Into the Electric Castle

After the previous Ayreon album, Actual Fantasy, sold below expectations, Lucassen sought to deliver a top-quality recording with Into the Electric Castle. If the album had not been a success, he said that he would have no longer have continued the Ayreon project. It remains his highest selling album to date, with The Human Equation being a close second.[2]

The story begins with a strange voice (Peter Daltrey) calling out to the eight characters that are taken from various planes of time. The mysterious voice tells them they are in a place of "no-time and no-space". Urging them to continue, the voice gives them a task: to reach The Electric Castle and find out what's inside.

After various steps, they come to the Decision Tree where the voice tells them one of them must die. They must then go through the Tunnel of Light, but the Highlander (Fish) refuses to reach the light, stays behind, accepts his death slowly, and lays himself down to die while the others continue. Then in the Garden of Emotions, the Egyptian (Anneke van Giersbergen), overwhelmed by her emotions, becomes convinced that Amon-Ra is coming to seal her fate.[3] She loses her will to continue and wanders alone until she lays herself down and dies as well.[4]

The surviving characters finally reach the Electric Castle, penetrating the Castle Hall. On the Tower of Hope a breeze draws the attention of the Indian (Sharon den Adel), luring her away towards the sun despite the warning of the Knight (Damian Wilson) and the Futureman (Edward Reekers). On the breeze, she encounters Death itself (George Oosthoek and Robert Westerholt) who takes her while she screams.

The characters then come to their final test: the voice tells them that beyond them stand two gates, with one of them leading to oblivion and the second to the desired time of the heroes. One of the gates is old, deteriorated, and ugly, and the other made of gold and appears at first glance to be paradise. The Barbarian (Jay van Feggelen), in his arrogance and pride, walks through the golden gate in spite of his companion's choice, and falls into oblivion forever.

Finally, the Knight, the Roman (Edwin Balogh), the Hippie (Arjen Anthony Lucassen) and the Futureman, who had chosen the right gate, discover the true nature of the voice: it is called "Forever of the Stars", and claims that its kind is an alien race who lost all emotions. It also claims its kind caused the emergence of humanity on Earth, and that the eight heroes were in an experiment in understanding and/or rediscovering emotions. Feeling tired, the voice tells them to go on ahead and open the door, and that they won't remember what has happened.

Back in their real time, the heroes all wonder what has happened, with the Hippie asking himself if this journey was the result of his drug abuse, the Futureman wondering if his memory has been erased, the Roman feeling stronger and the Knight thinking he found the Grail in a magic dream. The voice of the Forever of the Stars is then heard, asking them all to remember Forever.

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[5]
Blistering	8/10[6]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal	8/10[7]
Sputnikmusic	[8]

Into the Electric Castle received overwhelmingly positive reviews from critics, who praised Lucassen's writing and composition abilities and the performances of the singers. Sputnikmusic reviewer stated "if you’re a fan of progressive metal, or even progressive music in general, your collection will not be complete without Into the Electric Castle".[8] AllMusic reviewer Robert Taylor praised the album, saying that "The massive coordination of such a large project is admirable, but to pull it off with such impressive results is stunning."[5]