For the first time, Arjen Anthony Luccassen produces a 100% good album. Both previous albums from Ayreon were good but sometimes inconsistent. For Into the Electric Castle Luccassen decide to go with a space opera (very ambitious)! If you listened "the final experiment", you won't be lost because the structure of the album is the same, without the medieval inspiration. The first CD begins with a strange voice "the voice" who introduce the concept of the album and then, 8 characters representing different era of time are introduce into a strange electric castle. These characters are Highlander (fish), The Indian, the hippie, the Egyptian, the barbarian, the roman, the Futureman and the Knight. Musically, Ayreon style is more "natural". The sound of he previous album, Actual fantasy, was like a module outpouring sounds. For into the electric castle all instrument are real and sound very good. There are some flute and acoustic guitar, mellotron, big keyboards, big guitar, big drum! It's a real progressive album and it's a good one. For those of you who like comparison, Ayreon is a mix between Arena, Dream Theater and gentle giant (for 2 or 3 tracks (voice orchestration)). A must have!
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