This album makes me cry a lot, particularly the last two songs. Being an animal lover
and knowing this could be my favorite singer of decades' final work, the double meaning of the very last line of the very last song guts me. John and Jim just get better and better, and I wish their partnership would never permanently end.
Anyway, let's talk about Mike.
MP is a John Arch mega-fan like me. He was at the ProgPower Awaken the Guardian Anniversary show, he drummed on John's "A Twist of Fate" EP in the early '00s, he was at the show where John and Ray did the Guardian duet in the early '90s, John stayed at Mike's house when recording the DT audition demos, John was at his wedding (or the opposite, I forget), and on and on... Last I knew, he still loved Jim Matheos, too. In the past Mike's promoted the hell out of anything John Arch-associated, and John still speaks glowingly of him.
All that said, I can't find where he's talked about the album anywhere or even acknowledged its existence..? There's no way if it had come out 5 years ago he wouldn't have promoted it all over social media.
Anyone know anything about why Mike's seemingly ignored it? It'd probably be his album of the year (perhaps it secretly is). Jim said he looked into about 15 drummers, but the album only ended up with 5. What are the chances that Mike is upset he wasn't asked to participate (I don't think he'd have turned down the offer--working with Jim is famously easy)? If I was Mike, I'd probably think it would be pretty awesome for Max to get to record drums for a track. It would be wildly inappropriate for Mike to suggest it considering the nature of the project, but I could see either of these scenarios embittering Mike and leading to radio silence. From everything I've seen of Mike, some perceived personal slight (from Jim, in these hypothetical scenarios) seems the most likely explanation.
I hope someone proves me blind by producing a recent interview where Mike gushes about the album.