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 Inside Out Music. “Revel In Time“ is now available for pre-order, along with the re-issues of “Victims of the Modern Age” and “Space Metal”.
Today, Arjen is pleased to share the third single and video for the album’s opening track “Prescient” featuring Micheal Mills (Toehider) and Ross Jennings (Haken, Novena). Watch it below.
Arjen has this to say about the track: “For me this is the most varied Star One album so far, every track has a totally different feel. The first single, Lost Children of the Universe, is a big epic track; the second single, Fate of Man, is a fast metal track, and Prescient is definitely the most proggy on the album. With the video we tried to capture that vintage black and white Twilight Zone feel with a touch of David Lynch!”
The album is available for pre-order 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.
For this Star One release, Arjen has decided 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.
“Revel In Time” Track-Listing:
- Fate of Man 5:29
- 28 Days (Till the End of Time) 7:21
- Prescient 6:34
- Back from the Past 4:50
- Revel in Time 4:38
- The Year of ’41 6:20
- Bridge of Life 5:14
- Today is Yesterday 5:46
- A Hand on the Clock 5:52
- Beyond the Edge of it All 4:52
- Lost Children of the Universe 9:46
CD 2 features the same songs as CD 1, but with different vocalists
Arjen explains the decision to return with a new Star One album: “Ayreon is like the mother-ship 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.”
The artwork was designed by Ayreon artist Jef Bertels, Arjen explains: “As always, Jef’s painting is wondrously labyrinthine; I can sit in front of it for hours and discover new details all the time. 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!”
