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Now -- what are you listening to? V3 |
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UMUR ![]() MMA Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Errors & Omissions Team / Retired Admin Joined: 25 Mar 2010 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 18139 |
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I think it´s a decent release, but the preceding releases are far superior in my World.
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UMUR ![]() MMA Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Errors & Omissions Team / Retired Admin Joined: 25 Mar 2010 Location: Denmark Status: Offline Points: 18139 |
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Psydye ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: 22 Jan 2013 Location: PA, USA Status: Offline Points: 12382 |
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Psydye ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: 22 Jan 2013 Location: PA, USA Status: Offline Points: 12382 |
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BitterJalapeno ![]() MMA Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Grunge/Post-grunge & Moderator Joined: 12 Sep 2020 Location: Glasgow Status: Offline Points: 461 |
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Psydye ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: 22 Jan 2013 Location: PA, USA Status: Offline Points: 12382 |
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![]() These guys are great! Superb tech death.
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DippoMagoo ![]() MMA Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Power & Neo, Goth & Symph, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 31 Aug 2014 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 3053 |
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DippoMagoo ![]() MMA Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Power & Neo, Goth & Symph, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 31 Aug 2014 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 3053 |
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^I have mixed thoughts. The music and performances are brilliant as always, and the first disc is pretty much perfect, imo. However, the second half just feels kinda uneven and all over the place, with many of the tracks not really qualifying as songs, and while I defended The Astonishing for doing something similar, the difference is that album's plot had me fully invested, where this one just loses me on disc 2. The actual ending is great, but the way it gets there just feels.... Kinda cheap? I don't know, something is just bother me about disc 2, and I hope I can get over, but so far this is definitely my least favorite Ayreon album in ages, while still being great overall.
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BitterJalapeno ![]() MMA Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Grunge/Post-grunge & Moderator Joined: 12 Sep 2020 Location: Glasgow Status: Offline Points: 461 |
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adg211288 ![]() Forum Admin Group ![]() ![]() Black Metal, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 22025 |
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![]() http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/album/spocks-beard/spocks-beard
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adg211288 ![]() Forum Admin Group ![]() ![]() Black Metal, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 22025 |
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Do you have the comic or downloaded the extended liner notes PDF? It makes it much easier to follow the story if you read along as you listen. I agree it's not his best work, it won't become my favourite in a hurry (probably not ever) but I'm still quite happy with it. It's a bit different and I think that's okay.
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DippoMagoo ![]() MMA Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Power & Neo, Goth & Symph, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 31 Aug 2014 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 3053 |
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![]() This isn't very good, LOL ![]() I have two issues with it, at this point. 1. I find once the focus moves away from Daniel, it kinda just falls apart, because none of the other characters feel well realized, except maybe Simone's Angel of Death. Like, even the tracks without Karevik on disc 1 work because they're all mostly about his character, but once the other characters come in it just gets kinda messy. It also doesn't help that Abby is very poorly handled, imo, despite her vocalist being very good. The character herself just feels so wasted. Also, it feels like Lavinya is about to get a redemption arc towards the end, but then..... She just doesn't? I have no clue what's going on there, at all. Disc 2, track 10 is where things get really confusing, making it seem like Abby may potentially be saved, but then the next we hear her father asks "Why did we die?" and I'm like "seriously, WTF just happened?" 2. The tonal dissonance is insane. That's always been a bit of a thing with Ayreon, but for an album with such a dark story, it's just so silly and light-hearted at times, the two tones just clash together and it doesn't work in spots. Most notably, whenever it does get really dark, it fails to register because so much of the rest of the album sounds so silly upbeat, it feels like you're listening to two different albums. This even happens within tracks, like when Dee Snider suddenly goes from angry, mean dad to soft for one section, then switches right back to normal at the end, so it's like 'where the hell did that one section even come from". It sure doesn't fit the song at all. I don't know, I'm overthinking it, for sure, but for some reason this is the first Ayreon album where the lyrics are really bothering me. It's still either a high 4/low 4.5 star album for the music and performances, but it's definitely the worst Ayreon in quite some time. Edit: I'm downloading the lyric sheet now to see if that helps clear some things up, but I don' think anything could fix some of the issues this album has, like Henry just being awful (not even the singer, just the character himself being a lame stereotype, even more so than past Ayreon characters and without any of the fun and charm.)
Edited by DippoMagoo - 25 Sep 2020 at 1:02pm |
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666sharon666 ![]() Forum Admin Group ![]() ![]() Black, HM/HR/Glam Teams Joined: 29 Dec 2010 Status: Offline Points: 4084 |
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It's four stars for me for now. It has some good memorable songs (mostly the singles) but overall I find it a bit stripped back and not as adventurous as it could be. I also feel like it could be longer considering it's a double album.
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DippoMagoo ![]() MMA Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Power & Neo, Goth & Symph, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 31 Aug 2014 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 3053 |
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Well, just taking a quick peek at the lyric book, it seems to have part of the comic, as well, so once this listen finishes I'll restart it, and follow along with the comic images to see if that improves the album at all. I really want to love this, but so far disc 2 just doesn't seem very good, aside from the two singles.
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adg211288 ![]() Forum Admin Group ![]() ![]() Black Metal, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 22025 |
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The PDF with the lyrics has all the comic, I can confirm, since I have the physical comic. Actually about the physical packaging it really sucks that it's only the Earbook that gets the full lyrics printed anyway. I get that the comic shrunk down to CD size for a booklet would suck, but they at least could have still printed the lyrics on their own.
I like the album a lot, I find it a very easy listen, though as pointed out in my review I do have some gripes with it. There's only a few true highlights and that's mainly the singles. And Arjen didn't use every vocalist as well as he could have done. I especially think that the two Furies should have been developed more as actual characters, not just the Angel's cheerleaders. I have no issue with the actual story beyond the lack of certain character development. Yes it might seem odd that Daniel is on so many tracks on disc 1 then so few on disc 2, but also remember that some of his disc 1 parts are really, really short and overall it's more balanced than it appears on paper. The style of story is course very different for Ayreon, despite some fantasy elements, since it's essentially a tragedy.
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DippoMagoo ![]() MMA Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Power & Neo, Goth & Symph, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 31 Aug 2014 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 3053 |
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![]() Wait, so this all happened because a set of candles fell over and burned Daniel's room? Yeah, so without the comic, I would have had no clue at all what actually happened to Daniel. That's disappointing, because previous albums were easy to follow without needing any outside material: You just needed to listen closely to the lyrics and it all made sense.
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adg211288 ![]() Forum Admin Group ![]() ![]() Black Metal, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 05 Nov 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 22025 |
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Yeah this isn't as clear as it could be; it really was designed to both listen and read at the same time.
The previous albums also had better liner notes if you did get stuck at any point. In general the CD version's packaging just isn't as good as the last two albums. I was expecting another hardback digipak like the last two albums but it's just a regular old digi with a foldout sheet with guest musicians and a few notes and no lyrics. Expenses were cut, I think.
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DippoMagoo ![]() MMA Special Collaborator ![]() ![]() Power & Neo, Goth & Symph, Prog/AG Teams Joined: 31 Aug 2014 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 3053 |
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Well, I can understand the story now, but I still kinda wish I couldn't, tbh. I know what it's going for, I think, but it just doesn't quite work, imo. Too much tonal dissonance, an overreliance on the comic book, and then there's the fact I just don't think I'd ever like this story, at least not in its current form. Still a great album, but my opinion hasn't improved, and I don't think it ever will, unfortunately.
Edited by DippoMagoo - 25 Sep 2020 at 2:48pm |
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Psydye ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: 22 Jan 2013 Location: PA, USA Status: Offline Points: 12382 |
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Psydye ![]() Forum Senior Member ![]() ![]() Joined: 22 Jan 2013 Location: PA, USA Status: Offline Points: 12382 |
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