If you were fortunate enough to catch the Steve Morse Band on their recently completed fall tour for Triangulation, you are already familiar with the first Morse band LP in several years. The band included ace guitarist Angel Vivaldi, who helped reproduce many of the duet parts on the new album. The shows reminded fans why Steve Morse is often listed as one of the best guitarists in the rock world.
For a man whose guitar has spoken volumes for nearly five decades, Triangulation feels like both a reckoning and a renewal. It’s the sound of an artist mapping out where he’s been, where he is, and where he still dares to go. This marks Morse’s first significant statement since stepping away from Deep Purple amid personal loss. What emerges is not simply virtuosity; it’s vulnerability rendered in six strings.
From the opening song, bassist Dave LaRue, drummer Van Romaine and Morse operate like a single organism. Their interplay is precise yet organic, each riff and rhythmic twist part of a greater conversation. The music is an exhilarating blend of fusion, prog, blues, and chamber-rock flourishes. It all serves as a reminder that Morse has never belonged to a single genre, only to the pursuit of melody and truth.
“Taken by an Angel,” written in memory of Morse’s late wife Janine, is the album’s emotional apex. It’s aching, melodic, and reverent without sentimentality. His son Kevin joins Morse here, and the result is all heart: grief transmuted into melody, sorrow into sustain.
Tracks like “The Unexpected” prove how symphonic Steve Morse can get, even without a conductor. One minute you’re in an Appalachian string duet; the next, a deep-space jam where the bass acts like a gravitational field. “Tumeni Partz” recalls his 1989 classic “Tumeni Notes,” except now the notes have unionized, elected a new steward, and taken over the factory. It’s a wink and a flex — and proof that the man still plays circles around circular logic.
Elsewhere, the title track featuring John Petrucci and “Tumeni Partz” pushes Morse’s technical imagination into overdrive, while “The Unexpected” reaffirms his gift for cinematic composition. Texas guitar ace Eric Johnson provides a complementary tone and vigor to Morse on “TexUs.” The high-powered guests are used sparingly, never overshadowing Morse’s vision and execution.
With Triangulation, Morse doesn’t just reclaim his musical voice. He redefines it. It’s an album of grace, grief and unrestrained guitar glory, proving that even in life’s hardest recalibrations, Steve Morse’s compass still points true north. Not just a guitar record and not just a Steve Morse record, Triangulation sounds like closure on grief, clarity in sound and pure forward motion.
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