Sinkadotentree This is the only AYREON album that i can seem to tolerate. Mind you it's different from all of the others as it's not a Metal album at all, more like in the PINK FLOYD style. It's very spacey with some electronics too. Heck there's not even the usual all-star cast although having neal Morse sing lead on one track and Damian Wilson involved vocally is a huge plus. Like i said earlier though this one is different from the norm for an AYREON record. You don't get that musical vibe here that i detest with vocalists singing the lines to each other. That's what turns me off with the other albums plus the bombast which is also missing here thankfully. Still a low 4 stars from me but i like the mood of this album and even the concept of it.

kluseba Ayreon's second full length output is a quite unique piece of music from this project. For the first and last time, the Dutch mastermind Arjen Lucassen decided to not invite a high number of guest musicians but did something like a solo project where he played all instruments and invited one main singer as well as one supplementary vocalist. The project feels more like a band in here and this album sounds quite homogenous. It's also the project's shortest full length release and gets quickly to the point. Everything sounds coherent and seems promising. To keep it short, the new project's project happens to be a band project. That's a pretty original statement, isn't it?

But the final result is by far not as brilliant as it could have been. The songs are all very long and surpass all the six minute mark apart of the short introduction. I feel that some of the tracks are artificially stretched and are not varied enough to justify such a length. That wouldn't be much of a problem if the songs had at least a great atmosphere, a gripping passage and some catchy elements but that's just not the case. The songs are mostly calm and slow paced and copy the progressive rock acts of the seventies without reaching the subtle intensity of calmer bands such as King Crimson, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Tangerine Dream or Gentle Giant. "Abbey Of Synn" for example could have been a solid opener if it would have been about five minutes long as everything is already said at this mark. The album closer "Forevermore" has the same problem and instead of finishing the record on a great note, the grand finale turns out to be a quite pointless and mellow stumbling towards the end of the line. The single "The Stranger From Within" shares the same fate. The shortened single version sounded like a tribute to the commercial progressive music of the late seventies and early eighties in the key of Yes and was rather catchy but the album version is twice as long and offers not much more than the short version. Progressive fans might find some interesting musical details from time to time but especially the metal fan section of Ayreon will quickly be turned off by the numerous unnecessary lengths. Let's also add the revisited edition of the album doesn't add anything appealing and actually sounds less coherent than the original release.

There are still a few highlights that keep the record away from sinking into boring mediocrity. The rather modern and catchy "Computer Eyes" is a good effort, the diversified "Beyond The Last Horizon" unites progressive passages, some thrown in metal riffs and catchy hooks and offers everything Ayreon usually stands for and "Back On Planet Earth" has an interesting story, atmosphere and some refreshing heavy passages. The latter is easily the best and most dynamic track on the record and stands out.

In the end, this release has been an interesting experiment from Ayreon and offers something we haven't heard before and afterwards from him. The project sounds like a band in here and offers a rather short and homogenous record. The songs are though artificially stretched and lack of energy, atmosphere and originality so that the final result is Ayreon's weakest release. Many promising ideas and attempts have not led to a satisfying, intriguing and coherent release. While progressive music fans could like this calm tribute to the past of the genre, metal fans might quickly get bored and should skip this album to continue with the great "Into The Electric Castle" which marked the band's stunning breakthrough where Ayreon also found its own style.

kluseba Ayreon is a very unique and unusual band in the metal universe that seems sometimes too abstract to be easy to digest or to approach. It took some time and patience to get deeper into this project that takes its main influences from the progressive music of the seventies that can include electronic and folk sounds rather than heavy metal touches. This first album already establishes a sound that is proper and unique to the band even though there are so many guest musicians working on the project. The way the mastermind Arjen Lucassen writes, composes and structures its music is one of a kind. The project has the same concept as "Avantasia" but focuses on science-fiction topics and sounds. The members of the project are well chosen and have technical skills comparable to progressive acts such as "Dream Theater". The sound of this first album of the project has the epic structures and majesty of a mixture of "Falkenbach" and "King Crimson" and the sound and atmosphere of a mixture of "Rush" and "Tangerine Dream".

The whole first album is full of diversity and well arranged details. The record covers a big spectre from acoustic guitars to flutes and from epic female choirs to heavier growls. The enjoyable fact is that Ayreon takes the time to establish an intriguing atmosphere that fits with the story line instead of heading for the technical perfection and complexity. That's an error many progressive bands commit including Ayreon himself with some of his future works. This album here is smooth and has an enjoyable flow. It focuses on the right melodies and coherent structures and that sounds vivid, human and authentic to me. Don't expect three minute long keyboard solos. Arjen Lucassen doesn't want to be the center of the own universe he created. He rather let his guests be part of it and shares the stage with them on almost equal levels.

It's difficult to point out any songs on the record because it works as a whole. Let's mention that the first couple of songs are quite huge and complicated and not easy to digest. I didn't immediately fell in love with them and rather began to appreciate the album towards the second and especially the last third. In the end, the only problem of the album is that after a promising beginning the less impressing and memorable tracks are right in the beginning of the record and it still takes me some time to get into it. But the further the record goes the more interesting the pieces get and the more I get into the whole concept even if there is a clear lack of a truly memorable hit on this album. The powerful and yet quite diversified orchestral single "Sail Away To Avalon" is the closest one to in this kind of category.

Nevertheless, the true highlights can be found in the smoother songs and mostly in the middle or second half of the record. First of all, there are some really calm songs influenced by natural sounds. I could mention the very ethereal atmosphere of the relaxing "Nature's Dance". Another highlight is without a doubt the dreamy progressive rock killer "Listen To The Waves".

Second, there are some more bombastic and fast paced tracks that present another side of Ayreon's universe. The harmonies and the energy of "Merlin's will" and the majestic closing finale "Ayreon's Fate" are the highlights I want to mention concerning this concrete style of the album.

In third place, there are also some truly experimental tracks on the record that give a hint of what the band would try to install on later releases. The best example on this record is the quite modern and electronic approach that is used in the visionary "Computer-Reign".

In the end, anybody that likes calm and inspiring metal albums, conceptual projects or the whole spectre of progressive music from "Amon Düül" to "Frank Zappa" should check out the entire discography of this diversified composer and this record is a pretty great start to it. It's actually amongst the best Ayreon releases and establishes the basis of what would come later with "Into The Electric Castle" and the other parts of the same saga that begins in here.

kluseba The Ayreon versus Avantasia EP "Elected" is a nice little gimmick for both fans of the Ayreon and the Avantasia project. The cover version of a classic Alice Cooper song has been done by the masterminds of both projects as their albums "01011001", maybe Ayreon's most diversified and perfect record, and "The Scarecrow", probably too the most diversified record of the Avantasia catalogue, have been compared by metal magazines around the world by trying to create an atmosphere of concurrency between the two majestic records instead of praising them for their very different styles and approaches. Arjen Lucassen and Tobias Sammet ridiculise this wrong image of a rivalry between the two projects in a very funny way and original interpretation of the hard rock classic. Tobias Sammet envies Arjen Lucassen for his collaboration with Bruce Dickinson while Arjen Lucassen is jealous about the fact that Tobias Sammet worked with Alice Cooper himself. Ayreon's image is described as intellectual and boring while Avantasia's project is compared to a more sexual and superficial aspect. There are many good jokes in the song and the music is still great and addicting. Both masterminds sound quite relaxed but are definitely on their zenith of originality.

This release includes three more Ayreon songs. Those gimmicks are enjoyable but nothing outstanding and show a more intimate approach to the bombastic project. "E=MC2" becomes a very insightful and quite short acoustic track and "Day Six: Childhood" is a shortened and relaxing piano version of the original. The album version of the very strong "Ride The Comet" presents us nothing new or essential but I think it's a good choice for this release because this track would have been a very strong single from the last output if Ayeron and Avantasia had not decided to work together on this rather interesting "Elected" experiment.

In the end, we have a quite entertaining and diversified release here that is worth to be bought by fans and collectors of both projects at a low price. Let's not that the cover artwork is very detailed and filled with interesting comments and quotations. On the other side, there is nothing really essential or surprising to be found on this little gem and anyone that doesn't know that much about both projects should instead purchase the epic progressive metal masterpiece "01011001" and the commercial rock and world music star ensemble work on "The Scarecrow" first and will probably be blown away by the diversity and creativity of both projects.

Warthur As I mentioned in my review of the other half of this divided double album, this one is the more metal side of the Universal Migrator concept - but, as with the first one, I feel that overall the experience would be improved had Arjen Lucassen trimmed down the songs to the absolute best ones so that he could put out a single really great album with proggy and metal moments in balance. You may slightly prefer this one if you prefer the metal side of Ayreon, but for my part I think it suffers just as much from filler as its other half.