Time And Again

There are those musicians who create songs as a pleasant pastime, writing when the urge to be creative strikes as a fleeting distraction from their everyday lives. Then there are people like Arjen Anthony Lucassen, for whom music and writing consumes every single day of his life.

It’s that drive that has seen him release music under a variety of guises, often laden with guest musicians to add even more sparkle to the recordings. The mainstay is Ayreon – a vehicle for all the genres ranging from metal to folk – which truly encompasses his approach to music. But there’s been a plethora of other musical monikers, from The Gentle Storm, Guilt Machine, Stream Of Passion through to albums released under his own name. The uninitiated may be confused by this array of projects, but Lucassen retains a hugely, produced a definite divergence in his fanbase.