Like in all of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's previous albums, the story in Night Castle is as important as the music. 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 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 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.
Reception
As of November, 2019, the album currently has a 2.5 out of 5 star rating on music website Allmusic, based on 37 reviews. As of April, 2013, iTunes customers rated it an average of 4.5 on a scale of 1 to 5.
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.
"The Mountain" was originally recorded as "Prelude to Madness" on Savatage's Hall of the Mountain King album. The song itself is based on Edvard Grieg's In the Hall of the Mountain King with new music added in the style of Holst.
Parts of the song "The Lion's Roar" are taken from the song "Temptation Revelation" off of the Gutter Ballet album. Parts are also from the traditional Irish song "The Minstrel Boy".
"Mozart and Memories", a reworking of Mozart's Symphony No. 25, was originally recorded as "Mozart and Madness" on Dead Winter Dead.
"Believe" was originally featured on ; portions of it also appear in "Alone You Breathe" on Handful of Rain and "When The Crowds Are Gone" on Gutter Ballet. The version on Nightcastle includes a mix of vocalist Tim Hockenberry's vocals that were recorded in his garage and later in the studio and the only extended guitar studio contribution to TSO by Alex Skolnick.
