Artist/ Band: Transatlantic
Title: Whirld Tour 2010 DVD
Label: InsiOut
Year of Release: 2010
Offical Artist/ Band Link

The Review:

This is quite a long live DVD as music concerts go, and I would suspect that it is a thrill for all fans of the band Transatlantic to watch. It may bring in many newcomers as well. The one thing I am impressed with is the way this super group of neo progressive musicians all present themselves on stage, and interact together as a whole. We have seen all the failures of “super groups” where ego kills the possibility of a 2nd release or at least, how only one or two members are left standing. I saw no ego on this DVD and it made the show look genuine. Genuine from the musicians to the audience. It also features excellent camera work, picture quality, and stereo sound. Some have complained about the bad mix sound for surround but just plain stereo, it was fine.

For me, Transatlantic has always been more of a commercial version of the neo prog much like the mass appeal of Pink Floyd, Yes, Asia, ELP, What I heard here was a nice set of extended songs (one complaint is that they went on too long some of the time) that your average music lover would like, or at least not have trouble getting into. Mixed in are also some classic prog influences like VDGG, Steve Hackett, Camel, John Wetton, and then some classic rock like Styx, Kansas, and Rush. It’s a popular formula that gives a little something for everyone that likes any of these bands. I think Pink Floyd fans will all love this stuff. There isn’t a ton of textures and changes in their songs, which for me, brought on some boredom and of course as mentioned before, many songs just went on too long with no distinct changes in anything like tempo, dynamics, or time changes. So suffice to say, the music here is not meant to be a form of complex rhythms and abstract ideas, it is meant to be easy to listen to and most of all, be successful in the world of music. I’m not saying this is bad, it’s just more for the lighter weight lovers of neo prog and commercial prog rock. So it does have it’s audience, and obviously, they have loads of fans. One key thing is, they do positive sounding music, which is uplifting and rarely gets dark. This might be a plus for new fans as well.

I am familiar with all the players and own both solos and band recordings of Roine Stolt (I own his first solo on vinyl and it was fantastic!). Despite my complaints on the whole, I still enjoyed watching the DVD (I only have Part 1 to review here) and have praise for the very long set of songs the band pulls off live, with no mistakes and all totally smooth. It’s probably the professional musicianship of each one of them, but it does seem they practiced this stuff extremely well. It’s a massive amount of music for the money for all fans. I have to think the big majority of Transatlantic fans will adore this (and most already have). Great effort, fine production, and super value!

Reviewed by Lee Henderson on February 14th, 2011

Tracks:

01. The Whirlwind

02. All of the Above

03. We All Need Some Light

04. Duel With the Devil

Reviewed Discography

• "Whirlwind" 2009
• "Whirld Tour 2010 DVD" 2010 [LH]

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