‘V’, the 2000 release from Spock’s Beard is an album of great music sandwiched between two of the greatest epic songs ever written, making this album an absolute essential for any fan of the so called “Progressive Rock” genre.

Putting aside the opener and closer of the fantastic disc for just a moment, the four songs in the middle are anything but filler material. “Revelation” is an all out rocker, with blistering guitars, a rhythm section wrought with fury, and a very ballsy performance in the vocal department.

“Thoughts, Pt. 2” is a song with many dynamic changes, and really doesn’t have too much to do with the original “Thoughts” (found on the ‘Beware of Darkness’ album). It is also the albums nod to Gentle Giant.

In a perfect world the next tune “All On A Sunday” would have been the albums hit single, as it follows the formula of the perfect radio formatted rock tune, catchy music, melodic vocals, and is just a fun track from start to finish. Alas this is not a perfect world and to my knowledge the video the band made got little to no airplay anywhere.

“Goodbye To Yesterday”, the last of the more concise tunes on the album is a beautiful ballad with heart wrenching vocals and lyrics and a beautiful bit of acoustic guitar work. Again, I think this song could have been a nice hit single in a perfect world.

Now back to those two songs that we set aside for a moment, the first of which being “At the End of the Day”. The shorter of the two epics this track clocks in at a measly 16 minutes. This track features the band at their absolute best, both in terms of their playing and their writing. Easily one of the best tunes in the bands already impressive catalogue.

I try to stay away from clichés but the since the band couldn’t help it neither can I, we have saved the best for last, the monster epic “The Great Nothing”. Lyrically the song is about the disillusions of the music business and what a crap shoot it really is. Musically it is nothing short of a masterpiece. Personally I think that this song shows just how diverse the band is musically, and Neal Morse is vocally. The music on the track is all over the place, from all out rock, to acoustic, to atmospheric exploration, and of course the very prog driven sections the band have come to be known for. In my opinion perhaps some of the best 25 plus minutes of music ever committed to CD.

Spock’s Beard would go on to record just one more album with Neal Morse (the 2 CD concept piece ‘Snow’) before parting ways, and while ‘Snow’ is a masterpiece in it’s own right, it is ‘V’ that I find myself listening to time and time again.

NP: Dream Theater - The Dark Eternal Night