SOLA SCRIPTURA

I was originally going to rate this album as a 4 stars, as it didn't "grab" me in the same way that "?" did. But upon thinking of the album as a whole, while it's highs aren't quite as high as ?, it's lows aren't as low either. As a total package, the songs fit very well together, and there's no filler material in the entire 76 minutes. While heavier than any of his previous work, Neal sews the metal parts with the ballad parts seamlessly (for the most part--in The Door, his segway into All I Ask For is a bit abrupt).

I have probably only about two dozen songs in my life that I rate as "perfect" songs, and Neal has about 10 of them (Stranger in your Soul, At the End of the Day, The Doorway, Entrance, Open the Flood Gates, Wind at my Back, etc). This is especially hard to do in the 15-30 minute song format as there always seems to be at least one part of the song that isn't up to "perfection" levels. But Neal added another with The Conclusion (and a close call with The Conflict as well). The Conclusion is a perfect blend of progressive metal symphonic pop in this humble authors opinion and it sits well up there with his aforementioned perfect songs.

Just as with ?, if there was a selection, I'd give it 4.5 stars.