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Nearly four years after Ayreon's renowned The Human Equation, Arjen puts out his fourth double- disc release in a row. Four years is a lot of time to really allow your material to incubate. I was personally exicted to hear his work with Daniel Gildenlow, Jonas Renkse and Anneke Van Giersbergen - three of the most powerful and/or ethereal vocalists out there. Ayreon's music allows for a lot of possibilities, so this album really had some potential.

Turns out the album shows no progression whatsoever. This is basically the last album with a different concept. The concept of the literal prog-rock opera with the multiple vocalists having dialogue and so on was a fantastic idea, but after 5 albums of basically the same thing, it's time to change. Aside from The Universal Migrator, Arjen has not really tried to experiment with the sound he created in the mid-90s, and that album basically took two of the key elemtents of his sound (space rock and metal) and made one album focusing on each and reserved one singer for each song, which really isn't stretching much. Even if each album is better than the last, after five albums, if you haven't perfected or come darn close to doing so, it's time to think of some new ideas. Unfortunately, this album doesn't even have the attribute of being better than it's predecessor, so it's of even less appeal as a consequence.

In general, the music here is humdrum and somnolent. I feel like it lacks some of the energy and quality instrumental moments from before. It's hard to get through this whole thing without multi-tasking to keep your mind active. It's not bad, but it's the same thing you've already heard with new voices and words. If that's enough to pique your interest, great; check this out. You will like it either if you've never heard an Ayreon album before, or if you don't particularly care for variety in your music. However, if you fall into the former case, just get The Human Equation, maybe one more if you really enjoy it, and you'll probably be set. That's all I have, and I am very content.