Go ahead, make your own mind before I’ll write what I think about this release and why I absolutely love it!

…and thought I’ll share this and a couple of other cool mashups I’ve heard recently. Enjoy it!

Eight years is quite a lot of time and a lot can–and actually did–change in each musician’s lives, though I’m referring here mostly to Neal as he’s the person behind the lyrics on The Whirlwind. This mind shift, I think most clearly visible on his solo albums starting from Testimony, had an obvious influence on album’s lyrical layer. To keep it short, some time ago Neal’s infant daughter had been diagnosed as having a hole in her heart but, even though none of the doctors gave her a lot of time to live, Neal and his wive kept praying and to all’s surprise the hole vanished. This became a turning point in Neal’s live and–even though to some it may sound odd for a rock compositions–Neal’s lyrics on The Whirlwind refer to his Christian views constantly, for example:

And you are dancing with eternal glory
There’s a reason you’re here
this is not by chance
When the giver of life, is asking you to dance!

Other than what I’d call a classic-transatlantic you can find here some resemblances to early Flower Kings–let’s say the Retropolis era–in “A Man can Feel” or some classical-rock singing, bit like Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler’s, in “Lay Down your Life”. On a strictly instrumental level, the album does not present so many joyful arrangements as previous CDs did. The mood is kept solemn for the most part and the album introduces more heavy riffs, with “Dancing with Eternal Glory / Whirlwind (Reprise)”, the longest and not necessarily full-speed-multi-note composition in the mood of Dream Theater’s “The Spirit Carries On”, bearing most resemblance to Transatlantic’s previous songs. Still, you can find some interesting themes here and there, such as a Bigelf-like passage near the end of “A Man can Feel”, or a short but utterly amusing keyboard tune, quite like a main theme from my childhood’s cartoon Koziołek Matołek, in the tension-growing passage of “Overture / Whirlwind”.

So to sum it all up, The Whirlwind–a 77 minutes long epic, though only because it has been called one on the “making of” DVD as listening to the album did not gave me such an impression–is an interesting but I wouldn’t daresay essential album. If I were to rank Transatlantic albums, I think I’d place The Whirlwind right after SMPTe with Bridge Across Forever on the top. This is strictly personal impression that depends on what are you looking for in music and The Whirlwind is a wee-bit different than what I’ve expected to come from Transatlantic.

Released: November 2009
Website: www.transatlanticweb.com
Line-up: Neal Morse (vocals, keyboards, acoustic & electric guitars), Mike Portnoy (drums, vocals), Roine Stolt (vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, mellotron, percussion), Pete Trewavas (bass, bass pedals, vocals)
Track list:

1. Overture / Whirlwind 9:54
2. The Wind Blew Them All Away 6:10
3. On The Prowl 6:03
4. A Man Can Feel 6:35
5. Out Of The Night 4:22
6. Rose Colored Glasses 7:54
7. Evermore 4:10
8. Set Us Free 5:03
9. Lay Down Your Life 5:11
10. Pieces Of Heaven 2:17
11. Is It Really Happening? 8:11
12. Dancing With Eternal Glory / Whirlwind (Reprise) 12:04

The album is ready (recordings, artwork) and as soon as guys will finish contract talks it will be shipped out. Oh, and if you didn’t know already the band’s got a new, and hopefully permanent, vocalist.

The jazz festivities were initiated yesterday by a Hungarian fusion/world music band Djabe. The band was completely unknown to me–quite as every other name on the festival’s performers list–but after a visit to their website and hearing Doromb I became really excited about seeing them live and–oh boy–I was not leftdown. The band performance was absolutely amazing and Tamás Barabás quickly joined the ranks of my favorite bass players (and not only because of his excellent slapping). As for the other musicians, I think that many heavy metal drummers should be learning from Szilárd Banai’s fast and precise double bass drumming. Both Zoltán Kovács (keyboards) and Ferenc Kovács (violin, trumpet) gave a great performance as well and the only glitch was barely audible  sound of Attila Égerházi’s guitar which emerged only occasionally.

Nonetheless, I can say that Djabe made a great impression on me and left me expecting much of the festival itself. I can’t wait for the next Saturday’s performance by a “living legend” of Polish fusion/jazz rock scene, String Connection.

All I can say is if the whole Black Clouds & Silver Linings will be as much disappointing as “A Rite of Passage” is I’m not going to like this album. I’m wondering what’s more disappointing here, James LaBrie’s vocals, or maybe John Petrucci’s loosely Spastic Ink inspired solo, or maybe Jordan Rudes‘ lousy broken-synth effect?

I was going to buy a Deluxe Collector’s Edition Box Set but after listening to this I think I’ll go for a Standard Edition. I’m afraid it’s going to be another Octavarium, where out of all eight tracks I can only bear two.

The main problem with The Never Ending Illusion is that apart from couple of good songs and songs fragments the album contains a handful of mediocre compositions. Songs good enough in light of what’s being shipped by musical industry lately but rather mediocre for a progressive band. Plus Davide Merletto’s voice which is, well, something I’ve got used to expect from an Italian band but not necessarily something that’s pleasant for my ear. Davide’s vocals revolve around his higher voice registers and given that occasionally he sings in a James LaBrie manner but not at the same pitch, makes the final effect horrible. Furthermore some of his pieces lacks the energy and proper emotions that one–that is me–would expect given the lyrics and instrumental background (“The Dancers”).

The Dream Theater influences are also visible on the instrumental level, for example the main guitar riff in “Hopeless” or the second part of “Life” featuring calm vocal line (I admit, Davide performs well here) on top of slow drums and synth passage followed by Andrea Torretta’s guitar picking up the melody where Davide left it. This is in turn one of those great moments of this CD that made me change my mind about this album. The same goes for–again–the second part of “Cold Embrace” introducing slow french horn solo (Stefano Lodo) followed by eerie guitar and Lucia La Rosa’s voice duo later on, quite in the mood of Cryptic Vision’s “Angel’s Requiem”. There is also one completely wonderful track on this album, title song “The Never Ending Illusion”. This is the longest and most diverse song of the album introducing baroque-like passage giving the song frivolous but very amiable feeling. The song begins in heavy metal style, moves to a slow down featuring great voice and keyboard duo, goes through jazz-like riff and back to solid rock.

Unfortunately, the instrumental “Horizons in a Box” is a bit of a disappointment. It’s not as much exciting as I would have expected from an instrumental track. The most irritating song of the album is–and I’m sorry to say that–“Mare di Stelle” (Sea of Stars), which suddenly stops just after it begun to spin up leaving only drums and horrible vocal laments.

To sum it up, I’d say that The Never Ending Illusion is an album rather for collectors or fans only. It have couple of interesting moments but the mediocrity of the remaining songs overwhelms and leaves pretty lousy impression. So sad.

Country: Italy
Released: February 2009
Website: www.progdaedalus.it
Line-up: Davide Merletto (vocals), Andrea Torretta (guitars), Fabio Gremo (bass), Giuseppe Spanò (keyboards), Davide La Rosa (drums)
Guests: Roberto Tiranti (vocals), Alessandro Corvaglia (vocals), Lucia La Rosa (vocals), Stefano Lodo (French horn), Stella Sorgente (double bass)
Track list:

1. Waiting for the Dawn 1:14
2. Perfect Smile 6:24
3. Life 5:46
4. Hopeless 5:11
5. Cold Embrace 5:24
6. The Never Ending Illusion 9:06
7. The Dancers 5:06
8. Horizons in a Box 7:11
9. A Journey to Myself 6:32
10. Mare di Stelle 5:27

From InsideOut note:

PROGRESSIVE ROCK SUPERGROUP REUNITES FOR NEW STUDIO ALBUM.

POSSIBLE LATE 2009 RELEASE PLANNED.

TRANSATLANTIC, the progressive rock “supergroup” comprised of Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), Pete Trewavas (Marillion), Roine Stolt (The Flower Kings) and Neal Morse (ex-Spock’s Beard), have reunited after a 7 year hiatus to begin work on a brand new studio album.

The band began work on the album in early April in Nashville and are expected to have it released by year’s end if all goes as planned.

TRANSATLANTIC have previously released two studio albums to tremendous critical and fan acclaim: 2000’s SMPTe and 2001’s Bridge Across Forever. The band toured on the heels of each release with an American Tour in 2000 and a European Tour in 2001 and released subsequent Live DVD’s/CD’s from both tours before going their separate ways for an indefinite hiatus which lasted almost the entire decade.

• Dream Theater
• Opeth
• Bigelf
• Unexpect

I’ve already mentioned Unexpect here and I’m really looking forward to seeing them live. Dream Theater and Opeth are the kind of bands that need no further introduction. As for the Bigelf, I’ve heard their recording some time ago and I think it’ll be interesting to see them perform live as well.

Man, I haven’t been so much excited about a gig for years. Łuczniczka Hall in Bydgoszcz, Poland is where I’ll be on September 30th.

Source: www.bravewords.com