THE HUMAN EQUATION

I happened to pick this up quite a while ago, but just haven't had the chance to review it. It is a concept album, essentially about a man who falls into a coma under mysterious circumstances and must decide whether to live or die. There is a major twist at the end, something which has to do with AYREON's previous concept albums. The music is extremely diverse, ranging from death metal to folk to synths to symphonic rock, and with even a little bit of country thrown in. But not mixed, really. Each track ("day") is extremely diverse, and a lot of genre-skipping occurs.

This album actually seems to have a conceptual relation to many prog concept albums: the concept of life-or-death and comas. Tons of concept albums have dealt with this, including GENESIS' "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway" (which is actually about the decision between spiritual life or stagnation, since the main character dies in the second track), and THE MARS VOLTA's "Deloused in the Comatorium." The latter is actually the antithesis of "The Human Equation," since while AYREON's character chooses to live, Cerpin Taxt of "Deloused" chooses to go through with his suicide.

I really have nothing more to add to all the other reviews here, which have pretty much everything else covered.