Space Metal - Dutch Progressive Rock Pages

Star One is a new project by Arjen Lucassen, the man behind Ayreon. After his latest Ambeon-project he was was ready for some heavier material. On his new album Space Metal, he concentrates on powerful straightforward heavy rock. And although this is not an Ayreon production, Star One has the typical progressive "Lucassen touch" all over.

If you're familiar with Lucassen's earlier albums, you might recognise some of the musicians in this new project: most of the instruments are played by Lucassen himself (guitars, bass, keyboards), with Ed Warby on drums and guest appearances by guitarist Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery), and keyboardlayers Jens Johansson (Yngwie Malmsteen, Dio, Stratovarius) and Erik Norlander (Ayreon, Rocket Scientists, Lana Lane).

The vocals are done by several singers. The main vocalists (on disk 1) are: Russell Allen (Symphony X), Damian Wilson (Threshold) and Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Nightingale), with important vocal contributions by Robert Soeterboek (Ayreon) and Floor Jansen (After Forever). All songs on disk 1 are done with multiple singers, sharing the vocals.

Space Metal is a concept album, inspired by science fiction movies, though the songs are not linked by a storyline or musical themes. The music is all quite heavy, and less diverse than the Ayreon albums. But it's not too different from Ayreon in its more heavy moments. In fact, the music comes quite close to Ayreon's Flight of the Migrator (the heavy second part of the Universal Migrator). Personally, I think it's even better than that album.

Star One's melodies, musicianship and vocals are all top notch. Just let me go through a short song-by-song analysis. The album opens with Lift-Off, a short instrumental synth piece in the familiar Ayreon style. Then follows Set Your Controls, a fast and energetic piece in typical heavy rock style. Loud bass drums, heavy rhythm guitars, and dramatical vocals. The extremely fast keyboards (mainly by Jens Johanson) are great and make this track sound quite progressive.

The next track, High Moon, is more straightforward hard rock. It's steady paced, but dominated by the low heavy rhythm guitars, and Russell Allen's vocals combine very well with the other singers.

Then follows Songs of the Ocean, another heavy track, but more accessable than the two preceding pieces. Great melodies here, and the beautiful female vocal choruses give this piece a strong Ayreon feel, also because of the dynamically contrasting quieter passages.

The next one is most likely based on the Star Wars movies: Master of Darkness, with lots of exciting duelling keyboards and guitars (by Johanson and Wehrkamp). The multiple singer concept works out very well here, especially the nice contrasts between the dramatical lead vocals and the "cool" mysterious female vocals.

One of my favourite tracks comes next: The Eye of Ra (probably inspired by the Stargate movie). This is a great proggy piece with a very effective use of dynamics (i.e. the shifting between the mysterious organs parts, and the more dramatical parts with heavy pounding rhythm guitars). Russel Allan and Damian Wilson sing their hearts out, and their voices combine very well with the impressive choruses. Wehrkamp's great guitar solo sounds a bit like Brian May (Queen).

The next song, Sandrider, must be inspired by the movie "Dune". It's revolution time: the music is exciting, with ominous low voices, aggressive wild drum banging and heavy guitars with some oriental influences.

The remaining tracks are a bit less rocking, but all very good. First comes Perfect Survivor, a slower track, with a compelling hypnotising rhythm and a haunting melody. The following track, Intergalactic Space Crusaders is a nice energetic piece, with an accessable Ayreon style melody, lots of organ and great synth solos by Johansson and Norlander. And finally, Starchild, with mysterious low vocals by Dan Swanö. As a whole, this one is not too heavy. There's even some nice acoustic rhythm guitar here, although Lucassen also plays a swollen heavy electric guitar solo. A great closing track!

Space Metal is available in two versions. The limited version includes a second CD with 7 bonus tracks. Inseperable Enemies and Spaced Out are two leftovers from the Space Metal sessions. This last track also appears in another version (different vocals) and also Starchild (from CD1) returns, but differently mixed.

Another bonus is the Hawkwind Medley, Lucassen's tribute to one of his favourite bands, with original Hawkwind member Dave Brock on vocals. A nice surprise (pity though that Motorway City wasn't included). The remaining bonus tracks are played and sung by Lucassen himself: Space Oddity, a new version of the David Bowie song, and a hidden track, The Intergalactic Laxative, just a nonsense piece with Lucassen unplugged.

I like the bonus CD, but this is just a collection of musical gems, not an essential supplement to the original album (which in my view is far better).

Space Metal by Star One is a very good prog CD. I think Lucassen made the right choice when he decided to collect only heavy pieces on this album. On the earlier Ayreon albums, the heavier tracks have never been my favourites (they somehow seem to break the spell created by the "magical" pieces). But within the - stylistically more coherent - format of Space Metal, the individual tracks are done more justice. The album is a bit heavier than the music I usually like, but it has already become one of my favourites on my "heavy prog shelf".