"Transmission" is, by all accounts, the darkest album from the band. Martin, who found himself once again in a personal crisis, locked himself in his house in Montreal for weeks and worked on the different sounds. After Chatwood and Burrows added their ideas to the demo tapes Martin started to write the lyrics. He was inspired in part by C.G. Jung (Psychopomp is a Jungian expression and means: the leader who guides the dead into the afterlife) and Eugene Zamyatin, who in his book "We" preceded the dark outlook on the future of Orwell’s "1984". Themes of the songs are, according to Martin, the state of society: „Questions which are still open, questions that haven’t been answered: Questions about God, sexuality and the possibilities of the individual in our society.“

This time the cover was designed by Stuart Chatwood. During a museum visit in England, Martin and Chatwood were most impressed with a painting by William Turner. Inspired by it Chatwood took up the brush himself and thus the painting „The Earth We Inherit“, which can be seen on the cover, came into existence.

Because of the problems with management and the bankruptcy of EMI USA the album was released by ATLANTIC-Records in the USA. The band’s hopes were high for this release in the US and they had every right to expect a major breakthrough. Unfortunately it didn’t happen. US radio just wasn’t ready for music of this calibre but, once again, the band did very well in Canada and Australia.