Interesting what you can find during late night web-surfing sessions. I was actually looking for information on a 3CD ELP tribute album (which I never did find, incidentally) and came across a couple shining reviews of this prog-metal band and their music. (Actually not a band per se, but some Dutch guy named Arjen Anthony Lucassen who used to play in the 80's leather-metal band Bodine...remember "Wild Fire Queen"? Yes, THAT BAND!!) Suffice to say, a few mp3's later, I was searching for Ayreon CDs with drooling intensity!

On April 22nd, 2002, one of my life ambitions came true...well, sort of. You see, Arjen is one of those recluse types who rarely, if ever, plays live -- indeed, he's stated many times that he'll probably never put an Ayreon tour together, since the perfectionist in him would insist on a note-for-note reproduction of the studio sound, which, considering the vast number of guest musicians he uses, would be ridiculously expensive (if even possible.) In the summer of 2001, however, he did do a few live shows with fellow prog-metal mates Erik Norlander and Lana Lane in Europe...and boy, was I tempted to cash in my remaining securities so I could fly over there to see them! It wouldn't be Ayreon, but damn it would be close enough for government work...(Erik performed the keyboards on Ayreon's Universal Migrator albums, and Lana has guested on vocals a few times.)

Ok, fast forward to the following spring, when Arjen announces he'll be doing his first U.S. show ever, supporting Lana & Erik at...the Troubadour in West Hollywood!! Just a short drive down the freeway! Of course, at first I was wondering if this was God answering my prayers, or God fucking with me, as I was flat broke at the time...well, it didn't take long for me to say FUCK IT, I'll go without cable for a month! (As it turned out, I paid for it with a late Christmas gift, plus some vinyl sales that mysteriously went through without a hitch, so it all worked out.)

Oh yeah, the concert. Well, it was basically all solo material by Lana Lane, which I gotta admit was a lot heavier than I expected (I'll definitely have to pick up some of her CDs, when finances permit.) They only played one Ayreon song, "The Dream Sequencer", which was basically just an Arjen & Erik instrumental "duet" -- but hey, it's a start! And most importantly, all five of them were obviously having lots of fun. (The drummer was Vinnie Appice, best known for his Black Sabbath/Dio work; my God his career has gone downhill, hasn't it?? Playing in small clubs supporting unknown Dutch-metal artists...)

So, I was wondering, "Maybe this experience will kick Arjen in the nuts to put together a full Ayreon show?" Well, as a matter of fact....(check out Arjen's Star One side project for the rest of the story!)

"The Final Experiment"

1.  PROLOGUE: (3:17)
   • The Time Telepathy Experiment
   • Overture
   • Ayreon's Quest
    ACT I: 'The Dawning'
2. "The Awareness" (6:36)
   • The Premonition
   • Dreamtime (Words Becoming a Song)
   • The Awakening
3. "Eyes of Time" (5:06)
   • Eyes of Time
   • Brainwaves
4. "The Banishment" (11:08)
   • A New Dawn
   • The Gathering
   • The Accusation
   • The Banishment
   • Oblivion
    ACT II: 'King Arthur's Court'
5. "Ye Courtyard Minstrel Boy" (2:46)
6. "Sail Away to Avalon" (4:02)
7. "Nature's Dance" (2:28)
    ACT III: 'Visual Echoes'
8. "Computer-Reign (Game Over)" (3:25)
9. "Waracle" (6:44)
10. "Listen to the Waves" (4:59)
11. "Magic Ride" (3:36)
     ACT IV: 'Merlin's Will and Ayreon's Fate'
12. "Merlin's Will" (3:20)
13. "The Charm of the Seer" (4:12)
14. "Swan Song"--instrumental (2:44)
15. "Ayreon's Fate" (6:56)
    • Ayreon's Fate
    • Merlin's Prophecy
    • Epilogue

A concept album, based on some guy named...well, Ayreon. :) More power-metalish than future releases, but still damn progressive. Tons of guest vocalists, but the only two I've heard of before are Barry Hay (Golden Earring) and Lenny Wolf (Stone Fury, Kingdom Come) -- oh yeah, there's also Ian Parry, but I keep forgetting what band he sings for. Very impressive debut, yet the best days were still to come...

"Actual Fantasy"

1. "Actual Fantasy" (1:35)
2. "Abbey of Synn" (9:34)
3. "The Stranger from Within" (7:36)
4. "Computer Eyes" (7:31)
5. "Beyond the Last Horizon" (7:34)
6. "Far Side of the World" (6:21)
7. "Back on Planet Earth" (7:01)
8. "Forevermore" (6:10)

This is the original sophomore release which includes a CD-Rom portion, with a movie file of the animated "Stranger from Within" video. The reissue contains bonus tracks, but I saw a RealPlayer version of this video on the Ayreon homepage, and let me tell you, this is A BIG EXCEPTION to my normal anti-ECD stance!! Todd McFarlane *wishes* he could make a video this cool...oh yeah, should mention again how good my karma's been lately, I was despairing at ever finding this version until I ran across a copy at SG's Rare & Import CD list. Can you believe my LUCK??

The music is heavily computerized, with only vocals & guitar being non-synthesized. Unlike all other Ayreon works, this isn't a concept album at all (and features practically zero guest artists); but all the songs do revolve around the main theme of "Fantasy" (Arjen has described the album title itself as "the opposite of virtual reality.") Most of the songs were inspired by popular fictional works: "Abbey of Synn" is sort of based on The Name of the Rose, and "Forevermore" is derived from that sappy kid's movie The Neverending Story.

"Into the Electric Castle: A Space Opera"

A concept album...or "space opera", if you like. Talk about ambitious! The story features eight different characters, each represented by a different lead singer...and one of them is Fish! Yes, FISH!!! Unfortunately his character gets killed off pretty quick, so you only hear his voice on tracks 2, 5 & 6. The other singers are from various modern prog-rock bands so obscure I don't think even THEY have heard of themselves! (Although the Egyptian Girl is performed by the lead singer of The Gathering.) Don't take that as a put-down on the music, however. This album might just be the BEST DAMN PROGRESSIVE ALBUM released since "The Wall"!! CERTAINLY since "Awake".... All sorts of musical influences can be heard here: Pink Floyd, Dream Theater, Jethro Tull (AWESOME flute solo jam at the end of "Amazing Flight"), Queen, Marillion, Uriah Heep...I could go on forever. Just buy the thing. You won't regret it.

"Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer"

1. "The Dream Sequencer" (5:08)
2. "My House on Mars" (7:49)
3. "2084" (7:42)
4. "One Small Step" (8:46)
5. "The Shooting Company of Captain Frans B. Coco" (7:57)
6. "Dragon on the Sea" (7:09)
7. "Temple of the Cat" (4:11)
8. "Carried by the Wind" (3:59)
9. "And the Druids Turn to Stone" (6:36)
10. "The First Man on Earth" (7:19)
11. "The Dream Sequencer Reprise"--instrumental (3:36)

In the grand tradition started by Guns'N'Roses and Bruce Springsteen, Ayreon delighted its fans by releasing TWO albums simultaneously in the summer of 2000. (And no need to bitch about how it costing extra money over a 2-CD release, not when you can get both from The End Records for $10 apiece, TAX AND SHIPPING INCLUDED!!!) Each one is a concept album (surprise, surprise) about some time-travelling device called "The Dream Sequencer", although the themes -- and type of music -- differ significantly.

Part I is the "prog" album. Quite slow & atmospheric, and VERY Pink Floyd-ish (even ripping off parts of "Welcome to the Machine" and a song from The Wall that I can't pin down...) Kind of a snoozer, but a good listen if you're in the right mood. As always, guest vocalists abound, all from such obscure bands as Tiamat, Elegy, Arena, Threshold, etc. Neil Morse of Spock's Beard/Transatlantic provides the most beautiful vocal on "The First Man on Earth", and "Ayreon" from The Final Experiment even makes a guest appearance on "Carried by the Wind".

"Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator"

1. "Chaos" (5:10)
2. "Dawn of a Million Souls" (7:45)
3. "Journey on the Waves of Time" (5:47)
4. "To the Quasar" (8:42)
   • a) The Taurus Pulsar
   • b) Quasar 3C273
5. "Into the Black Hole" (10:25)
   • a) The Eye of the Universe
   • b) Halo of Darkness
   • c) The Final Door
6. "Through the Wormhole" (6:05)
7. "Out of the White Hole" (7:11)
   • a) M31
   • b) Planet Y
   • c) The Search Continues
8. "To the Solar System" (6:11)
   • a) Planet of Blue
   • b) System Alert
9. "The New Migrator" (8:15)
   • a) Metamorphosis
   • b) Sleeper Awake

Part II is the "heavy" album. And boy do I mean HEAVY. Simply put, Ayreon has NEVER been this balls-out before! "Chaos" opens with a wicked blast of speedy neoclassical metal, launching straight into "Dawn of a Million Souls" with its spine-chilling keyboard riff. "Quasar 3C273" contains one of the most AWESOME guitar hooks I've ever heard -- same could be said for "Through the Wormhole", "To the Solar System" and "Sleeper Awake". The guest voices here are a lot more recognizeable, which include Bruce Dickinson, Ralf Sheepers (Gamma Ray, Primal Fear), Andi Deris (Helloween), and the singers from Symphony X and Stratovarius. The progressive wankiness is quite toned down, so even the most hard-liner power metal fans have expressed great praise for this disc. Hey, what are you doing still reading this review? BUY THIS RIGHT FUCKING NOW!!!!

"Ayreonauts Only"

1. "Into the Black Hole"--vocals: Damian Wilson, Lana Lane (10:46)
2. "Out of the White Hole"--vocals: Robert Soeterboek (7:12)
3. "Through the Wormhole"--vocals: Ian Parry (6:14)
4. "Carpe Diem (Chaos)"--instrumental, 1992 demo (4:15)
5. "Temple of the Cat"--acoustic version; vocals: Astrid van der Veen (3:07)
6. "Original Hippie's Amazing Trip" (6:38)
7. "Beyond the Last Horizon"--new recording (5:34)
8. "The Charm of the Seer"--demo (3:30)
9. "Eyes of Time"--vocals: Leon Goewie (5:10)
10. "Nature's Dance"--demo (2:33)
11. "Cold Metal"--"Ambeon" preview (7:10)

There's a reason this disc is called "Ayreonauts Only", as only the most hardcore fan would be remotely interested in this collection of demos and alternate recordings. Now, I may be a big Ayreon fan, but...puh-leeze. Most of the tracks here are musically identical to the "official" versions, except they feature different singers who weren't good enough to appear on the original recordings. ("Eyes of Time" is particularly bad.) The sole exceptions are a brand new, guitar-based recording of "Beyond the Last Horizon", and an early, raw & punishing demo of "Chaos". "Original Hippie's Trip" features a medley of song clips from Into the Electric Castle with some loser named "Mouse" who I assume was originally planned to play the "Hippie" on that record. Annoying, to say the least, and believe me, Arjen did a much better job!

Which brings us to "Cold Metal", the only totally new song here, a "preview" of Arjen's side project Ambeon, which features a 14-year-old female vocalist. Not a bad singer, but the song is irritating as hell, featuring heavy power chords in the verses but inexplicably switches to Gathering-style hip-hop in the chorus. It's rare that I'm listening to a song and thinking, "Oh my, this rocks! Oh God, this sucks! Oh my, this rocks! Oh God, this sucks!!"

In fact, originally I decided not to buy this CD at all, and just burn all the downloaded mp3s to CDR...especially since it's a fairly expensive import. Well, about a year later, the inevitable twangs of guilt set in (fuck me and my moral conscience!), and when I saw the Arjen/Lana/Erik show (as mentioned above), there was a Century Media lady there selling ALL the Ayreon CDs for $15 apiece, so I caved in and bought one. Hey, it's only money...and it seems like I'm turning into a true-blooded "Ayreonaut" anyway, so might as well go along with the crowd. :)

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