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by Björn Thorsten Jaschinski
(07.01.2008)
In the tradition of the breakthrough album, "Inside the electric castle" and its direct predecessor, the new album, entitled after the binary code of the planet Y, "01011001", grew to a double album featuring 100 minutes of Progressive Metal, set to scene by a colourful list of guests in a vibrant way. Not only the format, the cover ("The dream sequencer"), and the Science Fiction-story about aliens and a handful of people, parallels former Ayreon-concepts and side-projects. Also musically, the 15 compositions, often king-size and divided into several parts matches the generally underestimated second album, "Actual fantasy". A stronger female component β six of the 17 characters are interpreted by e.g. Anneke van Giersbergen, Floor Jansen and Simone Simons β refers to Ambeon and Stream Of Passion. The Folk atmosphere created by violins and flutes as well as the Beatles-harmonies in "Connect the dots" specific to Ty Tabor rest on "Inside the electric castle" legs. Sounds dated? No way!
