Space Metal
Lest anyone accuse the Dutch of slacking off in the pop-culture derby, we offer up Arjen Anthony Lucassen, the fret-burning star of Ayreon, and his ongoing prog-rock-cum-speed metal project. When he's not practicing his scales, Lucassen apparently spends much time enraptured by sci-fi films, particularly those based in space. What we have here is not so much a space rock opera as a sprawling song cycle inspired by Lucassen's sci-fi infatuations. The musician openly challenges listeners to guess which film songs like "Set Your Controls" and "Intergalactic Space Crusader" are inspired by. (Now which sci-fi epic had that dueling speed-metal synth war with the screeching, overwrought vocals again?) It's a throwback-hybrid, as if theRushof2112,Metallica, andMalmsteengot their atoms all mixed up with Jan Hammer's in the transporter room.--Jerry McCulley