AYREON releases new video from upcoming release Ayreon Universe Live

by Andrea Chirulescu
Posted on 01-03-2018

Ayreon releases new video from upcoming release Ayreon Universe-The Best Of Ayreon Live

Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group will be releasing ‘Ayreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live’ on 30 March and are proud to present the second full live video for ‘Valley of the Queens’.

On 15, 16, 17 September 2017, Ayreon played live for the first time ever, bringing together 16 guest singers and 11 Musicians, playing 28 songs with performances by Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Damian Wilson (Headspace), Hansi Kursch (Blind Guardian), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot), Anneke Van Giersbergen (Vuur), Marco Hietala (Nightwish), Jonas Renkse (Katatonia), Edward Reekers (Kayak) and many more. Arjen Lucassen is thrilled to reveal the new live video for ‘Valley of the Queens’ which features Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Marcela Bovio (MaYaN) and Anneke Van Giersbergen (Vuur) on vocals as well as Jeroen Goossens on flute, Maaike Peterse on Cello, Ferry Duijsens (Guitar) and Joost van den Broek (Keyboards)

Talking about the song he says. “Here is the second full video track of the upcoming Ayreon Universe DVD/BD. The first track we showed you was the bombastic ‘Everybody Dies’, so as a contrast here is a very intimate ballad called Valley of the Queens. Man… even though I’ve seen this a million times by now, I still get goosebumps hearing these lovely three ladies sing… enjoy!”

‘Ayreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live’ will be available on 3LP + MP3, 3LP + MP3 (Limited Colored Vinyl), 2CD, 5 disc Earbook, plus 2DVD and Blu-ray with 90 minutes of exclusive behind the scenes footage and interviews with the whole cast.

It takes a special kind of talent to manage the demands of 16 of the finest singers from the worlds of progressive and power metal whilst staking your own reputation as an artist on a show that will highlight the best of a 23-year career as one of the leading lights of the progressive music world. And to do it in the knowledge that you will also have to face your own fears thanks to crippling stage fright. But Arjen Lucassen is a special kind of talent.

Photo by Bert Treep

It’s not just 16 singers too. There’s Lucassen’s band; the core line-up of Ed Warby (drums), Johan van Stratum (bass), Marcel Coenen and Ferry Duijsens (guitars) and Joost van den Broek (keyboards) augmented by a violinist, flautist and cellist. And a stage set up that boasts one of the world’s biggest HD screen spanning the entire width of the 013 stage, for a set that comprises of 28 songs over two hours, filmed by 30 cameras in front of 9000 fans who have flocked in from all over the world. Little wonder the three shows in Tilburg sold out within a day.

“I feel a bit bad that we only played three shows now,” says the man behind the event, leaving, perhaps, a hint that there’s more to come in the live arena from the towering Dutchman.

In some way it is little surprise that someone with Lucassen’s vision and sense of occasion managed to pull off a spectacle such as Ayreon Universe with apparent ease. Since 1995, when he released ‘Ayreon: The Final Experiment’, there has been little that has held back Lucassen’s imagination and ambition.

Like many people of his era, it was hearing The Beatles that fired Lucassen’s youthful musical imagination. And in turn it was hearing Ritchie Blackmore’s incendiary performance on Deep Purple’s ‘Made In Japan’ album that made him want to emulate the man in black and pick up the guitar. From then, it was early musical forays such as Mover, before his first big break came when he joined Dutch metal band Bodine in 1980. Four years later he was poached by fellow metallers Vengeance, whom he played with over the duration of eight years and four studio albums, before taking the decision to try things his own way.