Ayreon is a progressive metal/rock band from Hilversum, Netherlands formed in 1995.

Ayreon is the flagship musical project of Arjen Anthony Lucassen, a Dutch multi-instrumentalist, composer, and vocalist. Ayreon releases are usually rock-operas with an ongoing science fiction storyline, although there have been exceptions in the form of Actual Fantasy (not a rock opera) and The Human Equation (not science fiction, but still containing ties to the main storyline).

A common misconception is that the name "Ayreon" is derived from Arjen's own name, but this is purely coincidental: originally the minstrel from the first album The Final Experiment was called Aries, but when this didn't fit the meters for the songs (Arjen himself mispronounced it A-ri-es (Note: This is how the Dutch do pronounce it), it was changed to Ayreon to sound both old-fashioned (Ay) and futuristic (Eon).

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