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Into the Electric Castle | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | October 31, 1998 | |||
Studio | The Electric Castle Studio | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 104:47 | |||
Label | ||||
Producer | Arjen Lucassen | |||
Ayreon chronology | ||||
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Arjen Anthony Lucassen chronology | ||||
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Into the Electric Castle (also known as Into the Electric Castle – A Space Opera) is the third album of the progressive metal project Ayreon by Dutch songwriter, producer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen, released in 1998.
Being a concept album as is every Ayreon album, it tells a science fiction story with exaggerated, flamboyant characters influenced by B-grade science fiction movies. There are eight main characters (each one sung/played by a different vocalist, as is standard in every Ayreon album) from different times and locations. They find themselves in a strange place; guided by a mysterious voice which tells them that they must reach 'the Electric Castle' if they want to survive. Into the Electric Castle is also the first collaboration between Lucassen and Ed Warby, who has since become Lucassen's most regular collaborator: he played drums on every following Ayreon album except Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer, and in Star One.
The album was a commercial success and received overwhelmingly positive reviews from music critics.[1] Five songs from Into the Electric Castle were included in Star One's live album Live on Earth and two in Stream of Passion album Live in the Real World.
Background[edit]
After the previous Ayreon album, Actual Fantasy, sold below expectations, Arjen sought to deliver a top-quality recording with Into the Electric Castle. If the album had not been a success, Lucassen said he would have no longer continued the Ayreon project. It also remains his highest selling album to date, with The Human Equation being a close second.[2]
Plot[edit]
The story begins with a strange voice (Peter Daltrey) calling out to the eight characters that are taken from various planes of time. The mysterious voice tells them they are in a place of 'no-time and no-space'. Urging them to continue, the voice gives them a task: to reach The Electric Castle and find out what's inside.
After various steps, they come to the Decision Tree where the voice tells them one of them must die. They must then go through the Tunnel of Light, but the Highlander (Fish) refuses to reach the light, stays behind, accepts his death slowly, and lays himself down to die while the others continue. Then in the Garden of Emotions, the Egyptian (Anneke van Giersbergen), overwhelmed by her emotions, becomes convinced that Amon-Ra is coming to seal her fate.[3] She loses her will to continue and wanders alone until she lays herself down and dies as well.[4]
The surviving characters finally reach the Electric Castle, penetrating the Castle Hall. On the Tower of Hope a breeze draws the attention of the Indian (Sharon den Adel), luring her away towards the sun despite the warning of the Knight (Damian Wilson) and the Futureman (Edward Reekers). On the breeze, she encounters Death itself (George Oosthoek and Robert Westerholt) who takes her while she screams.
The characters then come to their final test: the voice tells them that beyond them stands two gates, with one of them leading to oblivion and the second to the desired time of the heroes. One of the gates is old, deteriorated, and ugly, and the other made of gold and appears at first glance to be paradise. The Barbarian (Jay van Feggelen), in his arrogance and pride, walks through the golden gate in spite of his companion's choice, and falls into oblivion forever.
Finally, the Knight, the Roman (Edwin Balogh), the Hippie (Arjen Anthony Lucassen) and the Futureman, who had chosen the right gate, discover the true nature of the voice: it is called 'Forever of the Stars', and claims that its kind is an alien race who lost all emotions. It also claims its kind caused the emergence of humanity on Earth, and that the eight heroes were in an experiment in understanding and/or rediscovering emotions. Feeling tired, the voice tells them to go on ahead and open the door, and that they won't remember what has happened.
Back in their real time, the heroes all wonder what had happened, with the Hippie asking himself if this journey was the result of his drug abuse, the Futureman wondering if his memory has been erased, the Roman feeling stronger and the Knight thinking he found the Grail in a magic dream. The voice of the Forever of the Stars is then heard, asking them all to remember Forever.
Reception[edit]
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [5] |
Blistering | 8/10[6] |
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 8/10[7] |
Sputnikmusic | [8] |
Into the Electric Castle received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, who praised Lucassen's writing and composition abilities and the performances of the singers. Sputnikmusic reviewer stated 'if you’re a fan of progressive metal, or even progressive music in general, your collection will not be complete without Into the Electric Castle'.[8]AllMusic reviewer Robert Taylor praised the album, saying that 'The massive coordination of such a large project is admirable, but to pull it off with such impressive results is stunning.'[5]
Track listing[edit]
All tracks are written by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, with singers Peter Daltrey, Jay van Feggelen, Fish, and Anneke van Giersbergen writing some lyrics for their respective characters.
Disc 1 | ||
---|---|---|
No. | Title | Length |
1. | 'Welcome to the New Dimension' | 3:05 |
2. | 'Isis and Osiris'
| 11:11 |
3. | 'Amazing Flight' | 10:15 |
4. | 'Time Beyond Time' | 6:05 |
5. | 'The Decision Tree (We're Alive)' | 6:24 |
6. | 'Tunnel of Light' | 4:05 |
7. | 'Across the Rainbow Bridge' | 6:20 |
Disc 2 | ||
---|---|---|
No. | Title | Length |
1. | 'The Garden of Emotions'
| 9:40 |
2. | 'Valley of the Queens' | 2:25 |
3. | 'The Castle Hall' | 5:49 |
4. | 'Tower of Hope' | 4:54 |
5. | 'Cosmic Fusion' | 7:27 |
6. | 'The Mirror Maze' | 6:34 |
7. | 'Evil Devolution' | 6:31 |
8. | 'The Two Gates' | 6:28 |
9. | 'Forever' of the Stars' | 2:02 |
10. | 'Another Time, Another Space' | 5:20 |
Personnel[edit]
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References and footnotes[edit]
- ^Ayreon album reviewsArchived January 17, 2013, at Archive.today
- ^Lucassen, Arjen Anthony (2004). 'A Trip into Eternity'. Into the Electric Castle (booklet). Ayreon. Inside Out Music. pp. 2–3.
- ^''The Garden of Emotions' lyrics'. Metrolyrics. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ^''Valley of the Queens' lyrics'. lyricsdespot. Retrieved September 11, 2012.
- ^ abTaylor, Robert. 'Into the Electric Castle Review'. AllMusic. Retrieved June 18, 2011.
- ^Gehlke, David E. 'Ayreon – Into the Electric Castle – A Space Opera Special Edition'. Blistering. Archived from the original on August 8, 2016. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
- ^Popoff, Martin (August 1, 2007). The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 3: The Nineties. Burlington, Ontario, Canada: Collector's Guide Publishing. ISBN978-1-894959-62-9.
- ^ abGerhart, Thompson D. (December 15, 2008). 'Ayreon - Into the Electric Castle'. Sputnikmusic. Retrieved July 26, 2016.
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Into_the_Electric_Castle&oldid=923201580'
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. It's also the project's shortest full length release and gets quickly to the point. Everything sounds coherent and seems promising. To keep it short, the new project's project happens to be a band project. That's a pretty original statement, isn't it?
But the final result is by far not as brilliant as it could have been. The songs are all very long and surpass all the six minute mark apart of the short introduction. I feel that some of the tracks are artificially stretched and are not varied enough to justify such a length. That wouldn't be much of a problem if the songs had at least a great atmosphere, a gripping passage and some catchy elements but that's just not the case. The songs are mostly calm and slow paced and copy the progressive rock acts of the seventies without reaching the subtle intensity of calmer bands such as King Crimson, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream or Gentle Giant. 'Abbey Of Synn' for example could have been a solid opener if it would have been about five minutes long as everything is already said at this mark. The album closer 'Forevermore' has the same problem and instead of finishing the record on a great note, the grand finale turns out to be a quite pointless and mellow stumbling towards the end of the line. The single 'The Stranger From Within' shares the same fate. The shortened single version sounded like a tribute to the commercial progressive music of the late seventies and early eighties in the key of Yes and was rather catchy but the album version is twice as long and offers not much more than the short version. Progressive fans might find some interesting musical details from time to time but especially the metal fan section of Ayreon will quickly be turned off by the numerous unnecessary lengths. Let's also add the revisited edition of the album doesn't add anything appealing and actually sounds less coherent than the original release.
There are still a few highlights that keep the record away from sinking into boring mediocrity. The rather modern and catchy 'Computer Eyes' is a good effort, the diversified 'Beyond The Last Horizon' unites progressive passages, some thrown in metal riffs and catchy hooks and offers everything Ayreon usually stands for and 'Back On Planet Earth' has an interesting story, atmosphere and some refreshing heavy passages. The latter is easily the best and most dynamic track on the record and stands out.
In the end, this release has been an interesting experiment from Ayreon and offers something we haven't heard before and afterwards from him. The project sounds like a band in here and offers a rather short and homogenous record. The songs are though artificially stretched and lack of energy, atmosphere and originality so that the final result is Ayreon's weakest release. Many promising ideas and attempts have not led to a satisfying, intriguing and coherent release. While progressive music fans could like this calm tribute to the past of the genre, metal fans might quickly get bored and should skip this album to continue with the great 'Into The Electric Castle' which marked the band's stunning breakthrough where Ayreon also found its own style.
But the final result is by far not as brilliant as it could have been. The songs are all very long and surpass all the six minute mark apart of the short introduction. I feel that some of the tracks are artificially stretched and are not varied enough to justify such a length. That wouldn't be much of a problem if the songs had at least a great atmosphere, a gripping passage and some catchy elements but that's just not the case. The songs are mostly calm and slow paced and copy the progressive rock acts of the seventies without reaching the subtle intensity of calmer bands such as King Crimson, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream or Gentle Giant. 'Abbey Of Synn' for example could have been a solid opener if it would have been about five minutes long as everything is already said at this mark. The album closer 'Forevermore' has the same problem and instead of finishing the record on a great note, the grand finale turns out to be a quite pointless and mellow stumbling towards the end of the line. The single 'The Stranger From Within' shares the same fate. The shortened single version sounded like a tribute to the commercial progressive music of the late seventies and early eighties in the key of Yes and was rather catchy but the album version is twice as long and offers not much more than the short version. Progressive fans might find some interesting musical details from time to time but especially the metal fan section of Ayreon will quickly be turned off by the numerous unnecessary lengths. Let's also add the revisited edition of the album doesn't add anything appealing and actually sounds less coherent than the original release.
There are still a few highlights that keep the record away from sinking into boring mediocrity. The rather modern and catchy 'Computer Eyes' is a good effort, the diversified 'Beyond The Last Horizon' unites progressive passages, some thrown in metal riffs and catchy hooks and offers everything Ayreon usually stands for and 'Back On Planet Earth' has an interesting story, atmosphere and some refreshing heavy passages. The latter is easily the best and most dynamic track on the record and stands out.
In the end, this release has been an interesting experiment from Ayreon and offers something we haven't heard before and afterwards from him. The project sounds like a band in here and offers a rather short and homogenous record. The songs are though artificially stretched and lack of energy, atmosphere and originality so that the final result is Ayreon's weakest release. Many promising ideas and attempts have not led to a satisfying, intriguing and coherent release. While progressive music fans could like this calm tribute to the past of the genre, metal fans might quickly get bored and should skip this album to continue with the great 'Into The Electric Castle' which marked the band's stunning breakthrough where Ayreon also found its own style.