Post by himiko on Oct 10, 2015 20:41:02 GMT
I was listening back over my Ayreon albums over the last week, and it reminded me that I'd never posted anything about this particular album on the forum, as far as I recollect.
Ayreon is a musical project by Dutch singer/songwriter/musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen. It's usually referred to as progressive rock/metal, but also contains folk, power metal and classical influences amongst others. They're generally called "Rock Operas", due to the fact that nearly all the albums have an overarching storyline, and multiple vocalists playing different characters within these storylines. Several of these albums ("The Final Experiment", "Into the Electric Castle", "The Universal Migrator" Pts I and II and "01011001") all tie together to form a storyline that is a little convoluted but basically involves humanity being created by a race of aliens called "The Forever", who are beings kept alive by machines, seeking to recapture their lost emotions. The Forever push humanity to advance, however humans in turn become too dependent upon this technology, and the use of it in war causes nearly all of humanity to be wiped out in the year 2084. I think I got that right anyway...
All the albums are worth a listen, but the reason that I bring up the first album specifically, and why I posted it in this section, is that it is partly set against the background of Arthurian legend. In this album, scientists from the war of 2084 hope to avert war by sending a warning message into the past to prevent humanity from starting this war in the first place. The telepathic messages end up inside the head of a blind minstrel, Ayreon, living in 6th Century Britain. He believes these are messages sent to him by the Lords of Time, and he sings of the messages that he hears. At first, people around him are scared by his tales and visions and run him out of town, however he finds a welcome at King Arthur's court as a minstrel. All is well until Merlin, jealous of his ability to foretell the future and believing him to be a potential danger, convinces the court that Ayreon must be lying and curses him. Merlin realises his mistake and regrets his actions but too late to save Ayreon.
Honestly, there's not a huge amount of Arthurian legend on show here- with the exception of Merlin, the characters of Arthurian legend are mostly just window dressing for Ayreon's story and don't get a lot of mention outside of a couple of songs. But it was certainly an interesting context to find Arthurian stuff in
The legends don't really get any further mention in the other albums- the "Knight" character from "Into the Electric Castle" is implied to be a Knight of the Round Table, but his name is never given and "The Universal Migrator" album features a song sung by Ayreon following his own death.
Below is the song "Merlin's Will", from the original album, and an acoustic rerelease of the song with a different vocalist:
Another interesting piece of Merlin-related trivia: Arjen Lucassen has many projects aside from Ayreon, including a couple of solo albums under his own name - one of these albums is titled "Lost in the New Real", and features narration by fellow Dutchman, Rutger Hauer
Ayreon is a musical project by Dutch singer/songwriter/musician Arjen Anthony Lucassen. It's usually referred to as progressive rock/metal, but also contains folk, power metal and classical influences amongst others. They're generally called "Rock Operas", due to the fact that nearly all the albums have an overarching storyline, and multiple vocalists playing different characters within these storylines. Several of these albums ("The Final Experiment", "Into the Electric Castle", "The Universal Migrator" Pts I and II and "01011001") all tie together to form a storyline that is a little convoluted but basically involves humanity being created by a race of aliens called "The Forever", who are beings kept alive by machines, seeking to recapture their lost emotions. The Forever push humanity to advance, however humans in turn become too dependent upon this technology, and the use of it in war causes nearly all of humanity to be wiped out in the year 2084. I think I got that right anyway...
All the albums are worth a listen, but the reason that I bring up the first album specifically, and why I posted it in this section, is that it is partly set against the background of Arthurian legend. In this album, scientists from the war of 2084 hope to avert war by sending a warning message into the past to prevent humanity from starting this war in the first place. The telepathic messages end up inside the head of a blind minstrel, Ayreon, living in 6th Century Britain. He believes these are messages sent to him by the Lords of Time, and he sings of the messages that he hears. At first, people around him are scared by his tales and visions and run him out of town, however he finds a welcome at King Arthur's court as a minstrel. All is well until Merlin, jealous of his ability to foretell the future and believing him to be a potential danger, convinces the court that Ayreon must be lying and curses him. Merlin realises his mistake and regrets his actions but too late to save Ayreon.
Honestly, there's not a huge amount of Arthurian legend on show here- with the exception of Merlin, the characters of Arthurian legend are mostly just window dressing for Ayreon's story and don't get a lot of mention outside of a couple of songs. But it was certainly an interesting context to find Arthurian stuff in
The legends don't really get any further mention in the other albums- the "Knight" character from "Into the Electric Castle" is implied to be a Knight of the Round Table, but his name is never given and "The Universal Migrator" album features a song sung by Ayreon following his own death.Below is the song "Merlin's Will", from the original album, and an acoustic rerelease of the song with a different vocalist:
Another interesting piece of Merlin-related trivia: Arjen Lucassen has many projects aside from Ayreon, including a couple of solo albums under his own name - one of these albums is titled "Lost in the New Real", and features narration by fellow Dutchman, Rutger Hauer
