The album starts with a rich church organ, followed by military drums and a chanting male chorus - then breaks into a strong riff snapped off the bass strings ... and you know this is going to be interesting!

And to add to the interest, have a look at the album's (probably) unique pedigree:
A best-selling author has written a book, due for release in early June (The Edge Of The World by Kevin James Anderson.) At the same time, he wrote lyrics for a concept album that picks up on book's the main story line. Progrock Records assembled a project that includes many of its luminaries, and among them they produced a progressive opus that will - in the label's words - have tremendous "crossover" appeal.

The project is called Roswell Six and this first release is long, it's proggy, it has a metallic edge, it features excellent musicians with powerful contributions, and it's a sweeping epic that tells a sci-fi story of life, religious wars and romance on a distant planet. That may sound like one of the projects from a certain Dutch master of that genre - or it may sound suspiciously similar to another Progrock project, Amaran's Plight.

The production and the overall idea were courtesy of Shawn Gordon. The lyrics were from author Kevin Anderson and his wife Rebecca Moesta. The music was written by Erik Norlander. And the all-star lineup includes James Labrie (Dream Theater), Michael Sadler (Saga), John Payne (Asia, GPS) and Lana Lane on vocals. Keyboards are courtesy of Erik Norlander (Rocket Scientists), guitarwork is from Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery) and Chris Brown (Ghost Circus), Kurt Barabas (Under The Sun) plays bass, Chris Quirarte (Prymary) plays drums, Kansas's David Ragsdale is on violin, Mike Alvarez on cello, and IQ's Martin Orford on flute. And if you don't think that's an all-star cast, then consider this: Anderson has sold over 20 million books in 25 languages, and among them, the creative team have sold over 40 million copies.

The music itself is well written and richly layered, and each singer portrays a different character in the storyline. The overwhelming focus is on clean and memorable melodies, and the sophisticated production, the evolving song structures and the variety provided by the wide cast of artists yields a body of music that is at once approachable, and nicely "progressive" in its overall composition.

Opening track, the 11-minute "Ishalem", sets the tone for the album - the choral vocals may not have universal appeal, but they're limited and it quickly morphs into a constantly developing piece with nice structures, and David Ragsdale's violin adds a wonderful dimension of sophistication. Lana Lane is one of the very few woman vocalists since Heart's Ann Wilson who can successfully - and credibly - front metallic music with feminine mid-range vocals, and her singing is one of the key elements of Terra Incognita: Beyond The Horizon.

"Letters In A Bottle" is a standout piece - a power ballad that starts with elegant violin & cello over acoustic guitar., then Michael Sadler's delivery showing why he was such a commercial success for so many years. Wonderfully expressive singing, describing a love letter the singer hopes will find its way to his lady. The closing track - with the same name as the book that was the album's genesis - starts with dark tones, and quickly builds into an upbeat, optimistic reprise of many of the album's themes - a solid all-instrumental encore piece that closes out with a few bars of Lana Lane's soulful crooning.

Powerful.

This kind of music may not be groundbreaking but it's an interesting take on a popular style, wonderfully executed, and those catchy melodies will stay with you long after the CD has stopped spinning.

If we'd had the time we'd have read the book and played the music at the same time - to experience all aspects of this body of work a single, consolidated experience. That opportunity didn't arise, but it would be a nice exercise at some time in the future.

Recommended to fans of operatic, hard-edged, melodic progressive rock.