I concur - The Grand Experiment was a HUGE step-up from Momentum, not that Momentum wasn't great. Actually, for the time, Momentum was pretty good, even if it was a bit "typical" of Neal. Momentum was, to me, his first successful non-concept album, even counting his first two, which weren't very proggy to begin with (aside from the closing 4-part epic on his debut), but compared to Lifeline, Momentum was something more akin to Spock's Beard or even Transatlantic. Less religious lyrics that were a bit more secular, or at least just ambiguously spiritual enough to differentiate itself from Lifeline, which was very obvious with its references to God, Jesus, and Christianity as a whole (not that there's anything wrong with that, but I think that turned people off from the album more so than his concept albums, whose Christian ideas could be more seen as part of the story and concept and less so as part of just another Christian Rock album with a prog twist).
If the next album is more in line with Momentum and The Grand Experiment in terms of music and lyrics, I am DEFINITELY very hyped up for it, especially if it draws inspiration from Snow. Hell, let's see it be a sequel to Snow (which was joked about in the liner notes for the album anyway, where the end of it says there's room for a sequel or something like that). I'd love to see a solid narrative from Neal, a true story and journey, but not about a single man who goes through hard times and comes back uplifted and spiritual, as he's done this with Snow and Testimony. Something with a bit more adventure this time, I think, using spiritual and Christian ideas to shape the story rather than make it BE about it. Write a story with good characters and plot set to interesting music and I'll be sold. I kind of hope that Neal, Eric, Bill, and even Mike, get to do vocals for specific characters in the story, actually, as that would be something he hasn't done before and now that he's got a band with 4 vocalists, it'd be a crying shame if he didn't utilize them in that way!!!
-Marc.