Tell me about Ayreon

[IntoObscurity]

Get to it I have only heard of this band through Mike's involvement with The Human Equation project and what I've heard I love, so tell me all you know about this band, and what material of theirs I should get! Thanks.

 

[spigot]

Get the album Into the Electric Castle.
The rest of the stuff is pretty catchy too. Its a very cool band, especially if you can enjoy cheesy vocals and narrations.
Songs to hear first: Isis and Osiris, Two Gates, Castle Hall

 

[TheFourthHorseman]

It really depends on what you want to hear...there's the power metal/prog mix Flight Of The Migrator, Pink Floyd-ish The Dream Sequencer, my personal favourite Into The Electric Castle which is just about everything...the rest I haven't heard yet.
You might perhaps want to get Star One - Space Metal (another Arjen-project). A very rocking progpower metal album so to say. That's the one I got first on cd, before ItEC.

I'd say The Dream Sequencer takes a while to get into at least, I didn't really find anything to grab in it at first. It just clicked one day and I've loved it since.
People often consider Into The Electric Castle as cheesy. Partly that might be true, but it hasn't stopped me from loving the album. Great instrumental passages especially.

Of course you should get The Human Equation when it comes out. Sounds like it's going to be huge, a little alike to Into The Electric Castle, but obviously more varied now that Arjen had a much better range of singers to use and hopefully grew as a songwriter too.

Some songs I'd recommend:

Ayreon - Amazing Flight, The Garden Of Emotions, The Two Gates, My House On Mars, Dawn Of A Million Souls

Star One - Set Your Controls, High Moon, The Eye Of Ra, Starchild

 

[scorpian007]

Get the Dream Sequencer and Flight of the Migrator.

 

[Demilich]

I just listened to part of The Human Equation and I had to turn it off because it was so cheesey. And I like bands like Unicorn... and even a bit of Hammerfall... I dunno why this bothered me so much, I think it was partly James LaBrie's voice.

 

[TheFourthHorseman]

IAmEternal, I take back whatever positive comments I've said about your music taste.

I just got the limited edition of The Human Equation in the mail today. It's the best album to come out this year, at the very least. It's varied, it's long, and yes sometimes what most people would call cheesy. There's only one or two bits that feel a bit too much for me, but they still fit the songs.
Mikael is one of the best singers on the album, but with these singers it's pretty much safe to say that they're all good.
Also about LaBrie, I think that he's pretty good on this album. He's not doing much of his higher screams and he has always had a beautiful low voice.

The album has great artwork too. The cover's nice, but I especially like Mattias Noren's work on the booklet. Great images, and the book-like packaging makes it look even better.