XFor their 10th studio album, Spock's Beard ran a special promotion ahead of time where fans could order the special edition of the record, which helped fund the record, and as a result, the special edition contained a bonus song called "Their Names Escape Me," which had a long section in the latter half of the song where the name of every person who contributed was sang/spoken. Despite being a big fan, I did not do this, since the cost was not cheap (and I was strapped for cash at the time), and I have to admit that after the decline in quality on the last album, I was more than a bit nervous about paying that much for an album that might not be that good. I was wrong. When
X came out, to say I was pleasantly surprised would be the understatement of the year; I was floored.
The first track, "Edge of the In-Between," gets us off to a great start, with a great blend of prog and catchy pop. The vocal melodies are about as catchy as catchy gets, while the intro of the song and the extended instrumental section in the middle both scream prog. This was their best opening track since "At the End of the Day" from
V.
The next two songs are the only ones I would say are merely good. I never got out of my way to listen to "Kamikaze" or "The Emperor's Clothes," but both are enjoyable enough within the context of full listens of the album. Neither are anything special, though.
Now, if you want to talk special, I present to you, "From the Darkness," which is 17 minutes of pure awesomeness. I love how, instead of the traditional Beard slow burn intro for a longer song, this kicks off rocking out and the vocals begin 30 seconds into the song. It lets you know that it is going to be a different kind of arrangement, yet we still get some amazing mellow sections. That piano lead Ryo plays a little after the 9-minute mark is one of my favorite moments on the entire record, and shows was a great pianist he is. When Neal was in the band, Ryo played mainly just mellotron and hammond organ, but since taking over all of the keyboard duties, his skills on the piano have really stood out. This is a top 10 Beard tune, in my book.
"The Quiet House" seems to be a song that gets overlooked a lot, but I love it. That main riff, first introduced by David Meros on the bass, and then played both Meros and Alan Morse, is great, and hey look at that, we have another tremendous section led by a great melody on the piano, just after the 4-minute mark. That whole section with Ryo playing the piano and NDV singing is just gorgeous. Great tune.
The aforementioned "Their Names Escape Me" is a good song, even if the latter half of the song is a bit tedious with repeated listens thanks to the barrage of names. I wish they would have done a shorter version of the song, too, since the meat of the song (first four minutes) is pretty darn good.
"The Man Behind the Curtain" has kind of a Kansas vibe at times, I think because the main synth lead that kicks off the song sounds like something Kansas would have played on the violin. That is always the impression I get whenever I hear it. Really good song, featuring some nice dynamic shifts yet again, and the instrumental section is one of the more underrated parts of the album, in the sense that I never see people talk about it.
The final song, "Jaws of Heaven," is prog perfection. A top 5 Beard song by just about any measure, this is just as awesome to me now as it was back in 2010 when this record came out. I have listened to this song more times than I can count, and it is still one of my favorite songs by any artist.
We didn't know it at the time, but this would be Nick D'Virgilio's final record with the band. He departed late in 2011 because he wanted to focus on his work with Cirque de Soleil, a traveling theater production, and while he never said it and probably will never say it, the fact that the Beard have a hard time making any money, because of their decreased fan base, had to have a large hand in his decision; a man has to eat, ya know.
At least he went out on "top," with the Beard giving us a fantastic record, undoubtedly the best of the NDV-led era.