{"id":8476,"date":"2022-03-06T14:27:50","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T13:27:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kessel-tamerus.nl\/Esthers_Blog\/?p=8476"},"modified":"2025-11-30T11:49:29","modified_gmt":"2025-11-30T10:49:29","slug":"arjen-anthony-lucassens-star-one-revel-in-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kessel-tamerus.nl\/Esthers_Blog\/cd-recensie\/arjen-anthony-lucassens-star-one-revel-in-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Arjen Anthony Lucassen’s Star one – Revel in time"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arjen Lucassen is mainly known for his prog metal band Ayreon. But Star One is also loved by its fans. Arjen is a film freak, which inspires him musically. Every track on his new album ‘Revel in time’ is based on a film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CD <\/strong>1:
‘The Terminator’ was the inspiration for ‘Fate of Man’. After a quiet intro, the pace of the music increases rapidly. The powerful voice of Brittney Slayes fits the movie. The cool guitar solo is by Michael Romeo. Because of the build-up, this opening song has some predictable components, but it is wonderfully rousing. ’28 Days (Till the End of Time)’ contains pleasantly heavy sounds of bass, guitar and keyboards. The pace is rather low at first, vocals and music form one whole. After a great catchy piece, there is a nice transition to a beautiful introverted part. I believe every word Sir Russell Allen sings, I am always impressed by his versatile voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Prescient’ is a duet with Micheal Mills and Ross Jennings, it has (despite the rather quiet build-up) the allure of a rock opera. The vocals (both individual, duo and stacked) are very good. If this will ever be played live, the fans will surely sing along. The intro of ‘Back from the Past’ is nice and heavy and uplifting. It is clearly inspired by ‘Back to the Future’, you almost automatically see fragments of the film in front of you. The structure is much more than “just verse chorus”. There are many beautiful additional elements such as the background vocals, the beautiful sound of cymbals and an unexpected rest just before the end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The elements in the songs are about the same, very good vocals, the heavy sounds of strings and\/or keys. At other moments the electronic sounds of the keyboards come more to the fore. Catchy pieces are alternated with quieter parts, with or without background vocals. Despite these similarities, all songs differ enough from each other. It is not a problem if you do not know all the movies, because every song is captivating. This also applies to ‘Revel in Time’. Every song has amazing elements, such as the impressive vocal outbursts in ‘The Year of ’41’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The start of ‘Bridge of Life’ has the atmosphere of a small music box. Soon the metal comes in, it is one of the few twists I have to get used to. The beautiful voice of Damian Wilson compensate it. Vocals and music form a perfect harmony here too. In between the tightly played pieces you can hear the sounds of the little music box. The end is cool again. Although Star One is clearly different from Ayreon, the “Ayreon sound” can be heard in ‘Today is Yesterday’. I have heard so many beautiful voices, and then Floor Jansen has the lead and backing vocals in ‘A Hand on the Clock’. The cool Hammond solo is by Joost van den Broek. Those who have seen John Jaycee Cuijpers live before know that he has a powerful voice that he can dose beautifully, as he demonstrates in ‘Beyond the Edge of it All’. Of course Arjen cannot be missing with a guitar solo, this solo is his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Lost Children of the Universe’ starts with the sound of a storm and mysterious music. The keyboard work forms a great combination with Roy Khan’s voice. The echo is subtle, but well added. The rather calm piece is followed by a heavy instrumental part and beautiful choir singing. There are sometimes quite a few layers in the vocals and the music, but there is no hectic. In a quiet part, there’s a fantastic guitar solo by Steve Vai. The drums are played appropriately slow, you can hear the pitch differences of the different drums. Then the Hellscore Choir can be heard again, this time in the foreground. After this I am really touched by the voice of Roy. What a great song to end with!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CD 2 has the same songs, but there are other singers. Marcela Bovio sings ‘Fate of Man’, of course she does this very well. Her vocal outburst is magnificent. We knew that John Jaycee Cuijpers can sing well. But in ’28 Days (Till the End of Time)’ he seems to have risen above himself. The singers on CD 1 and 2 have equal qualities. Which singer is “better” will mainly depend on the personal preference of the listener. As expected, Arjen also sings a song, he has chosen ‘Today is Yesterday’. Here too, vocals and music form a unity. Moreover, everything is well distributed on the headphones. And that also applies to the last songs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the songs are inspired by completely different films, ‘Revel in time’ feels like a whole. If you know the films well, the recognition of the lyrics and the accompanying emotion gives it an extra dimension. Once in a while, there are so many layers that small pieces of song or music are (almost) jostled. Sometimes it is around the point of being slightly over the top or not. Some details are not so obvious, and you can actually only hear them with headphones. This way, you always discover something new the first time you listen. Both CDs can be played separately or in random order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(85\/100) (InsideOut Music<\/a>).
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