Biography:

LUCASSEN ANNOUNCES NEW "STAR ONE - SPACE METAL" ALBUM Arjen "Ayreon" Lucassen to release new heavy metal album with various guest musicians. The European releasedate is April 22nd 2002. Well-known for his albums by the progressive rock project Ayreon, Arjen has chosen to expand his artistic identity with a new project album called "Star One". THE PROJECT NAME: "STAR ONE" When Arjen makes a new CD, it is often a reaction to his work on a previous album. Prior to...... Expand full biography»

Biography:

LUCASSEN ANNOUNCES NEW "STAR ONE - SPACE METAL" ALBUM Arjen "Ayreon" Lucassen to release new heavy metal album with various guest musicians. The European releasedate is April 22nd 2002. Well-known for his albums by the progressive rock project Ayreon, Arjen has chosen to expand his artistic identity with a new project album called "Star One". THE PROJECT NAME: "STAR ONE" When Arjen makes a new CD, it is often a reaction to his work on a previous album. Prior to "Star One", Arjen created a softer, more atmospheric album under the name of Ambeon. Now in response, he has gone to other extreme to create a completely unbridled heavy metal album. So why not just call it Ayreon? Arjen replies "Ayreon is known to have many different musical styles. Star One focuses mainly on the heavy side of my music, and so the songs are more straightforward and guitar-oriented but still progressive. This album was never intended to be an Ayreon album, so calling it Ayreon just wouldn"t feel right to me." The name Star One is based on an episode of Arjen"s favourite science fiction TV series called "Blakes 7". THE CONCEPT: "SPACE METAL" "Space Metal" isn"t a continuous story or a rock opera like the Ayreon albums. Yet it is still very much a concept album. Instead of a continuous story, the individual songs are all based on space movies. The album is a journey through Arjen"s mind and memory. Arjen takes the listener on a journey where they relive those great science fiction space films that made such an impact on him. Arjen talks about the concept: "I based the songs on films that take place entirely in space. It"s really hard to write a song based on a film and then not use names or make the references to the original too clear. I really wanted to write about my impressions of the films and not just tell the same story over again. I wonder how many people are going to recognize the films on which I based the songs!". THE MUSICIANS: A STARSHIP FULL OF TALENT Arjen Lucassen set a trend with his Ayreon albums. Many laughed when he recorded his first rock opera "Ayreon - The Final Experiment" in 1995, and most record companies were hesitant to sign him. But especially after the highly successful release of his third Ayreon CD, the rock opera "Into the Electric Castle", many musicians and producers have followed in his footsteps and new rock operas with multiple singers are beginning to surface all over the world. Arjen comments: "Yes, I"ve noticed it! I regard it as a compliment. But I have also noticed that on some of these operas the singers sound the same, and so you need the CD booklet to tell them apart. To ensure that doesn"t happen on "Space Metal", I used very different sounding singers appearing in the same songs -- different singers for different moods". Dan Swano (ex-Edge of Sanity, Nightingale) sings the low parts, Russell Allen (Symphony X) sings the powerful rough parts, Damian Wilson (ex-Threshold) sings the high clear parts, and to top it off, Floor Jansen (After Forever) sings the really high choruses. Robert Soeterboek (Ayreon) sang the backing vocals with his huge smoky voice. Of course Ed Warby played the powerful drums, and Erik Norlander once again added his huge analog synth leads. Arjen also managed to get Jens Johansson (Yngwie Malmsteen, Dio, Stratovarius) who played some incredibly fast synth leads as well. Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery) played two powerful and speedy guitar solos. Arjen also succeeded in getting Hawkwind"s Dave Brock to make a guest vocal appearance, something no one has ever managed to do before. Arjen talks about Brock"s guest appearance: "Hawkwind were the inventors of Space Rock, so I thought it would be a cool idea to record a Hawkwind medley for the album. I asked Dave to sing on it, and to my surprise, he did it! This is a dream come true as he has been a huge influence on me". The Hawkwind medley will be available on the special limited edition version of Space Metal, a beautiful book which includes an extra CD with various bonus tracks. A strange version of David Bowie"s "Space Oddity" sung by Arjen himself is also featured here as well as a special Dolby Surround mix of "Starchild", two other Star One tracks that didn"t fit the album and a surprise hidden track. THE NEW EUROPEAN RECORD COMPANY: INSIDE OUT Although Arjen has been satisfied with his previous collaborations with Transmission Records, the label that released the Ayreon CDs in Europe, he felt he needed a change of direction with this new album after releasing about 10 albums with Transmission. Coincidentally, he met Thomas Waber of Inside Out at a progressive rock concert, and Thomas expressed his keen interest in the "Star One" project. Arjen talks about the decision: "Thomas and I had a meeting at my place where he listened to the material and loved what he heard. I"m quite excited about this partnership -- it feels like a new start. I hope to gain some new fans with this album, maybe those who find Ayreon too diverse or perhaps too soft for their taste will embrace this heavier project. The music is influenced by 70"s prog and hard rock and 80"s/90"s metal, but it sounds fresh and up-to-date. This album will be my first side project that has the same level of commitment and the same quality as Ayreon. I worked on it for over a year, and slowly it grew into a monster!" THE ARTWORK: PORTRAYING THE VISION Arjen searched for months to find the right painter to represent his musical vision. Through an exhaustive search of the internet, Arjen came across the work of famed artist Vincent Di Fate. Arjen says "I knew immediately that he was the one. Vincent is a really famous guy. He was one of the NASA artists for the Apollo/Soyuz program in 1975, and he has continued to work for NASA ever since!" The booklet and frontcover layout also required a careful choice. Each time Arjen saw a CD booklet that he liked, he found that the same artist was responsible for the lay out: Mattias Noren. When Arjen approached him, he learned to his delight that Mattias was already a fan of Ayreon! Arjen states "Mattias is very talented, reliable and great to work with. He surpassed himself with the fantastic artwork he has made for the Star One booklet!" MUSIC OF THE STARS: RELEASE IN APRIL 2002! "Star One - Space Metal" is an exciting project from one of rock"s great visionaries. Like Ayreon, it is sure to become a beacon in the vast universe of rock titles. With its stellar musicianship, visionary production and a simple yet far-reaching concept, keep your eyes on the heavens as "Star One - Space Metal" shines bright as a giant sun in the galaxy of rock. (Source: Official Site) «Collapse biography