THE HUMAN EQUATION

I haven't reviewed this album until now, but I think it's the best progressive metal concept album ever released, also because it's not "just" progressive metal. So if you are a mono- thematic listener who likes only that subgenre be prepared to be disappointed, as this very complicated concept contains at least folk, symphonic and even a bit of neo, plus of course the metal.

The concept is about a man in coma after a car crash and his emerging back to life while the relevant persons of his life go to see him in the hospital. The story is quite complicated as the things will be revealed very different from what they initially seem. More complex than any Roger Waters' nightmare.

Each character has its own voice, as often happens with Ayreon and in general all the projects involving Arjen Lucassen, and there are many remarkable guests: just look to the lineup on the top of the album's page here on PA. One for all the former Mostly Autumn vocalist Heather Findlay but also Michael Akerfeldt, James LaBrie between the many and even a keyboardist like Oliver Wakeman who interprets a solo on "Day Sixteen: Loser" with a surprising Emerson's style, despite to his family name.

This appears to be the 129th review of the album and this is why I didn't attempt my own one until now. There's almost nothing that I can add to what is already said. I just want to underline that if you want to spend about a couple of hours listening to excellent music and following an excellent and amazing story this is one of the best albums that you can find.

Not properly a rock opera and not just an album but surely a masterpiece. The last remark that I want to make is the use of growl on the already mentione Day Sixteen. It's one of the rare songs in which the growling is functional to the song and not just a standardized way of singing metal.

I think it's a masterpiece. It's surely one of the albums I've listened to more often during the last years, and I'm not a prog metal fan.