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The Bearded's Project – Hope \| Omid
Band/artist: The Bearded's Project Title: Hope \| Omid Released: 2007 Label: Self-released	Track listing: 1. The Bearded's Project - Hope (Part I-VII) 2. Spock's Beard - Carry On \| The Doorway \| There Was A Time - acoustic medley 3. Coast to Coast - Walking The Thin Line 4. Kai Heyrock - At The Hand Of An Angel 5. Futile - Frontier Planet 6. Projection - It Won't Last Forever 7. Speaker's Corner - The Best Small Country (on the Globe) 8. Glistening Dawn - The End Of Childhood 9. Neal Morse - The Way 10. The It In You - Talk To Me 11. Kaldera - Trocadero 12. Roland Enders - The Soldier 13. Hope - I Could Die 14. Asgaart - The Tales Of A Scottish Poet 15. Disclosed Element - Shattered 16. The Healing Road - Crovenia 17. Hope reprise (hidden track)	Limited edition bonus CD (for members of "The Bearded"only) 1. Vertigo - Night on Broadway 2. The Healing Road feat. Thommy - Espresso Bar 3. Roland Enders - The River 4. Marquette - One Moment Alone 5. Cynity - Prog Will Eat Itself 6. Projection - Your Dream of Glass 7. Kai Heyrock - Trembling 8. Glistening Dawn - The Unresponsible Girl 9. Ben Schneider - Reaching for More 10. Increase - The Path 11. Tabasco, Milk and Cookies - Empire

"The Bearded" is a the official German fan community for fans of US progressive rock band "Spock's Beard". Some time ago members of the fan club started discussing making a CD, and decided that it should be a benefit album; where all the income would go to charity. They located a good cause they all agreed on - German Aid for Afghan Children - and started working on their project. In the early summer of 2007 they issued their CD, which had grown to be a double CD with one song jointly made and recorded by musicians in the community, a number of songs contributed by members and artists associated with the community, and one previously unreleased track by Spock's Beard as well as former Spock's Beard member Neal Morse.
In addition, late entries for the project as well as entries that for one reason or another wasn't included in the official release was put together on a bonus CD available to members of "The Bearded" community only; as well as a limited number of reviewers.

Musically this release is all over the place. The members of "The Bearded" include artists making quite different types of music. Most of the songs are progressive rock in style, but jazz, indie rock and more straight forward AOR is found on this release as well.
As these artists mostly are unsigned, with few of them having music as a way of living - at least to my knowledge - some weaknesses can be expected on such a release of course. Personally I didn't come across too many weaknesses though; apart from one aspect of most songs here: The vocals. There are few examples of good vocal performances here. Many of the vocalists sing in a way that I really found troublesome; a few to the point that it totally ruined songs for me.
On the other hand, when it comes to playing instruments and writing songs there is an abundance of talent here, enough to make this release be a very enjoyable experience for most people that buy this release.

As for the individual songs on this release, they are of course of varying quality - most of them are good though.

The sparkling gems:
Futile: "Frontier Planet" - a dreamy instrumental mixing new age and fusion
Neal Morse: "The Way" - melodic uplifting music with acoustic guitar, floating synths and Neal Morse's wonderful vocals, so beautiful that you'll sing along praising Jesus even if you're an atheist
Kaldera: "Trocadero" - some form of alternative rock instrumental, where synth soloing and riffing goes back and forth to the foundation of a driving bass guitar and pacey drums

The really good ones:
The Bearded's Project: "Hope" - close to 40 minutes of modern progressive rock epic; where vocal performances are the only reason for me not branding this one as a gem
Spock's Beard: "Carry On | The Doorway | There Was a Time" - acoustic guitars and harmonic vocals combined with a good melody, good song.
Coast to Coast: "Walking the Thin Line" - cool laid back jazz tune with acoustic guitars
Glistening Dawn: "The End of Childhood" - starts out as a neo-prog sounding tune and then shortly evolves into something not too unlike to SB/Morse in a mellow mood. With some hard rocking moments spicing things up now and then.
The It in You: "Talk to Me" - opening sounds evolve into a very Gentle Giant similar section, then two longer very good jazz themes follows, before the song ends with opening Gentle Giant inspired theme
Roland Enders: "The Soldier" - Long, dreamy track that reminds me a bit of Camel at times. Only the vocals stops this one from being seen as a gem by me
Hope: "I Could Die" - Intriguing tune close to prog metal in style. Slightly weird vocals, truly excellent music.
Asgaart: "The Tales of a Scottish Poet" - Closest thing to neo on this release, and one of the rare songs with really good vocals. Melodic, intriguing soundscapes and a beautiful warm synth sound.
The Healing Road: "Crovenia" - Experimental modern prog, with delightful piano playing, brilliant percussion themes and lots of twists and turns in and out of rock sections.

The nice ones:
Projection: "It Won't Last Forever" - okay AOR/power ballad
Speaker's Corner: "The Best Small Country (On the Globe)" - punk-influenced indie rock, could be a future classic with the right vocalist singing it
Disclosed Element: "Shattered" - Lush neo-moods, but no spectacular moods or moments.

Below average:
Kai Heyrock: "At the Hand of an Angel" - Nice AOR tune where the vocals rubs me the wrong way

The bonus CD available for members of "The Bearded" community isn't as good as the main album here, but does contain a few very good tunes; with Vertigos "Night on Broadway" and Cynity's "Prog Will Eat Itself" being my favorites, both of them good and intriguing tunes.
Most of the other songs are what I would describe as nice, with just a couple of songs that really put me off.

All in all I'd recommend most people into progressive rock to buy this release. As long as you're not totally dependant on brilliant vocal performances you'll find lots of goodies on this release if you are a fan of progressive rock in general.
That the album is nicely priced, both CDs filled to the brim with music and that the income here goes directly to a very good cause are all good reasons to buy the CD of course. And as the music here is very well made; you'll get good music as well as a good conscience purchasing this one.

Rating: 8 (out of 10) for Hope | Omid
Rating: 6 (out of 10) for the fan community exclusive bonus CD

Reviewer: Olav Björnsen

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Discography
Hope | Omid (2007)