LIVE ON EARTH (CD/DVD)

Star One is a straightforward and hard-edge metal side-project which Arjen Lucassen created as a reaction to the soft and atmospheric Ambeon release a year earlier. Although Star One was initially intended to be a single-singer project, it quickly transformed into a multi-singer project featuring singers Russell Allen, Dan Swanö, Damian Wilson and Floor Jansen, and later that year Arjen toured with most of this stellar cast during the Intergalactic Space Crusader Tour 2002.

Nearly all the songs are based on science fiction movies situated in space. The name Star One come comes from a 70s cult British television series named Blakes 7 in which an artificial planet called Star One is featured. The song Intergalactic Space Crusaders is also based on this series.

My personal favourites of this album are "High Moon" and "Intergalactic Space Crusaders". Let me quote what the songs are about:

"High Moon" is Based on the movie 'Outland'. The song tells the story of a new sheriff that has arrived at a mining colony on the third moon of Jupiter where strange things are happening. Miners suffer from hallucinations and some end up killing themselves. Their behaviour appears to be linked to a drug they take to make life more bearable on the moon. In reality the company gives the miners the drug to increase the miner's productivity. The sheriff hopes to uncover the scandal, but his wife, unable to handle the new life-style, leaves for earth with their child. The sheriff vows to join them, but first must stop the mining company from killing more people.

"Intergalactic Space Crusaders" is based on the television series 'Blakes 7'. The song tells the story of a rebel leader, Blake and his battle against the Federation, the government led by a dictator. The Federation has captured Blake and to ensure he is useless to the rebels they erase his memory. But when Blake's memory slowly returns he is sent to a prison colony. During his trip to prison Blake meets other prisoners, among them a grumpy computer genius, Avon, who was caught during a 'bank credit' heist. When the prisoner ship encounters an alien ship, the Liberator, Blake, Avon, and some other prisoners escape and then use the hi-tech vessel to overthrow the Federation. After a major battle to destroy the artificial planet Star One, Blake disappears, and when the crew finds him again, they are led to believe Blake is a traitor. As Federation soldiers enter the building to arrest the crew, Avon, unable to understand the reasons for this betrayal, kills Blake.

What I really like in "Intergalactic Space Crusaders" is the duality / fight between sir Russell Allen as the dictator and Damian Wilson as Blake, the rebel leader. Watch those guys sing and watch each other as if their lives depended on it. Great stuff!

The DVD is quite a performance, however the only remark I could make is that it should have been mixed in DD 5.1 or dts as supposed to the 2.0 channel PCM track.