Lucassen's Star One, Arjen Anthony - Live On Earth

Year of Release: 2003
Label: InsideOut
Catalog Number: IOMCD 121/SPV 089-65722
Format: CD
Total Time: 113:55:00

Live On Earth, is, if you haven't guessed by the title alone, a live album documenting the first (and so far only) album by the Arjen Lucassen project Star One. On this two disc set you will hear fairly faithful renditions of tracks from Space Metal, along with a few Ayreon pieces to fill out the set. Despite the fact that the live set begins as the album does with "Lift Off" and a energetic "Set Your Controls," it isn't a straight run from start to finish where it's Star One and some Ayreon added on at the end. The Ayreon pieces are slotted in amongst the Star One material, and it all works. Though, how could it not, all the material coming from one mind? Well, it could not as the guests here weren't necessarily the guests on the studio Ayreon albums. "Fairly faithful" because Robert Soeterboek snarls just a little grittier on "High Moon," which only highlights Damien Wilson's smoother, higher vocals all that much more, and makes Floor and Irene Jansen's higher vocals all the sweeter. And Wilson makes "Eyes Of Time" (The Final Experiment) his own, such that I had to confirm it wasn't he on the studio album. And Russell Allen sounds as good as ever, and by that I mean he sounds good.

Of course, it's not just the vocalists that are just about always spot on, adding just a little something more to their performances. On drums is Ed Warby, on bass Peter Vink, on keyboards Joost Van Den Broek, and on guitars, synths and vocals, the keystone to the project, Lucassen himself. While a lot can be "fixed" in studio, the mix of the keyboards here is just right - so often in a live setting, keys either get lost or sound tinny and shrill (or maybe I've just had bad experiences?). All this provides for the big sound that is Ayreon/Star One, so one is not cheated on anything. The solos are here, the sonicscapes, the soaring vocals -- everything. "Into The Black Hole" (from Flight Of The Migrator) is epic and nuanced, the latter of which is sometimes hard to achieve live. But the audience gives the band the space to do this, the Jansen's voices sounding quite angelic (of course, that could have been achieved in post-production, too? well, I'll be watching the DVD of this release next, so we shall see). And the heavy crunch of bass and drums just pummels delightfully.

Just as the album itself was high-energy, so to is this live release. And you can hear that the audience was into it as well, helping out on "Songs From The Ocean."

Anyway, the point is that the set flows smoothly, incorporating tracks from every Ayreon album to date. And as with Space Metal, I just can't stop playing this, certainly putting this on the top live releases for the year list. And if you've noticed I've not really mentioned disc two, here? it's more of the same great stuff?

Tracklisting:
Disc One: Intro/Lift Off (1:34) / Set Your Controls (6:19) / High Moon (5:28) / Dreamtime (2:58) / Eyes Of Time (3:49) / Songs Of The Ocean (5:59) / Dawn Of A Million Souls (5:17) / The Dream Sequencer (6:03) / Into The Black Hole (11:27) / Actual Fantasy (1:28) / Valley Of The Queens (3:22)

Disc Two: Isis And Osiris (8:48) / Amazing Flight In Space (8:00) / Intergalactic Space Crusaders (5:15) / Castle Hall (4:57) / The Eye Of Ra (9:16) / Starchild (9:21) / The Two Gates (14:34)

DVD (Special Edition only): Intro/Lift Off / Set Your Controls / High Moon / Dreamtime / Eyes Of Time / Songs Of The Ocean / Dawn Of A Million Souls / The Dream Sequencer / Keyboard solo / Into The Black Hole / Actual Fantasy / Valley Of The Queens / Isis And Osiris / Amazing Flight In Space / Bass solo / Intergalactic Space Crusaders / Castle Hall / The Eye Of Ra / Starchild / The Two Gates

Musicians:
Arjen Anthony Lucassen - guitars, synth and vocals
Sir Russell Allen - vocals
Floor Jansen - vocals
Damian Wilson - vocals
Robert Soeterboek - vocals
Irene Jansen - vocals
Ed Warby - drums Peter Vink - bass Ewa Albering - flute

Discography:
Ayreon - The Final Experiment (1995)
Ayreon - Actual Fantasy (1996)
Ayreon - Into The Electric Castle (1998)
Ayreon - The Univeral Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer (2000)
Ayreon - The Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight Of The Migrator (2000)
Ayreon - Ayreonnauts Only
Ambeon - Fate Of A Dreamer (2001)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - Space Metal (2002)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - Live On Earth (2003)
Ayreon - The Human Equation (2004)
Ayreon - Actual Fantasy Revisited (2004)
Ayreon - The Final Experiment - Special Edition (2005)
Ayreon - 01011001 (2008)
Arjen Lucassen's Guilt Machine - Arjen Lucassen's Guilt Machine (2009)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen's Star One - Victims Of The Modern Age (2010)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen - Lost In The New Real (2012)

Genre: Progressive-Power Metal

Origin VA

Added: December 14th 2003
Reviewer: Stephanie Sollow
Score:
Artist website: www.ayreon.com/starone/so_index.html
Hits: 2278
Language: english