THE HUMAN EQUATION

I have not heard any of Ayreon's other albums and i wouldn't know what to expect from them as this album has a wide cast of prog friends. My favourites on this album are James Labrie, as i am a huge Dream Theater fan, Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth and whoever the female is who does the vocals on track 1 and track 2. I love her voice and it's nice to see a woman in the prog world.

This is one of the best concept albums out there, a lot of work has been put into this. I love the way each track represents a day and each vocalist plays a character that represents human emotions, building up the human equation i suppose. Its a very interesting album indeed.

This album can be very difficult to listen to as a whole as it has lots of different vocalists, different styles and is 2 discs long! If you like all these styles then it is a masterpiece! its nice to see a large range of musical expression from such a great cast. Very inspiring and this album should go down as one of the most original and special albums ever made.

There are too many great moments to pinpoint on this album, one disapointment i had is that at times this album can be so over the top and dramatic that it can be offputting slightly. It is still very good music but it can be too much at times. The guitar work is incredible, ranging from heavy riffage (the one on track 2 is a killer!), soft acoustic work, there is a lot of depth instrumentally on this album and is great to see some prog idols collaborating together. Hats off to Ayreon for bringing them all together to make such a good piece of music. There is definetly something for everyone here and it is one of the best albums of 2004.One downside is that everytime i listen i get that "Tales from Topographic Oceans" effect, simply because there is far too much here to take in and that it has so much range musically that once i get into one theme, it might only last for a few tracks. Overall This album is a masterpiece, blending influences of all the prog giants. You can definetly here some seventies prog magic on this album, disguised in a modern way.