I've been a big fan of Neal since his Spock's Beard days. For those of you who don't know, Neal founded Spock's Beard after failing to make it as a pop songwriter in Los Angeles, and after six albums together (and two more with his side project Transatlantic), he became a born-again Christian and embarked on a solo career where he could more freely express his religious views.
I'm also a big fan of what I call classic Progressive Rock, something I've also heard called "retrogressive" as it has its influences in the past and doesn't necessarily progress forward. Neal is arguably the modern master of classic Prog, and losing him to Christian music was a blow to secular fans like myself. Fortunately for us, Neal never abandoned his Prog roots and essentially followed dual career paths - one as a Christian artist making typical praise albums, and one as a Prog artist writing Christian-themed music. As long as the secular fan could get past the godly lyrics, they could still enjoy listening to one of the most talented people in the world do what he does best - Yes/Genesis inspired Prog with a hint of the Beatles.
This brings us to Lifeline, which marks the beginning of a very creative and very busy three-year period in which he not only wrote and recorded this album and the epic Testimony 2, but also Transatlantic's long-awaited reunion album, The Whirlwind. The music on these albums are similar in their execution, which is no surprise as one half of Transatlantic appears on all three - Neal and Mike Portnoy, the legendary ex-Dream Theater drummer. Neal is really on top of his game at this point in his career. His music and his visions are much more fully realized than his work with Spock's Beard, which makes his departure from that band even more unfortunate as they never benefited from his inevitable songwriting maturity.
And the music on Lifeline, as it was with Testimony 2, is excellent. There is little to complain about for the Prog fan. There are two long-form epics on the album, the 13-plus minute title track and the nearly half-hour-long "So Many Roads," along with a handful of shorter tracks. The longer tracks are flush with Proggy goodness - odd time signatures, meter changes, fiddly keyboard solos, and high-level musicianship and songwriting. The shorter songs are a mixture of Prog tracks and more straightforward songs, and on the latter Neal has really developed his talent for lyrical hooks and melodies as they stick in your head in a not unpleasant way.
The lyrics, though, are Lifeline's undoing. Although they are all unabashed Christian albums, Neal's other Prog albums always had a central concept, which made the lyrical content more interesting. Not so with Lifeline. There is no concept to this album, and the lyrics are typical CCM drivel, especially the shorter songs. Despite clever hooks and strong songwriting, there's no getting past songs with titles like "God's Love" and "Children of the Chosen." Even the excellent "So Many Roads" essentially rehashes his life story again, as it's about someone trying to follow their dreams, having them crushed, and then getting redeemed through Jesus. It was the theme of Spock's Beard's Snow, his own Testimony and Testimony 2 albums, and, albeit in a more secular and subtle way, Transatlantic's "Stranger in Your Soul." Thankfully the music is good enough to keep the secular listener interested, but it's still a bit tedious when you pay more attention to the lyrics than the music.
However, like "Seeds of Gold" on Testimony 2, there is a hidden gem on this album that nearly makes up for the rest of its shortcomings. This time it's "Leviathan," a song about the mythical Biblical creature of the same name. I first heard this song live when he played in Denver on his last tour and I knew then it was something special. Even though this is a song based on the Bible, it explores a topic that most Christians rarely if ever breach - Biblical demonology. And with good reason - nothing says "this is mythology" more than a giant, multi-headed sea monster. Because of this, it comes across as surprisingly secular, a mythology-based song much in the same vein as Rush's "Hemispheres." And it's not just the lyrical content that makes it so good - the music is outstanding. It is truly a progressive song as it blasts through the boundaries of what most people would call heavy metal, and it really highlights Neal's growth as a songwriter. It's one of the heaviest songs he has ever written, and it proves that, yes, a song with a horn section and xylophone solo can still be called "metal."
On the whole, though, the lyrics hold back what is otherwise an excellent album by one of modern Prog's greats. "Leviathan" helps the ratings a little, but all told Lifeline gets 2 1/2 out of 5 stars. Only Neal's biggest secular fans will want the whole thing - everyone else should just download "Leviathan" and be done with it.
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