Style: progressive rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Neal Morse Band, The Flower Kings, Big Big Train, IQ, Kansas
Country: United States
Release date: 21 November 2025

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I will begin with a brief, reductive history of progressive rock that will likely upset any readers of the blog who are in denial about the genre (or who are big fans of retro prog rock acts like Wobbler, The Flower Kings, or Spock’s Beard). Progressive rock started as an interesting and exciting advancement to rock music, and the tailend of the 60s and most of the 70s were a fruitful time for one of the greatest forms of music the world had ever known. Then suddenly, practically all of the genre’s innovative legends turned toward pop music that hasn’t aged that well unless you were there at the time (but then how are you on the internet, grandpa). The torch of progressive rock was passed to a bunch of Genesis clones of varying quality, the “neo-prog” bands like Marillion¹, Pendragon, and IQ. Since the start of the 90s, multitudes of bands have tried to capture what made 70s prog so magical, and only a select few have succeeded. Thankfully, the 90s were a turning point for the progressive music world as many bands found actual inspiration again, turning toward the beautiful world of prog metal! But some up-and-coming neo-prog bands started writing compelling progressive rock as they expanded their comprehensive list of influences beyond “Genesis.” One of the most enduring and influential bands of the 90s prog rock scene—for better or for worse—was Spock’s Beard, formed in Los Angeles in 1992. 

These old cats are prog rock legends by this point and their sound is as comfortingly progalicious as it is predictable. However, Spock’s Beard underwent their second most major lineup change ever in between the release of 2018’s Noise Floor and this year’s The Archaeoptimist: Nick D’Virgilio, founding member, drummer, and occasional lead singer of Spock’s Beard, has left the group². Lots of Spock’s Beard fans were quite anxious about the band’s future, but fortunately, they’re safe in the capable, stick-hitting hands of new percussion player Nick Potters³. Despite any drama leading up to its release, The Archaeoptimist is business as usual for a band who have spent thirty years fine-tuning their craft into a tried-and-true formula (tried by a million other bands, too!).

Sonically, the new record is nothing unexpected. Despite being gone for more than twenty years, if you’ve heard any Neal Morse album in that time (Transatlantic, The Neal Morse Band, Flying Colors, etc.) and then listen to The Archaeoptimist, you still hear his enduring influence on Spock’s Beard’s core sound. You will hear plenty of Hammond organ, driving basslines, vocal harmonizing, tasteful guitar leads, and wanky keyboard solos—and of course it wouldn’t be neo-prog without at least one twenty-minute track in that runtime. 

The strongest asset of Spock’s Beard is, and always has been, the band members’ cohesiveness as a unit. Alan Morse on the fretboard⁴, and longtime keyboardist, organist, pianist, and synthist Ryo Okumoto have excellent synergy and happily indulge in the glut of solos together, often meeting in harmony or clashing in contrast. The first couple minutes of “Afterthoughts,” for instance, have the two lead instrumentalists solo in saccharine harmony, but their dialogue turns into an unexpected bit of musical discordance on a record that’s uniformly cheery for the most part. Morse also has a killer minor key, dark solo that reminds me of his brother’s record Sola Scriptura on “St. Jerome in the Wilderness”—a solo which Okumoto follows up with a few minutes of his own. The extended instrumental shred sections are often highlights of their songs. As always, Spock’s Beard bassist Dave Meros holds the fort down with a hefty tone that is mixed wonderfully by Rich Mouser. In fact, The Archaeoptimist on the whole sounds fantastic and should set the standard for all the wanna-be Beard bands out there. 

Vocally, Ted Leonard (Enchant, Pattern-Seeking Animals, Thought Chamber) performs at a high level for those who like the willowy tenors of old-school heavy prog. On his own, he delivers the lyric-driven stories well (the title track is about a father and his daughter journeying through a post-apocalyptic world), but Spock’s Beard are at their best vocally in the many harmonizing moments across the record—the upbeat chorus around twelve minutes into the title track, the a cappella intro to album opener “Invisible,” and the Gentle Giant-coded bridge in “Afterthoughts.” Just like with the instrumentals, even if Leonard is rich on his own, it is when he integrates himself with the rest of the band that Spock’s Beard finds its stride. 

Sadly, even though The Archaeoptimist is Spock’s Beard’s best in a quarter century, it’s still far too predictable, wrought from prog rock cliches. That doesn’t make the record much worse, necessarily, but I certainly won’t be likely to listen to it instead of older Spock’s Beard material that has stood the test of time. More damning is that The Archaeoptimist has many of the irksome quirks that have held Spock’s Beard back in the past, like the frequent style-hopping in the lengthy title track. The sudden shifts into overly jolly music, like the one around seven minutes into the track, cheapen the songwriting and are simply less compelling musically. As a result, the entire epic feels a bit too forced and doesn’t develop nearly as naturally as the shorter tracks—having an artificially extended epic certainly doesn’t help a record that’s already over an hour long. 

The Archaeoptimist is certainly a statement to Spock’s Beard fans and prog rock enjoyers everywhere about their resilience and stubbornness to change: even losing another founding and key member, The Beard is inevitable. No matter how the lineup looks, Morse (Alan), Okumoto, and Meros will keep the Beard train chugging along at a high level. The Archaeoptimist is not the most inspired progressive rock record I’ve ever heard, but it’s a step in the right direction for an old band that did a lot to save progressive rock from the evils of pop and Genesis worship.

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Recommended tracks: Afterthoughts, St. Jerome in the Wilderness, Next Step
You may also like: Transatlantic, Pattern-Seeking Animals, Jacob Roberge, Kapia, Beardfish, Enchant, Moon Safari, Cosmic Cathedral
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Madfish Music

Spock’s Beard is:
– Alan Morse (guitar, vocals, lyrics)
– Dave Meros (bass, keyboards, vocals)
– Ryo Okumoto (keyboards, vocals)
– Ted Leonard (lead vocals, guitar, keyboards)
– Nick Potters (drums, vocals)
– Michael Whiteman (additional guitar)

1. Blog founder Sam insists I mention that the Hogarth era of Marillion were more innovative and dropped the whole “Genesis again” schtick. Definitely check out Brave and Marbles if you’re unfamiliar. ↩︎
2. The biggest change, of course, was when Neal Morse left the band when he found Jesus in the Year of Our Lord 2002. ↩︎
3. I think it’s funny Dream Theater replaced their drummer Mike with another Mike and now Spock’s Beard has done it with Nick and Nick. ↩︎
4. Yes, brother of Neal. ↩︎