Ayreon - Ayrenoauts Only
Transmission Records (Europe) - 2000
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Ayreonauts Only is the "newest" release by Ayreon. I put newest in quotations because this album contains "versions of known Ayreon songs, home demo's & newly recorded songs, sung by different singers." There are 11 songs on this CD and almost half of the songs are from the Universal Migrator albums; the other songs come from the other Ayreon albums Into the Electric Caste, Actual Fantasy, and The Final Experiment. Finally, there is a song from Arjen's new band: Ambeon. The booklet is very cool because Arjen puts down his thoughts about each song and he compares them to the versions found in the albums.
Out of all the songs in this album I was most excited to hear the version of "Into the Black Hole" by Damian Wilson and Lana Lane. I consider this song, that is found in Flight of the Migrator, to be the best song of 2000 because of Bruce Dickinson's great vocal performance. So I was really curious to hear how other singers would handle this version. In all truth this version is not as great. Damian really does not have the range and the powerful voice that I think this song needs. Lana Lane also sings more lead parts in this song and while she does a great job, some of her parts are sung slower than Bruce sang them. I am definitely glad that Bruce was able to sing this song and that his version made it into Flight of the Migrator. However, while I did not like this version I have to say that the versions of the next two songs "Out of the White Hole" and "Through the Wormhole" are way better than the versions on Flight of the Migrator. Robert Soeterboek takes care of the lead vocals in "Out of the White Hole" and he does a much better job than Timo Kotipelto did. I really like how Robert sings in an almost growl-rough-like voice. The same goes with how Ian Parry sings "Through the Wormhole". The first moment I heard this version, the way his voice and the music merge together, reminded me immediately of his band Elegy. This song was made for Ian to sing the lead and now what I considered to be the weakest track on Flight of the Migrator this version makes it one of the better songs from that album.
One of the biggest surprises from this release has to be the demo "Carpe Diem (Chaos)". This was recorded in 1992 and it is the demo that is the basis for the opening instrumental of Flight of the Migrator "Chaos". The version on this album of "Temple of the Cat", which is sung by Astrid van der Veen (who is the lead singer of the new band Ambeon and is only 14 years old!), has taken me a while to get used to it because it is really different to the version found in the album The Dream Sequencer. This is not to say that is bad but it is different and I have been used to the original released version. Another highlight of the album is "Beyond the Last Horizon"; the original comes from the album Actual Fantasy. This song really reminds me of the album A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd. It is extremely catchy, groovy and it is frankly a great song. Gary Hughes' voice is really great and he reminds me a lot of Dave Gilmour's singing. Finally, I have to talk about the song "Cold Metal" which is a preview of Ambeon. In all honesty, I am not all that impressed by it. While Astrid's singing is really beautiful, musically the song is really boring and not that impressive. I will not judge Ambeon based on this song alone and I will wait to hear more songs from the album before I make any sort of opinion on it.
I like this album a lot. I usually like to hear different versions of released material and this is no excpetion. It is cool to hear the different versions and it has made me want to buy the rest of Ayreon's catalog because sadly my collection is not complete yet. Right now, this album is only available in Europe. For those who live in the US and desire to get Ayreonauts Only, check the online stores but you will probably have more success with the smaller independent vendors.
Transmission Records (Europe) - 2000
/images/covers/Ayreon-AyreonautsOnly.jpg
Ayreonauts Only is the "newest" release by Ayreon. I put newest in quotations because this album contains "versions of known Ayreon songs, home demo's & newly recorded songs, sung by different singers." There are 11 songs on this CD and almost half of the songs are from the Universal Migrator albums; the other songs come from the other Ayreon albums Into the Electric Caste, Actual Fantasy, and The Final Experiment. Finally, there is a song from Arjen's new band: Ambeon. The booklet is very cool because Arjen puts down his thoughts about each song and he compares them to the versions found in the albums.
Out of all the songs in this album I was most excited to hear the version of "Into the Black Hole" by Damian Wilson and Lana Lane. I consider this song, that is found in Flight of the Migrator, to be the best song of 2000 because of Bruce Dickinson's great vocal performance. So I was really curious to hear how other singers would handle this version. In all truth this version is not as great. Damian really does not have the range and the powerful voice that I think this song needs. Lana Lane also sings more lead parts in this song and while she does a great job, some of her parts are sung slower than Bruce sang them. I am definitely glad that Bruce was able to sing this song and that his version made it into Flight of the Migrator. However, while I did not like this version I have to say that the versions of the next two songs "Out of the White Hole" and "Through the Wormhole" are way better than the versions on Flight of the Migrator. Robert Soeterboek takes care of the lead vocals in "Out of the White Hole" and he does a much better job than Timo Kotipelto did. I really like how Robert sings in an almost growl-rough-like voice. The same goes with how Ian Parry sings "Through the Wormhole". The first moment I heard this version, the way his voice and the music merge together, reminded me immediately of his band Elegy. This song was made for Ian to sing the lead and now what I considered to be the weakest track on Flight of the Migrator this version makes it one of the better songs from that album.
One of the biggest surprises from this release has to be the demo "Carpe Diem (Chaos)". This was recorded in 1992 and it is the demo that is the basis for the opening instrumental of Flight of the Migrator "Chaos". The version on this album of "Temple of the Cat", which is sung by Astrid van der Veen (who is the lead singer of the new band Ambeon and is only 14 years old!), has taken me a while to get used to it because it is really different to the version found in the album The Dream Sequencer. This is not to say that is bad but it is different and I have been used to the original released version. Another highlight of the album is "Beyond the Last Horizon"; the original comes from the album Actual Fantasy. This song really reminds me of the album A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd. It is extremely catchy, groovy and it is frankly a great song. Gary Hughes' voice is really great and he reminds me a lot of Dave Gilmour's singing. Finally, I have to talk about the song "Cold Metal" which is a preview of Ambeon. In all honesty, I am not all that impressed by it. While Astrid's singing is really beautiful, musically the song is really boring and not that impressive. I will not judge Ambeon based on this song alone and I will wait to hear more songs from the album before I make any sort of opinion on it.
I like this album a lot. I usually like to hear different versions of released material and this is no excpetion. It is cool to hear the different versions and it has made me want to buy the rest of Ayreon's catalog because sadly my collection is not complete yet. Right now, this album is only available in Europe. For those who live in the US and desire to get Ayreonauts Only, check the online stores but you will probably have more success with the smaller independent vendors.
