Night Castle is the fifth studio album by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. It was released on October 28, 2009 as a double CD with a 60-page booklet illustrated by Greg Hildebrandt, and debuted at No. 5 on the Billboard charts and No. 1 on the rock music charts. It was certified gold in eight weeks and is currently a platinum album.

Overview

The story revolves around a young child on a beach late at night, where she encounters a mysterious but non-threatening stranger. While they build a sandcastle together by the light of a bonfire, he tells her a tale that takes her all around the world and throughout history. The characters of this story include an American Vietnam War soldier named William Cozier, the Renaissance era philosopher Erasmus who is the keeper of the eponymous castle of lost knowledge, and a Communist general based on the dissident Tran Do. In 2011, Atlantic released the album on vinyl in an eight side (four disc) set in a special slip box designed to avoid the cracked corners that plague many vinyl box sets. The album includes a version of Kim Fowley's Nut Rocker as a tribute to Emerson, Lake & Palmer, who in turn had performed the song as a tribute to Tchaikovsky. Greg Lake from Emerson, Lake & Palmer honored the band by playing bass on the album. Bonus tracks include the songs "Child of the Night" and "Believe" which, according to the band, are a glimpse into future projects. An additional bonus track, "The Flight of Cassandra", was available exclusively online on Amazon.com, the first time that TSO had done something like this.

Savatage connections

Some of the songs on Night Castle trace their origins to music written by Savatage, the heavy metal band from which the Trans-Siberian Orchestra evolved.

Reception

The album was rated 2.5 stars out of 5 by Allmusic, while the site's users gave it an average rating of 3.5 stars, based on 38 reviews. As of April 2013, iTunes customers rated it an average of 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 5.

Track listing

Disc one

Disc two

Personnel

Performers

Vocals

Solo: Backup: Guide: Gospel Choir: Child Choir: Vietnamese Dialogue:

Instruments

Band: Strings: Additional Instruments:

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts