God Tier
?
One
YAY! Someone else who really likes the Question Mark album! It's packed full of great musicians and performances - I love Roine's work all over the album, and that Steve Hackett solo in "12" is to die for. The whole suite is so concise and flows very well.
Great Tier
The Similitude of a Dream
Testimony 2
Both are very great albums, glad to see them up here!
Really Good Tier
Momentum
The Grand Experiment
Not too bad, both are a bit similar in that they're collections of songs with a closing epic, very SB-like and not as blatantly religious as his concept albums have been, but because of that, the material isn't as strong overall, so I can see why you'd put both of them here.
Good Tier
Lifeline
Sola Scriptura
Now...Lifeline I understand being here, but putting it on the same level as SS?!...Eeeh, I guesssss, especially if you don't enjoy the heaviness, or the concept/story. But those Paul Gilbert solos are fantastic, and Randy really shines on this album.
Cut out the half that is filler and we'd have something really good tier
Testimony
Okay, now those are fightin' words right there!!!
But seriously, I see a lot of fans are really divided over this one. They either hate it or love it, and I think a lot of it has to do with the concept, and possibly even when fans became acquainted with Neal's work. I wasn't a fan until 2004/2005, so Testimony was already old news to me, but I can imagine some SB fans who were hyped to hear a 2-disc concept from Neal, just a year after Snow, and then be suddenly disappointed when it turned out to be a fairly preachy (especially near the end) and blatantly religious album. For me, though, I went into it knowing full-well what to expect from Neal, having read up on his leaving SB and TA at the time, and what he had been up do, so I was prepared.
This brings up a good point of discussion here - who here was a fan of Neal's BEFORE he left SB, and if you are, how did you feel about Testimony back then? How do you feel about it now? I'm curious to see if anyone's opinions have changed on that album since it came out nearly 14 years ago.
-Marc.