It just hit me that I’m anywhere from a few short hours to a few short days away from holding in my hands my most anticipated musical release of the year, Transatlantic new album, The Whirlwind.

Hopping into the way back machine here, to September 2002. At this point, I was already on my way with the Progressive Rock/Metal conversion and I was eagerly branching out from Dream Theater into other bands such as Spock’s Beard and Symphony X. I was going through and checking out some of the side projects that the bands were involved in and came across Transatlantic’s album Bridge Across Forever. I instantly fell in love.

Transatlantic is a Progressive Rock super group, featuring Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater, Neal Morse from (at the time) Spock’s Beard, Roine Stolte from The Flower Kings and Pete Trewavas from Marillion. Their music is hard to explain. It’s very complex progressive rock, with heavy beatles influences (not surprising since all 4 members are HUGE beatles fans), with bits of Spock’s Beard and The Flower Kings and Marillion thrown in there for good measure too.

Bridge Across Forever quickly became one of, if not my absolute, favorite albums in the history of all times. I still spin it regularly and every note of every (long, long) song has been burned into my brain. After buying their first album, I became anxious to hear more new stuff. That wasn’t to be though.

Fast forward one month, and in October of 2002, it was announced that Neal Morse had become a Born Again Christian and was, at the direction of God, quitting both Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic to focus on more religiously influenced music. Spock’s Beard continued onward, although changed signifigantly as Neal was the driving force in their music. I’d go so far as to put him up in the list of Musical Geniuses along with Steven Wilson. Transatlantic, however, couldn’t continue without him. He was just too big a part of the band and the guys felt it would be weird to continue without his input. I had just discovered Transatlantic, and just like that…it was no more.

As the years went on, I continued listening to the roughly 2 hours of music that they produced. For the past couple years there’s been some rumblings of a potential Transatlantic reunion but I wasn’t holding my breath. Last year, 3 of the 4 members of Transatlantic played together at a prog festival, sparking more rumors of a reunion. Then, in April 2009, Pete Trewavas was spotted in an airport in Montreal headed to Nashville (where Neal Morse lives) and the rumors started flying even more.

Then the album was announced for real. Almost 8 years after their last release and 7 since I had known about them, Transatlantic was back together and recording a new album. And people who preordered the album have started getting it in the mail today.

So needless to say, I’m on the edge of my seat waiting for my copy to arrive. Soooooon!!!

Related posts:

  1. Caught In The Whirlwind
  2. Vox Hunt: Music – Hurry Up Already!
  3. New Music! Woohooo!
  4. Caught In The Whirlwind
  5. Vox Hunt: This Album Is All Good