On the Seventh Day of Christmas
My true love gave to me:



The limited edition deluxe vinyl of Ayreon's debut album, The Final Experiment, the one that started the whole Ayreon mythology that spans several albums. Lucassen's vision starts here, but the narrative itself is in medias res, following the classic Greek model to great effect. The story opens with humans at the end of humanity's timeline sending messages, in the form of visions of the future, into the past to warn humanity of its impending doom. The visions are picked up by Ayreon, a dark-ages bard in the time of Camelot. This Ayreon's third best album, in my opinion, the Medieval Folk Metal perfectly placed.

This is a 180-gram limited edition, as you can see in the photo. This is 861 of 1000. It comes in a lovely, sturdy box.



Inside is the double album itself in a gatefold sleeve containing the narrative, acknowledgements, and lyrics. But what really sold me on purchasing this was the bonus disc, a selection of songs from the album re-recorded with new singers and arrangements in semi-acoustic versions.




And of course the marble vinyl itself is just a joy to watch spin!