Arjen Anthony Lucassen

Arjen Anthony Lucassen
Arjen Anthony Lucassen signing an autograph in 2006
Background information
Also known as	Arjen Lucassen Arjen A. Lucassen Iron Anthony Anthony
Born	(1960-04-03) 3 April 1960 (age 57) Hilversum, North Holland, Netherlands
Origin	The Hague, South Holland, Netherlands
Genres	Progressive rock, heavy metal, folk, electronic, psychedelia, classical
Instruments	vocals, guitars, bass, hammond, keyboards
Years active	1980–present
Associated acts	Ayreon, Star One, Ambeon, Guilt Machine, The Gentle Storm, Stream of Passion, Bodine, Vengeance
Website	Arjen A. Lucassen Website

Arjen Anthony Lucassen (born 3 April 1960, Netherlands) is a Dutch progressive metal/rock songwriter, singer, multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer, best known for his long-running progressive opera project titled Ayreon.

Lucassen started his career in 1980 as the guitarist and backing vocalist of Dutch band Bodine as Iron Anthony, before joining Vengeance in 1984. After eight years he left the band, wanting to go into a more progressive direction, and released two years later an unsuccessful solo album entitled Pools of Sorrow, Waves of Joy under the nickname Anthony.

In 1995, Lucassen released an album uncredited to any artist called Ayreon: The Final Experiment, in which he sang, wrote every song and played most of the instruments. The album conducted to the creation of successful progressive rock/metal project Ayreon, which established Lucassen as a notable composer of rock operas. Following Ayreon's success, Lucassen has been involved in many other projects: he is the creator, composer and current guitarist/keyboardist of Star One, Guilt Machine, The Gentle Storm, the currently inactive band Ambeon, and the creator and former guitarist of Stream of Passion. He composes and writes most of his songs, but leaves the lyrics to his musical partners in some of his projects.

Lucassen plays a wide variety of instruments: his main instruments are guitar and keyboards, however he also plays bass, banjo and many others. Overall, in his career and including all his bands and projects (as principal instrumentalist/creative force or as a member), Lucassen has released twenty-three studio albums, two live albums, four EPs and seventeen singles. He has also made many minor participations alongside various artists including Shadow Gallery, After Forever, Within Temptation and Avantasia, and the number of studio albums that includes Lucassen is more than 50.