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Lucassen & Soeterboek’s Plan Nine have revealed the fun new comic-book themed animated video for “Ice On Fire.” The song is taken from the album ‘The Long-Lost Songs’ which will be released on 17th May via Music Theories Recordings / Mascot Label Group. You can watch the video for “Ice on Fire” HERE.
The song rockets its way out of the 80s and into the fresh faced 2024 with all the flamboyance, stadium sized melodies and insatiable chorus of many 80s rock classics. Talking about the song Arjen Lucassen says, “Howdy y’all! I’m proud to present to you the second Plan Nine video and single, Ice of Fire. It was very hard to pick a second single, because we love them all! So we had the label pick this one. As you can hear this track is quite different from the first bluesy song Before the Morning Comes. I think you’ll agree that this track sounds quite 80’s. Which is no surprise… because we wrote it about 35 years ago! The clip is illustrated by Elan Lopez and edited by Dionne Mokkenstorm at Mascot Label Group. We hope you will enjoy all the silliness, have a real good time and let us know what you think!”
It was the early nineties, and musical polymath Arjen Lucassen had begun working on several projects: a solo album, a progressive-rock opera and a rock album. Around this time, he watched singer Robert Soeterboek perform live with Bodine, his former early-eighties heavy metal band. “His vocals truly impressed me, a rarity!” Lucassen recalls. “He had the charisma and power of singers like David Coverdale and Robert Plant. Discovering that we really got along personally, we decided to collaborate on some songs, just for fun.”
They would meet daily in Lucassen’s small ‘studio’ – a bedroom with a mattress and an old 8-track tape recorder. There, they recorded around 20 basic ideas. They brought in Peter Vink on bass, Cleem Determeijer on Hammond, and Rob van der List on drums, who has since passed away, and attracted interest from producers and labels. In the early-nineties Grunge landscape, landing a record deal was challenging. Some labels were interested but hesitated due to fears about being able to sell albums in the era dominated by bands like Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Eventually, the repeated rejections wore them down. “I decided to start working on my rock opera project, expecting it to be the last musical thing I would ever do. My Final Experiment, so to speak!” Lucassen adds.
Fast forward to 2022, and they revisited those recordings. They recently revealed the first song from the album, Before The Morning Comes. The album encapsulates a glorious treasure trove of 11 original songs with a loving 70s and 80s nod. It’s a blistering romp through the good time rolling rocker of “Let It Ride”, the Beatles-esque “Doctor Robert’s Medicine Show,” the bluesy groove of “Annie Moore,” the chugging glam stomp of “High-Speed Chase” to the 80s metal of “Ice on Fire”, whilst “The Preacher” would fit on a number of Arjen’s back catalogue records. The bonus disc features all the demos and some more newly recorded tracks.
Lucassen continues, “We wanted the best and most suitable musicians for this album who could tour with Robert. Koen handled the powerful drums. Rob van der Loo (Epica) laid down a solid bass foundation. The talented Irene Jansen delivered amazing backing vocals, as always. And, one of the world’s best guitarists, Marcel Singor, played the virtuoso solos with his immediately recognizable style.”
The Long-Lost Songs are lost no more. Plan Nine is reborn, giving the long-lost songs a second life!
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