it’s in there; progressive,
rock, jazz, folk, traditional, light classical. Testimony
is definitely not boring. It may get a little preachy and
soft along about the middle of disk two but recovers by the
end. However, at the end, Neal has been “born again” so you
get a lot of “Praise God, Alleluia” lyrics with the music.
****
Testimony is divided into five
parts, or “movements” simply titled Part1 , Part 2, etc..
Each of the five movements is about a particular point in
Neal’s life and his journey towards Christianity. Attempting
to review each segment may be pointless because there are
simply so many with so many varied styles a reader may quickly
get information over load. As with any good progressive work
“Testimony” rapidly changes musical styles, pace, and structure
with segments blending into each other and lasting anywhere
from only a couple of minutes to over seven minutes in length.
Neal provides four separate overtures which provides the listener
with a preview of what to expect in the next segments. Only
three pieces are actually labeled as overtures but the first
cut on Disk 2, “Transformation”, is very much like an overture.
****
Disk one is definitely the best
of the two. Disk one primarily concerns itself with Neal’s
life and adventures with only his first inklings about “there
has to be something more” being briefly introduced. Disk one
is progressive music at its best and rocks from number to
number. Kerry Livgren (Kansas/Proto Kaw) makes his ONLY appearance
with a guitar solo on cut #14 “Long Story”. To be honest he
probably “phoned it in” literally. He is given personnel credits
but he really should have been given “guest artist” credits.
I mean, really, a couple minute guitar solo? If it was not
listed as to where it actually occurs you wouldn’t even know
it was him. However, he is also thanked for “spiritual advice”
and “strong tea” so he must have actually been in the studio.
His picture in booklet is pretty non-descript. ****
Disk two starts out strong but
then begins to slow down the pace and gets pretty preachy,
but “The Storm Before The Calm” is a killer number that picks
up the pace and breaks a little of the mellowness. It’s probably
the best number on disk two. By the time you get into “Part
5” it is 100% Christian lyrics. A simple glance at the song
titles will tell you this much. Part 5 also tends to sound
more like inspirational music than progressive music. The
music is still complex and varied but not what I would really
call progressive.****
Testimony is a decent progressive
work but definitely not for every prog fan. And, as mentioned,
not Neal Morse’s best solo work. If you want to check out
Neal at his best as a solo performer check out “?”. That one
is not to be missed. The lyrics are so cryptic anyway it is
difficult to tell it is even “officially” a Christian recording.
If you have a Christian friend and wish to turn them onto
progressive music then turn them on to “Testimony”.
**** Grade: B
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