Ayreon

[Tramz]

Man, i turn my back for barely a week and three huge name vocalists get announced for Ayreon 7:

Jørn Lande
Jonas Renkse (Katatonia)
Anneke van Giersbergen (ex-The Gathering)

That's quite a trio of announcements (even if it is Anneke's second appearance on an Ayreon album). The other singers thus far announced include:

Simone Simons (Epica)
Tom Englund (Evergrey)
Liselotte Hegt (Dial)
Ty Tabor (King's X)
Magali Luyten (Virus IV and Beautiful Sin)
and of course Arjen himself.

And many more to come. The lineup alone has me excited. Some of the sound samples i've heard have raised an eyebrow and made me wonder if all his recent personal troubles have perhaps taken a bit of the fire out of Arjen for this album, but he has yet to let us down, so i trust Ayreon 7 will amaze. What is currently known of lineup surely does!

 

[Black Core]

So any idea when the new Ayreon album will come out?

 

[DemonXeno]

lets guess mystery singer 10!:
http://www.ayreon.com/ayreon/ayreonseven/mystery_singer10.mp3

it sounds like some heavy metal singer

 

[Tramz]

So any idea when the new Ayreon album will come out?

Supposedly December of 2007 (or so metalstorm says), but i wouldn't be surprised if it winds up an early 2008 release.

 

[Tramz]

It looks like the new album will indeed be early 2008, January in fact. The title is going to be "01011001", which is the binary code for the letter "Y". This may be a continuation of the whole "Planet Y" / "Forever of the Stars" storyline. The vocalists are broken down into 2 groups: "Forever" and "Man", which also suggests this as well. Perhaps one group sings from the standpoint of "Forever of the Stars", the other from that of humanity?

When he first started this project, Arjen suggested it might only be a single cd release. I'm very pleased to see this live up to his usual standards of being a 2 cd album. I'm especially pleased to see that there will be a "special edition" with a DVD again (much like The Human Equation boxed set), and also a "limited deluxe edition" which has the dvd, and while i don't yet know what else, will probably be the version that gets my money.

A special page has also been launched for this album and can be found here.

 

[Black Core]

looking forward to it. Thanx for the link, Tramz

 

[Teleute]

Sample of 3 solo guitarists was released... all I know is that none of them are Mike Romeo, and #2 sounds so familiar!!

 

[Tramz]

Sample of 3 solo guitarists was released... all I know is that none of them are Mike Romeo, and #2 sounds so familiar!!

Number 2 is probably Arjen himself. At least thats my guess :]

 

[Fulorian]

The new album was leaked...

Probably shouldn't discuss too much, but let me just say it's amazing. I never really cared that much for Ayreon before, but this is a fantastic, varied, and musically interesting album.

 

[Tramz]

Holy crap you're right, it was. Certain private sites didn't have it up fairly late last night, but it's there now. Here goes another hit to my ratio.

For the record, although artists have every right to control the release of their music and on some levels it is disrespectful to grab an advanced copy like this, the temptation becomes pretty overwhelming for a fan. So i have no problem with downloading and discussing advanced copies of albums so long as the people who do so have every intention (and follow through on it) of buying the album when it becomes available.

I have to figure a band can't mind it too much if the buzz is good either ;]

Under that heading, here is the edition information:

"Regular Edition (28-page booklet, 2CD)
Special Edition (28-page booklet, 2CD + DVD*)
Limited Deluxe Edition (36-page booklet, 2CD + DVD*)
Japanese Edition (28 page booklet, 2CD)**

* Bonus DVD contains:
Behind the Scenes - Making of 01011001
Beneath the Waves - CGI Movie (5.1/2.0)
Guide Demos (audio) - feat. Arjen on vocals
Ed Warby's Session - Recording drums
Bloopers (audio)

**Containing 2 bonus Arjen Guide Vocal tracks plus one exclusive Arjen Guide Vocal track unavailable anywhere. "

You better believe i'm going right for the Limited Deluxe Edition.

 

[Tramz]

Heh i am able to sing just about the entire first song, Age of Shadows, based off of the sound samples that were put up during the vocalist guessing game. That's kind of cool actually. You see how they all fit together, like some jigsaw puzzle revealed in full.

I'm only on song 5 so far, but wow. I was worried that Arjen was out of ideas and going to recycle stuff and let us down on this one? Man, i'm glad i kept some faith in his abilities, because so far this is completely awesome. The repeated bits (song 4 starts with some familiar themes, song 5 could fit right on The Dream Sequencer, but this is actually quite welcome) are minimal. I won't have time to listen to the entire thing now, i won't be able to wait to get back home and hear the rest!

I particularly LOVE the job he got out of Jonas Renkse (the vocalist of Katatonia, another favorite of mine). He is to "The Y Album" what Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth) was to The Human Equation.

As with any Ayreon album, you cannot really absorb it in one listen (let alone with only 5 of 15 songs under my belt!), and it requires that one sits with the lyrics and follows the story as well as who is saying what. It will take some time for me to properly judge this one. My immediate reaction is to place it under Electric Castle and Human Equation, but possibly above the rest. But it's WAY too early to say stuff like that. All that i *can* say is that if you have an interest in Ayreon's music, you will be very interested in this album.

 

[Fulorian]

While I do enjoy prior Ayreon albums to an extent, none have ever wowed me before. This one has. The outstanding vocal performances go beyond just Jonas Renske... Hansi Kursch is used perfectly, Floor Jansen sounds better than she does with AF, and there are quite a number that I can't name offhand who are just outstanding.

I'm on my third listen and pretty much don't think any previous Ayreon album can compare. The Human Equation approaches it, I guess, but it's not as good.

 

[Tramz]

It just goes to show how albums can hit us all differently. Personally, i fail to see how anyone who claims to love music isn't simply floored by all Ayreon albums, especially Into The Electric Castle and The Human Equation. To me, just about everything Arjen puts his creative touch to is real music at it's absolute finest - the kind of stuff that should make sufficiently lesser artists feel ashamed in comparison. But there are people out there who either don't like Ayreon at all, or who don't feel particularly strongly about Arjen's work. It boggles my mind, but that's how it goes.

As for 01011001, i suppose you could say the same about me in reverse. Where as you think this is his best work i feel that others are his best. Don't get me wrong, i am absolutely *loving* this album, but so far it hasn't had quite the same impact for me as the aforementioned works. But, as i've said before, Ayreon albums require much more than a single listen to absorb all of the musical layers, and i've yet to really delve into the story (which is an important part of any Ayreon album and plays a real part in it's impact). So my feelings on this album are far from settled.

As for the vocalists, i agree, they are all fantastic. Arjen has a knack for getting the best out of them. I particularly liked some of the lesser knowns such as Marjan Welman. Hopefully she will be as appreciated as Marcela Bovio (who was thrust to international popularity after her appearance on The Human Equation). If i had any complaint here at all, it's that i think 15 vocalists might have been a bit too much. I LOVE having oodles of vocalists, but it seems as if some didn't get as much record time as i might have liked. The Human Equation had this balance down to perfection.

Anyway, i am very much looking forward to the availability of the actual product so i can check out the dvd and the book and completely understand this release.