Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - 3 Albums (2002-2010) (Re-up)

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Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - 3 Albums (2002-2010) (Re-up)

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With a career spanning more than three decades, composer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen has firmly established himself worldwide as driving force in progressive rock. While best known for his rock opera project Ayreon, the multi-talented Dutchman also regularly embarks on musical side projects such as Ambeon, Guilt Machine and Star One. Arjen’s side projects all explore different aspects of his musical personality, with each new release being a creative reaction to the style of its predecessor. Star One is no exception.
The first Star One album, Space Metal (2002) was Arjen’s reaction to his previous project, the relatively soft Ambeon. After releasing the first few Ayreon albums, Arjen had noticed that many others were following in his footsteps and releasing their own rock operas. Upon listening to these, his impression was that "on some of these operas the singers sound the same, and so you need the CD booklet to tell them apart." To ensure that didn’t happen on ‘Space Metal’, Arjen cast a line-up of singers with distinct voices, singers whom listeners could easily tell apart without the help of the CD booklet. Dan Swanö (ex-Edge of Sanity, Nightingale) was recruited for the the low parts, Russell Allen (Symphony X) took care of the powerful, gritty parts, Damian Wilson (ex-Threshold) sang the high clear parts, and to top it off, Floor Jansen (After Forever) belted out the really high choruses. Robert Soeterboek (Ayreon) took care of the backing vocals with his huge smoky voice.
So with all these singers, why not just call Space Metal an Ayreon album and be done with it? Ayreon is known for combining many different musical styles on one album. Star One highlights the heavy side of Arjen’s music, and the songs - while progressive - are still more straightforward and guitar-oriented than you would find on an Ayreon release. Thus, Arjen felt that this project was warranted.

The background for Arjen’s next Star One release, "Victims of the Modern Age," (2010) is similar to the situation that led up to the Star One debut album, "Space Metal" (2002). In 2009 Arjen had launched a new side project, Guilt Machine. Like Ambeon, Guilt Machine’s debut release (On this Perfect Day) was relatively relaxed and subtle. So Arjen’s muses responded by urging him to record something loud, heavy and anything but subtle for his next release. Thus it was a perfect opportunity to revisit his Star One project.
Arjen strives to keep a consistent cast of vocalists for Star One rather than mixing it up with the ever-changing vocal line-up that characterizes Ayreon. For "Victims of the Modern Age" he reunited the stellar cast of lead vocalists from Space Metal: Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Headspace, Threshold), Floor Jansen (ReVamp, ex-After Forever), and Dan Swanö (Nightingale, Second Sky, ex-Edge Of Sanity). Ranging from soaring power vocals to hauntingly melodic passages to brutal growls, the contrasting vocal styles of these magnificent vocalists provide each song with a stunning variety of vocal textures.
When it comes to instruments, the tall Dutchman played the rhythm guitars, Hammond organ, Mellotron, Solina strings and analog synths himself, and invited drummer Ed Warby (Ayreon, Hail of Bullets, Gorefest) and bassist Peter Vink to lay down the powerful rhythm tracks. He also enlisted the intimidating solo skills of former After Forever keyboardist Joost van den Broek and guitarist Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery), each of whom provide their trademark scorching solos.

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Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - 3 Albums (2002-2010) (Re-up)

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Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - 3 Albums (2002-2010) (Re-up)

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Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - 3 Albums (2002-2010) (Re-up)

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