Victims of the Modern Age

As I arrived at my parent’s house yesterday, I noticed a rather large envelope lying in the hall. I looked upon the address label, and saw that it was something for me. I did remember pre-ordering a CD from Star One (a project by Arjen Lucassen, renowned for his work with Ayreon), so I was anxious to see what I had received.

I opened up the envelope and looked at the contents: a cool-looking t-shirt and a double-CD! Wow, I could hardly wait to listen to it, so I fired up my laptop, inserted the first CD and started listening. I must say, Arjen has outdone himself again! It’s a really cool, more metal-style album but you can clearly hear he’s the guy writing the music.

The CD starts off with “Down the Rabbit Hole”, a very synth-oriented introduction to the album. Really relaxing and mellow, a very fitting intro to a heavy album.

We proceed with Digital Rain, which is clearly a reference to The Matrix. Kicking in with the heavy drums (which are perfectly executed by Ed Warby) and after a barrage of double bass patterns accompanied by a cool Hammond-piece the vocals kick in: Dan Swanö never disappoints! Followed by Damian Wilson with his nice clear voice, the piece proceeds to the chorus: Russell Allen’s voice is brilliant, and he practically destroyed my headphones with his powerful voice. Floor Jansen joins him here, the combo sounds great here. We listen to another verse here, and again the chorus, albeit a bit longer. And there it comes: Gary Wehrkamp and Joost van den Broek trade solos. The song blows you away, it’s a perfect opening song.

Earth That Was kicks in with a cool guitar riff, of course followed by the riff accompanied by drums &c. Damian opens up, Dan follows with his brutal voice and Russell and Floor execute a perfect duet in the chorus. How does that man (Arjen, of course) come up with these singers? I guess he’s a lucky dog…

Next up: Victim of the Modern Age. It starts of with a wacky-sounding keyboard(?) intro, which leads to the first verse, sung by Russell. You can really hear the potential of his voice here. Really cool! The chorus is a combination of all other vocalists who trade off lines. Oh yeah: Violence makes violence, if I must believe Dan.

Human See, Human Do starts off with a voice-over (by Russell, I believe, but I’m not sure) over what seems to be old film music. It blows into a heavy barrage of double bass and a nice melodic guitar part. All singers get a turn in this song and the music varies enough to keep it interesting (which is my primary reason to listen to the album, to be truly honest). The middle section of the section is a heavy, synth-driven masterpiece with some heavy growling by Dan. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, do no evil. It sounds all too familiar. We get blown away by some amazing guitar- and keyboard solos. I’d say it can only get worse from here.

That’s when we arrive at “24 Hours”, which features a more relaxed intro, which leads to Damian’s lovely voiced verse. But as Russell starts hurling his powerful voice at you, the music gets heavier as well. We return to Damian (and Russel) one more time before kicking into an almost creepingly dark piece. We get a bit more comforted by Dan and Floor before returning the extremely soft side and some nice harmonic lines and more heavy stuff. It’s an amazing song (too bad I’m not that great at writing…) for sure. Not a single bad part.

Sorry, my time is up! I’ll probably return to review the other three songs as well, but it’d be best if you just buy the album (download? heathen!) and enjoy it for yourself.