Arjen Lucassen

Arjen Lucassen the dutch born multi instrumentalist is a freaking genius. He is well known for his work under the name of Ayreon and he has used a multitude of guest singers and instrumentalists on his "rock operas" such as:

Barry Hay - Golden Earring

Bruce Dickinson - Iron Maiden

Damian Wilson - Threshold

Devin Townsend - Strapping Young Lad

James LaBrie - Dream Theater

Lenny Wolf - Kingdom Come

Mikael Akerfeldt - Opeth

And so many more too numerous to mention.

Now Arjen has released a side project called Guilt Machine and an album titled "On This Perfect Day" and I gotta tell you that this is one helluva album and unlike other masterpieces, instead of using a multitude of singers he has used just one, a young relatively unknown Belgian guy called Jasper Steverlinck and the result is amazing. At times you can hear shades of Queens Freddy Mercury and at others Ian Astbury (The Cult).

This young guy can really sing and is not your archetypal heavy rock singer, his vocals are soft and exceptionally powerful and perhaps that's why it works so so very well.

Have a listen, go and buy it and all you prog rockers be prepared to be blown away by this latest Arjen Lucassen project.