NEAL MORSE BAND’S NEXT ADVENTURE
US five-piece revisit The Pilgrim’s Progress ahead of their international tour.
The Neal Morse Band release double concept album The Great Adventure on January 25 via Radiant /Metal Blade. It can be regarded as a direct sequel to their 2016 masterpiece The Similitude Of A Dream – although it took until 45 minutes before the end of the recording sessions for Morse to feel it had worked out.
“Some of the guys didn’t want to do a Similitude… Part
2, and I wasn’t sure,” Morse tells Prog. “I thought if it wasn’t coming to me, maybe it wasn’t the way we should go. You can have a bunch of great themes and a bunch of great songs, but it can still not be satisfying.”
Writing went right to the wire, with drummer Mike Portnoy only having a matter of minutes left before other commitments took him away. Morse recalls, “It didn’t really all fall together until the final hour. We were trying to put together the very last bit.”
He told bandmate Bill Hubauer they only had 45 minutes to work it out. Fortunately, they did.
The Similitude… was based on John Bunyan’s allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, and the new title explores the “angrier” story of Pilgrim’s abandoned son. Fans can expect to hear the whole double album on the band’s upcoming tour, principally on Portnoy’s insistence.
Morse admits, “It’s going to be amazing. It’s still coming together for me, to be honest.”
The Neal Morse Band play London’s Islington Assembly Hall on March 24 towards the end of their international tour. For the full list of dates, visit www.nealmorse.com. MK