OUT IN THE REAL WORLD

This EP from Arjen Lucassen's Stream of Passion project contains a single edit of the song "Out in the Real World",from their debut album Embrace the Storm,and three non album tracks. The first two bonus tracks aren't even new tracks,but are re-workings of songs from Ayreon albums."Computer Eyes" is from the Ayreon album Actual Fantasy,and while it still has the feel of the Ayreon song,the mellow vocals of Edmund Reekers suits the song better than Bovio's. The second bonus track is "Pain" from the Human Equation album and is definitely not an improvement on the original.It has the softer female vocals of Bovio and sister Diana(who provides additional vocals on all three bonus tracks)but the Ayreon track has the subtle variations that result from four vocalists participating.Pretty hard to compete against James Labrie,Heather Findlay,Devin Townsend and Devon Graves. The last track is a cover of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks".The bluesy Zeppelin feel is gone,along with the mouth organ parts,and this song has basically been turned into a prog metal track.This cover is the best song on the ep,and includes an excellent guitar solo by Lori Linstruth 2 Stars,I would recommend it to fans of Stream of Passion and Arjen completionists,but there is nothing really new or exciting here.