‘Step into this midnight, electric twilight and hold on.’
My friends, I tell ya, today my excitement and enthusiasm levels have gone into overdrive with the new solo album from that mighty dragon Marc Hudson. I love Japanese metal; Blood Stain Child are one of my favourites and to have that sound combined with Symphony Metal, I’m ready to explode!
We open with ‘As The Twilight Met The Sea’ evoking images of mystery and mysticism, feelings that are hard to explain, it’s the stuff of myths and legends. To take the art of storytelling and set it beautifully to music, that is what we have here. We visit our most fiendish of cousins ‘Dracula X!’ with the mega voice of Adrienne Cowan (Seven Spires)
as she swoops in and adds a dash of Gothic, vampiric charm to the track.
‘Take my hand as we run underneath the amber fires’ swoon…faint…. feel energised by an adventure with ‘The Siren’ and feel loved by the warmth and luxury of companionship.
With ‘Astralive’ we are hypnotised by space, what it means and the powers it holds. We await with great anticipation the secrets that are to unfold, we look to the skies and beg of their command and their dominion. The power ballad ‘Swansong’ has a midsection at 3.06 which is like a portal into another realm, we remain there until 4.00 when the song engages into cruise mode, and we sail on to the end of the song.
It is a cosmic, fragrant, towering colossus of a record, the synths and frets are rich and indulgent, exactly what you want from this style of music. The album features several contributions from various artists, making it an international effort, intelligently crafted and produced and attention grabbing on multiple levels. The band are Marc Hudson -vocals, Shaz D – Keyboards, Frédéric Leclercq – guitars/bass and Rich Smith on drums, glowing in their efforts, lifting us off our feet, levitating into the air, floating high above, away from it all.
The finale is ‘One More Sight Of The Sun With You’ joyous and rapturous, sounding even more exquisite in Japanese, I didn’t understand a word of it but was spellbound with its integrity and delivery.
A fantastical voyage, hugely entertaining, utterly mesmerising and true to the genre, storytelling excellence, with songs that will never leave you, ever-present with stories yet to be told and friendships yet to be forged, see it all and feel it all as the stars align and revelations and prophecies are aching to be shared, for all that we’ve lost, for all that we’ve found, we are Starbound.
Azra Pathan
Marc Hudson – Starbound Stories out 25th August via Napalm Records