I hate to say this, but does Steve Morse seem to be losing a little bit off his fastball? Don't get me wrong, he's still a great player, but those fast bits used to sound a lot less labored to me.
On first lesson the tune didn't do much for me except for the bridge. I'll give it another listen later.
Steve has been having issues with his wrist the past year or two, you are probably hearing it's effects.
Wow, I didn't know that. That's too bad; he's one of the greats for sure. High Tension Wires had an incredible impact on me as a young musician.
He's been wearing a brace at some shows with Deep Purple. I hear his elbow is killing him too. I wonder if an operation is in the works. Probably too busy to stop for one and any down time needed to heal.
Their sound is a bit too dry for my liking. At least the first album was dry. I don't think I would be wrong if I said that this music is guitar dominated. Most of the time I prefer if the keys are at least an equal instrument to the rest - if that makes any sense (I hope it does). I could add some cliche - to each their own...nothing wrong with that or this...but no need for that. The musicians do what they do and good for them if they continue to like it.
I think that this one track is not representative of the whole record. I would be very surprised if all of it is like this. The song is aggressive, but not interestingly aggressive. I would not like a whole record of this kind of material.
When Dream Theater released the first single for the last album - it wasn't entirely representative so I think this isn't either.
Having heard the whole album, I can confirm this to be the case. It is by far my least favourite of the bunch - the two long proggy tracks that bookend the album and the song that Neal sings should be more to the prog crowd's liking. Clearly we're not the target audience for this particular song...Originally Posted by selmer
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The 'Mask Machine' isn't my favorite thing to come from them yet, but as has been mentioned, I expect the rest of the album will have lots of variety and other styles. The first album went in so many directions, I expect this one will, too! Perhaps this is the "All Falls Down" of this album, which was one of my least favorite directions on the debut. Regardless, it's great to hear them raging in this tune. LOVE those synth sounds at the beginning!
Wow, some harsh critics! I liked it on first listen overall, and could see this song being a grower. But based on the first album, the new one will be an eclectic mix. Give it a chance. I like the fact they are willing to remind us even in a straight ahead song like this that they can play the shit out of their instruments. As for Steve Morse, did any of you stop and think his playing on this song is exactly what they wanted? It's a studio recording, you can't say he's slipping just based on that.
As someone who has both played the guitar for many years and who has listened to many, many hours of Steve Morse, I heard some things in that clip that I haven't heard from him before. There used to be a power and accuracy to his picking that was undeniable. I just didn't hear that on this song. It seemed almost like he was trying to do things that he used to do, but didn't quite have the chops to pull off any more.
It's no big deal...the dude is getting up there in years. It happens to everybody. Plus, Steve is far from a one-trick pony. He's an excellent musician with a lot of different tricks up his sleeve. I have no doubt that he can continue to make compelling music far into the future. It's just weird seeing this guy whom I idolized as a teenager showing signs of getting on in years.
File under: I'm getting old.
Steve did have a small brace on his wrist the other night but I thought he sounded fine. Didn't seem to have any problems with a two hour set. FWIW.
It seems you are listening for things that are not there. I don't worry about that. Does the solo fit the song, do I enjoy it? That's all that matters. It may be a case where he just can't do those things anymore. But also, he might not want to anyway, as this is really an ensemble group, without any one member dominating. Portnoy is given some space on this to flash his chops, but even he holds back a bit.
Has anyone had trouble preordering the CD/DVD edition from the Mascot Records website? It seems effed up. First of all it doesn't ask for your state, which may be fine because it asks for your city and zip code. But when you try to register is says "The field HouseNumber can only contain numbers," but there's no field called House Number, there's only a field called Street Name.
???
I sent them an email, but thought someone here might have figured it out.
Anyone get the two Second Nature bonus tracks? I just downloaded them but can't open them as WinZip is out of date. Gotta get that fixed somehow but I ain't paying for it. Anyway, curious what anyone thinks of the tracks.
Steve sounded OK to me, I didn't hear anything off.
He's been playing those chromatic runs with heavy vibrato forever.
The song didn't do much for me though.
I'm not sure I get what they're going for.
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
Bonus tracks? Released already?
Music isn't about chops, or even about talent - it's about sound and the way that sound communicates to people. Mike Keneally
I have no interested in the album or the first album. This is one of those bands where my only interest in seeing them live. I have tickets for he Philly show just so my son and I can see these virtuosos play live. I wonder if Portnoy will act as the band leader on the live shows. Just saw him with Winery Dogs and he is clearly the leader of the band. My boy and I both enjoy Mike's sense of humor so we would welcome that again here.
Fairly positive review on this from Sea of Tranquility:
http://www.seaoftranquility.org/revi...ntent&id=16621
Looks like another one for my want list!
Just cancelled my amazon pre-order and ordered instead from Mascot music since they have the edition with the bonus DVD, which from the trailer looks quite good. Roughly the same price, so hey why not?
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
Ditto.
⬇️
http://prog.teamrock.com/news/2014-0...full-exclusive
Full album now streaming for anyone who wants to check it out.
Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.
*** Join me in the Garden of Delights for 3 hours of tune-spinning... every Saturday at 5pm EST on Deep Nuggets radio! www.deepnuggets.com ***
Only ten minutes into this and OH MY GOD WANT WANT WANT WHEN THE HELL WILL SEPTEMBER 30 GET HERE. And that's me being restrained.
"Arf." -- Frank Zappa, "Beauty Knows No Pain" (live version)
Damn, really feeling badly reading this thread and realizing now that Thomas (Yanks) likely never got to hear the entire album before his untimely passing.
Mask Machine sounds good to me. I liked seeing/hearing Neal step up to the vocal plate during the mid-section.
I have the first one, and believe it or not, it rarely makes it to the player. Hopefully this new one doesn't meet the same fate.
This new one sounds about 1000% better than the first one.
I like the first release. It is a great collection of prog inspired pop songs with a prog number at the end. That being said, I do not listen to it that often.
The new one sounds amazing on the first pass. Especially the last 2 songs. This is what I would expect from this caliber of musicians. Well done!
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