Ayreon - The Source (2017)

From what started only as experimental project, Ayreon has now become one of most respected metal opera in the industry. One of the most waited as well. We have reach the ninth studio album of Ayreon, an 2017 release that simply called The Source. As we know, each album consisted of complex music in the spirit of metal opera with multiple story and plots. When I first listen to Ayreon, (it was The Human Equation album), it took days to fully grab the whole music. In short, when Ayreon album is coming up, it's a busy day in the office to write a review. (See The Theory of Everything review here)

Ayreon wouldn't be a metal opera without Arjen Lucassen Justice League-like recruitment. Arjen just picked the greatest musician in the list and put them in task to finish his album. Sounds pretty good. So, before reviewing the music, we should satisfied our eyes with a list of musicians invited here in The Source . As listed below, there are recurring characters such as James LaBrie as The Historian, Tobias Sammet, Tommy Karevik and so on. On the musician listed, we got a boost from big names such as Paul Gilbert. Seriously, this is kind of a blend between Arrowverse and Marvel universe when we can combine the world of Dream Theater and Mr.Big and Guthrie Govan, in one band.

Vocalists
    James LaBrie (Dream Theater) as The Historian
    Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder) as The Opposition Leader
    Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me) as The Chemist
    Simone Simons (Epica) as The Counselor
    Nils K. Rue (Pagan's Mind) as The Prophet
    Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia) as The Captain
    Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) as The Astronomer
    Mike Mills (Toehider) as TH-1
    Russell Allen (Symphony X) as The President
    Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus) as The Diplomat
    Floor Jansen (Nightwish, ex-After Forever) as The Biologist
    Zaher Zorgati (Myrath) as The Preacher
Production
    Arjen Anthony Lucassen - production, mixing, recording
    Yann Souetre - cover art and booklet
Musicians
    Arjen Anthony Lucassen - electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, keyboards etc.
    Ed Warby - drums
    Joost van den Broek (ex-After Forever) - piano
    Ben Mathot - violin
    Maaike Peterse (Kingfisher Sky) - cello
    Jeroen Goossens (ex-Pater Moeskroen) - flute, wind instruments
    Paul Gilbert - guitar solo
    Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats, ex-Asia) - guitar solo
    Marcel Coenen (Sun Caged) - guitar solo
    Mark Kelly (Marillion) - synthesizer solo

Now the music is based on one of Ayreon universe. This is believe to be the prequel to a storyline that ended in 01011001 album. Well, short of J.K. Rowling temptation to write Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them thing. By the way, we can simply ignore the narration and started enjoying the musics. Admit it or not, even though all the progressive metal band try to do something out of the box, they always sounds as what they are.  We kind of easily distinguished Arjen Lucassen works. His melody is prominent to acknowledged. The first couple of notes in the first opening song "The Day That the World Breaks Down" .already revealed who's the artist before we read the cover. This is not to say that the music will be repeating the work prior, but with this "limited exploration" come another 87 minutes of adventure.

The Source opened up with that song which last 12:56 minutes. The song simply divided in two big section that cut in the "01110100 01110010 01110101 01110011 01110100 01010100 01001000 00110001" lyric sung by TH-1 (Michael Mills). The second section of The Day That the World Breaks Down started with a nice bass grove with a lyric revealing more about the story. The second interesting point is in the song "Everybody Dies". This is kind of Queen cross over with Dream Theater breed. Jump to "All That Was", we got female voices in this song. All That Was is the real first de javu we have. I swear I listened to this melody before, a very good amnestic experience by composer Arjen. For those who love power metal, "Run! Apocalypse! Run!" is one of catchy tunes. The other song that having strong guitar riff can be found in "Aquatic Race". Then come "The Dream Dissolves" and most significant in "Deathcry of a Race" which having Jethro Tull-like flute tunes. "Into the Ocean" is very Rainbow-like of '80s hair metal sounds. Think this is one of my favorite from the album. In the final parts, after several "filler" songs, the last moment is in "Journey to Forever". The plot twister a mandolin sounds for sure. The album ended with "March of the Machines", a robotic sound song. The album very much ended in a hanging plot in the style of Game of Thrones. Or perhaps this should continued in one of Ayreon past album. I having confirmed it yet. See, a busy day in the office.

Imagine there is a metal version of La La Land. Ayreon's The Source is not only the La La Land of progressive metal, this is the Star War double trilogy of prog metal. There are enough music composition for every scenes and details. Even after passing nine studio albums, this album is in the same quality as their predecessor.  Grab this and listen to the story prior the destruction of human being, in the place far from solar system.

Metal Harem class : ********* nine stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Disc 1
1. The Day That the World Breaks Down
2. Sea of Machines
3. Everybody Dies
4. Star of Sirrah
5. All That Was
6. Run! Apocalypse! Run!
7. Condemned To Live

Disc 2
1. Aquatic Race
2. The Dream Dissolves
3. Deathcry of a Race
4. Into the Ocean
5. Bay of Dreams
6. Planet Y Is Alive!
7. The Source Will Flow
8. Journey To Forever
9. The Human Compulsion
10. March of the Machines