Mystique started crafting his Transcended album Halloween night in 2017 remotely with Digital Domain Studios and on June 3rd, 2021 he had a demo CD professionally manufactured that even included introductory conceptual artwork. Titled Diamonds In The Rough, the CD was a collection of rough ideas (one of which will later become his first single). Then, Mystique presented his demo CD to three members of Crimson Glory and they were unquestionably "blown away". Mystique continued diligently working on his album daily without fail and finally entered the world famous Morrisound Recording Studio alone on December 19th, 2022.
Since then, Mystique has been working directly with Producer Jim Morris on Transcended. Jim has earned Gold records for Engineering and/or Producing artists such as Warrant, Savatage, Trans-Siberian Orchestra and of course Crimson Glory on their legendary album Transcendence.
Sharing Producer duties will be Lee Harrison (Monstrosity, Terrorizer) who was the Producer & Engineer for Crimson Glory singer Midnight on the triple CD set M2: Descending Into Madness.
Harrison had this to say about Mystique: "Mystique has the uncanny affinity of Midnight's voice, which is something I thought I would never hear again in my lifetime. Transcended is poised to be the album fans have been demanding and waiting for - but never received.
"I've been involved with the project since August of 2018 and one of my personal favorite tracks is the second single called 'Lifeforce'. For those of you that may not know, the Transcendence album cover actually originated from a 1985 Japanese artwork poster (created by Takashi Terada) for a movie called Lifeforce. Mystique's song 'Lifeforce' completes the transcension between both albums seamlessly.
"I hear that Mystique is searching the galaxy to find Takashi Terada to create the artwork for Transcended as well!"
Slated to be released on November 14th, 2023, the current working song titles (subject to change) for Transcended are:
"Anubis: The Empire Has Risen"
"Winter Skies"
"Lost In The Masquerade" (first single)
"Under The Pale Moonlight"
"Lifeforce"
"Neptune's Call"
"Dawn Of Mercury"
"Reincarnation"
"Your Perfect World"
"A.I. 3030"
Mystique had this to say: "I am dedicating Transcended to Midnight and his family. My album also serves as a faithful and respectful tribute to the legacy of Crimson Glory.
"I had been working with between one and three of the original members of Crimson Glory on and off from October 2nd, 2019 until January 31st, 2023. Personal or professional differences during this journey had absolutely no relevance or bearing on my decision to make the Transcended album on my own. There is no reason to blame or speculate that any single person or side is responsible. In this case, it simply is "collective creative differences" (on both sides) with the song selection choices. I truly wish them all the best and I am certain they will be successful in any future musical endeavor.
"I put all of my heart and soul into Transcended. I wrote and recorded (and legally copyrighted & trademarked internationally) every single solitary song, vocal lyric, vocal melody, rhythm guitar, drum beat, sound effect and bass guitar on Transcended and hope everyone enjoys it. Please pardon the pre-production audio and rough proof of concept video footage!
"I would also like to give special thanks to Jim Morris, Lee Harrison, Oliver Weinsheimer from the Keep It True Festival along with Rick Naqvi and Perry Tee from PreSonus. Thank you for the endorsements."
