? [AKA: QUESTION MARK]

Of all of Neil Morse's solo albums, this one better than "One" and at least on par with "Testimony", while being more concise at a 56 minute length. There is a certain "sameness" to all of Neil Morse's output, from Spock's Beard, to Transatlantic to his solo work, which is to be expected. Thankfully, this album has many great guest artists who elevate the album musically. The concept, for those theologically minded, is very interesting. For those less interested in religion, there's still alot to offer.

Thematically, the album deals with how the Temple of God was transformed from a physical place in the old testament (and certainly through Jesus' day). However, with Jesus' death and sacrifice the Temple of God is now contained within each one of us.

As mentioned by others, there are many guest spots though they are not credited to individual songs, which leaves the listener to guess who appears on what song. It's pretty easy to pinpoint Jorden Rudess' keyboard solo (track 5, In The Fire...it sounds like a guitar solo but is really Rudess playing his Continuum-a hybrid guitar/keyboard/ synth that provides that Edgar Winter "Frankentein" sound to the track). I'm less certain about Roine Stolte's and Alan Morse's solos, but there's alot of guitar interplay towards the end of the album that must certainly contain their work.

Steve Hackett's solo is unmistakable however and occurs on a track called "12". This track makes the case that the number 12 must be a divine number (12 tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles, 12 hours in a "day", 12 months in a year, 12 tones in a musical scale). The song segues into this amazing instrumental written by Morse, Portnoy and Randy George, the bass player on the album. While I'm an admitted Genesis/Hackett fan, this has to be the most dramatic, intense, melodic solo I've heard from Steve Hackett in many, many years. It reminds me in many ways of his Firth of Fifth solo, by picking out the many musical themes from the album and then tearing them apart in new, original ways. In my humble opinion, this track makes the album worth owning.

So while this is not an essential prog rock purchase, there's much to like. The religious side might turn people off, but might well provide the impetus to delve deeper into scripture since the lyrics are heavily footnoted with scriptural references. While "Testimony" was a deeply personal album, this is a very compelling piece of music.