Album title: The Source
Artist: Ayreon
Genre: Rock Opera/Progressive Metal/Progressive Rock
Nationality: Dutch
Release date: April 28
Position in Discography: Ninth
Estimated Rating:
Familiar with this artist? A little yes
Familiar with the genre or subgenre? Very
Average RYM Score: 3.46
Another one recommended (highly) by Mord, though his championing of Mastodon's Emperor of Sand didn't do much to sway me. Ayreon I have heard all right, but any time I've listened to them it's been mostly just ok, nothing that really impresses me. Maybe this will be the one. It's a big project, a double CD running for over eighty minutes, and featuring many guests from the prog rock/prog metal world, such as Dream Theater's James LaBrie, Nightwish's Floor Jansen and Kamelot's Tommy Karevik, among others. The trouble I find with Ayreon's music in general is that it tends to be too involved, too much of a storyline running through each album, and it certainly takes itself far too seriously. Not only that, but the plot on this one, apparently, relates to the plots running through other of their albums, so to fully understand it, perhaps you need to have heard those, and I haven't.
However this is not an in-depth review by any means, so I'll be ignoring all the plot/storyline element and just concentrating on the music, which I have to say right from the beginning is terribly overblown and pompous. Anyone expecting to get into Ayreon through this album would, I feel, be disappointed and might try some earlier albums. I suppose an album like this is a hard one to get a feel for on your first listen, but my initial impression is that, again, it's too complicated and intricate and I'm feeling both a little overwhelmed and also bored. “Everybody Dies” has at least some sense of energy about it, but it's going to be stupid to try to review such a behemoth here, so I'll just say it sounds like it has a whole lot of potential, and I'll give it more time at some point. Still, I could see how someone like, oh say Batty, might listen to a few minutes of this and then throw his hands up in disgust. You really got to be either a big Ayreon fan or into prog to enjoy this, and to take the time to go deeper into it. I will, later. Much later.
Check out more from this artist? Yes
Check out more from this genre or subgenre? Always
Actual Rating: