UNIVERSAL MIGRATOR, PART 1: THE DREAM SEQUENCER

Of all the Ayreon releases, this is the one that I find stands out. Not necessarily because it's musically better than the others (it doesn't top any of the double albums) but simply because the style is taken in a very unique direction. Most Ayreon music features alot of different, highly-progressive changes throughout a song, and a strong metal influence. However, 'The Dream Sequencer' concentrates primarily on Ayreon's softer, more emotive side. The result is an introspective album that stands out as Ayreon's best single-disc album.

As a contrast to the metal-oriented 'Flight of the Migrator' (relatable to Opeth's Damnation/Deliverance releases) 'The Dream Sequencer' takes the listener to the planet Mars, where the last surviving human is spending his last few days alive on a Mars colony. In order to spend his remaining hours in relative comfort, steps into a Virtual Reality capsule called the dream sequencer. This mechanism takes him back to his soul's past lives, and each most of the songs on the album (excluding the Intro and Outro) reflect their own past life. In this fashion, there is a wide span of content, ranging from apocalyptic warfare, to the Apollo 11 lunar landing, to a Mayan festival and even a reference to 'The Final Experiment.'

Alot of the music draws upon alot of electronic instruments and synthesizers. It fits in very well with the science fiction theme of the album. The performances of the singers range from mediocre to well done; Damian Wilson's performance in 'And The Druids Turned To Stone' stood out to me particularly. Instrumentally, there isn't anything thats incredibly technical, but you can get a real feeling of the musicianship and skill through the amount of emotion conveyed.

While it may be outshined by the three double albums (Into The Electric Castle, The Human Equation, 01011001) 'The Dream Sequencer' stands out as an amazing and emotional concept album, and one of Arjen's greatest musical hours.

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