LIVE ON EARTH (CD/DVD)

STAR ONE is Arjen Anthony LUCASSEN aka AYREON and friends caught live on a double CD package blending perhaps the best prog metal and symphonic prog rock I have ever heard. I have been a big fan of Ayreon and really picked this CD up on a recommendation from a pal and I must agree that it is quite solid. On lots of the songs we get to hear the clairvoyant vox of THRESHOLD's Damian Wilson. There are a couple of real heavy tracks but I actually find them quite awesome and have finally found some ears for a bit of prog metal. A good chunk of the album is also from AYREON's "Into the Electric Castle" and "Universal Migrator" work which sounds great live. Highlight for me is "The Dream Sequencer" and "Isis and Osiris" which leave me simply amazed at the power and creativity. Overall an excllent live concert with some high energy and pompous keyboard driven heavy prog rock.

Last summer I said that Arjen Anthony Lucassen and STAR ONE had created one of the best albums in the past five years, well I have another one to add to the list. ''Live On Earth'' was recorded during the tour's last gig in Rijssen, The Netherlands. The recording and sonics are superbly rendered and brilliantly representative of the studio recording.

Get ready for another warp drive rock 'n' roll ride as Lucassen and his cast of characters perform this passion play of sound and story. They play to a receptive audience ready to sing back all the words to each song when beckoned by the band.

I noticed something this time around that I obviously did not hear clearly enough on the studio album, the resemblance of DEEP PURPLE and ELP in their sound. I was too excited about the music to mention it I guess, in any event, I hear it loud and clear now. That is not a bad combination at all and a flattering comparison to make if I do say so myself. Everything is here on these live tracks... the stories, the spoken word narrations, the whirling dervish keyboards, kick ass guitars, and standout vocals from many talented people.

This will be one of the best, if not the best, live rock albums that you will hear in 2003. Yes, it is that good. There I go again; I cannot seem to help myself. Lucassen has put together an impressive team of talent and it shows when they step on stage to play this music. ''Live On Earth'' is out of this world.

You pay to hear, not to see.

When Ayreon rented the material to record his performance, he probably didn't had a lot to invest in visualistic departement, and we understand that creating a DVD costs a lot of dineros (Glass Hammer knows it too well). The concert hall is quite tiny, the stage is pretty puny too, I feared sometimes the singers could almost bump into the musicians and then fall off the stage. Could've been pretty funny thought! There's not many camera angles (I counted 4) so you see pretty much the stage in the same ways throughout the concert. Also it's done in a rather old way. Ayreon being a fan of metal, you will ecounter many metal clichés, like the Kiss headbanging of Luccassen, silly dancing of Russell and the cheesy outfits out of an episode of Cosmos 1999. No kidding, it really spreaded good humor and funny cracks in the living room just as watching with no sound.

Like Glass Hammer, Luccassen invested some crazy money in the audio departement. Trust me, this guy's a gearhead! Althought the visuals are not super (the image is kinda blurry, or is it my cataracts?) , the sound will blow you away. The audio mix is satisfying and like I said first, this is an hearing experience.

The singers totally support the show by themselves. Russell is the best singer to me, closely followed by Damian Wilson. Boy, those two are simply unstoppable on stage. They move, they dance and their voice doesn't flinge at all! Talk about professionalism from the Jansen sisters, giving superb vocals in every song. Nice move by Ayreon by putting the emphasis on the singing. I mean, I could've been satisfied by average singing considering the crazy effort by the band at reproducing almost perfectly the music; but on top of everything the singing is totally over the edge.

It's such a high level of quality, it's really hard not to forgive the bits, misses and cheesyness of the approach, and talk about the high price of the package...up to 80$!

W-O-W.

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.

Back in #67 I raved about the new project that had been put together by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, Star One. That concept album has since been taken on the road and he has brought with him many of the musicians that were initially involved. This means that there are five singers involved, all with a part to play, and on songs such as "Set Your Controls" when they are vying for position it is a sight to be heard. (!, yeah, I know, but you get the idea). Of course, one of the singers is Damian Wilson and I have never hidden my admiration for his vocal prowess, yet here he is fine company and fits in well instead of dominating the proceedings.

This is technical hard rock, with just enough prog influences to keep fans of that genre interested but in many ways this is more complex than even Damian's old outfit Threshold, although not quite as heavy. This is a concept album being played live, although with some added songs that aren't on the studio, but there are some spoken pieces I an attempt to set the scene. It can be played as separate songs, although if possible it is best to sit and listen intently to the double CD in one sitting. This is the version that I have been sent, but I believe that it is also available as a double CD with a DVD, which must be worth seeing. If you want complicated hard rock with more than a touch of prog metal than this is it.

Originally appeared in Feedback #73, Jun 03