|
Review:
|
Arjen Lucassen of Ayreon fame is back with a relative
rarity, a second instalment of one of his side projects.
They normally last only one album, or in the case of Stream
of Passion, carry on without him. The original Star One
was a metal reaction to the gentle Ambeon album, perhaps
this is a response to last years Guilt Machine alt-rock
album. The name Star One comes from an episode in the cheesy
but highly enjoyable and very deeply meaningful cult British
1970’s Sci Fi show Blake’s 7 written by Terry Nation, the
man who gave the world Daleks. Blake and half the crew were
soon dead or missing giving the minor characters a chance
to shine, a bit like Stream Of Passion, it should have been
renamed ‘The Blakeless Four’. The intro lulls you into thinking
that this is Ayreon, but the mighty metal of ‘Digital Rain’
soon photon torpedoes that theory with Damian Wilson bellowing
like a wild lava beast. Some of the Ayreon prog and Arjen’s
signature sound remain, but this is the dark side of the
moon, all raging riffage, thundering rhythms and roaring
synths. Floor Jansen crops up a few times, but this barely
qualifies as female fronted, this is very much Damian’s
show. The exception is the more melodic ‘Cassandra Complex’
where Floors duets with him, and is the standout track for
me. The lyrics are equally heavy, dealing with man’s destruction
of the planet. If you like the heavy side of Ayreon or highly
sophisticated heavy space metal then beam down and buy it,
this has Arjen’s stamp of high quality. However I like the
mix of light and heavy that is Ayreon, I personally found
this far too biased towards the heavy, I know that is the
purpose, but it is remorselessly, mercilessly, intensively
heavy, my poor ears were battered and bruised towards the
end, so a pulverising 8.75 out of 10.
|
