Ayreonauts Only
Embers - Online Metal Magazine
2000
Five years ago a little known Dutch guitarist named Arjen Lucassen surprised friend and foe, unleashing the first Ayreon CD unto the world. Despite not having the backing of any record company, the CD made 'CD of the month' in most Dutch metal magazines, a status that, amazingly, all his subsequent albums also attained. Previously A. Lucassen had only ever been prominent as the guitarist of Vengeance, one of the premier metal bands of the Netherlands, but known abroad apparently only to Manowar (who occasionally play a Vengeance song in tribute when in the Netherlands). They split up years ago, frustrated mainly by lack of corporate backing and therefore an international breakthrough. This background led A. Lucassen to release all his albums independently, with the distribution in the hands of a small company. Although this has given him the necessary full creative control over his music, and despite remarkable success in what was considered to be a dying niche, the chances are that very few readers will have ever heard of Ayreon.
So what is Ayreon? At one level it is essentially a vast solo project by this remarkably multitalented guitarist, but more importantly, it is basically the product of the only true composer to have emerged from the metal community. Yngwie Malmsteen may regularly produce concertos for orchestras, but in the end it is always just to provide a background for his own virtuosity.
The first album, "The Final Experiment", already had a contributors list that read like a 'who is who' of the Dutch metal and sympho scene, featuring contributions from folk flutists, right the way through to drums and the occasional vocals from Gorefest members, at that time considered the most important Dutch death group. The sound of Ayreon is definitely at the softer end of the music spectrum covered by Embers, falling somewhere between traditional hard rock and sympho rock. But to leave it at that would not do justice to it. The atmospherics are second to none. The only album that one could compare "The Final Experiment" to, in that regard, would be Bathory's "Blood on Ice". Imagine a "Blood on Ice" with not one but about seven good singers (with all respect, Quorthon may be a lot of great things, a great singer he is not), and a whole host of other musicians. Then replace the Viking mythology with an Arthurian one, and you start to get the picture. Subsequent albums had more science fiction oriented themes, but combined the same high standards with an ever-growing circle of musical contributors from all over Europe.
So now, the better part of a year after the last full albums ("The Flight of the Migrator" and "The Dream Sequencer" were released simultaneously), Arjen has come up with something different for his fans- a sort of rarities collection. "Ayreonauts Only" has 11 tracks, 7 being new versions of existing songs (mainly featuring different vocals), 2 demos from the Ayreon period (showing that Arjen is capable of doing absolutely everything, even the vocals, competently himself), one demo from a band he tried to get started in the early nineties that never got a deal, but that was recycled on "Flight of the Migrator", and finally a preview track from his new band attempting a more ambient approach than his more intense Ayreon work, almost predictably called Ambeon.
The list of contributors is once again telling of the respect Arjen has earned from his peers. Notable names include Damian Wilson, Lana Lane, Robert Soeterboek (also formerly of Vengeance), Ian Parry, Bruce Dickinson, Mouse, Anneke v. Giesbergen (of The Gathering), Leon Goewie and, probably most remarkable of all, Gary Hughes (of the teen heartthrob band Ten!). As well as all of these respected names, Arjen presents his latest discovery, the 14-year-old singer Astrid van der Veen, a girl with an incredibly angelic voice, whom he met after a friend of hers sent him a demo tape. He immediately invited her to do the vocals on a new version of "Temple of the Cat", one of the central songs of the Dream Sequencer. As one listens to the song, it is clear why Arjen immediately asked Astrid to join Ambeon as its lead female vocalist. This is a very young female with a very bright potential future ahead of her.
All in all one cannot judge this CD as one can a full album. It is by no means a 'best of', but neither is its appeal purely limited to the die-hard fan. The three demos aside, all the songs are up to the usual Ayreon quality (even the demos compare favorably to most other music I can think of), they do present a varied view of what Ayreon stands for, and as there is no 'best of' album yet, "Ayreonauts Only" could be a good introduction to Ayreon for people who don't immediately want to buy all the albums. I have a better idea though: go to your good local (or not so local if you live in barren country) music store and listen to any Ayreon album. If you enjoy it, which, unless you are a total fan of True black metal and think that any form of production or refinement is for infidel Christian dogs, and so should be raped, slaughtered and burnt (not necessarily in that order), I believe you will do, buy every Ayreon CD they have.
You will not be disappointed.
No Mark, but think high.