18. June 2025
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Media Review

Neal Morse & The Resonance – No Hill For A Climber

Florian Buechtingby Florian Buechting

Neal Morse & The Resonance - No Hill For A Climber

Neal Morse & The Resonance - No Hill For A Climber
4.9

Rating

 4.9/5

Flyctory.com Pros

  • Great, epic compositions
  • High musical quality
  • Very catching listen

No Hill For A Climber – the new Neal Morse album is a based on the Purlitzer Prize-winning novel Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver. It is also the first album by the US-American artist which has been done with the band The Resonance, a trio of young, emerging artists from the Greater Nashville area where Morse is based locally. Let’s listen to this new progressive rock release as of 8th November 2024.

 

 

Neal Morse & The Resonance – About The Artists

Neal Morse is a US-American rock artist, born on 2nd August 1960 in Van Nuys in Greater Los Angeles. Nowaday, he is based in Nashville. He is part of the band Transatlantic and the supergroup Flying Colors. However, he is also having a wide range of releases as a solo artist. Thereby, Morse features different genres. There are singer-songwriter releases like his 1999 debut Neal Morse, a wide range of progressive rock releases as well as Christian worship albums. The Resonance, consisting of Tennessee artists are Chris Riley (keys, guitars, bass, vocals), Andre Madatian (guitars, orchestration), Johnny Bisaha (vocals), Chris Carmichael (violin, viola, cello), Chris West (trumpet, flugelhorn) and Desmond Ng (trombone, euhonium). Apart from that, Amy Pippin and Julie Harrison are background vocalists and Philip Martin and Joe Ganzelli shared the drumming roles (sometimes in parallel).

 

Neal Morse & The Resonance – No Hill For A Climber – Track by Track

The five track album lasts 67 minutes. There is also a 2CD version, which additionally features the instrumental versions of the songs.

1. Eternity In Your Eyes

If you ask yourself how five songs lead to an over one hour listen, the opener Eternity In Your Eyes already gives you a hint. The song is almost 21 minutes long – even the “short” tracks in the middle of the quintet are longer than five minutes. The song is also sometimes split into seven sections, which all comes with a different character and part of the song’s story. There are narrative parts and long sections, which solely concentrate on the instruments. Even when you head towards the last third of the song, you don’t feel bored or think about using the skip button. Amazing, very versatile composition, which also feels bombastic.

2. Thief

You might need a short break after all the energy of the first epic of the album, which is now presenting three “short” songs. From the very first moment, Thief feels very different from the very beginning. It could easily be on the soundtrack of a cool James Bond movie. While it begins with a really cool and catching atmosphere, it underlines the virtuosity of Neal Morse and the regional artists towards its end. This leads to a fascinating listen.

3. All The Rage

Like Thief, All The Rage has been released as a single before the album. Johnny Bisaha is taking over the main vocal duties – and he does it in an amazing manner. The song is energetic and hymnic, but still comes with playful elements. They underline the musical power and magic behind the this new collaboration of Neal Morse and The Resonance. Even though the second half of the album still is ahead of me, I already hope that this collaboration will release some more songs.

4. Ever Interceding

With 6:31 minutes, Ever Interceding is the longest of the three “short” tracks on the album. The song is driven by an acoustic style and thus adds another very different style to No Hill For A Climber. The melody is catching. Like all songs on the album, you start listening to it and are simply fascinated it.

5. No Hill For A Climber

Safe the best for last? The title track of the album is the fifth and last track. No Hill For A Climber lasts almost 29 minutes – is that still a rock song or a symphony? It starts with a long instrumental lead-in, which initially feels a bit of dark, but soon changes into a playful, slightly dramatic setting. The microphones are used when most songs are already done – after some five minutes. Using different vocalists, having different instrumental styles, there is always something new happening in this epic. Sometimes, it is gentle, almost kitschy, before it quickly changes into a rocking and angry dialogue of the singers. In a time like nowadays, where the attention span is more and more decreasing, releasing a 29 minute song requires quite some confidence in yourself – but it works out amazingly.

 

Neal Morse & The Resonance – No Hill For A Climber – Spotify

Here is the album on Spotify:

 

Neal Morse & The Resonance – No Hill For A Climber – My View

In the press kit to No Hill For A Climber, Morse states Everyone you work with changes you a little bit, so even I sound a little different on this one, but I hope that everyone will love it! I am not “everyone”, but I definitely do love this one. The retro-style prog album comes with an amazing blast of instrumental talent and energy. The two epics are absolutely catching, you don’t want to miss a second. The three small bites in the middle of this album add a lot of flavor and show some very different aspects of this collaboration. Great work!

Favorite Song: No Hill For A Climber

 

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Here are all my Media Reviews published in 2024 related to the USA and rock music:

 

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