Hey, there's nothing the matter with long posts. That's what the board is here for. How is this for a long one? I totally agree with what you say about people having the right to believe whatever they wish. In fact, I will fight for that viewpoint wherever I can as I believe it's one of the most important of human rights. What I don't agree with is people forcing their beliefs onto others, no matter what those beliefs may be. It sounds like you had some of that to deal with too. That's the reason I have such strong feelings regarding organized religion. As far as Testimony goes, I will agree it's not as bad as some of the other gospel music I've heard before, but as you said, I tend to lump it into one category. It's true that Neal does not preach, rather he relays his personal experiences, and I can totally respect that. I just don't understand it, or religion as a whole. When I listen to music I'm passionate about I like to connect with the headspace of the composer. I can't do that anymore with Neal because the concept of everything he's trying to put forth seems so foreign to me. I see pictures of him playing live and he has this serene smile on his face like he's not really there. I just can't comprehend the mentality. It's great that he's happy and I wouldn't wish it any other way if that's what's best for him. But I couldn't get through the album upon listening to it. I had to shut it off. I put it down for a few days and tried again, this time I got even less of the way through it. I finally ended up throwing it away. For me, the Neal Morse I knew and enjoyed is gone, most likely forever and that's unfortunate.. for me that is. I'm glad he's been able to retain some fans during this time of transition and I do wish him all the best, I just can't join in on the voyage.
Testimony is an awesome CD in my opinion. Here's an artist pouring his talent into a grand project that succeeds on many levels. The music is outstanding and the lyrics are an honest description of a person's life.
The lyrics weren't meant to be a poetical masterpiece. Simply, a man's explanation of something that has changed his life. The music is wonderfully made with lots of variety that many people can enjoy and appreciate. It's not your average epic rock project. It's not your average offering from the Christian music community either. Very little art comes from the Christian world anymore. Until now.
Christians have done much to distort the image of Christ. I could list many bad experiences along the way of my faith walk. However, I've been around people who were strong in faith and quick love to others as well. They didn't need to pound the Bible over someone's head. They lived the faith. No act. No show. Just lived it.
It would be very unfortunate to let the bad past experiences limit your enjoyment of this CD.
Progressive rock is audio art and many bands have great lyrics which provoke thought. I'm happy that once in a while someone comes along with quality music and speaks to something that is positive (especially Christianity). We Christians get a bad reputation from the fanatical fringe. Here's hoping you can get past the pain and allow the Testimony CD to shed some light in your dark days.
Testimony is an awesome CD in my opinion. Here's an artist pouring his talent into a grand project that succeeds on many levels. The music is outstanding and the lyrics are an honest description of a person's life.
The lyrics weren't meant to be a poetical masterpiece. Simply, a man's explanation of something that has changed his life. The music is wonderfully made with lots of variety that many people can enjoy and appreciate. It's not your average epic rock project. It's not your average offering from the Christian music community either. Very little art comes from the Christian world anymore. Until now.
Christians have done much to distort the image of Christ. I could list many bad experiences along the way of my faith walk. However, I've been around people who were strong in faith and quick love to others as well. They didn't need to pound the Bible over someone's head. They lived the faith. No act. No show. Just lived it.
It would be very unfortunate to let the bad past experiences limit your enjoyment of this CD.
Progressive rock is audio art and many bands have great lyrics which provoke thought. I'm happy that once in a while someone comes along with quality music and speaks to something that is positive (especially Christianity). We Christians get a bad reputation from the fanatical fringe. Here's hoping you can get past the pain and allow the Testimony CD to shed some light in your dark days.
I SECOND your opinion ; Very well said!! Testimony is an absolute killer of an album(musically). As far as lyrics go, I do follow them as 'sing along', sure. But as far as influencing my opinion of the album NO WAY! I Love the MUSIC, thats what I listen to prog rock for anyway. Surely not the Lyrics. Many prog songs are quite hard to understand what their even about half the time. I guess Neal made the big mistake of making himself perfectly clear so everyone can understand him!
My vote went to Very Good. I have a hard time throwing the word "Masterpiece" around. I reserve that term for very few albums. While it's a fantastic piece of music, I would not rate it among the elite albums of all time.
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I personally have been waiting for some great Christian progressive rock for quite some time. Testimony is heads and shoulders above anything in that limited genre to date. I'll be listening to it regularly ... forever. I intend to give a copy of it to my worship leader at church. Singing 'O Lord my God" in church? Oh yeah!!
To be honest I have just recently gotten interested in the music of Morse. I began by picking up some of the later Spock's Beard stuff "V", "Snow", I have also been enjoying Transatlantic. I really liked Testimony. I found it to be a very personal recording without sacrifice of the musical creativity. Having Portnoy aboard on the project was good and I thought it had some good music in it.
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Author
I totally agree with what you say about people having the right to believe whatever they wish. In fact, I will fight for that viewpoint wherever I can as I believe it's one of the most important of human rights. What I don't agree with is people forcing their beliefs onto others, no matter what those beliefs may be. It sounds like you had some of that to deal with too. That's the reason I have such strong feelings regarding organized religion. As far as Testimony goes, I will agree it's not as bad as some of the other gospel music I've heard before, but as you said, I tend to lump it into one category. It's true that Neal does not preach, rather he relays his personal experiences, and I can totally respect that. I just don't understand it, or religion as a whole. When I listen to music I'm passionate about I like to connect with the headspace of the composer. I can't do that anymore with Neal because the concept of everything he's trying to put forth seems so foreign to me. I see pictures of him playing live and he has this serene smile on his face like he's not really there. I just can't comprehend the mentality. It's great that he's happy and I wouldn't wish it any other way if that's what's best for him. But I couldn't get through the album upon listening to it. I had to shut it off. I put it down for a few days and tried again, this time I got even less of the way through it. I finally ended up throwing it away. For me, the Neal Morse I knew and enjoyed is gone, most likely forever and that's unfortunate.. for me that is. I'm glad he's been able to retain some fans during this time of transition and I do wish him all the best, I just can't join in on the voyage.
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