SPACE METAL

Star One is the brainchild of Arjen Anthony Lucassen who provided not only the vision, all of the songs, but also bass, guitars, Hammond, mellotron and synths. He was joined by Ed Warby on drums and used four main vocalists in Damian Wilson (Threshold, Landmarq, La Salle etc), Russell Allen (Symphony X), Dan Swano (Edge Of Sanity, Nightingale) and Floor Jansen (After Forever). He brought in some guest keyboard players such as Erik Norlander (Rocket Scientists) and even convinced Dave Brock to make an appearance on guest vocals!

It has been released as a limited edition double digipak and that is definitely the version to get hold of. Arjen is best known for his albums as Ayreon, but his last CD was more of an atmospheric album under the name Ambeon. This is an attempt to bring out a hard rock space metal album for the 21st century, and it succeeds brilliantly. There is always the fear that a project of this kind will always have a disjointed feel, especially when one musician plays so many instruments but that is not the case. Another factor that works very well is that the four vocalists are all very different so that it is always possible to pick out exactly who is singing what. On "Set Your Controls" all of the singers play a part but they all still sound distinctive.

The album was inspired by some of Arjen's favourite sci-fi films and the project itself is named after an episode of "Blake's Seven". While I don't want to take anything away from the main album, which is simply superb, I must just mention also the Hawkwind Medley that is a bonus. "Silver Machine", "Brainstorm", "Spirit Of The Age" and some others played as if they are new fresh songs yet always maintaining that Hawkwind element, given the distinctive and definite seal of approval by Dave Brock providing the vocals. Ten minutes is just not long enough.

Already established as a personal favourite for waking up the office at 06.30, this is class from start to end.

Originally appeared in Feedback #67, Apr 02