Kevin Moore's tone was always excellent. When it comes to lacking keyboard sounds, I could write an essay on Rudess' forays on Train of Thought through Black Clouds and Silver Linings.
Amen to that. Rudess' lead tone has left a lot to be desired at times. And while technically a wizard (insert pun), he goes overboard with the overplaying way too often, especially live, which is not something you could ever accuse Moore or Sherinian of.
I've held the same opinion about KevMo's keyboard work on Awake for a long time, actually. I think half of KevMo's performances on the record are some of his best work... and half seem completely phoned-in. Two of those performances, for me, have always been "Caught in a Web" and "Lie". But "Space-Dye Vest" and "Scarred" have always been favorites of mine, so I can't say I know where you're coming from in that respect.
See, I chalk the performances in Lie and Caught in a Web up to being minimalist for a reason; those kind of heavy songs do not always need all kinds of crazy keyboard leads and solos, but just a bit of background atmospheric stuff, and that is what Kevin Moore provided in those songs. Similarly, Rudess did the same for As I Am.
Yeah. Of the three keyboard players actually JR has occasionally stood out negatively in terms of sound. I doubt KM or DS would have put a Bebot solo into their songs.
rumborak
That's a good thing for JR. I mean, sure Bebot wasn't pretty, but JR actually experiments and is constantly pushing the sounds and technology to create something new, and even helping pioneer new instruments, so you're going to win some and lose some.
KM and DS on the other hand were both pretty safe and limited with their sounds, and never had much diversity in tone or range of instruments, and that got tiring to me with those two, especially DS. JR is the more progressive and ambitious musician. Huge plus for me.
That's a fair point regarding Rudess, but in regards to Moore, it is not. It might sound safe now, since tons of prog metal bands incorporate those kind of keyboards into their own brand of prog metal, but back in the late 80s/early 90s, what other metal bands featured the same style that Kevin Moore was utilizing? Hardly any. Just like it could be argued that Dream Theater created a whole new brand of prog metal, that same argument could be made that Kevin Moore provided the blueprint for how to play keyboards in a prog metal (since other metal bands that did prog prior to them only used keyboard sparingly). Like I said, it might sound safe now, but back then, it was anything but. DT inspired a whole wave of prog metal "DT wannabe" bands, and the keyboard sounds were a huge part of the sound that those other bands tried to mimic.