But that might be ‘later’ so let’s keep it
NOW for the time being which is more than a hand full when you know there’s
also a limited 2CD release which of course we’re reviewing here. Backed
throughout by the impressive Ed Warby on drums, Arjen has played most of the
instruments himself guested by solo’s from Jens Johansson (Dio,
Stratovarius, Yngwie Malmsteen), Erik Norlander and Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow
Gallery) whilst the vocals from Russell Allen, Damion Wilson (ex-Threshold and
now Rick Wakeman’s New English Rock Ensemble), Dan Swanö (ex-Edge of
Sanity, Nightingale) and Floor Jansen (After Forever) are constantly being
switched. If you ever had the chance to visit Arjen’s private ‘electric
castle’ in the dutch city of Rijsbergen, then you know that next to his
girlfriend Yolanda and music, Lucassen also has a passion for science fiction.
Music and SF form the ideal marriage on this “Space metal” album because
all tracks are based on existing films. Where are the SF experts to help us
out here ? The first synthsounds from taster ‘Lift-off’ immediately give
us the Lucassen trademark and when ‘Set your controls’ unleash the smoke
from your speakers I can’t help thinking about Montrose’s ‘Jump on
it’. In ‘High moon’ Floor Jansen’s high vocals are embedded in heavy
guitars which is as if you’re listening to some Lana Lane music. ‘Songs of the ocean’ opens with the sound of
a submarine also containing the ‘fat’ sound of the Hammond whilst the
guitar slightly reminds us of Bryan May. A synth duel between Jens and Erik
forms an important part of ‘Master of darkness’ where all the vocals blend
together nicely. Then again Arjen has chosen some nice vocal timbres in order
to create a surprising palette as opposed to certain projects and bands who
use identical voices next to one another. ‘Master of darkness’ also
introudces Gary Wehrkamp who attacks the synths adding even more ‘power’
to the music. The intro for ‘The eye of Ra’ maybe gets closest to the
approach of Ayreon which might well be the result of the synths. I also adore
the way these synths pierce through the guitars during the intro for
‘Sandrider’. In ‘Perfect survivor’ it sounds as if drums and keyboards
are working against eachother which adds to the originality yet you have to
get used to it because the line between originality and cacophony is thin !
For me the highlight comes right at the very end where the longest track
emerges in he form of ‘Starchild’. This track serves as a reminder of all
the rest of the material with yet again a superb Russell Allen. Arjen also
proves he can play a decent bit of bassguitar laying down a firm foundation
together with Ed Warby. By adding the inevitable guitar- and synthsolo’s
it’s the deep voice of Dan Swano which brings this song and the actual album
to a close. However we do have an extra because as said
before this concerns the limited edition of the album thus including a lengthy
bonusdisc on which we find no less than six tracks (the sleeve says six yet my
disc contains seven !). The first track is bullseye straight away when Arjen
illustrates his love for science fiction by means of the ‘Hawkwind
medley’. In order to make it even more interesting he was able to convince
Dave Brock to lend his ‘floating’ vocal style. With ‘Silver machine’
as the band’s definitive highlight the Hawkwind music gets a harder
arrangement than it’s used to get which might inspire Brock for things to
come ? Although the music of Arjen Lucassen is original and inspires a lot of
people to launch similar projects he nevertheless ‘lends’ the odd riff
here and there resulting in a track like ‘Spaced out’ to sound almost like
Deep Purple’s ‘Highway star’ ! However ‘Inseperable ennemies’ is
once again Ayreon magic with cutting synths and powerful guitars. One of the
weakest tracks on this set is Arjen’s version of the Bowie classic ‘Space
oddity’ reminding me of the weak first solo offering of Arjen on his
“Pools of sorrow – waves of joy” album released under the moniker of
Anthony. Only the bluesy guitar I like but the rest is best to be forgotten.
By then we have arrived at the inclusion of some superfluous material such as
yet another version of ‘Starchild’ this time mixed in Dolby Pro-Logic
which to me doesn’t sound at all different to the other version. ‘Spaced
out’ comes in an alternative version with different singers which does not
add anything at all to the material. As said before this should be the last
song but my disc contains an extra song in the form of an acoustic leftover
which sounds like a relic from Peter Sellers or Monty Python. ‘The
intergalactic laxative’ tells the story of someone’s admiration for
astronauts but also about his/her astonishment when he/she is informed that
astronauts wear ‘nappies’ in which they ‘shit and pee’. Not really a
song to close an album and one wonders who the hell the Neil Innes soundalike
singer can be ? In short we can say that the bonusdisc is indeed
what it’s name implies : a bonusdisc and not a disc sporting quality
material. “Space metal” itself is the kind of album which makes heavy
metal acceptable again without having to include the NU-metal attitude. A
pumping rhythm section, soaring guitars and especially an impressive
collection of vocal chords make sure that Arjen ‘Anthony’ Lucassen has
once again created a succesful formula next to Ayreon and Ambeon. Now all
we’re waiting for are those concerts !
Reviewed
by: John ‘Bo Bo’ Bollenberg |
Well to be honest I was expecting this move for
a while now. Having released two albums in one go the last time around Arjen
Lucassen mainly did this to see which album would be selling the best.
Although both Universal Migrator albums virtually sold a similar amount of
copies it was the ‘harder’ “Flight of the migrator” which had a slight
advantage upon it’s ‘softer’ counterpart. With his new toy in the form
of ProTools Arjen placed himself behind his computer for 6 ½ months in order
to deliver the Ambeon project. Now to make sure the balance is right again he
was able to devote some time towards harderd edged, metal oriented material.
As happened with the soft side of his output he once again chose a completely
different name making sure the name Ayreon remains untouched. Listening to
Star One, Arjen has once again collected a bunch of first class musicians and
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Star One would become a live unit in time
to come. The music is perfect to be taken on the road and over the years our
‘basketballsize’ dutchman has gathered enough friends around him to last
him a lifetime (no, they are not all of the Dickinson calibre !). It might
only be difficult what the vocal section of the project is concerned because
for the album “Space metal”, Arjen has gathered no less than four singers
around him. I really hope he might persuade Russell Allen to put his Symphony
X band aside for a while so we can exopect some real fireworks in our backyard
!
