The cool thing about Ayreon is that all the albums sort of tie into the same story. 'The Source' (the album which this song is from) is technically the start of the story. It's about a race of humans that give control of their planet to a computer (the 'frame) to help solve an environmental catastrophe, but the computer determines that the best course of action is to eliminate the humans. Ten humans and the robot TH-1 escape the planet on the only interstellar ship they have (the 'Starblade') along with the ships crew and head to an ocean planet. The chemist creates a drug ('The Source', aka 'Liquid Eternity') that allows them to evolve into an 'aquatic race'. The drug also makes them basically immortal and allows them to communicate telepathically. The album ends with the survivors (ten plus the ships small crew) living on their new planet ('Planet Y') in relative peace, but in the final track we learn that TH-1 is becoming a new version of the 'frame deep in the ocean. The next album in the timeline, 01011001 ('Y') tells us how machines have now taken over this new planet, and the humans have basically merged with the machines are losing their emotions and sense of time. They now call themselves 'The Forever', since they are essentially ageless drones at this point. We also learn about how they seeded a comet with DNA and sent it to Earth, where it creates human life on our planet. The Forever believe they can live through us telepathically and that they may regain their emotions by doing so. Some of The Forever believe that we need to advance more quickly, and use their telepathy to give us medicine/technology, but this results in us advancing quicker than our morality can cope with. Eventually The Forever realize humanity is doomed and has to decide if they will give them the technology to reverse their past mistakes. Somewhere in the timeline sits the album 'The Electric Castle'From a summary by Arjen: "At the end of the journey those that successfully dealt with their personal demons find out that the voice belongs to an alien named 'Forever of the Stars', a member of an alien race living in a distant galaxy. These aliens created planet Earth and its people as an experiment so they could study, and hopefully one day experience emotions, as they themselves lost feelings eons ago." That's only three albums (less than half!) but I believe those three give you a solid foundation for how the story plays out. Also, I highly recommend any of the Electric Castle Live videos; They are just so fun to watch, plus John de Lancie ('Q' from Star Trek) plays the 'Forever of the Stars' character, which Arjen said he originally based on Q.
Arjen Lucassen - Dutch singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer James Labrie - Lead singer for Dream Theatre Tommy Karevik - Lead singer of Kamelot. Tommy Rodgers - Lead singer of Between the Buried and Me. Simone Simmons - Lead singer of Epica. Nils K. Rue - Lead singer of Pagan's Mind Tobias Sammet - Lead singer of Avantasia. Hansi Kürsch - Lead singer of Blind Guardian. Mike Mills - Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and main songwriter for Toehider. Russell Allen - Lead singer of Symphony X. Michael Eriksen - Lead singer of Circus Maximus. Floor Jansen - Lead singer of After Forever, ReVamp & now Nightwish May I suggest there song "Everybody Dies" live - th-cam.com/video/9AAXtUdM7xE/w-d-xo.html, your going to love this
Just found your channel from this video. This is such a great colab, and it never gets old. Really enjoyed your reaction.. I too, enjoy concept/story albums. Majority of artists today release albums with 2 or 3 great songs and just throw fillers in to make up a full length album. In no way am I saying that the fillers aren't good, but often it feels "disconnected". It's not as common now for bands to "write an album", where you can start at track 1 and not skip a song(regardless if it's a concept album or not). I know that is a subjective opinion and I'm sure there are plenty of bands that I haven't heard that can pull off a "full album". On that note, I have to recommend checking out the Canadian band Unleash The Archers. Their 2 most recent albums are concepts, telling a single, 20 chapter Fantasy/Sci-Fi story over both. Chapters 1-10 are on their 2017 album "Apex", and 11-20 are from their Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album of the Year Juno(Canadian music awards) Award winning album "Abyss". The band takes a lot of influences from 80's power metal, and fuses in modern heavy/melodic metal. Lead singer Brittney Slayes is the mastermind behind the entire storyline. For each song/chapter, she would give the guys the general story/theme being told, and the band wrote each track specific to the chapter. For a few songs though, during practice/jam sessions, she'd hear them play something and she would say(paraphrasing) "that riff is perfect for this chapter", she'd pass off the story for that chapter, and the band would use that to build the track around that riff(melody or whatever lol). Not only does the story(vocals/lyrics) progress track by track, but the instrumental composition progresses smoothly and helps bring out each chapter's theme/emotion. In no way am I saying to listen/react to the entire story haha, just giving you some background information. I highly recommend reacting to chapter 1. If you decide to, I'll post a brief breakdown of the storyline to give you context to that song's lyrics. Unleash The Archers - Awakening (Full Band Playthrough) Link - th-cam.com/video/gqUPGa15Oto/w-d-xo.html
I think my first story album was War of the world's. Arjen use to love a t.v. Sci fi show called Blake's 7 which I also use to love. Plus I love the art work it reminds me of these Sci fi books I use to collect. Thanks for your reaction.
He is doing this for over 3 decades so you have stuff enough to react. You did even come close to the surface 🤘😉 Arjen has 2 main projects Ayreon is story based en Star One is theme based.
You will be pleasantly supprised . as Floors younger sister also sings on ayreon albums and life concerts. The list of artist is just amazing , ranging from Dee Snider(twisted sister) , Fish (marilion ) , Bruce Dickinson (iron maiden) just to name a few of the over 80 singers . There are even famous narators for albums and live concerts Tom Baker ( doctor who) John Delacie ( Q startrek ) Rutger Hauer ( Blade runner) You will enjoy every minute of it as Arjen Lucassen mixes many styles and is inspired by pink floyed , Beatles , led zeppelin , deep purple and many more . There is even a song called Pink Beatles in a Purple Zeppelin.
You’re about to fall into a big rabbit hole and you’ll never want to climb out of it again. Have a look at the two live concerts: Ayreon Universe live The electric castle live and other tales. This is an anniversary concert of the album Into the Electric Castle. Better listen to this album in order of songs to understand the story. Ayreon is a project by Arjen Lucassen. He’s done other projects that are worth listening to: The gentle storm Star One Guild Machine Stream of passion.
Ayreon have two decades worth of concept albums all taking place inside one cohesive universe with connected storylines. You should be able to appreciate that for sure. Arjen also has the side project Star One, which are science fiction theme albums rather than straight up concept albums. You found yourself a rabbit hole here that quickly may turn into quite the black hole sucking you in. Floor Jansen have been a part of the project just about all along, while other people make one-off album appearances. Bruce Dickinson being a good example of the latter.
Ayreon is so good at metal opera albums he has built a universe that spans about 6 to 7 albums and he also has side projects like Star One. he has been inspired by Queen,Pink Floyd, Yes, Cambria and Coheed amongst others
.if it ain't dutch it ain't much... . Welcome in the amazing world of Arjen A. Lucassen Aka Ayreon Universe (Ayreon, Ambeon, Star One, Guilt Machine, Gentle Storm, Stream of Passion).... Enjoy this rabbit hole….!!!!!
The Mike Mills part is the greatest thing I have ever seen a musician do.
The cool thing about Ayreon is that all the albums sort of tie into the same story. 'The Source' (the album which this song is from) is technically the start of the story. It's about a race of humans that give control of their planet to a computer (the 'frame) to help solve an environmental catastrophe, but the computer determines that the best course of action is to eliminate the humans. Ten humans and the robot TH-1 escape the planet on the only interstellar ship they have (the 'Starblade') along with the ships crew and head to an ocean planet. The chemist creates a drug ('The Source', aka 'Liquid Eternity') that allows them to evolve into an 'aquatic race'. The drug also makes them basically immortal and allows them to communicate telepathically. The album ends with the survivors (ten plus the ships small crew) living on their new planet ('Planet Y') in relative peace, but in the final track we learn that TH-1 is becoming a new version of the 'frame deep in the ocean. The next album in the timeline, 01011001 ('Y') tells us how machines have now taken over this new planet, and the humans have basically merged with the machines are losing their emotions and sense of time. They now call themselves 'The Forever', since they are essentially ageless drones at this point. We also learn about how they seeded a comet with DNA and sent it to Earth, where it creates human life on our planet. The Forever believe they can live through us telepathically and that they may regain their emotions by doing so. Some of The Forever believe that we need to advance more quickly, and use their telepathy to give us medicine/technology, but this results in us advancing quicker than our morality can cope with. Eventually The Forever realize humanity is doomed and has to decide if they will give them the technology to reverse their past mistakes. Somewhere in the timeline sits the album 'The Electric Castle'From a summary by Arjen: "At the end of the journey those that successfully dealt with their personal demons find out that the voice belongs to an alien named 'Forever of the Stars', a member of an alien race living in a distant galaxy. These aliens created planet Earth and its people as an experiment so they could study, and hopefully one day experience emotions, as they themselves lost feelings eons ago." That's only three albums (less than half!) but I believe those three give you a solid foundation for how the story plays out. Also, I highly recommend any of the Electric Castle Live videos; They are just so fun to watch, plus John de Lancie ('Q' from Star Trek) plays the 'Forever of the Stars' character, which Arjen said he originally based on Q.
Arjen Lucassen - Dutch singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer
James Labrie - Lead singer for Dream Theatre
Tommy Karevik - Lead singer of Kamelot.
Tommy Rodgers - Lead singer of Between the Buried and Me.
Simone Simmons - Lead singer of Epica.
Nils K. Rue - Lead singer of Pagan's Mind
Tobias Sammet - Lead singer of Avantasia.
Hansi Kürsch - Lead singer of Blind Guardian.
Mike Mills - Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and main songwriter for Toehider.
Russell Allen - Lead singer of Symphony X.
Michael Eriksen - Lead singer of Circus Maximus.
Floor Jansen - Lead singer of After Forever, ReVamp & now Nightwish
May I suggest there song "Everybody Dies" live - th-cam.com/video/9AAXtUdM7xE/w-d-xo.html, your going to love this
Tommy Karevik also lead on his band Seventh Wonder. Edit: latest album released last month
Next song should be 'Everybody Dies' from Ayreon Universe Live. It follows the story and the performers are together on stage.
Next Ayreon: "Everybody Dies" Live!
Just found your channel from this video. This is such a great colab, and it never gets old. Really enjoyed your reaction..
I too, enjoy concept/story albums. Majority of artists today release albums with 2 or 3 great songs and just throw fillers in to make up a full length album. In no way am I saying that the fillers aren't good, but often it feels "disconnected". It's not as common now for bands to "write an album", where you can start at track 1 and not skip a song(regardless if it's a concept album or not). I know that is a subjective opinion and I'm sure there are plenty of bands that I haven't heard that can pull off a "full album".
On that note, I have to recommend checking out the Canadian band Unleash The Archers. Their 2 most recent albums are concepts, telling a single, 20 chapter Fantasy/Sci-Fi story over both. Chapters 1-10 are on their 2017 album "Apex", and 11-20 are from their Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Album of the Year Juno(Canadian music awards) Award winning album "Abyss".
The band takes a lot of influences from 80's power metal, and fuses in modern heavy/melodic metal.
Lead singer Brittney Slayes is the mastermind behind the entire storyline. For each song/chapter, she would give the guys the general story/theme being told, and the band wrote each track specific to the chapter. For a few songs though, during practice/jam sessions, she'd hear them play something and she would say(paraphrasing) "that riff is perfect for this chapter", she'd pass off the story for that chapter, and the band would use that to build the track around that riff(melody or whatever lol).
Not only does the story(vocals/lyrics) progress track by track, but the instrumental composition progresses smoothly and helps bring out each chapter's theme/emotion.
In no way am I saying to listen/react to the entire story haha, just giving you some background information.
I highly recommend reacting to chapter 1. If you decide to, I'll post a brief breakdown of the storyline to give you context to that song's lyrics.
Unleash The Archers - Awakening (Full Band Playthrough)
Link - th-cam.com/video/gqUPGa15Oto/w-d-xo.html
I think my first story album was War of the world's. Arjen use to love a t.v. Sci fi show called Blake's 7 which I also use to love. Plus I love the art work it reminds me of these Sci fi books I use to collect. Thanks for your reaction.
He is doing this for over 3 decades so you have stuff enough to react. You did even come close to the surface 🤘😉 Arjen has 2 main projects Ayreon is story based en Star One is theme based.
You will be pleasantly supprised . as Floors younger sister also sings on ayreon albums and life concerts.
The list of artist is just amazing , ranging from Dee Snider(twisted sister) , Fish (marilion ) , Bruce Dickinson (iron maiden) just to name a few of the over 80 singers . There are even famous narators for albums and live concerts Tom Baker ( doctor who) John Delacie ( Q startrek ) Rutger Hauer ( Blade runner)
You will enjoy every minute of it as Arjen Lucassen mixes many styles and is inspired by pink floyed , Beatles , led zeppelin , deep purple and many more . There is even a song called Pink Beatles in a Purple Zeppelin.
You’re about to fall into a big rabbit hole and you’ll never want to climb out of it again.
Have a look at the two live concerts:
Ayreon Universe live
The electric castle live and other tales. This is an anniversary concert of the album Into the Electric Castle. Better listen to this album in order of songs to understand the story.
Ayreon is a project by Arjen Lucassen. He’s done other projects that are worth listening to:
The gentle storm
Star One
Guild Machine
Stream of passion.
Ayreon have two decades worth of concept albums all taking place inside one cohesive universe with connected storylines. You should be able to appreciate that for sure. Arjen also has the side project Star One, which are science fiction theme albums rather than straight up concept albums. You found yourself a rabbit hole here that quickly may turn into quite the black hole sucking you in. Floor Jansen have been a part of the project just about all along, while other people make one-off album appearances. Bruce Dickinson being a good example of the latter.
I can suggest you "The Mirror Maze", with an hippie, futureman, roman and knight singing!
Ayreon is so good at metal opera albums he has built a universe that spans about 6 to 7 albums and he also has side projects like Star One. he has been inspired by Queen,Pink Floyd, Yes, Cambria and Coheed amongst others
fire reaction, havent seen anyone doing it: Iced Earth - "Dracula" Live (Metal Camp Open Air 2008)
.if it ain't dutch it ain't much... . Welcome in the amazing world of Arjen A. Lucassen Aka Ayreon Universe (Ayreon, Ambeon, Star One, Guilt Machine, Gentle Storm, Stream of Passion).... Enjoy this rabbit hole….!!!!!
Pain Of Salvation does some great story albums you'd enjoy
👋ㅤ【C͟a͟n͟ ͟y͟o͟u͟ ͟p͟l͟e͟a͟s͟e͟ ͟r͟e͟a͟c͟t͟ ͟t͟o͟ ͟“͟T͟h͟e͟ ͟L͟a͟d͟y͟ ͟o͟f͟ ͟H͟e͟a͟v͟e͟n͟”͟ ͟f͟i͟l͟m͟ ͟T͟r͟a͟i͟l͟e͟r͟?】ㅤ
❤️
I already have, it's one of the very first things I did. th-cam.com/video/r7HICcElPz4/w-d-xo.html&t