Track Listing

1. The Ballet Of The Impact
2. I Wouldn't Let It Go
3. Surfing Down The Avalanche
4. She Is Everything
5. Climbing Up That Hill
6. Letting Go
7. Of The Beauty Of It All
8. NWC
9. There Was A Time
10. The Planet's Hum
11. Watching The Tide
12. As Long As We Ride

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #146286 in Music
• Released on: 2005-02-01
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Enhanced, Special Edition
• Dimensions: .27 pounds

Album Description
Octane is the 8th release from Spock’s Beard, the undisputed heavyweight champions of the new progressive rock movement; it also marks the second release by Spock’s Beard on Inside Out Music America as well as their second release after the departure of former lead-vocalist and founding member, Neal Morse.

Octane (as with Feel Euphoria) continues to show an evolution and marked growth in the Spock’s Beard sound. Still present are the trademark melodies, lush vocal harmonies and instrumental ferocity that elevated Spock’s Beard to the top rung of the progressive rock ladder. However, Octane sports a more aggressive and heavier sound. There is a new power and immediacy to their music which should help the band to further blur the lines which separate musical genres and cross Spock’s Beard over to new fans while also satisfying the expectations of their longtime followers.

The Special Edition version of the release will be packaged in digibook format with extended booklet and will contain an additional disc featuring 8 bonus tracks and a multimedia section.

Amazon.com
The second album of the post-Neal Morse era finds Spock's Beard settling into its more focused (if less openly adventurous) framework with increasing confidence. While there's no denying the irony that these champions of modern progressive rock sometimes find themselves locked into a retro-prog groove here, it's offset by an ever-ambitious sense of scale. "Flash Before My Eyes," the seven-part suite that dominates the album, reviews the life of its protagonist just as he's about to be struck down by a runaway truck. Anchored by a melodic motif reminiscent of Howard Shore's stately themes for Lord of the Rings and propelled by drummer Nick D'Virgillio's expressive voice, it gracefully soars beyond some awkward lyrical moments towards the inviting psych-pop realm of Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here. Elsewhere, the instrumental "NWC" fuses the aura of early Genesis with bursts of Alan Morse's solo guitar, while "There Was a Time" turns on familiar, harmony-rich metal-ballad conceits. "Watching the Tide" is a cut above, a Queen-centric slice of drama that showcases the D'Virgillio's supple vocal range. The bonus disc contains a self-deprecating "making of" video featurette, as well as five album outtakes and a handful of "Flash" overdub sessions. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

"Letting Go" Of The Past........
Folks, we need to "let go". Spock's Beard is NOT the same band it was with Neal Morse. They are NO LONGER a PROG band (lengthy,complex compositions,unique counterpoints etc.). The NEW Beard is a rock band with intelligent writing, great musicians, and at times, interesting melodies. IMHO, they are still light years ahead of what is on the musical scene today!
Lots of great bands experienced dramatic "changes" in their sound when key members departed (Genesis, Pink Floyd, Yes, etc.)

The Beard "is what they is" (As Frank Zappa once said... )Like 'em or leave 'em. Octane, their 8th release, contains some solid compositions- "A Flash Before My Eyes", "I Wouldn't Let It Go", "Of The Beauty Of It All", "The Planet's Hum"...Don't buy this expecting to hear OLD Beard. You'll be dissapointed. Look at them as a NEW band, and a pretty good one at that. If we're able to LET GO , we can appreciate the BEAUTY OF IT ALL.

Not the best, but not the worst
I'm not going into a long analysis of the songs or the band for that matter. If you're reading this, you probably know who these guys are. I feel more obligated to even out the reviews that want to elevate this as a prog masterpiece (it's not) and those that can't stand it.

I've been a fan since "The Light". I read about it in a trade paper and found it in a local store specializing in prog. I still have the original "Syn-Phonic" release before the band signed to Metal Blade. I know what a SB album should sound like. I think the trouble for most fans is that even after the last CD, we still put on a SB album expecting to hear Neal and his gift for crafting memorable melodies. Once you get past that bias, give the CD a few spins and you will realize these guys are writing solid rock with some proggy overtones.

So, Octane has a 30 minute suite that when played as a whole is entertaining progressive rock. All at the same time it is darker and poppier than anything they did with Neal. It will stand the test of time. The remaining tracks are a hit/miss bag of pure rock/pop with some interesting progressive moments that don't quite work. The bonus disc offers up some good tracks that could take the band in a whole new direction.

It's a 3.5 star CD that does grow after a few listens. Maybe in the end they should have changed their name and started over to avoid some of the more critical barbs being tossed at them.

If you like prog or just new music - give it a try.

A flash before my ears
More like 3.5 stars, but I'll round up because SB is one of my favorite bands. This is the band's least proggy album so far, and therefore ends up sounding a little more generic. It's also their shortest CD. Octane is good album, but I expected more after the promising Feel Euphoria. I can see this album attracting fans unfamiliar to prog, though, which is good.

A Flash Before My Eyes, a large suite that takes up a lot of the album, is a mixed bag. The opening section, "The Ballet of the Impact," is well done and switches from ominous and pumping to quieter and more melancholy. "I Wouldn't Let it Go" is a fine song with a stirring melody. I almost detect a country flair to it in parts. "Surfing Down the Avalanche" rocks hard but feels disjointed. I detect a bit of Danny Carey (Tool) in some of Nick D'Virgilio's drums (or maybe I'm just crazy...that's probably likely). I find "She is Everything" to be sort of dull but not bad. "Climbing Up That Hill" doesn't do much for me at all, especially the tuneless verses. "Letting Go" is a little mellotron section that doesn't go anywhere. "Of the Beauty of it All" brings back the dramatic music of the suite's opening and bookends the suite nicely. The whole concept of A Flash Before My Eyes feels underdeveloped partly because much of the story is told in the liner notes. Another section of music would have made the finale more dramatic. The transitions between songs aren't so hot either.

"NWC" is a zany instrumental that doesn't have much of a melody. The fun, upbeat "There Was a Time" is my favorite track on the album, and almost sounds like something previous SB frontman Neal Morse would have composed. Next comes the quirkiest track on the album, "The Planet's Hum," which ends too soon. Part of the instrumental work near the end reminds me of fellow proggers The Flower Kings. The piano-based ballad "Watching the Tide" features some very nice singing. The thumping "As Long As We Ride" is a fun rocker with a resemblance to Led Zeppelin, perhaps along the lines of "Dancing Days" but heavier.

Out of the bonus tracks on disc 2, "Follow Me to Sleep" is the best. It has a slick, modern sound that the band should possibly explore further.