After breaking through with their debut album ‘The Light’ in 1995, the band released their strong sophomore album ‘Beware of Darkness’ the following year in January of 1996. Now a full five piece band with Neal Morse, Alan Morse, Nick D’Virgilio, Dave Merso and keyboardist Ryo Okumoto on board, the band would go on to define the Spock’s Beard sound with epics like “Walking on the Wind” and the Gentle Giant inspired “Thoughts”. Other songs like the piano rocker “The Doorway” or the acoustic “Waste Away” showcased the band’s ability to focus on simple melodies and organic instrumentation.
Bassist Dave Meros had this to say about the album: “At the time that I joined the band we were just a four piece. Neal had recorded all the keyboard parts on The Light by himself. But after The Light was recorded we wanted to start doing some gigs and Neal realized he couldn’t cover it all by himself, so Ryo was brought back in. So it really was a complete band then in a physical sense. But beyond that, this was going to be our second album, we had done some live shows as a full band, there was a bit of a buzz going on, we had a new recording contract, and there was definitely a feeling that Beware Of Darkness was our first focused push forward.”
