Arjen Lucassen

Arjen Lucassen — Dutch multi-instrumentalist and composer — is the creator of Ayreon and the author of the rock-opera format that defined an entire subgenre. Ayreon's idea, begun in 1995, is simple to describe and hard to execute: write a complete science-fiction narrative and distribute it among dozens of guest vocalists, each playing a character, over a base combining progressive metal, 1970s symphonic rock and acoustic instrumentation. Lucassen writes everything, plays most of the instruments and produces. It is industrial-scale work done by one person. Each Ayreon record gathers twenty or more singers from different bands, with timbres and techniques incompatible with one another, and the task is to write for each voice specifically — closer to operatic composition than to rock's usual practice. Besides Ayreon he maintains Star One, a project with more direct and heavier material, and several others. The influence is wide: Avantasia, Soulspell and practically every later metal opera operate on the model he consolidated. Lucassen almost never tours — his work exists primarily as records, which is also an aesthetic choice.