Review: Ayreon – 30th Anniversary – Amazing Flight Through Time
Ayreon – 30th Anniversary – Amazing Flight Through Time
Format CD – Vinyl LP – Blu-ray – Digital
Label: Mascot Label Group – Music Theories Recordings – Artone
Release: 2026
Text: Martien Koolen
Last year in the fall, the beautiful city of Tilburg was once again transformed into Ayreon City to celebrate Ayreon’s thirty years since the release of ‘The Final Experiment’ (1995); Ayreon’s spectacular debut album.
The long and amazing setlist of this show spanned three decades of Ayreon (Arjen Lucassen) history and featured no less than twenty-nine tracks. The cast was amazing and consisted of no less than twelve – inclusive Arjen himself – vocalists, such as Damien Wilson, Anneke van Giersbergen, Tommy Karevik, Maggy Luyten and Mike Mills. The more than excellent band featured: Timo Somers (guitar), Ferry Duijsens (guitar), Johan van Stratum (bass guitar), Joost van den Broek (keyboards), Ben Mathot (violin), Jurriaan Westerveld (cello), Jeroen Goossens (woodwinds) and Ed Warby (drums).
The highlights of this spectacular album are “probably” My House On Mars, Dawn Of A Million Souls (with a soaring guitar solo), Into The Black Hole (awesome vocals by Damien Wilson), The Castle Hall, Actual Fantasy and Sail Away To Avalon; the latter being from the first Ayreon album.
The sound of this impressive release is absolutely top notch and ‘Amazing Flight Through Time’ is a must have album for Ayreon fans and addicts. The album will feature two Blu-rays/DVD and two CDs, and it will be available as from 22 May.
So, do not miss this amazing Ayreon musical journey, buy or die is my motto for this album indeed!
Tracks:
01. Dream Sequencer 1
02. My House on Mars
03. Sail Away to Avalon
04. Green and Cream
05. Days of the Knights
06. Childhood
07. Dragon on the Sea
08. Sign
09. Sea Of Machines
10. The Year of ’41
11. The First Man on Earth
12. The Lighthouse/The Argument 2/The Parting
13. Carried by the Wind
14. Dream Sequencer 2
15. The Theory of Everything
16. Actual Fantasy
17. Into the Black Hole
18. Dreamtime
19. Dawn of a Million Souls
20. Valley of the Queens
21. Loser
22. Band Introduction Mike
23. The Castle Hall
24. Amazing Flight in Space
25. Everybody Dies
26. Speech Arjen and Joost
27. Set your Controls
28. Dream Sequencer 3
29. Isolation