AYREON — Universal Migrator, Part 1: The Dream Sequencer (review)

AYREON — Universal Migrator, Part 1: The Dream Sequencer album cover

Album · 2000 · Metal Related

4.5/5 · 2010-12-10
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Well what can I tell you about the Dream Sequencer half of Ayreon’s two Universal Migrator albums? Well for a start its not metal, its progressive rock, whereas its companion, Flight of the Migrator, is progressive metal. The two are supposed to complement each other though and they do that nicely. Of the two I'd say that this is the better one, but if you are after metal then this is definitely not the album by Ayreon that you want to be hearing first. While its true that the project's mastermind Arjen Lucassen is greatly influenced by progressive rock artists, The Dream Sequencer is not a staple of the style of Ayreon, being the only album of the seven released to date to sound like this. What we have here is a record aimed directly at Ayreon’s fans that listen to the project for the progressive music over the metal. It’s progressive rock and is heavy on the synthesisers rather than the guitars. Very atmospheric, haunting in parts and very versatile with only one major fault in the form of the song The Temple of the Cat, which I feel lets the album down. I believe that Arjen Lucassen himself considers it his least favourite Ayreon song too. I can agree with that, although I am believer that there is no such thing as a bad Ayreon song and Temple of the Cat is not very long so in perspective it doesn’t lower the final score of this album an awful lot.

A good portion of any Ayreon album is all about the vocals. What we have here is songs that nearly all feature a single singer each and in most cases someone new on every track, the only exception being Lana Lane who sings on both 2084 and Dragon on the Sea. There is a cast of characters as such in the album just like in the previous Ayreon albums that were a part of Arjen Lucassen’s grand story, but this time it’s pre-incarnations of one soul going back through time starting as the last man alive on planet Mars and going back to being the first man alive (No I don’t think that’s a coincidence either). Only this album has a slight similarity to the debut The Final Experiment in the fact that Lana sings for two incarnations. Sadly her voice isn’t the best one on the album. No, I have to give that credit to Neal Morse whose vocals on The First Man On Earth are some of the best heard on Ayreon to date. Arjen Lucassen sings Carried by the Wind all by himself as well and it is his best vocal performance to date on Ayreon as well. Other honourable mentions to Ayreon veterans Edward Reekers and Damian Wilson. The only vocal fault really is in what wasn’t done rather than was we actually have. It would have been nice to hear more of Floor Jansen rather than just as a backing vocalist for Johan Edlund in My House on Mars.

The song writing here has produced some of the best in Ayreon to. My House on Mars has the haunting feel that I mentioned earlier to it, mainly because of Edlund’s vocals and One Small Step features some heavier parts than the rest of the album, giving it more of a kick to it. Carried by the Wind is shorter that the rest and more traditionally structured but comes across as a great addition to the album. But it is the song that is sung by the man that I gave credit as the best on the album that is the best. The First man on Earth is progressive, and catchy without being overly poppy in its chorus. I consider it to be the best of not just the light half of Universal Migrator but of the whole thing. Certainly it is the best light song from any Ayreon release to date.

All in all, another great Arjen Lucassen release.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)