Spock's Beard
The First Twenty Years

Has it been twenty years already? That is what Spock’s Beard asked earlier this year when they realised that amount of time had passed since their debut The Light was Released back in 1995, the title track of said album opens this album and then several other remastered tracks from the history of the band follows it to make it a double CD release with an additional DVD of previously unseen material and as if that wasn’t enough for the fans we also get a completely new track that was written by Neal Morse and features all members through the band’s history.

I don’t think there would be any doubt about the style of this album; it is progressive rock music with many long and complex tracks. It features tracks from the entire history of the band, all albums are featured on the two CDs, from the first album The Light to the latest album The Oblivion Particle and strangely enough it sounds rather coherent despite the fact that the songs are from twelve different albums and twenty years of band history. It is not that the albums are very much alike and neither are the songs, maybe it is down to great remastering or maybe it is just the quality of the songs. The variation over the album is good and the production and vocals are of course excellent.

I cannot really say anything about the DVD as we didn’t get access to that material but fans will probably find many interesting things on that DVD as the press release states that it contains never before shown stuff. Therefore, I think that this is a compilation that is worth getting, usually I kind of hate compilation especially those released without any real occasion, twenty years of history is definitely a good occasion and worth celebrating with a nice collection. New fans of Spock’s Beard will have this album as a great introduction to the band and fans will have the DVD, all the songs and of course the completely new twenty-minute epic called Falling For Forever that ends the compilation.

Said track is the highlight of the album, it features all the vocalists doing different parts and musically it feels like it summarises what the band has done over their twenty-year history. You just have to enjoy a masterpiece of a track like this, and I think it outdoes all the tracks on this compilation but then this compilation does not feature all my favourite Spock’s Beard tracks so I won’t say it is their best track so far. Still, this track alone makes it worth getting this compilation, the rest is a good bonus and I with that I have to say that I am glad to hear that Neal Morse still can write great songs.

This compilation is definitely a good buy, perhaps as a gift for Christmas or just for of you own enjoyment – it is a great compilation and I really enjoy how it ends.

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