THE TENTH STUDIO ALBUM BY AYREON IS OUT JUST IN TIME FOR HALLOWEEN.
And this is a thing because, unlike most of his other albums, TRANSITUS does not take place in the usual Ayreon science fiction universe but instead is a gothic horror "rock opera" beginning in the year 1884. For those not in the know, Ayreon is the music project of Dutch progressive/metal master Arjen Anthony Lucassen (hey, he's almost got my same last name we must be related!) who has been composing his sprawling science-fiction/fantasy albums that combine metal, classical, hard rock, electronic and any other musical genre you can think of for a couple decades now. Think of Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The War of the Worlds but without the disco beat. I already have about half a dozen of Ayreon's previous releases and pre-ordered TRANSITUS when I first heard about it. But of course, silly me, I didn't do any snooping around as to any details about the release. So imagine my surprise when I popped the cd in my car for the drive to work and I heard the unmistakable dulcet tones of the great Tom Baker as "The Storyteller"! My little heart when pitter-pat! To strain an analogy to it's breaking point, Tom Baker here fulfills the same role as Richard Burton did for Jeff Wayne's opus. Of course, I also ordered the 5 disc deluxe edition that comes with the graphic novel of the storyline with art by Felix Vega as well as a DVD.
Ayreon (or Arjen more correctly) always gathers a multitude of great musicians for each release (last album had Floor Jansen on it!!!!) and this time is no exception. Besides Tom Baker as "The Storyteller", we have guitar god Joe Satriani, Tommy Karevik (of Kamelot) and Cammie Gilbert (of Oceans of Slumber) as the love-torn Daniel and Abby, Dee Snider (of Twisted Sister) as Dad and Marty Friedman (90's lead guitarist for Megadeth) to mention a few. I'll tell ya, I'm lovin' this album!
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