Arjen Lucassen’s Supersonic Revolution will release their spectacular debut album Golden Age of Music on May 19 via Music Theories Recording/Mascot Label Group.
You can watch the lyric video for “SR Prelude & The Glamattack”
You think you know Arjen Lucassen? Towering Dutch prog rock polymath? The man behind the super successful prog rock conceptualists Ayreon? Not to mention his prog metal of Star One and Guilt Machine? Enormous overarching concept albums about space and time, packed to the hilt with special guests that read like a who’s who of modern day progressive rock? Arjen Lucassen? Well, think again…
Supersonic Revolution, the band behind ‘Golden Age Of Music’, are simply five men: Arjen on bass, long-standing keyboard player Joost van den Broek, guitarist Timo Somers, drummer Koen Herfst and singer Jaycee. Five men rocking out and having one hell of a time doing it.
The whole project grew from a request to provide a track for a cover CD for the German music magazine Eclipsed. “They asked if I had any cover versions lying around,” he recalls. “I said, ‘No but I’ll happily record one for you.’ So, they gave me a list of bands and I saw a ZZ Top song ‘I Heard It On The X’ that I really like. I said I could record it for them, but then they told me it had to be ready in one week…”
“I was like ‘Oh my god!’. I contacted my favorite musicians in Holland via WhatsApp and literally within 30 minutes I had assembled five people. A band basically. From there the seed was sown in Lucassen’s mind. ‘I want to form a band. And I want to simply have fun!’.
“I’m a perfectionist as you know, so I’m always sending musicians their parts back and asking them to change stuff,” he acknowledges. “But this was all brilliant. We were having fun, calling and WhatsApping all the time, and within a week we had a complete product.” He continues, “Also I wanted to have an up-beat, positive project.”
“I was like, let’s form a band and let’s write songs in the style of the 70s, and have the lyrics be a celebration of all the memorable things from that time, because those were my formative years,” he enthuses. “But I didn’t want it to sound like the 70s because that’s already been done, and I can’t do it any better than ‘Stargazer’ or ‘Kashmir’.”
“The guys are all younger than me – around 30 – so they weren’t even alive yet in the 70s. So, it was a great way for me to make 70s music with lots of Hammond and blistering guitars, but to update it to this time.”
The end result is 11 tracks of high energy, progressively inclined heavy rock that swings with the kind of groove Deep Purple rocked with in the early to mid-1970s. “This album is not a typical prog album. It’s not Yes or Genesis. But it’s not a metal album either. There’s a track called ‘Burn it Down’,” Lucassen notes, “it’s totally based on ‘Smoke On The Water’ but written from the perspective of the ‘stupid with a flare gun’ mentioned in the original lyrics.
The album also features covers of some legendary songs given the Arjen Lucassen treatment as bonus tracks: T-Rex’s ‘Children of the Revolution,’ ZZ Top’s ‘Heard It On The X,’ Earth Wind and Fire’s ‘Fantasy’ and Roger Glover’s ‘Love Is All.’
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the real Arjen Lucassen. Job done. Having fun.
01 SR Prelude 02 The Glamattack 03 Golden Age Of Music 04 The Rise Of The Starman 05 Burn It Down 06 Odyssey 07 They Took Us By Storm 08 Golden Boy 09 Holy Holy Ground 10 Fight Of The Century 11 Came To Mock, Stayed To Rock 12 Children Of The Revolution (Bonus Track) 13 Heard It On The X (Bonus Track) 14 Fantasy (Bonus Track) 15 Love Is All (Bonus Track)
The album will be available on various formats; 2LP Transparent Blue, 2LP Pink Marble, 2LP Purple Marble, 2LP Yellow Marble, CD, Digitally and Artbook. You can pre-order it from here: https://lnk.to/SupersonicRevolution
Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) is back with a new Star One album titled Revel In Time. The new album comes more than 10 years since the previous release and is due out on Feb 18th, 2022 on InsideOutMusic. Today, Arjen is pleased to share the first single and video from the album’s closing track “Lost Children of the Universe.”
Watch the video here:
Arjen has this to say about the track: “This 10-minute epic is the first video clip/single of the new Star One album Revel in Time. The lyrics are inspired by the movie Interstellar.
This is a slightly different version than on the CD. On CD1 Roy Khan sings the lead vocals and on CD2 Tony Martin sings the lead vocals. For this YouTube version I combined their voices. Both such great singers, I just couldn’t choose! Hope you enjoy it. Thanks for your attention!”
CD1: 1] Fate of Man 5:29 2] 28 Days (Till the End of Time) 7:21 3] Prescient 6:34 4] Back from the Past 4:50 5] Revel in Time 4:38 6] The Year of ’41 6:20 7] Bridge of Life 5:14 8] Today is Yesterday 5:46 9] A Hand on the Clock 5:52 10] Beyond the Edge of it All 4:52 11] Lost Children of the Universe 9:46
CD 2 features the same songs as CD 1, but with different vocalists
The album will be available for pre-order on Dec. 17th and it will come as Ltd. 2CD Digipak, Ltd. Deluxe 3CD+Blu-Ray Artbook (incl. a poster of the cover artwork), and as 180g Gatefold 2LP (incl. 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.
Arjen explains the decision to return with a new Star One album: “Ayreon is like the mothership for all my music. 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.”
After creating rock operas in the studio for more than 20 years, prog mastermind Arjen Lucassen, aka Ayreon, finally took his Universe to the stage in September 2017. Three shows sold out within hours after announcing. 9000+ Fans from all corners of the world flocked to the 013 venue in Tilburg, the Netherlands to see this long-awaited show live.
Almost everything has been recorded, and you know that we want to give the Ayreon fans what they want. We will unleash the entire 2.5-hour show on various formats on March 30, 2018.
And here’s the moment you’ve all been waiting for… You can pre-order AYREON UNIVERSE!
ITEMS AND FEATURES
Here’s a list of all the items:
Earbook – 2CD/2DVD/Blu-ray (album + full show + bonus material on DVD and Blu-ray)
The DVD and Blu-ray will have an extensive making-of documentary, including interviews with the entire cast, and highlights from the try-out show performed a few weeks earlier.
T-SHIRT BUNDLES
We made bundles of 2 different t-shirts that were only available at the Ayreon Universe shows. This is your final chance to get exclusive Ayreon Universe merch. The merch will not be reprinted. Once it’s gone, it’s gone.
EXCLUSIVE MERCH
Along with the 2 t-shirt bundles we have limited stock of men’s and ladies long sleeve shirts, a rather snazzy worker shirt and goodies like pendants, lanyards, and tote bags. We could make a lot more bundles, but we hope you understand that it’s not possible to put dozens of combinations in the shop.
BUNDLES SHIP FROM EUROPE ONLY
An important note about the merch bundles: Because everything’s stored in our warehouse in the Netherlands, we will only offer the merch bundles in the MLG EU store, and not in the US store. If you live in North America and want to get exclusive Ayreon merch, visit the EU store here.
SIGNED BY ARJEN
As always, all pre-ordered earbooks, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, and vinyl will be signed by Arjen and we will a free poster to every order!
Heroes and villains are fighting the world in a mystic conspiracy thriller, coming from the factory of an Israeli Progressive band Soul Enema. “Spymania” is a part of a new album Of Clans and Clones and Clowns, released on June 23rd. A colorful and diverse 73-minute work features guest appearances from Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) and Yossi Sassi (ex-Orphaned Land) and mixed by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Devin Townsend).
“As it turns out, evil reptilians from the planet Nibiru came down to Earth, and they are very close to getting the key to universal knowledge. The superhuman powers of Batman and Chuck Norris stand on their way, but it turns out, that only something related to the world of music is able to save the human race. What is it? Watch out till the end! ” the band commented.
“We used some paintings of a brilliant modern Russian artist Vasya Lozhkin, who’s a big phenomenon in his home country, but still not really known in the Western World yet,” says songwriter and keyboard player Constantin Glantz, adding, “I must state that ‘Spymania’ has some amusing background. The lyrics for this song were written way back in 2006, or maybe even earlier, and it features a kind of goofy, paranoid mock story about someone being mysteriously thrown down from the roof of Empire State Building, and seen too many things you ain’t allowed to see, while flying down to the ground. So much, in fact, that this person was forcefully killed even before he naturally hit the ground. Fast forward to the year 2015, and guess what — suddenly we have a totally real conspiracy scandal taking place around the same Empire State Building during a big ecological happening, when some claimed there’s Kali or Satan images projected on building windows, as part of some mystic apocalyptic ritual! The Hell you know, indeed.”
Watch a video for Spymania below. Soul Enema’s follow-up to 2010’s Thin Ice Crawling was released on June 23rd and can be ordered here.
Progressive rock band Mars Hollow has announced that they will be recording a new album after a nearly 5-year hiatus. The announcement was made during a semi-reunion show and subsequent radio interview in June, and came on the heels of a show billed as “John Baker and Steve Mauk Perform the Music of Mars Hollow” in Chicago. The show was the first time Mars Hollow has performed live since May, 2012. The most recent studio effort from the group was the track “So Far Away,” which also had a video release and was included on the Mars Hollow Live album. The album, also available on DVD, documented the band’s ‘Church of Prog’ spot at RosFest, 2011 and was released in Fall of 2012.
However, guitarist and lead vocalist John Baker says that the new band will update both its name and line-up to fit the spirit and music of the new incarnation, and will be called “Life After Mars.” The band’s debut album release is tentatively scheduled for Summer, 2018.
Says John, “As Life After Mars is the newly reformed incarnation of Mars Hollow, the best way to explain it is ‘Mars Hollow…the Next Generation.”
Mars Hollow landed on the progressive rock scene in 2010 with their self-titled debut album, produced by Ronan Chris Murphy, and followed up in 2011 with “World In Front of Me,” co-produced by Mars Hollow’s John Baker and Billy Sherwood, now of Yes. Playing festivals and numerous gigs in the USA, Mexico and Canada, the band also played and toured with Billy Sherwood’s Circa, and received accolades and positive reviews for several years. In the spirit of progressive rock, “Life After Mars” seems a natural progression.
Says John, “I think of this as good timing. A perfect time to rethink your mindset, and have a new jumping off point. At one time, walking on the moon, or landing on Mars was the future. Everyone wondered if there was life on mars, and now they are talking about colonization of Mars. Truly, the FUTURE is life AFTER mars.”
Life After Mars features:
John Baker – lead vocals and guitars
Don Schiff – NS stick, various basses and string instruments
Lisa LaRue – keyboards
Emily Dolan Davies – drums
Bios:
JOHN BAKER
Throughout the years, John Baker has held stints as guitarist and backing vocalist for various original bands and musicians, including Christian Love of “The Beach Boys” and bassist for The Little Girls. Since 1995, John has been operating a successful studio business, comprised of music projects, audio drama, and dialogue work. In the music field, John has worked with many musicians and producers, including Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones) and Richie Zito (Elton John, Tina Turner, Heart). In the dialogue field, John has directed, engineered, and edited hundreds of audio books including works by authors such as Robert Ludlum, Danielle Steele and Deepak Chopra. John Baker, an original member of Mars Hollow, is also the lead vocalist for the LA-based progressive rock band, Forever Twelve, who has just completed their 4th studio album, Home, on Melodic Revolution Records.
DON SCHIFF
Don Schiff has worked with some of the best – including Elvis Presley, Tina Turner, Pat Benatar, Sheryl Crow, Sammy Davis, Arjen Lucassen among many others. Don is also a member of Rocket Scientists. Having scored soundtracks as well as acted in TV shows and films such as “Live From Death Row” and “84 Charlie Mopic,” he has also received gold records for co-writing for Pat Benatar’s “Wide Awake in Dreamland” and Winfield/Schiff’s “Cerebral Man.” Don is internationally known for his expertise with the NS/Chapman stick. He was also a member of Lisa LaRue’s former band 2KX.
LISA LaRUE
Keyboardist Lisa LaRue has worked with many musicians including: John Payne (Asia), Don Schiff (Rocket Scientists, Tina Turner, Elvis, and more), Ryo Okumoto (Spock’s Beard), Michael Sadler (Saga), Oliver Wakeman (Yes). Esquire (Nikki Squire) and others. Lisa has been awarded Oklahoma Native American Artist of the Year and nominated for other awards including the Hollywood Music Awards, Los Angeles Music Awards, and the Native American Music Awards. She collaborated with Gilli Smyth of Gong on a self-released album titled “Dreamscapes,” and has released 5 solo albums, 1 album with Lisa LaRue Project 2K9, 2 albums with Lisa LaRue 2KX, and 1 album with Federico Fantacone (Fantacone/LaRue – Sonic Landscapes).
EMILY DOLAN DAVIES
Emily Dolan Davies is a British drummer who has been playing since age 11, with full time gigging beginning at age 18. She has extensive experience in many genres as a session and live drummer, in addition to playing with artists such as Bryan Ferry, The Thompson Twins, The Darkness, and many more. She is currently touring with Howard Jones.
Here’s what the press have said about Mars Hollow:
“It’s quite clear that Mars Hollow is a band to be reckoned with. This is no garage band, but a very serious group of players with some serious chops.” – Rok Podgrajšek – The Rocktologist
“If you take a little bit of Yes – mostly in John Baker’s vocals – and a little bit of Rush (also there in the vocals), that’s a bit what Mars Hollow sound like.” – Stephanie Sollow – ProgressiveWorld.net
“Each member of the quartet is a star player in his own right. Their sound is a rocking and melodic mix of the best of Yes & Genesis with a bit of latter-day King Crimson.” – Mike Flavin – USA Prog Music
“I would consider Mars Hollow to be a band that will withstand the test of time for the advancement of the progressive genre.” – Grant Hill – Music Street Journal
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