Dutch prog rock polymath Arjen Lucassen has announced that he will release a brand new Star One album, Revel In Time, through InsideOut Music on February 18.
The fourth Star One album arrives a decade after it's predecessor, 2010's Victims Of The Modern Age, and sees Lucassen opting to use a different singer for each song, and those singers as well as the instrumentalists are slowly being revealed on Arjen Lucassen’s Facebook page.
“Ayreon is like the mothership for all my music," says Lucassen, explaining why he's now back with a. new Star One album. "It contains all the different musical styles that I like to listen to and that I love to create. But I’m always looking for challenges and trying to create something new and original as well. Working within a set of constraints forces you to do that, so sometimes I like to limit myself and focus on just one style. For example, with Star One I focus on the metal-side of Ayreon. That means you won’t hear the exuberantly liberal use of acoustic instruments that are so often featured on Ayreon albums, like violin, woodwinds, cello, horns, dulcimer, mandolin, etc...”
The stunning new album artwork, which you can view below, was designed by Ayreon artist Jef Bertels.
“As always, Jef’s painting is wondrously labyrinthine; I can sit in front of it for hours and discover new details all the time," Lucassen enthuses. "Now you might be thinking “Hey, isn’t Jef Bertels the designated artist for Ayreon, but not for Star One?” Of course I thought about that myself. But when I realized how much I liked this album I felt that it deserved a painting of its own and a special place alongside Jef’s other front-cover masterpieces. And anyway, I’ve been breaking rules ever since the very beginning of Ayreon. So… there you have it!”
Revel In Time will be available for pre-order on December 17 and it will come as limited edition 2CD Digipak, a limited deluxe 3CD+Blu-ray artbook (incl. a poster of the cover artwork), and as 180g Gatefold 2LP (including the album on CD & an LP-Booklet). CD 2 features alternate versions of the same songs as CD 1, but with different vocalists. Also available will be a 5.1 mix, a high-res audio version, and an exclusive, hour-long Behind the Scenes video, on the Blu-ray included in the artbook.
