Ayreon

Ayreon and Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group will reissue Ayreon’s Universal Migrator Pt 1 & 2 (2022 Remixed and Remastered) on 18th November.

Electric Castle Live and Other Tales is a live album and DVD/Blu-ray by Arjen Anthony Lucassen's progressive rock/metal rock opera project Ayreon, that was released on March 27, 2020. It is a live version of the 1998 studio album Into the Electric Castle, performed as an actual rock opera, complete with mise-en-scène; it is a recording of one of four live performances between September 13 and 15, 2019 in Tilburg, to celebrate the original album's 20th anniversary in a way similar to The Theater Equation, with songs from other Lucassen projects performed once the songs from the albums were all performed…

The concept is as bombastic as ever and its tropes are properly secured, though the emphasis on the project’s heavier side may make this album a highlight for fans of Star One and Stream of Passion…

CD/DVD‘Transitus’ is the new studio album of Ayreon. It builds around an entirely new story, not connected to the Ayreon universe although as always it does have some subtle links. The sci-fi theme makes way for a gothic ghost story set (partly) in the 19th century with elements of horror and the supernatural. It’s on a dark thunderous night where our story of Abby and Daniel begins.

Ayreon is the vision of Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen. He formed Ayreon around 1994 from the need to create rock operas. His music can be broadly categorised as progressive metal but with themes that range from electronica to folk, symphonic prog and space rock. Lyrically, the stories tend to evolve around fantasy, sci-fi or human emotion. The rock operas tend to involve a series of characters, often represented by a different vocalist and a plethora of session musicians, although Lucassen tends to cover the majority of instruments…

For the 20th anniversary, Arjen Lucassen remixed the audio to 21st century standards. He made it clear that it's a 'remix', not a 'remaster', saying "Remastering takes 2 hours, this remix took me 2 months!".
Into the Electric Castle is an epic prog rock opera from Dutch guitarist Arjen Lucassen. The sci-fi story centers around eight strangers brought together into a dimension of no space and no time. The characters in the story are played by varying lead singers, including former Marillion frontman Fish. The supporting cast is a who's who of proggers, which translates into superb musicianship. The story is standard sci-fi fare, but winds up being quite effective with the accompanying score. The massive coordination of such a large project is admirable, but to pull it off with such impressive results is stunning…

Ayreon's second full length output is a quite unique piece of music from this project. For the first and last time, the Dutch mastermind Arjen Lucassen decided to not invite a high number of guest musicians but did something like a solo project where he played all instruments and invited one main singer as well as one supplementary vocalist. The project feels more like a band in here and this album sounds quite homogenous. The the individual songs are based on fantasy and sci-fi movies, or on stories Arjen wrote himself. It's also the project's shortest full length release and gets quickly to the point.

Ayreonauts Only is the first compilation album by Dutch progressive metal/rock project Ayreon by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, released in 2000. Although categorized as a compilation album, it consists only of previously unreleased material, with alternate versions of Ayreon songs with different singers, demos, and of the song "Cold Metal" from Lucassen's then-upcoming project Ambeon. The album's name comes from the fact that, according to Lucassen, it is "intended primarily for die-hard Ayreon fans".

Ayreon will be releasing a brand-new sprawling and epic studio album ‘Transitus,’ on 25th September via Music Theories Recordings. From the mastermind of Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen, 'Transitus' is inspired by supernatural movies such as The Others, The Changeling and Ghost along with the music of soundtrack composers John Carpenter (Halloween), Ennio Morricone (Once upon a Time in the West) and Jerry Goldsmith (Omen). 'Transitus' is narrated by one of the most iconic and recognizable voices in sci-fi history, most known from his eight-year stint as Doctor Who, Tom Baker. As with any Ayreon album, it is an explosive and expansive affair and features Tommy Karevik (Kamelot) as Daniel and Cammie Gilbert (Oceans of Slumber) as Abby. The all-star cast also features Simone Simons (Epica), Dee Snider (Twisted Sister), Joe Satriani, Marty Friedman, Johanne James (Threshold), Noa Gruman (Scardust), Marcela Bovio (MaYan), Caroline Westendorp (The Charm The Fury), Paul Manzi (Arena), Micheal Mills (Toehider) and Amanda Somerville (Avantasia, Trillium) amongst many others.