sullysue Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 I ordered Snow from Amazon.com after reading the thread on the top progressive albums. I'm a big Spock's Beard fan, and I knew that this was a must-have. I had completely forgotten about it until that thread, so I was really excited to finally get my hands on it. Let me start out by saying this: Snow is one long-assed CD. I'm fortunate to have a job where I can have my headphones on all day if I want, happily working away while listening to music. Taking into account some breaks where I had to pause, this thing has been playing for OVER TWO HOURS. So, that said, if anyone who is thinking about getting Snow has a short attention span, forget it. Just move along and put it out of your thoughts. This thing is a MONSTER. About half way through, I started thinking to myself, "This has to be a joke." I don't mean that in an insulting way. I mean that it seems like they're almost trying to mock the progressive genre by giving nods to everyone from Kansas to Yes. And the funny thing about it is that they sound amazing while they're doing it. I cannot imagine what an undertaking this 26-song piece of work must have been. But, they sound really loose, as if they had fun making it. Even if Spock's Beard intended Snow to be a kind of overblown wink at their fellow Prog Rockers I'm immensely impressed. I just won't listen to it again for quite a while. I need to recover. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tangy Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 its a great disc but many think it would be better just as a single CD. long time suffering! what a song.......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sullysue Posted July 21, 2009 Author Share Posted July 21, 2009 QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 12:07 PM) its a great disc but many think it would be better just as a single CD. long time suffering! what a song.......... But, I think they intended on it being longer than it should have been (or needed to be). The way I'm looking at it, even after one listen, is that they wanted to make it as purposely over the top as possible. I could be wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeaveMyThingAlone Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 What I have heard of Spock's Beard I found incredibly tedious and forced...on a similar level as Dream Theater. Both bands are trying hard to tell us "look at how progressive and technical and weird we can be" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tangy Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 QUOTE (sullysue @ Jul 21 2009, 01:08 PM) QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 12:07 PM) its a great disc but many think it would be better just as a single CD. long time suffering! what a song.......... But, I think they intended on it being longer than it should have been (or needed to be). The way I'm looking at it, even after one listen, is that they wanted to make it as purposely over the top as possible. I could be wrong. ok, now i understand your point. i think i might know why too. remember that was Neals last disc with the beard and he wanted to go out with an over the top grand finale? a final over indulgence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tangy Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 QUOTE (LeaveMyThingAlone @ Jul 21 2009, 01:57 PM) What I have heard of Spock's Beard I found incredibly tedious and forced...on a similar level as Dream Theater. Both bands are trying hard to tell us "look at how progressive and technical and weird we can be" what have you heard? to me the neal morse era of SB is about as good as gets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sullysue Posted July 21, 2009 Author Share Posted July 21, 2009 QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 02:04 PM) QUOTE (sullysue @ Jul 21 2009, 01:08 PM) QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 12:07 PM) its a great disc but many think it would be better just as a single CD. long time suffering! what a song.......... But, I think they intended on it being longer than it should have been (or needed to be). The way I'm looking at it, even after one listen, is that they wanted to make it as purposely over the top as possible. I could be wrong. ok, now i understand your point. i think i might know why too. remember that was Neals last disc with the beard and he wanted to go out with an over the top grand finale? a final over indulgence. I hadn't realized it was Morse's last album with Beard. That could very well be it. He has a fantastic voice. Why did he leave? In regards to LeaveMyThingAlone's comment, try listening to some of their more recent stuff. Spock's Beard and Feel Euphoria are a little more approachable. There is a different feel to the band with Nick D'Virgilio as frontman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tangy Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 QUOTE (sullysue @ Jul 21 2009, 02:24 PM) QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 02:04 PM) QUOTE (sullysue @ Jul 21 2009, 01:08 PM) QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 12:07 PM) its a great disc but many think it would be better just as a single CD. long time suffering! what a song.......... But, I think they intended on it being longer than it should have been (or needed to be). The way I'm looking at it, even after one listen, is that they wanted to make it as purposely over the top as possible. I could be wrong. ok, now i understand your point. i think i might know why too. remember that was Neals last disc with the beard and he wanted to go out with an over the top grand finale? a final over indulgence. I hadn't realized it was Morse's last album with Beard. That could very well be it. He has a fantastic voice. Why did he leave? In regards to LeaveMyThingAlone's comment, try listening to some of their more recent stuff. Spock's Beard and Feel Euphoria are a little more approachable. There is a different feel to the band with Nick D'Virgilio as frontman. It seems like Neal left for religious reasons. I have never really understood why he left. I bet it was over money as Neal seemed to do the lions share of the work in that group. I was so bummed when I heard he was leaving the beard. Thankfully i did get to see him play with the beard when they opened for DT during the time of V disc. Great lyrics and a great voice. just turn around to the healing colors of sound! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sullysue Posted July 21, 2009 Author Share Posted July 21, 2009 QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 03:20 PM) QUOTE (sullysue @ Jul 21 2009, 02:24 PM) QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 02:04 PM) QUOTE (sullysue @ Jul 21 2009, 01:08 PM) QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 12:07 PM) its a great disc but many think it would be better just as a single CD. long time suffering! what a song.......... But, I think they intended on it being longer than it should have been (or needed to be). The way I'm looking at it, even after one listen, is that they wanted to make it as purposely over the top as possible. I could be wrong. ok, now i understand your point. i think i might know why too. remember that was Neals last disc with the beard and he wanted to go out with an over the top grand finale? a final over indulgence. I hadn't realized it was Morse's last album with Beard. That could very well be it. He has a fantastic voice. Why did he leave? In regards to LeaveMyThingAlone's comment, try listening to some of their more recent stuff. Spock's Beard and Feel Euphoria are a little more approachable. There is a different feel to the band with Nick D'Virgilio as frontman. It seems like Neal left for religious reasons. I have never really understood why he left. I bet it was over money as Neal seemed to do the lions share of the work in that group. I was so bummed when I heard he was leaving the beard. Thankfully i did get to see him play with the beard when they opened for DT during the time of V disc. Great lyrics and a great voice. just turn around to the healing colors of sound! Religious reasons? Really? That's weird. His brother still plays for them, though, right? At any rate, I'm a huge D'Virgilio fan. So, it's neither here nor there for me. I am glad I got Snow, though. I like it a lot. It'll be a good CD to pull out when I have a block of five hours or so where I know I won't be going anywhere. Now, if I could only track down the joker who never returned my copies of V and Octane. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GeddyRulz Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 QUOTE (sullysue @ Jul 21 2009, 03:26 PM) QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 03:20 PM) QUOTE (sullysue @ Jul 21 2009, 02:24 PM) QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 02:04 PM) QUOTE (sullysue @ Jul 21 2009, 01:08 PM) QUOTE (tangy @ Jul 21 2009, 12:07 PM) its a great disc but many think it would be better just as a single CD. long time suffering! what a song.......... But, I think they intended on it being longer than it should have been (or needed to be). The way I'm looking at it, even after one listen, is that they wanted to make it as purposely over the top as possible. I could be wrong. ok, now i understand your point. i think i might know why too. remember that was Neals last disc with the beard and he wanted to go out with an over the top grand finale? a final over indulgence. I hadn't realized it was Morse's last album with Beard. That could very well be it. He has a fantastic voice. Why did he leave? In regards to LeaveMyThingAlone's comment, try listening to some of their more recent stuff. Spock's Beard and Feel Euphoria are a little more approachable. There is a different feel to the band with Nick D'Virgilio as frontman. It seems like Neal left for religious reasons. I have never really understood why he left. I bet it was over money as Neal seemed to do the lions share of the work in that group. I was so bummed when I heard he was leaving the beard. Thankfully i did get to see him play with the beard when they opened for DT during the time of V disc. Great lyrics and a great voice. just turn around to the healing colors of sound! Religious reasons? Really? That's weird. His brother still plays for them, though, right? At any rate, I'm a huge D'Virgilio fan. So, it's neither here nor there for me. I am glad I got Snow, though. I like it a lot. It'll be a good CD to pull out when I have a block of five hours or so where I know I won't be going anywhere. Now, if I could only track down the joker who never returned my copies of V and Octane. Yes, it was for "religious reasons." He'd become more religious and had been having conversations with God about it, and God's answer was to finish the album and then quit. So he did. He has since recorded some Christian-Rock stuff. V is my favorite Beard album. The epic lead-off track, "At the End of the Day," had a big impact on my life. Snow didn't do anything for me. To me, the narrative is a combination of the film "Powder" and The Who's "Tommy" - not an original work of storytelling. And yes, it was "overblown" - it could've been a single disc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Owl Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 Snow was a great album..It was the first album by them I bought...but I think "V" is vastly Better I enjoy both eras of SB.... I too recently asertained a SB album... I bought "Kindness of Strangers" a few days ago.. I just need...... Beware of Darkness, and Feel Euphoria and I will have all their studio albums. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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