AYREONAUTS ONLY

I am not very keen on such offerings. Demo versions, unreleased "acoustic" ones, some other vocalists in charge on studio tracks are more a fan's trap than anything else IMO.

One has to acknowledge that "Ayreon" is faithful to its fans. It is specifically mentioned that this album is NOT a new album.

The usual fan wouldn't be disappointed with this limited edition album. Some classic "Ayreon" songs are revisited and not for the worse I must say.

The aspect I like the least is that most of the songs comes from Arjen's last offering "The Universal Migrator" (being from "The Dream Sequencer" or the "Flight Migrator" parts). To have released this type of remixes the very same year of the original release is rather annoying and I just DISLIKE this marketing approach.

Musically, this is very much more related to metal than "The Final Experiment" for instance. Most of the songs are very pleasant but on the harder edge. Just skip the prog attribute in the combined prog-metal wording. Unless that you believe that if as soon as you hear some keyboards, the music played is automatically prog to your ears. But this is not my case.

Great vocals as usual of course. But that's a huge invention of Lucas. To have great guest vocalists on his albums. It is also interesting to know that some songs released in 2000 were already in gestation as soon as 1992 ("Chaos" or "Carpe Diem" here). This is a great instrumental and the whole of Arjen's virtuosity is featured.

In terms of interesting discoveries, the same applies to "The Charm of the Seer" and "Nature's Dance" presented in their 1994 "home studio" versions and both available on "The Final Experiment". Even the acoustic equivalent of "Temple Of The Cat" is very pleasant. Very much "Mostly Autumn" oriented.

This remix album from the several "Ayreon" offerings is a good effort. Might well be a good entry point if you would like to discover this artist.

Three stars although the commercial approach is rather suspect, but his only reflects my humble and honest opinion.

As the title suggests, Ayreonauts Only was only intended for the die-hard Ayreon fan. It contains demos and alternate versions of songs from the Universal Migrator albums. In addition, the last track was a preview song off of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's then-upcoming project called Ambeon. Many of the songs feature different singers than on their corresponding originals.

Guest vocalists include Lana Lane, Damian Wilson, Robert Soeterboek, Ian Parry, Mouse, Gary Hughes, and Leon Goewie, among others. At the time this was released, the most important guest singer to watch out for was Astrid van der Veen. At age 14, she stunned the prog world with her beautiful voice with the Ambeon project release of Fate of a Dreamer the following year. She makes a guest appearance singing an acoustic version of Temple of the Cat and the aforementioned final track called Cold Metal. Cold Metal would appear on the Fate of a Dreamer album and also be released as a single.

Overall, Ayreon fans will love this. However, for everyone else, it is recommended to start with Into the Electric Castle and then other studio efforts. If you get hooked on those, only then should Ayreonauts Only be sought out. Two stars. Collectors and fans only.

A tourist trap of unreleased material, demos and whatnot, this one reads like it is, 'for Ayreonauts only', and definitely not for the newcomer to the band. It is interesting and that pretty much sums up this enitre backlog of rarities and unreleased tracks that could have remained unreleased. None of the tracks are as polished or delightful as the original, some not even a pale imitation, with guest artists sadly absent.

But it is what it is and any fan would go crazy for new versions of Into the Black Hole, Out of the White Hole and Through the Wormhole, certainly captivating music without the effects or multilayered instrumentation. Original Hippie's Amazing Trip is a curiosity as is Eyes of Time, but nothing worth bottling here. Nature's Dance is a quick short sharp shock of prog and the compilation ends with a 7 minute Ambeon: Cold Metal. The whole album left me cold and this is truly something that the super fan, who must get every Ayreon release, would only enjoy.

Review Nº 753

"Ayreonauts Only" is a compilation album of the Dutch Arjen Anthony Lucassen released inside his Ayreon project. It was released in 2000. As Arjen explains on the back cover of the CD, "Ayreonauts Only" isn't a new Ayreon's album. It has unreleased versions of known Ayreon's songs, home demos and new recorded songs sung by different singers.

"Ayreonauts Only" has eleven tracks. This new versions were originally released on some Ayreon's albums, the albums that were released till the time when this compilation album was released. So, we have here tracks from "The Final Experiment", "Actual Fantasy", "Into The Electric Castle", "Universal Migrator, Part 1: The Dream Sequencer" and "Universal Migrator, Part 2: Flight Of The Migrator". We have also a track that would be released on his Ambeon project.

"Into The Black Hole" is from "Flight Of The Migrator". It was sung on that album by Bruce Dickinson. This is a previous unreleased version. It was sung by Damian Wilson. Arjen wanted Bruce to sing it, but he was busy at the moment. As Damian was available, Arjen recorded the first version with him. So, this is another great version of the song. "Out Of The White Hole" is from "Flight Of The Migrator". It was sung on that album by Timo Kotipelto. This is an unreleased version that was sung by an old friend of Arjen and a usual companion, Robert Soeterboek. The interesting thing with this version is that it's completely different from the version of that album due to the different voices of both vocalists. "Through The Wormhole" is from "Flight Of The Migrator". It was sung on that album by Fabio Lione. This is an unreleased version that was sung by another friend and companion of Arjen from the time of Vengeance, Ian Parry. As happened with the previous version on this compilation, this is another different version due to the different both voices. "Carpe Diem (Chaos)" is from "Flight Of The Migrator". This is a previously unreleased home demo of 1992 by Arjen with a drum computer. Arjen thought that it was a bit heavier to an Ayreon's album. Later he decided to change it adding the vocals from Lana Lane and real drums. It's interesting to hear but it isn't as good as the track "Chaos" on that album. "Temple Of The Cat" is from "The Dream Sequencer". This is a previously unreleased acoustic version. It was sung on that album by Jacqueline Govaert. This newly version was sung by Astrid Van Der Veen, the vocalist of Ambeon. This is a great version of the song. I can agree with Arjen. This acoustic version sounds even better than the version on that album. "Original Hippie's Amazing Trip" is from "Into The Electric Castle". This is a previous unreleased version that was sung by Mouse. Due to some unexpected problems, it wasn't possible to use his vocals on the version of that album. So, Arjen decided to sing that track. Despite both versions being good, it's interesting to hear what would be the original version for that album. "Beyond The Last Horizon" is from "Actual Fantasy". This is a newly recorded version from 2000. Originally, it was sung by Edward Reekers as the main vocalist. As Arjen became a bit unhappy with the original version, he decided to re-record it with Gary Hughes on vocals. This is a better version that is closer to the original idea of Arjen. "The Charm Of The Seer" is from "The Final Experiment". This is a previously unreleased home demo of 1994 by Arjen with a drum computer. The version on that album was sung by Ruud Houweling. The version on "Ayreonauts Only" was sung by Arjen. It's maybe less good than the original, but it's interesting enough to listen to. "Eyes Of Time" is from "The Final Experiment". This is a previous unreleased studio version. The version on that album was sung by Lenny Wolf. Anyway, Arjen tried six different vocalists to this song. But, he also liked the version of his former Vengeance band member, Leon Goewie. This is another interesting version, a different way of singing this song. "Nature's Dance" is from "The Final Experiment". This is a previously unreleased home demo version of 1994 acoustic version by Arjen. It was also sung by Arjen but on the album's version his voice was processed through a rotating speaker of a Hammond organ. In this version there aren't any effects. It's a polished version that is nice to listen to. "Ambeon: Cold Metal" is from "Fate Of A Dreamer". It was sung by Astrid Van Der Veen, the vocalist of Ambeon. At the time this was recorded, the album had not yet been released. This is a great song sung by an amazing female vocalist.

Conclusion: As I mentioned above, "Ayreonauts Only" isn't a new Ayreon's work, but it isn't also a vulgar compilation album, a kind of a best of Ayreon. That became very clear when Arjen told us that in the back cover of the CD. So, all of we who had the opportunity of buying "Ayreonauts Only" (it was released as a limited edition), can never say that we have been cheated. Arjen never did that. This is one of the reasons why he has a very faithful and loyal bunch of fans. "Ayreonauts Only" is a very nice and enjoyable trip thru the universe of Ayreon till that date, but it's a bit different trip from what we knew before. In my case, I knew perfectly well already all Ayreon's albums, but in spite of that it was with great pleasure that I checked all these tracks performed in a different way. It was a great complement and I'm sure that all those who bought it are pleased with it. The material here is quite interesting and good. So, I'm gonna give it 3 stars.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)