Into the Electric Castle
Die Ultieme Rock Page
1998
Prologue
Eight characters from different eras in time (Egyptian, Roman, Knight, Highlander, Indian, Barbarian, Hippie and Futureman) suddenly find themselves in another dimension. A place without space or time. A voice welcomes them: "You are eight souls from different eras in time. Where I lead, you will follow. The triviality of your lives means nothing to me.... some of you may die. You have a task: to release yourselves from this place of wisdom, this labyrinth of dreams, you must find the portal to the Electric Castle."
So far about the plot of the new progressive rock/progressive metal opera from the Mastermind Arjen Anthony Lucassen, who amazingly still resides in the land of musical shadows. What follows are almost 110 minutes of purest Progrock/metal with musical grace (BTW the price of the CD... excellent!). The line-up of the eight characters alone is able to send shivers down your spine, because names like Fish, Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering), Damian Wilson (Threshold) and Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation) guarantee strong expression and brilliance; of course Lucassen has a share in it too playing the role of hippie.
The album
Isis and Osiris: Slighty folkish acoustic guitars in the style of Fish's first solo releases make the highlander, Indian, knight and roman find themselves in a new dimension. Already here it becomes clear, that their stay here can only end by reflecting upon their inner selves. At first these souls are doubting their new environment, recognize life after death for a while (knight: the gates of Avalon, Egyptian: the great hall of Isis and Osiris) until the Roman ("you're wrong, we're trapped in darkness among departed souls and mislaid spirits") describes their situation accurately, taking away their illusions. A catchy song with mellow to heavy progrock, that describes every mood in the song (uncertainty, thoughts of salvation as well as despair).
In a bluesrocky representation the Barbarian shows up and decides carelessly to fight the Unknown, in which he thinks he is. With an eternal smile and the stars in his eyes the hippie tries to calm down the barbarian ("hey dude you're so uncool ... we're on an amazing flight in space"). The hippie appears in his best John Lennon way (multiple spacy vocal tracks) and is in this track always accompanied by the 70's-Keyboards/Hammond organ. Finally the wondering singing of the indian starts (hymnically calm and joined by keyboards/synthesizer), right before the Flying Colours are depicted by an excellent rock music, that must appeal to every Jethro Tull fan and every progrocker on cloud 7.(Amazing flight).
Even the Futureman, who thinks of himself as educated and all-knowing, and used to sub water- and lunar settlements, finds himself helpless in a world between space and time (mellow progrocksong somewhere between Parsons, Simon & Garfunkel and Neoprog).
At the Decision tree the voice (by Peter Daltrey) returns: "Only seven of you may continue.... you should decide". In a dramatic Progrock/Progmetal song the Barbarian ("I won't be the one to die here - I was born to go down fighting") and Highlander clash. In the chorus all characters represent their unity ("We're alive, we'll survive) - but the Highlander seems to give up ("I'm nobody's slave").
At the Tunnel of light the Highlander realizes, during hopeful singing from knight, roman, Indian, Futureman and Egyptian, that he has spent a large portion of his life in darkness and isolation. A life in light and hope undoes his life.... the soul of the highlander dies. A hymnical track, dominated by acoustic guitar, with an elegy-like hopeful chorus (mainly carried by Anneke's voice).
The seven remaining characters arrive at the Rainbow Bridge, which is made from tears.... will it hold the seven searchers? Knight and Roman dream about the other side of the rainbow and urge the others to cross. A straightforward melodic heavy rock song with class!
The next hurdle: The Garden Of Emotions. With a wavering and distant voice (and guitar) the hippie concludes, that he - in his "world of fantasy" is protected from the emotional impressions unleashed upon him. On the other side, the clear voice of the Egyptian, singing to her god Amon Ra, seems almost elysian. The philosophical, calm mood of the song is suddenly gone, when Voices in the Sky threaten the searchers. Roman and barbarian take on the role of defenders and manage to overcome the danger. Hammering progmetal with progrock keyboards, especially during the beautiful chorus of the Indian ("voices in the sky shall cause the soul to die"). Last part of the track: While the Futureman imagines himself inside the heart of a cold, computer-controlled machine, the Indian feels "fury and fear, destiny's near, spirits appear, the legend is here". Progpowermetal of an extraordinary class.
In the Valley of the queens the Egyptian feels her will is broken, her search is ended, her name carved in the stone of Osiris's temple. Acoustic guitar, flute, cello and Anneke's tragically beautiful voice (like we have already learned to love it on Mandylion) depict the resignation and death in her soul.
Arriving at The Electric Castle, the barbarian and knight are confronted with the souls of those, which they have killed before ("shades of the dead are sliding on the wall, demons dance in the castle hall"). One of the most gripping and most spooky songs of the album... varying from spooky to grungy load to hymnical, like a proggy Bohemian Rhapsody.
The Tower of Hope. From there you can see the strands of the future. Delicious electronic and proggy hymnical metal describes the self-reflection of the hippie, who tends to block out reality ("I only felt what I wanted to feel"), and the scientific futureman ("I only saw what I wanted to see"), while the party climbs the seemingly endless stairs of the Tower of Hope.
Arrived in the tower, the Indian is tempted by the sight of souls, ghosts and mortals drifting towards the sun, and she immediately feels attracted to the sun ("I'm drawn towards the sun, and then we will be one, my soul will melt into the universe"). This part of the song is mellow rock, reminding of Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" in a way. Only the Futureman and roman are able to deal with the sight as if it were an illusion ("It's all a lie, you will just die, so don't give in, for we can win"), expressed very clearly in the ominous E-guitar riffs. The following part is most certainly the most superb thing in the direction of Black Metal that ever reached my ears. Robert Westerholt und George Oosthoek (singing in turns) play the role of Death with typical black metal-grunts ("I am the breeze, the bringer of rest and ease, I am the storm, I blow the devil's horn, I am your fate, the guardian at the gate") that take the Indian to her death. Even those, who never knew how to deal with black-metal vocals, will be caught in the gripping way that the creeping death, with background choirs of male and female singers, is expressed. This part is followed by a superb melodic instrumental part (great keyboards and drums) that turns into the 'death' -riffing once more.
Confronted with their inner selves the remaining five find themselves in the Mirror Maze. With mellotron, flute and Lennon-like melodies the hippie sees himself as a man, who has closed his eyes to his family home and to reality ("he's aware that no one cares, so he takes a trip into eternity"). The Futureman realizes that long forgotten threats and fears have to be faced in here (acoustic guitar, warm multi-vocals and mellotron). After 3.5 minutes of the track the roman realizes he was never able to withstand his inner fears and that he is close to surrendering to the surrounding labyrinth of mirrors. Only the knight ("within this armor cold and bright lies a noble heart with the will to fight the pain") has found the will to break out of the labyrinth ("break though the mirror now").
A new obstacle: a door... the "future". Only one of the searchers survived the modern world: the Futureman. Only he can open the door, but only if he is able to see the truth of the technological, modern world. In the song Human devolution, that offers everything from gothic progrock to melodic progpowermetal (i.e. like Athena), the Futureman recognizes the rape of nature and her laws ("Have we become the victims of our science ? Will we abandon all our earthly treasures?").
A must for Deep Purple and Pink Floyd fans is the track The Two Gates. After the Futureman has opened the door to the future, the remaining souls are facing the two nuclear portals of the Electric Castle. One of the gates ends the quest, the other leads to death. The barbarian steps forward and decides not to choose the old and ugly portal, but the portal shining with gold, behind which he imagine Valhalla... and dies. His brave death shows the others the way to the exit. Escaped from their prison, the brave knight steps forward and asks the voice about the sense behind this experiment ("We don't understand ... did we pass or did we fail?").
Forever" of the stars: The voice identifies itself as "Forever". I shouldn't tell you more about this right now.
During the rocky final track Another Time, Another Space the remaining characters (Hippie, Futureman, Roman and Knight) find themselves back in their own dimension and they are dealing with their impressions. The album ends with the words "Remember ... forever".
Summary
10 points. The new progrock opera of mastermind Arjen Anthony Lucassen features a great line-up (8 great vocalists, among them: Fish, Anneke van Giersbergen of The Gathering, Damian Wilson of Threshold, Sharon den Adel of Within Temptation), a superb story (the souls of 8 characters out of different ages find themselves in a new dimension where they have to cope with their fears, their hopes and their inner self in order to get free again) and 107 minutes of finest progrock that will satisfy all people that love progrock or progmetal. This album gives you progressive rock (all songs), it gives you Deep Purple (about 2 songs), it gives you John Lennon (2 songs), it gives you a slight touch of blues (one song), it gives you some early The Gathering (2 songs), it gives you 2-minutes black metal vocals (as Death beckons the female Indian which is beautifully sang by Sharon den Adel), it gives you Pink Floyd (one song), it gives you spooky atmosphere (1 song), it gives you headbanging action ... this double CD (costs the price of one) has to be in every shelf which contains good rock music. Take the time and read the lyrics…let this album surround you like one of the best books you've ever read!