BRIDGE ACROSS FOREVER

The all-star super group Transatlantic is back with a brand new studio album named "Bridge Across Forever". The band consists of multi- instrumentalist and vocalist Neal Morse (Spock's Beard), drummer Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), guitarist Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings) and bassist Pete Trewavas (Marillion). Their debut CD "SMPTe" (1999) received many top ratings in magazines throughout the world. This album follows the same musical direction as the first album.

The band has a modern sound while the music is rooted in the 70's progressive rock with heavy riffing, Hammond organ outbursts, beautiful harmonies, memorable melodies and lengthy instrumental passages. There are reminiscences to the band member's original bands as well as The Beatles, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Genesis, Pink Floyd and Yes. The musicianship are as good as it can gets, as all the band members are maestros on their instruments. Neal Morse and Roine Stolt have strong and characteristic voices too.

The disc contains four lengthy tracks; two of them are over 26 minutes, one is over 14 minutes and there's one that is over 5 minutes. This album took 10 days to record. I don't want the band members to leave their original bands, but it would've been interesting to see what this band could've achieved if it was a "real" band.

"Bridge Across Forever" is even better than Transatlantic's debut, and they now sound more like a real band than a project. The album has everything you can wish for from a progressive rock release. This will end up as one of the best progressive albums from 2001.