As many of you will know, Dan features as one of the vocalists on Arjen Lucassen's new project, Star One. I was lucky enough to get my hands on the limited edition double disc book today 
p) and my first impressions are that this is great.
The music reminds me alot of Ayreon is some parts, but overall it's more metallic than anything he's done under that label, and the song structure is more linear, more akin to traditional heavy metal, rather than prog. There are 4 vocalists in all on the first cd (the bonus cd features Arjen and Dave Brock from Hawkwind) Dan Swanö, Russel Allen, Damian Wilson and Floor Jansen. As with Arjen's other metal/prog operas, each of them play characters in the different storys of the album. Each song is based on a sci-fi movie, with the vocalists playing characters from them (Dan plays Luke Skywalker in one song). Dan's vocals are great as usual, and he uses his deep voice for most of the album, (the type he used on most of Crimson) I just miss his "young" sounding voice from Nightingale, it's definately underused. Overall, this didn't immediately impress me as much as Into the Electric Castle, but any Dan-collectors and Ayreon fans, and those who wish Ayreon sounded heavier should enjoy this.
p) and my first impressions are that this is great.The music reminds me alot of Ayreon is some parts, but overall it's more metallic than anything he's done under that label, and the song structure is more linear, more akin to traditional heavy metal, rather than prog. There are 4 vocalists in all on the first cd (the bonus cd features Arjen and Dave Brock from Hawkwind) Dan Swanö, Russel Allen, Damian Wilson and Floor Jansen. As with Arjen's other metal/prog operas, each of them play characters in the different storys of the album. Each song is based on a sci-fi movie, with the vocalists playing characters from them (Dan plays Luke Skywalker in one song
). Dan's vocals are great as usual, and he uses his deep voice for most of the album, (the type he used on most of Crimson) I just miss his "young" sounding voice from Nightingale, it's definately underused. Overall, this didn't immediately impress me as much as Into the Electric Castle, but any Dan-collectors and Ayreon fans, and those who wish Ayreon sounded heavier should enjoy this.
