TRANSATLANTIC — SMPTe (review)

Album · 2000 · Metal Related

5/5 · 2021-03-29
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The prog revival of the 1990s found the complex excesses of the 1970s return in full regalia with all the musical attributes that gained a loyal following as well as critics who couldn’t stand the fact that they couldn’t figure it all out in a single listening session but alas the independent fiery nature of the underground had prevailed against the money grubbing record industry that had systematically been dumbing all musical expressions down to a common single denominator. The 90s found a whole host of newbies such as Porcupine Tree, Anglagard and Anekdoten reinterpreting the classics of the past as well as newer metal bands like Dream Theater and Ayreon eager to cross-pollinate their more extreme excesses with the myriad styles of the prog history books.

With all these new bands rekindling the progressive rock scene, it didn’t take long at all for some of these musicians to start the musical chairs game of switching things up and forming new bands. One of the first supergroups to emerge around the beginning of the 21st century was TRANSATLANTIC which resulted when Dream Theater’s drummer Mike Portnoy had broken up his other project Liquid Tension Experiment once Jordan Rudess had left to join his main band. The project came to fruition as a true progressive rock project that eschewed the bombast of the Dream Theater metal heft and focused on the classic symphonic prog sounds of Yes, Genesis and other classic 70s bigwigs. The first member to join the team being Neal Morse due to the fact Portnoy had become such a huge Spock’s Beard fan. Also signing up was long-term Marillion bassist Pete Trewavas but when it came to scoring Portnoy’s top pick for guitar duties, Fates Warning axe master Jim Matheos didn’t quite work out.

When and was said and done, the role of guitarist was filled by none other than The Flower Kings’ mainman Roine Stolt and together this quartet of powerhouse musicians released a couple of the best supergroup prog albums in all of history before taking a hiatus. The first of these albums was the debut album SMPT:e which may look like a secret code for some computer software instruction manual but in reality simply referred to the member’s last initials. S-tolt. M-orse. P-ortnoy. T-rewavas. The :e part is what may throw that assumption off but was added because the initials SMPTE referred to The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers which is a global professional association of engineers, technologists, and executives working in the media and entertainment industry, thus providing a secondary reference for all those in the know when it comes tech talk.

By all accounts, TRANSATLANTIC was the real prog deal delivering an unforgiving slice of modern contemporary prog operating within the classic standards, namely uncompromising compositional majesty with little regard to time lengths, commercial palatability or modern trendiness. SMPT:E immediately goes for the prog jugular with the whopping 31-minute opener “All Of The Above” which featured no less than six distinct movements all tied together through interconnecting motifs which brought aspects of all the members on board into a much greater sum of the parts. Upon a single listen, it’s obvious that TRANSATLANTIC was all about enhancing the strengths of each musician rather than the watering down of great talent which unfortunately is often the case in rock-based supergroups. If that wasn’t enough, this 77-minute plus listening experience features not only one but two more epic tracks that both exceed the 16-minute mark.

While TRANSATLANTIC certainly ticked off all the boxes of the prog check list with inspiration from the classic era ranging from epic Yes-like classically infused compositional fortitude, Pink Floydian space rock moments and the pastoral folk-flavored moments of classic Genesis to the more modern symphonic prog approaches of Morse’s Spock’s Beard and Stolt’s Flower Kings. Add excellent diverse dynamics, irresistible melodies laced with Beatles-esque harmonies, time signature workouts and instrumental gymnastics without sacrificing the emotive expressionism and it’s no wonder why TRANSATLANTIC hit the ground running on full steam and has remained relevant in the decades since this debut hit the scene. Many have rightfully proclaimed that the first two early TRANSATLANTIC albums are amongst the best progressive rock albums ever created. I certainly can’t argue with that.

Despite the pompousness that exceedingly lengthy tracks can exude, TRANSATLANTIC avoided all the pitfalls on SMPT:e with an emphasis on keeping the music accessible with irresistible almost ear-wormy hooks that if crafted into shorter chunks could easily qualify as brilliant pop rock but what TRANSATLANTIC so successfully mastered was the ability to craft a series of brilliant melodies and harmonies and thought provoking lyrics and teased them all out into epic symphonic prog masterpieces that found a series of varying ideas strung together like a string of pearls that sparkles in the sun. Every one of these four guys was really firing on all cylinders with excellent musicianship while performing highly engaging compositions of epic proportion. This is one of those albums where no single person steals the show as its the careful and thoughtful weaving interactive instrumentation that makes this one so utterly divine.

If nothing else, TRANSATLANTIC proved that the prog revival scene was no fluke and provided the perfect example of how prog was in no danger of burning out any time soon as the odometer was changing to a new millennium however this music goes well beyond merely proving prog was still a force to be reckoned with as TRANSATLANTIC went well beyond the call of duty in crafting some fo the most compelling symphonic prog ever recorded and although the following “Bridge Across Forever” was roughly of equal caliber, this quartet of prog heroes certainly raised the bar so high that few have been able to match including the band itself on its later albums. There also exists a special edition that features a bonus disc with alternative mixes of “My New World” as well as some demos and a couple pointless cover songs and hardly essential but this original album collection of five ridiculously strong tracks is nothing less than a masterpiece through and through.