For the first time ever prog icon Neal Morse came into a recording session with his long time friend and collaborator Mike Portnoy, Randy George, Bill Hubauer and Eric Gillette...with NOTHING! He had no prepared material at all. Neal comments, "I wanted to see what it would be like to create freely in the room with no preconceived notions. It was quite a risk!" On previous albums, like the Testimony album for example, Morse had the entire album written in advance. "I used to be rather paranoid about whether things would turn out in the short space of time we had available...so I would fill all the space in advance!" This album was totally different. "I made a lot of room for the other guys to create and express themselves and the result is outstanding! We wanted to experiment, do something a bit different, and see what everyone is capable of...we found out...in SPADES!" The results are obvious! This was a "grand experiment" that produced something far beyond anyone's expectations!