Tag Archives: Ayreon

Arjen Lucassen is back with another Ayreon album. The amazingly talented multi-instrumentalist is unusual in that whereas most musicians with several projects will sit down and write for a specific project, Arjen writes and goes where the music takes him, so a writing session may evolve into a new Ayreon …

Last year Ayreon played their second set of shows. The first was their first live shows in the existence of the band, and they played several sold out shows in Tilburg entitled “Ayreon universe”. This time it was “Electric castle live and other tales”. As the title suggests, it was …

Two years ago Ayreon played their first ever show. While that may not sound exciting, it was for fans of Ayreon which had released their first album in 1995. The brain-child of Arjen Lucassen, the albums feature multiple singers and this coupled with his stage-fright meant fans (and Arjen himself) …

“Into the electric castle” was the third Ayreon album and was released way back in 1998. Now 20 years on, it’s being reissued including being released on vinyl for the first time. Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen isnt the type of person who’d be content with just re-releasing something so he …

After the 3 sold out shows in the 013 venue in The Netherlands, Ayreon Universe is ready to headline the Marquee Stage on Friday, June 22 at Graspop Metal Meeting 2018. This first exclusive Ayreon festival show will be performed by the very best original Ayreon instrumentalists and vocalists, including …

For over 20 years, Arjen Lucassen’s band Ayreon has existed purely as a studio project with no live shows. The reason for that is because he always thought a live show would be impossible to do – the albums typically have a dozen or so singers, who generally have their …

Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group will be releasing ‘Ayreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live’ on 30 March and will be available to pre-order from today. On 15, 16, 17 September 2017, Ayreon played live for the first time ever, bringing together 16 guest singers and 11 Musicians, playing …

When Arjen Lucassen announced on Facebook earlier this year that for the first time in 22 years, Ayreon would play some live shows, the fans understandably went nuts. With no promotion or advertising, the two dates at 013 in Tilburg sold out within the hour (that’s 6000 tickets sold with …

Some bands release new albums almost every year, but Ayreon isn’t one of them.  Ayreon albums tend to appear every three or four years, and when you listen to them you can understand why.  Ayreon’s albums are all concept albums and the stories are all interlinked.  Arjen Lucassen had said …

I recently sat down with Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen to talk about the new album due out soon, the live shows planned for September, and more. As all your albums have a strong story element, when you start to work on a new album, what comes first – is it …

THE SOURCE is an exciting new chapter in the Ayreon saga, with contributions from renowned vocalists like James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Simone Simons (Epica), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia), and Russell Allen (Symphony X). The Source will be released on April 28 through Ayreon’s …

In September last year the classic Ayreon album, The Human Equation was brought to life on stage at a theatre in Rotterdam for just one weekend.  Billed as The Theater Equation, as with the album, there was a large cast of singers including James LaBrie, Marcela Bovio, Anneke van Giersbergen, …

I spoke to Dutch singer Anneke van Giersbergen shortly before she played the Garage in London with The Gentle Storm, her new project with Ayreon mastermind Arjen Lucassen. The Gentle Storm is your latest project with Arjen Lucassen.  You’ve worked together before haven’t you? A few times.  The Ayreon album …

Although Reign Of The Architect only fully coalesced as a band last year, this ambitious, Israeli-based progressive metal project has been five years in the making, with this album tracing its roots right back as far as 2008, when guitarist Yuval Kramer initially started work on this concept work, along …