Lana Lane was born in Concord, California. Her main instrument is her voice and secondary instruments include guitar & piano.
The nucleus of Lana's music is her powerful, dare I say DIVA-esque vocals along husband's (Erik Norlander) instrumentation come from the likes of hard rock female fronted legends Heart to the bombast of legendary UK heavy metal pioneer masters Deep Purple.
Her musical inspirations combined with Erik's symphonic instrumentation comes most notably from the lush atmospheric progressive symphonic rock sounds of both Pink Floyd & ELO, along with the progressive rock/AOR wizardry of Styx to the smooth jazz styling of both Henry Mancini & (jazz legend and DIVA, Ella Fitzgerald).
For the most part Lana Lane sounds like at times a deadringer for Heart's Ann Wilson (but with a lot more musical/ vocal range, in my opinion). She also likes vocalist Glenn Hughes (ex-Deep Purple/ ex-Black Sabbath), Joe Lynn Turner (ex-Rainbow/ ex-Deep Purple) & Ian Gillan (currently Deep Purple/ ex-Black Sabbath). In my personal opinion, I think both Ian & Glenn are Deep Purple's definitive vocalists.
Aside for her solo albums, Lana's notable album credits include Ayreon "Ayreonauts Only", "The Universal Migrator Part I & II" (2000); Erik Norlander "Into the Sunset" (2000) as well as all of the Rocket Scientists releases.
"Secrets of Astrology", Lana's 5th full length studio release, it was obvious (to my ears at least) that Lana should venture into the realm of prog metal. She can belt 'em out like any of the contenders in the prog metal world, with her finesse.
Combined with legendary prog metal guitarist, Arjen Anthony Lucassen and equally legendary drummer Ed Warby, cranks up the power bringing out the best in Lana and Erik, in this reviewers opinion.
To this reviewer's ears, "Secrets of Astrology" and "Into the Sunset" are almost companion pieces as both has the best songs and performances to date. Arjen seems to bring out the best in the musicians that he works with.
I love all of Lana's cds so far but by far "Secrets of Astrology", is my favorite. Do you like prog metal? Then get it, NOW!
Reviewed By Ron Fuchs on November 25th, 2002
