THE WHIRLWIND

I've listened to the album a couple of times, but before writing this review was the first time I sat down, put on a great pair of Bose headphones, and paid close attention. I literally am questioning my existence right now, while a bunch of flashbacks run through my head. I swear I'm not high.

This album is stupendously, ridiculously beautiful. The lyrics may seem abstract, but they give you a direction so you can attribute meaning to a lot of the content. And, if you do it well, it will do the job waaay better than 10 self-esteem boosting books. You're not alone, and it's up to you to take out the most of your life while you're here.

Alright, now let's talk about the instrumentation on this little beauty: as astounding as the lyrics. Literally, it is one big song divided into twelve parts, and under no circumstance one shall start if from somewhere other than the first track. The recurrence of themes, the instruments and equalisations so carefully planned as to what was going to be where sounding like how is so good I lost track of time and the tracks on what, I believe, was still the first part/song.

The quartet of Transatlantic was the perfect fit for this masterpiece, and the musicianship is really hard to top here. Portnoy knows exactly when to go nuts, and if it should last one or sixteen bars. Neal Morse's voice here gets close to the one of an angel, given the context of the album. Trewavas' bass hits you really hard when it needs to, and smoothly goes to the background when it's time. To top it all, Stolt's guitar sounds like Genesis 2.0: trippy, yet full of solid riffs and perception of the others.

Seriously, after writing this I'm heading straight to Amazon.com, for having this in physical copy has just become a top priority. I hope it hits you like it did with me. Sit down, grab your best headphones, concentrate on the music and you tell me later.