Album Review: Star One - Revel In Time

Among the long list of bands/artists I don't get the appeal of is Arjen Lucassen. I have seen his name praised for as long as I've been at this as being a genius of the prog and metal world, but I'm sorry, I just don't hear it. I've listened to some of his Ayreon work, and a bit of his previous Star One material, and none of it has left any impression on me whatsoever. The guy is a fine player, and he has been able to assemble casts of amazing talent, but I have never heard a single song from him that spoke to me as a songwriter. He writes 'nice' things, but they lack much of anything to make them memorable. If he is a genius, my ears only hear him as a genius of PR for garnering so much attention with so little great music.

But I like to be fair, so here I am to talk about his newest Star One album. This is his more metal, less prog project, so the hope is it will have less time to meander, and more time to focus on songwriting.

Focus, of course, is a hard thing to maintain when the vocals are coming from someone different on every track, and the promo you receive doesn't tell you who is who. Rather than sinking into the experience of the album, every song that comes along is its own little universe, and I'm constantly adjusting my ears to a new sound. That's why I often complain about these kinds of records. They don't feel like albums at all, and it's harder to enjoy them in full, because there's no way this many singers will all hold the same appeal to a listener.

It doesn't take long before Arjen loses the plot. The opening "Fate Of Man" is a solid metal song, but then "28 Days (Till The End Of Time)" wastes Russell Allen on a song more preoccupied with its doomy breakdown than giving us any sort of hook. If even Russell can't make the repetitive 'chorus' sound good, it's pretty clearly a weak composition. It's the sort of song that can get by as 'prog', because it shifts tones and tempos a couple of times, but who gives a damn about how many sections there are to a song if none of them are interesting?

"Prescient" is even worse, serving as more than six minutes of tuneless exposition. The lyrics, when they aren't delivered in such shrill tones to be incoherent, appear to be advancing a sci-fi story, but very little of it comes through the poor performances, overlapping singers, and sub-par mixing. It's a boring song relying on an intricate interplay, but the production flattens it into a mess of ink lines bleeding together. I can hardly call it a song, let alone one worth listening to.

As more songs pass by, the album grows more and more frustrating. One song that thinks being heavy makes up for not having a hook is one thing, but when it's every song, the album turns into an hour-long slog through Arjen noodling around on a guitar turned up way too loud. Being prolific and being good are not the same thing, and Arjen continues to remind me of that point. He has made a lot of albums, a lot of very long albums, and yet he is a thoroughly mediocre songwriter who actually drags down most of the singers on this record, all of whom have done so much better than this.

Talent is what we often get dazzled by, but songwriting is the only thing that truly matters. Arjen has brought together an unfathomable amount of talented singers and musicians to make this album, and it all goes for naught, because the songs just aren't any good. No matter how good these singers are, or the guitar solos, or any other aspect, boring songs are going to make anyone sound boring. This album is boring.

So I'm not going to look for any silver linings this time, or try to be generous to the positive bits. With this album demanding so much of my time, and giving me so little in return, it isn't worth my effort to sound like any bit of it can excuse the rest. This album bored me, frustrated me, and disappointed even my lowest expectations.