Ayreon New Album details "01011001"

his sense of taste and smell? well i can think of a few times when i wished i couldnt smell but taste? i really feel sorry for him; no more steaks, no more cakes, no more pies, cupcakes, ice cream, brownies, chocolate, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, french fries, roast duck, dumplings, apple fritters, apple pie, apple crumble, peaches, peach cobbler, canned peaches, turkey, turkey sandwich, turkey a la king, ham, diced ham, smoked ham, roast ham, honey glazed ham, HAM SANDWICHES!!!!

Just read his interview on DPRP.  Knew about his split with the wife but hadn't heard about his losing his sense of taste and smell.  How awful that has got to be on top of it.  He just seems like a really down to earth guy who has a lot of talent (with little ego) and is a kid in a candy store doing what he is doing but life has dealt him a few blows recently.  Whether you like the new album or not, you got to give the guy his due. 

I'm hoping some stores here will carry it. I hope to be able to get it the day it comes out. 

Easy Livin wrote: Just bumping this one as the release of the album is now imminent.

Maybe imminent in Europe.  We have to wait until Jan 29 in the States. 

Just bumping this one as the release of the album is now imminent.

I've been listening to "Planet Y" now for a couple of days. It's incredible.

The only other Ayreon album I actually own is Into the Electric Castle. I found the story a bit hokey and pretentious in many places (and just pure fun in others) but liked the musical quality of it the best. I've given a listen or two to everything since The Final Experiment but none of the others really clicked for me. Human Equation in particular didn't do anything for me (in the emotional or story sense) even though it was musically excellent. I have a vague understanding of the overall story.

I gave this one a try because I liked the talent I was hearing, and man I was just not ready for what I got when I put those headphones on. This album tells the story of "Planet Y" (Forever's homeworld). It's dark, haunted, murderously melancholy, progressive rock genius all rolled together with a pseudo-industrial sound to set the overall tone of a world fallen into oblivion. Someone needs to send a copy of this to both Trent Reznor and Al Gore - they'll appreciate it for entirely different reasons.

The story this time around is anything BUT corny. The lyrics aren't perfect but never fail to be at least adequate, and some of them are just downright fantastic. This is a far more serious album just oozing science fiction... there isn't a hell of a lot of plot, more like a history lesson of how a race can lose everything while trying to conquer science and acquire knowledge. It isn't the quest of knowledge that is the problem - it's the increasingly unnatural technology used to achieve it. Forever achieves mastery of the entire universe only to find they have no meaning left to drive them.

I won't spoil the story for you, that's just what comes out in the stunning opening track (and there's two CDs left to go!) Fans of the series can doubtless guess what happens next. Frankly I think Age of Shadows was every bit as epic an opener as The Poet & The Pendulum from Nightwish's latest Dark Passion Play.

After hearing this one, the story has my attention enough for me to go out and pick up Ayreon's entire catalog - something Coheed and Cambria hasn't managed to do yet. Consider me a converted Ayreon fan. I haven't enjoyed an album like this in a very long time, reminds me of the first time I actually 'heard' Amarok.

It's going to take me a while to digest this one yet - and I don't want to review it on progarchives until I've got my head firmly around the rest of the catalog. The music has respectful (almost playful) nods to Giorgio Moroder's Metropolis score from the 1980s - Arjen must be a fan. It's taken industrial sound influences from NIN, thrown a dash of Tool in, but put them to work in more active ways weaving around Ayreon's own sound (which is still there, never fear). It is cold as ice and very, very dark, something I didn't feel in the other albums despite the subject matter at times. I'd bet at least once you'll find yourself feeling sorry for Forever and have an entirely new perspective on the events of Into The Electric Castle. I can only wonder if it shines more light on the other albums I'm not more familiar with (yet).


I'm thinking 5/5, betting it'll rate 4.2+. Just brilliant.

T R A C K L I S T

		Disc 1 - Y
		1.     Age of Shadows               incl. We Are Forever	10:47
		2.     Comatose	4:26
		3.     Liquid Eternity	8:10
		4.     Connect the Dots	4:13
		5.     Beneath the Waves	8:26
		(a) Beneath the Waves                     (b) Face the Facts                     (c) But a Memory...                     (d) World Without Walls                     (e) Reality Bleeds
		6.     Newborn Race	7:49
		(a) The Incentive                     (b) The Vision                     (c) The Procedure                     (d) Another Life                     (e) Newborn Race                     (f) The Conclusion
		7.     Ride the Comet	3:29
		8.     Web of Lies	2:50
		Disc 2 - EARTH
		1.     The Fifth Extinction	10:29
		(a) Glimmer of Hope                     (b) World of Tomorrow Dreams                     (c) Collision Course                     (d) From the Ashes                     (e) Glimmer of Hope (reprise)
		2.     Waking Dreams	6:31
		3.     The Truth Is In Here	5:12
		4.     Unnatural Selection	7:15
		5.     River of Time	4:24
		6.     E=MC2	5:50
		7.     The Sixth Extinction	12:18
		(a) Echoes on the Wind                     (b) Radioactive Grave                     (c) 2085                     (d) To the Planet of Red                     (e) Spirit on the Wind                     (f) Complete the Circle

Update on the release dates:

January 25th:
Germany, Austria, Switzerland

January 28th:
Europe

January 29th:
U.S and Canada

Other territories & labels TBA.

edit: BTW, the above comes from Ayreon's site

http://www.ayreon.com/ayreon/ay_01011001.html#tracks

Edited by rushaholic - November 05 2007 at 21:09

sleeper wrote: I think she left The Gathering in about June.

sad...
she has a new project I reckon but seems very 'poppy'...

aapatsos wrote: just saw the site and was amazed by the excellent names of guests (including Englund of course...) great singers and musicians all over there was one thing I realised and was not aware Anneke is not in Gathering anymore man, where was I when this happened? (probably in the army... ) anyways the line-up is promising, hope to produce another masterpiece

I think she left The Gathering in about June.

All good!!!