Lana Lane, the 10th Anniversary Concert, provides some truly great symphonic music that covers a solid decade of work from various titles ranging from the early Garden of the Moon to newer releases like Lady Macbeth. The DVD is particularly worthy of praise. It covers the live concert at Shibuya O-East in Tokyo in June, 2005 where a legion of Japanese fans joined in the celebration of Lana Lane music. Included in the DVD is additional video tour footage from performances in Europe, the USA and Japan, providing a glimpse into life on the road for this group of road warriors. That DVD was produced in 5.1 Surround, which is a solid output to multiple speakers, the ONLY way to listen to this outstanding music. A total of 19 tracks are presented on the DVD with only 17 of them making it to the accompanying CD due to space limitations. But, both provide a satisfying glimpse into one of America’s premier musical entities.

The Lana Lane experience has something of a European feel to it. She has worked with a variety of musicians over the years, sometimes as a backup musician, sometimes as the headliner. With her own projects, there have been numerous musicians who have participated on recordings and concerts and left their mark on that music. The current lineup includes Ernst Van Ee, drums, Kristoffer Gildenlow on bass, Mark McCrite on guitar, Peer Verschuren on lead guitar and Erik Norlander on keyboards. Norlander, of course, is a permanent fixture; they’ve been a couple for many years. He also does the production for these recordings and assists with the musical development as well. Norlander is known for his other projects, including Rocket Scientists where Lane has sometimes worked as a vocalist. She’s also worked with European musicians, including a significant association with the Dutch super group Ayreon. That experience has had a definite impact on her music, and it shows. . .all for the better.

One final comment before addressing the music; The DVD includes shots of covers of the various Lana Lane albums and CDs as music from those titles are performed. Those covers were developed by the internationally recognized surrealist artist, Jacek Yerka. If you’re a fan of surrealistic artwork, as I am, these are a real add on to the music. They are fantastic.

Now about the music; First off make no mistake about it, Lana Lane can sing. She doesn’t do the operatic vocals often found in this type of music, instead, hers are more of a soaring classical tone. And that tone is pretty much consistent, even if the music crosses a number of traditional styles and formats. Lane’s music has evolved through a variety of categories. Initially, it was a hard rock, heavy metal sound that was found in early releases like Love is an Illusion. However, as her association with European music continued to impact her thinking, she moved towards more sophisticated epic length symphonic tracks with progressive influences driven by the Norlander keyboards and sophisticated percussion augmented by crushing electric guitar sounds. And the performance here captures these later sounds, even as they drive the earlier releases in these directions.

There are clearly too many songs here to address many of them individually. However, some are classic Lana Lane and need to be addressed. Secrets of Astrology is an early presentation, and a classic Lana Lane title. The presentation here features the dynamic guitars of Verschuren and McCrite along with the pulsating keyboards of Norlander, with Lane introducing her signature vocal style. It’s a haunting melody with a pounding guitar where Lane interacts with her musicians as they thunder away. They are clearly having a grand old time and the audience is responding, they know this song and have loved it for a long time.

Lane seems to be a big Shakespeare fan, one of her later releases is Lady Macbeth and there are several songs from this title. Someone to Believe In represents this direction; it begins with a keyboard symphonic in the tradition of much of the later Lane material. The sound evolves into a fantasy theme with subdued guitars that lead to the Lane vocals. The format is similar with The Vision. Here we get a piano intro that leads to the ballad, a guitar based number of some significant beauty.

However, that Shakespeare direction can be a little harder. Romeo and Juliet starts with a solid drum line that takes us to the vocals. As the guitars begin to climb, Lane shows us that she can scream with the best of them, this is metal by anyone’s standards, you get a bit of the Heart approach to metal here, something that can be found in much of the Lana Lane material. And that’s a direction most Americans are very comfortable with.

Emerald City continues this guitar based direction. And, it captures the Lana Lane lyric, with its touch of the gothic and the fantasy. Lane sings:

The guitars scream, and these guys can crush a guitar; they take a back seat to no one. The videos best capture this guitar action; the two, especially Verschuren, are a trip for the eyes, solid metal guitar with all the visuals to match. And they demonstrate that capability on this selection.

The work concludes with a Lane favorite, Symphony of Angels. It’s heavy metal at its finest. The keyboards howl, the guitars are driven to distraction. Lane takes us on a gothic voyage with a poignant vocal line. Her ability to take us to emotional highs and lows are featured on this seven-minute epic. And the band comes along for the ride. Lyrically, this is a bit darker than the typical Lane selection. As the guitars wail, Lane takes us in a gothic direction:

It’s a bit hard to capture the essence of the Lana Lane experience. The music, well, that’s pretty much fantastic. Sadly, that music has been largely lost on her native country. But, on the positive side, we can take solace that we actually have a musician like this to make a positive impression on the world. These days, we need all the good PR we can get. And Lana Lane has been doing just that for a lot of years. Time Americans gave her a listen.

9 / 10