10 Essential 1990s Progressive Rock Music Albums
9. Ayreon - Into The Electric Castle
Arjen Anthony Lucassen's headbanging brainchild arguably reached its progressive peak with this thrilling 1998 release. Fittingly dropped on Halloween, 'Into the Electric Castle' blended '90s prog metal stylings with '70s prog rock concepts.
The result is a suitably heavy but imaginative offering that managed to satisfy both metalheads and prog aficionados alike. The story on offer encompasses a variety of mind-bending sci-fi themes and ideas, focusing on eight strangers from different times and lands locked into a journey to locate the mythical Electric Castle. The album never loses sight of its narrative, successfully telling a full beginning, middle, and end journey loaded with existentialist despair, plot twists, and grim deaths.
Much akin to prog rock giants such as Rush, Ayreon employ multi-part tracks to unfold their audacious conceptual vision. Over the course of two disks, listeners are blasted with an epic array of vocalists, character work, hectic guitar riffs and atmospheric drums.
Released to almost universal acclaim, 'Into the Electric Castle' was a pitch-perfect prog LP for its time that saw Ayreon's concept album ambitions firing on all cylinders. Lucassen has confirmed in the years since that the album's success was the only reason Ayreon continued following the disappointing sales of 1996's 'Actual Fantasy'.