Neal Morse
Formerly the frontman of neo-proggers Spock's Beard and the progressive supergroup Transatlantic, guitarist/keyboardist.vocalist Neal Morse struck out on his own after becoming a Born Again Christian in 2002. Shortly afterwards, he released the conceptual double album Testimony, which chronicled the events that led to his conversion and his departures from Spock's Beard and Transatlantic. With Testimony he would forge a new sound for himself: still rooted in the Genesis-inspired progressive rock of Spock's Beard, but with a wide range of new sounds such as hard rock/heavy metal a ...read more
Formerly the frontman of neo-proggers Spock's Beard and the progressive supergroup Transatlantic, guitarist/keyboardist.vocalist Neal Morse struck out on his own after becoming a Born Again Christian in 2002. Shortly afterwards, he released the conceptual double album Testimony, which chronicled the events that led to his conversion and his departures from Spock's Beard and Transatlantic. With Testimony he would forge a new sound for himself: still rooted in the Genesis-inspired progressive rock of Spock's Beard, but with a wide range of new sounds such as hard rock/heavy metal and gospel.
Soon Morse hired the core group of Randy George on bass and Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater on drums and would invite a number of special guests on each of his subsequent albums, all of which featured Morse's unique brand of Christian rock. One featured Glass Harp's virtuoso fingerpicking guitarist Phil Keaggy, while ? boasted such prog luminaries as Jordan Ruddess, the Flower Kings' Roine Stolt, and legendary Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett. In 2007, Morse released a concept album about Protestant leader Martin Luther entitled Sola Scriptura, which featured guest solos from Racer X/Mr. Big guitarist Paul Gilbert.
While Morse certainly doesn't shy away from Christian-centric lyrics, his melodic brand of prog metal (seemingly equally influenced by his love of Genesis and Portnoy's day job in Dream Theater) has more appeal than your average purveyor of progressive rock, and fans of neo-prog groups such as Marillion or those looking for a more interesting type of Christian rock should definitely give Neal Morse a listen. « hide |
