Article By: Pat ‘Riot’ Whitaker ‡ Edited By: Leanne Ridgeway
News arriving today from futuristic, progressive metal act AYREON and its mastermind – Dutch songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer, Arjen Anthony Lucassen.
The band’s smashing, critically-acclaimed 1998 conceptual album, “Inside The Electric Castle: A Space Opera“, is to receive a special reissue to mark its 20th anniversary. It will be available on 3LP, 5-disc Earbook, and a limited edition box set from Music Theories Recordings / Mascot Label Group on October 26th.
Lucassen has remixed the entire album, the band’s third studio offering, that featured such guests as Fish, Sharon den Adel, Damian Wilson, Edwards Reekers, Anneke van Giersbergen, and Jay van Feggelen.
Arjen Lucassen says of the remix:
“It was a particularly daunting task. My goal was to give it a bit more of a contemporary feel, without losing the charm of the original.
“As chance would have it, I even found a few little surprises on the original tapes that hadn’t been used on the original. To make this re-release even more special, I didn’t stop after finishing the stereo mix, but went on to do a 5.1 mix as well.
“This album was practically begging to be mixed in the 5.1 format because of all its spacey effects, weird sounds and strange voices!”
Adding: “I did my best to make the listener feel like they are a part of the whole experience, as if they had physically entered this ‘new dimension’.”
The box set will include a framed 3-D sculpture of the cover, 4 CDs containing the remixed album and an instrumental version, a DVD with a 5.1 remix of ‘Into The Electric Castle’, plus documentaries, 3 LPs on gold marbled vinyl, a download card, and a certificate of authenticity signed by Lucassen.
Pre-order for this must-have commemorative re-issue of AYREON‘s ‘Inside The Electric Castle‘ is active now at THIS LOCATION.
