One of the most highly anticipated albums of the year has finally been released! “Intense” is Armin van Buuren’s fifth artist album.  The 15 track album was three years in a making, and has taken Armin in an explorative direction. The brand new album is a follow-up to the successful release of “Mirage” in 2010, surpassing any album he has produced in terms of diversity, blending progressive and trance styles into one supreme package.

“Intense” shows how Armin van Buuren continues to stand out as an eccentric musician in a sea of dance music producers who thrive in the trance and progressive genres. This time around, he layers his intricate synth sounds and electronic melodies against a backdrop of orchestral genius comprised of violins, cellos and horns, fusing together personal emotion with mechanical precision.

“These songs came to life just by being in the studio, being who I am and following my gut. I feel closer to myself than I ever have. The album sort of happened to me, it just all came together and the story wrote itself. I didn’t try to force anything, I just did what I found interesting and tried to have as much fun in the studio as possible.” – Armin Van Buuren

The lead-single Intense, with an accompaniment by world-famous violinist, Miri Ben-Ari, whose articulate sound introduces the onset of the intense journey, commences with a minimal string arrangement before building into a jump-up trance anthem. Stretching almost 9-minutes, the vocal-less track repeatedly settles into a more relaxed BPM and subtle string arrangements to allow for breathing room between the massive peaks that are sure to light up future ASOT live events.

Intense is followed by highly publicised This Is What It Feels Like, the first track to be previewed from the album and features the vocals of Candian singer/song writer Trevor Gunthrie. As sweeping strings support the vocal, you find yourself singing along to this plaintive yet happy simple song. A synth arpeggio pushes the track forward in the drop as Guthrie’s “woah” adlibs surround our ears. Sweet and simple, this one’s made for dancing lightly, eyes closed, smiling.  This one’s especially a love ballad for every couple.

In the track Alone, Lauren Evans wrote lyrics influenced by an incidence where she saw a man fall in a crowd, and no one helped him up. And you can truly feel the degree of  emotion with Armin’s incredible production ability. This is probably the most melodically-oriented track on the album, with Lauren Evans’ passionate, sultry vocal performance. The breakdown features a beautiful vocal arrangement with catchy background vocal riffs that will ensure hand-raising, eye-closing sing-alongs at Armin’s shows.

The angelic vocals courtesy of Laura Jansen on Sound of The Drums  has wonderfully pristine  ivory runs that dominate the early portions of the track. There are also hints of progressive and dance pop with tracks like Beautiful Life, featuring the amazing vocals of Cindy Alma and  Turn This Love Around; which has the added production work of Nervo  and the powerful vocals of Laura V. The track, however, is unabashedly infectious electro-pop, much like the earlier works of producer David Guetta.

Armin also fiddles with his love for  Euphoric Trance with Who’s Afraid Of 138?! and shows us a little of his dark and pensive side with hard, fast paced and pulsating productions like Pulsar and Last Stop Before Heaven, which follows a beautiful mellodramatic piano piece, 10 Years From Now.

Clearly mass appeal favourites from the album seem to be Forever Is Ours featuring high-energy synths and massive breaks with the amazing sultry voice of Emma Hewitt that would surely melt your hearts.  He continues this phase with Love Never Came that features the deep voice of Richard Bedford, famous for his collaborations with Emotional Trance biggies, Above & Beyond.

Intense ends with Reprise, a Bagga Bownz collaborated track that has it all – drums, violins, electric guitar, synths – all mashed into one beautiful uplifting track signaling the end of an Intense journey.

Over the past decade Armin has sculpted the face of Trance as we know it. Be it with his individual productions or his radio show, A State of Trance. This album is apt testimony to Armin’s skill as a producer, his prowess with composing and why he’s regarded as the literal God of Trance, by many, the world over. Another important aspect of the album is that even though Armin has experimented with a new sound, he still hasn’t forgotten his roots. Most of the tracks still incorporate that signature sound that Armin is literally worshiped for.

Here’s a preview of the album, but honestly, you need to hear the whole thing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3p3r9snm3M&feature=player_embedded

ArmadaTV,  the official youtube channel of his label, Armada Music, has also begun releasing a weekly commentary by Armin on the production process behind the album. Armin will be covering 5 tracks per episode, and will talk about the story, inspiration and work behind each track from the album.

Here’s the first episode.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q45hSh7F8IA&feature=player_embedded

Intense is out on Armada Music, and you can buy the album, here.