So after having the album for a couple weeks, I put the Making Of DVD back on and watched it last night as I was doing laundry, and it's interesting hearing those songs and themes again now that I am a bit more familiar with them and where they ended up on the album. It's also more striking just how reluctant Mike was to do a sequel to TSOAD, both in the beginning and during their Skype call back in March 2018. I went back and re-read Neal's IC Newsletters from March, May, and August when those moments came up in the documentary, and it's was neat to see just how much Neal was sharing with IC members back then, and just how much he was withholding. The story about him and Bill having 3 hours to finish Disc 2's arrangements before Mike arrived one morning was astounding, and it goes to show just how well Neal can work with others in a time crunch, so props to them!
And as much as we have joked about Jaci's tantrums about the album being a BAND EFFORT, it really feels like there was a LOT less of Eric features in this documentary - he barely spoke, you didn't hear a lot of him and his input with regards to the music, and Mike only mentioned that he liked Eric's "two songs" (which I suppose he wrote and brought to the table), so I am not sure what, if any, was his that made it to the final album. He does some TASTY playing throughout the DVD, though, but there was one heavy, chugging riff-y part that got left off the album, as well as a fast 9/8 groove that sounded really cool (I hope these sections are saved for NMB4!). Maybe that's why Neal gave Eric more to sing on this album, perhaps because he had less to bring to the table, especially after Neal chopped up the album in March and re-arranged it to be a double-album sequel to TSOAD? Hmm...
-Marc.