REVEL IN TIME

Despite the fact that I was relatively late to the party on Star One and Lucassen at large, it's pretty wild to think that this is the first studio album for the project in 12 years. They always have stellar branding, the album art always showing some kind of highly futuristic (at times utopian, at times dystopian) sci-fi existence. Revel In Time, Star One's third LP, displays more the latter mode, with a seemingly water-color painting of a strange forest of clocks and stained glass. Beautiful, really, but at first eerie and unsettling. As with his Ayreon project, Lucassen features numerous guest vocalists and guitarists (and here three keyboardists), and you can bet your ass I'll be telling you all about 'em here haha.

"Fate of Man" is our opener, the first single for the album, released in November 2021. This has that classic Power-level Prog Metal sound that we have come to expect from Star One. This is Prog Metal rooted in the works of DT, Fates Warning and the like. It features on vocals Brittney Slayes of Unleash The Archers. Fantastic guitar solo here by Michael Romeo of Symphony X, too, another vital participant in that early Prog Metal pantheon. "28 Days (Till the End of Time)" features some synth-soaking, which really reminded me of early '80s Rush. And speaking of Symphony X, their lead vocalist, the very talented Russell Allen, is this track's vocalist. On guitar, Timo Somers of Delain... supposedly haha. I'm so utterly ignorant of this side of the music world. I'm not wild about this song, to be completely honest. Some really cool ideas nonetheless, like the huge, vaulting swells and the inclusion of flute(?!), the latter making for some classic Prog-homagery (yes, that is not a word). Almost good haha.

"Prescient" is up next, the second single from the album, and this one has dual lead-and-backing vocals by Toehider's Michael Mills and Haken's Ross Jennings. They certainly compliment each other very well! And this is a song: it's got great melody, hooks, and stellar composition. At the end, it has a sort of Highlands feel? Pretty epic, too, as it closes up. Nice guitar riffage, and I love the loud-soft dynamics with the sections including acoustic guitar. Awesome. With the start of "Back from the Past", I was like... 'Dio?!' haha. The vocals of Jeff Scott Soto, associated with Yngwie Malmsteen and the vocalist of Sons of Apollo and--I had no idea(!)--Trans-Siberian Orchestra(?!), are gruff and full. Decent song. Definitely feels like a blast from the past. Pretty nice solo by the excellent Bumblefoot (to me, obviously). Anyway, as I often say, nearly good. Then it's on to the title track, "Revel In Time"... and that is a helluva melody! I like! Feels a bit like... I don't know, but it's like Post-Post-Grunge. Great vocals are delivered by Brandon Yeagley of Crobot! Seriously, awesome vocal control, range and beeves. Adrian Vandenberg (I guess it's high time I explored Whitesnake, eh?) performs a swelling guitar solo, which tonally reminded me of Zakk Wylde. Maybe? It's good. Big'n.

Speaking of big'ns, "The Year of '41" has more of that good ol' Metal feeling. The drums on this are really fun, honestly; an upbeat number. It features a post-Dio, post-Cozy Rainbow vocalist, Joe Lynn Turner: a talented, classic Metal vocalist, for sure. The guitar solo, which is one of the best on the albums, is performed by current Whitesnake guitarist Joel Hoekstra (also of TSO, and at one time of Night Ranger and Foreigner). And then... this synth solo? Awesome! Performed by a very familiar name in this realm, Jens Johansson of Stratovarious and (also?!) Rainbow and Yngwie('s band). Then it's the very familiar vocals of Damian Wilson, whom I know from Headspace (and at one point in time of the band Threshold), on the beefy "Bridge of Life". Some melodic things here are just alright, but some are quite interesting. This is a riff-heavy number and features some nice female vocals. Is that children's... toy mallets at the end? I like it regardless.

Much heavier is "Today is Yesterday" [...hold up... /s] with the great Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Pan.Thy.Monium) on lead vocals. This one, though, is honestly pretty corny to me... The guitar solo was pretty good, but very shortlived, performed by the current (surprise) guitarist of classic Dutch Prog band Kayak[!!!], Marcel Singor. There's a synth solo? [No.] To the theme at hand, we have next "A Hand on the Clock". Big beefy guitar here, although I'm not in love with the vocals of Nightwish's Floor Jansen (unsurprised she's here though). This has some pretty noticeable Hammond organ throughout, the eventual solo performed by After Forever's Joost van den Broek. Pretty wild solo. Very classic! I mean, it hearkens all the way back to Rod (F*cking) Argent in The Zombies, no? Often where my mind goes. Moving right along, we have the spacy creep of "Beyond the Edge of it All". Another evocation of Ronnie James Dio is the performance by John Jaycee Cuijpers of Praying Mantis here. Very cool. I'm just impressed by these vocals... Man... Finally, "Lost Children of the Universe", our sole mini-epic (at 10 minutes), features the dynamic, dramatic vibrato of Roy Khan (Conception, Kamelot). I like the keys here. I will say, though, the composition is rather slow-going [and, as you'll see, overall just static]. Just about midway, we get the other feature that I was most excited for: the unmistakable Steve Vai. Beautiful solo. And of course, this particular peccary-- err--- I mean-- this particular solo is clearly the longest of the bunch, too haha. Ooooh, a little Zappa-ism around 6:35? I see you, Stevie. Unsurprisingly, this did not turn over a new leaf for the song; it was fine.

[Usually I say something to uhhh... wrap things up with my reviews, but alas, I know nothing of this album editing it now over year later.]

It is strange to think that not only is this the first album from Lucassen's Star One project in 12 years, it is actually only the third one ever. I can still remember when I heard the first back in 2001 and just how amazed I was at the time. Since then, Lucassen has been concentrating mostly on Ayreon, but now he has found time to get back to the more metallic side of his music and of course he has brought in loads of top musicians to help him out. The core of the band are Arjen Lucassen (guitars, bass, keyboards), Ed Warby (drums), Erik van Ittersum (Solina strings), Joost van den Broek (Hammond organ), Marcela Bovio (backing vocals) and Irene Jansen (backing vocals), and then we get a host of lead singers and guitarists providing solos on different songs as well as additional keyboard players.

Lucassen has long worked with many musicians, preferring that to restricting himself to a set band when it comes to this style of music, and part of the fun when playing this for the first time is to try and pick out the singers without reading the notes. Jeff Scott Soto is instantly recognizable of course with his bluesy take on melodic metal, while Joe Lynn Turner is as powerful now as he was when I saw him fronting Rainbow more than 40 years ago. There was one male singer in particular I was looking for, and when we came to "Bridge of Life" there he was, the instantly recognizable sound of Damian Wilson. Mind you, it is not all male singers, and while I have named just a few of those involved it is no surprise to find Floor Jansen involved yet again, as she has been in the past.

But while Arjen has provided an amazing platform for a host of wonderful singers to show what they can do, this is far more than that with a wonderful balance between catchy metal and dynamic prog, full of passion and power. He has an ability to write music which is uncompromising and in your face while also extremely melodic and exciting. All the guests only have one song in which to make their presence felt, although if you are wise enough to get the double disc then you can hear the same songs with different singers. This is the same for all involved, whatever part they play, so the likes of the incredible Adrian Vandenberg only appears once, as does the mighty Steve Vai on album closer "Lost Children of the Universe", which is the longest number at nearly ten minutes, and the most dramatic.

Arjen Lucassen has a skill in bringing together different musicians and singers to create something which is always clearly identifiable as Star One, yet allowing them to leave their own mark on the album. It may have only been three albums in 20+ years, but this is a prog metal masterpiece and let us hope that he really does not leave it too long until the next one.