Spock’s Beard- a Review of The Phantom Tollbooth

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Snow
Artist: Spock’s Beard
Label: Metal Blade
Length: (2 discs) 26 / 116:13 min

Sound clips:
4th of July
Looking for Answers
Freak Boy
I Will Go

Behold the boy The stranger, the working man’s son
With skin like white lightning
And eyes like two shots from a gun
They’ll teach him to pray and work everyday
He’ll learn how to sweat in the sun
But God has a place A place for him in His plan.
“He’s a stranger in a strange land from a world far away
Like a savior in a wasteland with a high price to pay.”

Meet Snow, “the albino priest with the psychic mind.

Spock’s Beard’s latest two-disc release is the story of Snow as he relates to the people of the New York City streets and discovers himself and God. The band itself has also discovered a new more accessible side to its music. I found their previous releases even more progressive than King Crimson (if one can imagine that) and even too eclectic for my tastes. But this one sounds more like a cross between Yes and (of all things) White Heart. And it works like nothing else. It’s a Broadway musical, a soft-rock melody and a heavy prog masterpiece all in one.

Snow also contains a couple of very worshipful songs (from Snow’s standpoint—each verse is sung by Snow, the Narrator, or another character). “Open Wide the Flood Gates” sounds like anything you might sing on a Sunday morning:

Open wide the flood gates
And let love take your soul
Open wide the flood gates
Til there’s so much you overflow.
Open wide the flood gates
Sprinkle this soul around
Open wide the flood gates
Let this Love come down

And in the album’s final track, Snow rejoices:

You’re the focus the beam
You’re realities dream
You’re the blue in my black
You’re the wind at my back.
You are the wind at my back
You give what I lack
You’re the jewel in my hand
You’re like rain on dry land.
You’re the flow that I feel
The illusion so real
You’re the ocean the tide
You’re the door open wide.

Snow comes in a beautiful digibook, probably the best-packaged CD I’ve ever come across, but it’s still the same size as a regular CD case. It’s a brilliant concept album, comparable to The Who’s Tommy according to Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. It’s not surprising that Portnoy enjoys it since it shares so many similarities to Dream Theater’s early-2002 release, another two-disc concept album, Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. If you liked Six Degrees, you’ll like Snow. If you didn’t, try Snow anyway. It’s a little more laid back and you get to catch your breath with more obvious lulls in between tracks, especially right before they smash you with some prog-funk or something else unexpected.

Dan Singleton 9/28/02