INTO THE ELECTRIC CASTLE

Into The Electric Castle is Ayreon's first popular moment, featuring some of his best compositions and more emphasis on rocking then on the operatic aspects. The arrangements are less bombastic then the following albums, and of course, with Fish, Damien Wilson, Clive Nolan, Anneke van Giersbergen and Sharon den Adel, this album has an amazing cast of vocalists.

Still, clever as it may be composed and arranged, much of this album leans heavily towards AOR-sympho and doesn't move or enthuse me much. It's music that is very busy and overwrought, leaving little room for imagination and hardly inspiring me to good review writing.

As usual with Ayreon albums, the overabundance of material drags it down. While this album could have made up a good single CD, the double CD format brings in too much second-rate material. Isis and Osiris and Across the Rainbow Bridge are the finest moments on cd1. The second CD also goes through ups and downs but is generally more consistent.

If you are a fan of big symphonic neo-prog opera, you probably have rated this with 5 stars already. And indeed it is an excellent album in that niche market that I just invented on the spot. However, this music lacks substance and courage, it's a kind of easy-listening prog that will deliver to promise but that isn't challenging or inventive enough to rate among the best of prog. 3.5 stars