The Final Experiment
Aardschok Magazine
October 1995
Wow, this is good! More than two years it took former Vengeance guitar player (will he ever get rid of this label?) Arjen Lucassen to complete this rock opera. Details about the 'story' and other interesting things you can find elsewhere in this
issue, here I'll only talk about the music....which is great. Never before has someone in the Netherlands undertaken such ambitious project AND come up with something phenomenal. Lucassen has been assisted by vocalists such as Edward Reekers (Kayak), Lenny Wolf (Kingdom Come), Barry Hay (Golden Earring) and 'of all people' Jan-Chris de Koeijer (Gorefest). This has resulted in a beautiful album loaded with variation and gripping your attention for 70 minutes.
Both during the beautiful instrumental intermezzos and during the vocal parts you should keep the booklet at hand when listening to this album, especially the first time, if only to keep track of the story. Remarkable roles are played by Edward Reekers on the beautiful ballad 'Dreamtime', Lenny Wolf on the Zeppelin-like 'Eyes of Time', Barry Hay (with flute) on the first single 'Sail away to Avalon' and an impressive Jan-Chris de Koeijer on 'Oblivion'. Even Lucassen does some singing on the Simon and Garfunkel-like 'Nature's dance' (including singing birds on the background). Add to this the contribution from (among others) Robert Soeterboek, Leon Goewie (in 'super shape' on 'Merlin's will') and Ian Parry, listen to the apotheosis during 'Merlin's prophecy', and you know that this is another great Dutch album. Rating: 95/100.