THE FINAL EXPERIMENT (SPECIAL EDITION)

As Arjen relates in the liner notes the early nineties were not a good time for him. Whether it was being part of a band or his solo album everything seemed to fail commercially for him. So he decided to do what he had wanted to do for sometime,and that was to make a Rock Opera. At that point he really didn't care if it was going to be successful or not, he just wanted to do it for himself. He was able to get quite a few musicians to help him out many who did it for free, and his dream was realized. This album really is a template for his concept albums that would follow, the difference here is that the guests are pretty much unknown and we don't get that musical style here either where different singers play a certain characters and sing back and forth like a movie musical which I hate. That's a big reason i'm not really into his AYREON project. I do like this one though. Cool concept and everything is well done.

It was a waste though to get this double cd special edition because it's the same original disc with a bonus disc of the same songs done mostly acoustically only with more famous guests. I'm not into the unplugged, semi-acoustic things so yeah I wasted some money here.The reason he didn't re-mix this album was because the original tapes are lost or destroyed. Interesting to read all the replies from the record labels who rejected putting this album out. They were respectful but they sure didn't think a Rock Opera would sell in the mid nineties, but then neither did Arjen. It was finally picked up and after a slow start it really caught on much to everyone's surprise. Not wanting to repeat himself the follow-up "Actual Fantasy" was in a different mold, but Arjen soon realized his fans wanted Rock Operas, so he's been doing it ever since.

So we get 15 songs and around 71 minutes of music. I like the opening monologue: "This is the voice of learning, listen well for it concerns you.This chronicle commences in the year 2084 AD. Mankind has virtually destroyed itself, it's survival depends on the final experiment". And in comes the synths then more monogue to tell us about the story.There are more vocalists helping out than anything else, one drummer, a few bass players, a keyboard guy and Arjen on vocals, all guitars and keys. Oh, one of the vocalists plays flute too. So as with most concept albums the lyrics (vocals) take precidence while we get lots of keybords (especially synths) leading the way. Some heaviness here too which I like.

A good album and a successful start to Arjen's new musical direction.