BRIDGE ACROSS FOREVER

As a follow up to the groundbreaking debut effort "SMPTe", this album proves to be more than meets the expectation. The band not only once again successfully infuse freshly 1990s approach into 1970s progressive rock sound while composing memorable melodies with rich harmonies (even though over obscure lyrics). They easily continue to push forward as well.

With all four members of the band's remarkable talents and virtuosities are still there, one that is immediately noticeable is in this session the band share the task of lead vocals among them. This is a good move. Consequently, gone are the impression one might find out on previous effort that the band performances sounding much like Spock's Beard -- because of Neal Morse prominent role as a lead vocalist.

Four tracks, including a short ballad, selected for this session are all mighty songs with the opener, the 26-plus-minute epic "Duel With The Devil", serves effectively as the tone setter; it showcases delicate yet wonderful arrangement and the technical proficiency of each members dealing with the instrumentation. These elements are so strong that if it had not because of them the closing tracks, "Stranger in Your Soul", could have been a disaster as it is too long.

Without this album progressive rock will definitely still be alive and rocking. But ignoring it intentionally may result in losing the chance to experience directly the higher level of the genre Transatlantic has taken to. Unfortunately, the band has been disbanded.