Ayreon - 01011001 ( or Y)

The new album from dutch hippie metal prog dude Arjen Anthony Lucassen is a milestone. A milestone in the career of the multi-instrumentalist maybe not creatively speaking at least in the big Ayreon story.

Though I will not dwelve into the deep and rich Ayreon history, i'll just lay a few ligns for those you do not know the guy and his project.

Ayreon is A.A Lucassen, metal prog hippie dude fan of TV series, movies and SF. He makes records but not your average ones.

He writes a concept, and go find other instrumentalists and mostly singers away to come and sing on his prog rock metal concept opera rock record.

Yes it may sound like a huge melting pot but Lucassen way, production and music (he composes almost everything and plays half the stuff) gives it a strong sense and direction.

It is not merely an album... it's an Adventure !

So the new album is well the last about a long running SF concept that went through the final experiment, the electric castle, universal migrator and human equation.

01011001 (or Y in binary) wraps up the concept of the story. The alien species called Forever are dying on their planet and decide to shoot a comet to earth to insure the survival of their species...

But unto the music itself. The 2 discs version (with dvd for fans too) is filled with music divided between songs from the planet Y (with it's horde of singers listing there. http://www.ayreon.com/ayreon/ay_01011001.html

and the songs from planet Earth.

The opening track age of shadows is pure ayreon, heavy riff with metallic sound and the singers coming slowly one after the other starting the tale. Rightaway you want to headbang and you let yourself goes on the ayreon rollercoaster. For event if the songs from Y are not really originals as far as Ayreon songs goes, you cannot take it that the chorus lines sink in pretty quick and the riffs stay in the head long.

Here is pure ayreon, nothing new for those you like change but damn efficient.

The change is coming from the 'earth' songs who are mostly quiet and well a bit off from the concept and well break a bit the flow of the disc. If the last one to fit well story-and-music-wise, the other two on the first disc are really odd (though they are nice songs in themselves ^^)

The last song is well really a testament, a legacy, the quintessence of ayreon and the concept and is ( but of course ! ) sung by the man itself.. for he is the main protagonist.

Apart that, the production is as good as always, the chorus ligns insure a good uniformity though each singer still can be recognise with their vocal 'trademarks' (daniel G. hmmmmm yeah ! moaning ^^)

So a strong release, with the concept and lyrics being a real added value as always.

Find your own truth but hey a bunch of them are in there.