Customer Reviews

Queen of the Ocean

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Lana Lane burst onto the scene in 1995 with the promising album
"Love is an illusion", an energetic cocktail of AOR, melodic
and symphonic rock. From then on each subsequent CD release has
surpassed its predecessor, culminating in "Queen of the
ocean", which is nothing short of a masterpiece. Her second
(slightly experimental) effort was entitled "Curious goods",
followed by the excellent "Garden of the moon". Meanwhile
her style, regardless of trend or commercial success, gradually
evolved into the gradiose, dramatic progressive rock she is known for
today. It should be noted that Lana Lane should not be considered a
solo artist, but frontperson of a band captained by husband Erik
Norlander, a keyboard virtuoso who simultaneously perpetuates a solo
career and a second band, the equally impressive Rocket
Scientists. Regular guitarists are Neil Citron and Mark McCrite, who
on Lana Lane's most recent CD "Secrets of astrology" have
been replaced by Arjen Anthony Lucassen of Dutch act Ayreon (formerly
Vengeance) and Velocity's David Victor, not for lack of delivering the
(curious ?) goods but in the interest of a deliberate change in
sound. Lana herself has a strong, distinctive voice that perfectly
suits this type of music. I suppose it would make little sense to
start picking out favorites. There's simply not a weak moment on the
entire album (running time: 71 minutes), not one particular song that
falls short when compared to the rest. It might be noteworthy that in
addition to the regular eight album tracks three of the best songs
from Lana Lane's repertoire have been included as so-called bonus
tracks: "Through the rain" is a remake of a song off the
debut album, while two songs - of which the original versions can be
found on "Curious goods" - were taken off the "Live in
Japan recording", namely "Escher's staircase" and the
awesome "Symphony of angels". The melodic character of Lana
Lane's epic songs is never compromised by excessively intricate
structures, the wall of sound created by overblown keyboards, soaring
guitars and driving rhythm section is not a purpose onto
itself. Therein lies the band's strength. Sometimes their sound
verges on progmetal, as practiced by lesser Gods such as Symphony X
and Stratovarius, but they seldom cross the line. The lyrics are
mostly intelligent and insightful. The standard of production moreover
has kept up with Lana Lane's musical development. Recognizing that the
songs on "Love is an illusion" were deserving of a
"makeover", the band rerecorded most of their debut CD and
has since released a reissue, resulting in a rejuvenated
album. There's also a "Ballad collection", a 12 track
"Best of" and a 6 track collection of unreleased (versions
of) songs entitled "Echoes from the garden" floating about,
the first two of which are well worth purchasing as an introduction to
their music. Lana Lane are fairly big in Japan and have a small,
dedicated cult following in Holland, Belgium and Germany. I'm proud to
say that Lana's got some Dutch blood coursing through her veins and
that both she and Erik Norlander have been employing several Dutch
artists off late, while also appearing on their work. A great band
that deserves to be more widely known and respected.

I wonder why reviewers here tend to place Lana into Progressive rock category and then start to criticize her for being much less than old Prog stars like King Crimson, Genesis etc. In my opinion, Lana really has almost nothing to do with Progressive rock of the 70s (although influences are visible). She is definitely what we nowadays call Symphonic Metal - in the vein of late Dio, Royal Hunt, After Forever, Nightwish, Within Temptation and other similar (and mostly European) performers. In that category she is definitely one of the veterans and can legitimately claim Queen's title and crown.
Anyway, this one is definitely better that Secrets of Astrology. "Queen of the Ocean", "Frankenstein Unbound", "Through the Rain", "Escher's Staircase" are all very good (the first one being the obvious hilight), and the record itself is more consistent then the predecessors.

I live in Germany and picked up Queen of the Ocean in a music store. I listened to a clip and couldn't put it down. I had to have it and have since almost worn it out. With Lana's voice and the background symphonic sound on top of heavy metal, it quickly topped my list of favorites. The bands I listen to which may give you some idea of my tastes are; Type O Negative, Paradise Lost, Dream Theatre...Try Queen of the Ocean - let me know how you like it. I want to own everything she's done!

I recently bought the CD (I've got the export edition). I didn't have previous reference of Lana Lane, but I was interested on it becouse of the suggestion made by LMP on Luca Turilli first release. There is no doubt that Lana Lane is progresive, but I would say that is more Progresive-Rock, than metal at all. I like Lana Lane's material on this CD, but I was a bit desilutioned becosue I was looking for something more power metal, or progresive metal. Dispite this I think it was not too bad election and I'll be looking forward to get her latest release so I can make her a more informed critic.
I recomend the export edition, two of the best song are from the Bonus tracks.

30 years ago, the music of Genesis, Gentle Giant, King Crimson, Van Der Graaf Generator and Yes created a new category called Progressive. By comparison, the music on this CD must be called Regressive. Artificial, predictable, glossy, and without substance or imagination, Queen of the Ocean sounds like the program demos that come with the latest Kurzweil synths. The music itself is utterly unadventurous and relies on cheap effects and telegraphed tempo changes, rank with cliche. Look elsewhere for truly progressive music.