INTO THE ELECTRIC CASTLE

Into the Electric Castle is a classic! It certainly is a great progressive album. It is different from a lot of other progressive stuff out there, so people might not access it as much, but it's amazing, really. The thing about this album is the melting pot of elements in here. Metal, Classic Rock, Progressive Rock, Blues, Jazz, Gothic, Electronica, Symphonic, Folk, all that stuff in here. I wouldn't even call Ayreon Progressive Metal. It's just something completely new, and metal is one of the many things thrown into it as well.

Into the Electric Castle tells the surreal story of 8 human beings from different times and places, swept away by a mysterious, omnipresent, sentient being, in order to embark on an epic and dangerous journey through a Dream World, into the Electric Castle. As the heroes embark, guided by a mysterious voice, they overcome dangerous obstacles and different tasks such as the decision tree, the rainbow bridge, the garden emotions, and the halls of the electric castle itself. The story is incredibly surreal and it's amazing how each character is voiced by a certain singer usually from other progressive bands you might or might not be familiar of. Either way, it's good, because you can research that band later and maybe You'll end up liking it!

As the heroes find their way to the top, with some casualties along the way, the voice reveals that the journey was a test of human emotions run by the alien being forever, who originated in a galaxy far away, and whose race as become slaves to machinery and nonexistent monotonous emotion.

The only thing about this album is that it doesn't sound good broken into pieces... if broken into pieces, it sounds quite unorganized and like random things are pasted together. But listen from beginning to end, without stopping, and it's the greatest album ever.

Then again, Anything Arjen related is a great effort in progressive rock. :)