Thweeeeeet!!!!
The storyline is actually 30 pages long!!!! He wrote it all in Italian and I have to translate it.
Here's a not-so-brief synopsis I'll break down for you really quickly:
Mindsystem: Advanced Core is a breakthrough in human and nanotechnology. We are now able to continue the human life indefinitely, provided there is a suitable host. Every single thought, sensation, function, and memory can be stored on a single chip and inserted into a new host at any time. Think of it like Johnny Mnemonic, only without the information smuggling. For the first ten years or so, scientists are testing Army volunteers in a secret laboratory hidden in an undisclosed location in Europe. The first real breakthrough happens after the first few years, which I'll get to now. The team of scientists have finally perfected the method of saving the human mind on a single microchip unique to every person. The host may die and body may break down and decay, but the mind can live on "Forever". "Inside my mind, it will now start...to make me clearly remember forevaaaaaarrrrrr!!!!" There is no soul, no afterlife, no religion; man, or at least the essence of man is now immortal. The retrieval and safe storage of the human mind is complete and is now ready for use in those who choose to take advantage of it, and they shoot for the stars, quite literally. This is where "Goodbye Earth" comes in.
Fast forward a bit. Humankind is now a mutt of humans, prototype cyborgs, and nanotechnology...coexisting for the time being in an uneasy understanding of the other. Just like humans always do, they tend to segregate themselves from those different, and the new prototypes head for a new place, "Bosphorn's Sky Harbour". This is the instrumental of the song. Fast forward a tiny bit, and the cybernetic humans and nanotechnologically modified are now a full-fledged race, deemed "Artificial" by the humans. Here's a lyric from the song: "A gray flame, it burns inside, in veins cold flows liquid fire...weakness of man has been retired. My soul is stored internally, you'll find a man with human dreams, but this silvered heart was not born...it was built." This is the coming of the cyborg race and their rise to power. However, the humans haven't taken kindly to coexisting with cyborgs and have begun a war against the cyborg race. This is "Autosequence of Death", the instrumental war track on the album. Of course, cyborgs have the upper hand and completely annihilate the humans, but not before the humans can carry out their own scorched earth policy of warfare. The aftermath that follows suggests a post-apocalyptic earth, similar to a Terminator scenario or The Animatrix, if you've ever seen that. This is "The Awakening After Destruction" on the album...another instrumental, only synths. Then out of the rubble and ruin remains a few cyborgs and their lament of the destruction of their homeland, due to the war they never wanted. They weren't the perpetrators of the war, they just had the ability to completely annihilate everything in their way...it's in their programming by now. Some are even full-fledged robots and have lost all human contact with themselves. It was just programming. This is the part where "Buried" comes in, and my favorite line of the entire album:
"Fluxor is destroyed, dusted, deserted
My ancient home, is now just a tomb
Through time, through centuries…
I have buried them all
I have lost them all"
The last song is completely in Italian and is only a whisper spoken behind synths...this is "L'ultimo Pensiero", or "The Last Thought". Then there's the bonus track, Futuresadness, which is completely synth and really, really REALLY sad and melancholy. At this point the cyborg race gathers itself and heads towards the stars in search of others like them (many many many years have passed since the invention of Mindsystem), and this is where our second album will pick up where Artificial left off. I hope it wasn't too boring for you guys...the Cliff's Notes version of the story doesn't really do it justice. The original reads like a fucking film. I think he's actually sending it to a film studio as well. These albums are all conceptual and all tie in with each other in a Star Wars kind of way, where the stories may be completely different but are tied together by a single thread. It's actually more of a soundtrack than an album.