Search - Ayreon :: Actual Fantasy

His third best album

SnowDog3000 | manchester, ct USA | 10/06/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"first thing's first, Ayreon top two album's are Dream Sequencer & Into the Electric Castle. His two weakest albums, while containing some good songs are The Final Experiment & Flight of the Migrator. Actual Fantasy is easily in his top three albums and differs from all of his other albums by not having an overall conceptual storyline. On the other hand, this album may have his most solid musical sound. Elements of Pink Floyd, industrial, Kansas etc mark this as his best heavy album. Good vocal work by the lead vocalist of Golden Earring, and well as Edmund Reekers (Kayak) and a third vocalist make this quite possibly his most accesible album to today's alternative listeners."

Actual Fantasy: Heavy Pink Floyd?

Joe White | Layton, Utah United States | 05/10/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, Ayreon's second album, Actual Fantasy, can accurately be described as "heavy Pink Floyd". It's a good album, very atmospheric and symphonic. Arjen Anthony Lucassen (the man behind Ayreon) uses three different lead vocalists on the album -- sometimes in the same song. All three singers are very good and, when you couple this with the catchy vocal melodies, the result is powerful, sometimes bombastic, sometimes mellow, Floyd-like symphonic progressive hard rock. Enough adjectives for you? That's what happens when a band is hard to describe because they are so unique. This is Ayreon.It should be stressed that Mr. Lucassen is a good songwriter and never sacrifices the song in favor of technical self-indulgence.I dare say that if you like Pink Floyd and heavier rock, you will love this album. I certainly did and I'm not even a big Pink Floyd fan!"

The worst Ayreon album but not a bad album

Leonardo Stern | Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | 04/09/2000

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Actual Fantasy come with a idea to link diferent music styles with Fantasy theme. The idea and lyrics are great but Arjen missed something in the album,both The Final Experiment and Into the Eletric Castle are much better than Actual Fantasy. This album have a unique style, some kind of symphonic progressive rock, synthetizers,sfx, guitars,Hammond,Violin. If you like Rhapsody, Symphony X or Stratovarious listen a ayreon album, I recommed Eletric Castle instead of this ... or if you already listened to Eletric Castle ... listen to the The Final Experiment."