BRIDGE ACROSS FOREVER

It looked for a while as if Transatlantic would carry the flame for true progressive rock for a number of years to come. Sadly, with Neal Morse's departure, the band folded, and it looks like this will be their final studio offering. That really is a pity, as this album (and their first) indicate that they could have produced many more "neo-classics".

The appearance of four highly talented individuals who have already enjoyed major success with other bands does not of course guarantee that this venture will also be successful, or indeed that it will contain progressive rock (see Blind Faith and Asia for respective examples). In this case however, the sum of the parts is far exceeded by the whole, and with just 4 tracks spanning over 70 minutes, the prog elements are well and truly there.

"Duel with the devil" may well be Transatlantic's best track, it has pretty much everything. A symphonic opening, fine vocals, mellotron backing, a sax solo, great lead guitar, time changes, repeating themes, powerful sections, soft melodic sections, children's vocals, almost 27 minutes of music, etc, it does indeed have "All of the above".

"Suite Charlotte Pike" is a little wordy, a similar but inferior version of the opening track, including a reference to the "Motherless children" section of that track. At (only!) five and a half minutes, the title track is the shortest on the album. It's very much a Neal Morse solo performance, with soft piano backing, and an uplifting, spiritual feel.

"Stranger in your soul" is the other enormously long track, at over 26 minutes. It's slightly softer that the first track, but builds to a powerful conclusion.

A superb piece of modern prog rock, if you enjoy the music of Spock's Beard and The Flower Kings, (who's borrowed members have the most influence here) chances are you'll enjoy this.

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