AYREONAUTS ONLY

As the album says, "Ayreonauts Only". It will probably only appeal to various Ayreon fans around the world. If you like other bands better, that's fine. You can probably do without this album, I guess. Me? I'm an Ayreonaut...so here goes.

"Into The Black Hole" on this album is sung not by Bruce Dickinson, but Damian Wilson and Lana Lane. Damian is easily my favorite vocalist, thus whenever I play this song, it's always this version, rather than Bruce's.

"Out of the White Hole" is sung by Arjen's old buddy Robert Soeterboek. His voice isn't bad, but it sounds rather rough compared to the original.

"Through The Wormhole" is sung by Elegy's Ian Parry this time. I like the song of this one better than Flight of the Migrator's one, though the song itself is one of my least favorites on that album.

"Carpe Diem" is a home demo from '92 that would later become "Chaos", the opener of Flight of the Migrator. It's funny to hear how it started off, but not overly interesting otherwise.

"Temple of the Cat" is an acoustic version sung by Astrid van der Veen, who also sings on the Ambeon albums, as well as with theEndorphins. I don't really listen to either version of the song (the Dream Sequencer one is sung by Jaqueline from Krezip), but both are good in my opinion, from what I've heard.

"Original Hippie's Amazing Trip" is a medley of a few parts the Arjen sings on Into The Electric Castle as the "Hippie", including "Amazing Flight", "The Garden of Emotions", and "The Mirror Maze" The vocals are now done by Mouse, whoever that is. I like Arjen's vocals better...though he'd likely disagree with me on that one, lol.

"Beyond The Last Horizon" is a complete more guitar-oriented remake of this Actual Fantasy song. It's quite nice and different enough to catch my interest, though this one sounds more hardrocky and fun, while I prefer the deep and dark electronic/vocal style of the original.

"Charm of the Seer" is a '94 home demo, which is sung by Arjen himself. It's a bit unpolished and careful, but it's fun to hear the roots of this song nonetheless.

"Eyes of Time" is sung by Leon Goewie (Vengeance) this time, and oh brother, he screams more than he sings. I don't like this version at all. I prefer the original, or Damian's on STAR ONE's "Live on Earth".

"Nature's Dance" is yet another '94 home demo sng by Arjen himself. Unlike Charm of the Seer, he does use a vocoder in this song, like he does on albums like Into The Electric Castle. More polished, and nice to hear how it all started.

"Cold Metal" is a preview to AMBEON, Arjen's new project at the time. It sounds very similar to the Fate of a Dreamer version, though with Jolanda Verduijn (now Jolanda Lucassen!) on bass. Overall, it was nice at the time, but when you have the Ambeon album yourself, this becomes a little obsolete.

So...um...conclusion? Well, this album is rather old and hasn't been re-released along with the others, so it's become a gem of kinds. Ayreonauts will like this, probably, but if you're not that concerned with Ayreon, you're better off buying the original albums. The material itself is quite interesting, so that's why I give it 3 stars. It's good, but probably not essential for everyone. It's for fans, mostly.

Yours, Tailscent