Ayreon

Ayreon is the project of one man, the Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen. After being a guitarist in the Bodine bands and then Vengeance in the 1980s, he embarked on a solo career and released a first album under the pseudonym Anthony. His second album, in 1995, marked the beginning of Ayreon . Indeed, the object originally comes out under the name of Arjen Lucassen and has the title Ayreon: The Final Experiment (Ayreon being the name of a character). The Dutchman will then retain the name Ayreon , and will even release a reissue of this album with this new name. From this first effort, Arjen Lucassen poses the codes that will systematically be found in Ayreon's music throughout his career: an album-concept between opera-metal and rock-progressive, with folk elements, and many guests, especially behind the microphone. Actual Fantasy released in 1996 and will be the only album without a narrative frame from end to end. Each song nevertheless tells a small individual fantastic story. The next album, Into the Electric Castle , is the first to be a double album. All the next ones will be. Arjen Lucassen reconnects with the concept album and will no longer deviate from it, and this time proposes an epic quest led by eight vocalists, who perform the eight main characters. In 2000, the double album Universal Migrator was released, first separated into two discs sold separately and then republished as a double album in 2004. The main styles that illustrate Ayreon's music are separated: the first album (The Dream Sequencer ) is more aerial and oriented Rock-Progressive, when the second (Flight Of The Migrator ) is much more Heavy. The guests are becoming more and more prestigious as the releases go on, and this fourth album features, among other things, Bruce Dickinson ( Iron Maiden ), Floor Jansen (ex After Forever , Nightwish ), Timo Kotipelto ( Stratovarius ), Fabio Lione ( Rhapsody ), Gary Wehrkamp ( Shadow Gallery )... The same year, released Ayreonauts Only , an album produced for fans, which contains demos and alternative versions of titles already released. The key album of Ayreon's career was released in 2004. While Arjen Lucassen performs guitars, bass and keyboards as usual, nine musicians and eleven singers complete the casting of The Human Equation, including Devin Townsend , James LaBrie (Dream Theater ) and Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth ). Always oriented towards a sound marrying the Epic Progressive Metal with Folk influences, however, the background evolves towards a scenario more anchored in the real. Convinced by Marcela Bovio's performance on this album, Lucassen created Stream Of Passion to extend her collaboration with her. 01011001 is carried by the participations of Hansi Kursch ( Blind Guardian ), Jonas Renske ( Katatonia ), Anneke van Giersbergen (ex- The Gathering , Agua De Annique ), Steve Lee ( Gotthard ), and many others for a total of eleven vocalists. The album gives an original vision of the origins of humanity, while succeeding in connecting all previous albums-concepts, which marks a sort of result for Ayreon. This follows the publication of a best-of entitled Timeline , spread over 3 discs. Lucassen then decided to pause Ayreon. As Dutch is involved with other projects, he remains active from 2008 to 2012 with an album by Guilt Machine (Rock Progressive), a Star One (Heavy Metal Progressive and Space), and a solo album. Ayreon returned in 2013 with a new album, The Theory Of Everything , which like The Human Equation , offers a theme further away from the SF to be interested in the human mind. The Source (2017) reconnects with fantastic themes.
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