Ayreon/Arjen Lucassen Thread (Star Three on the way)

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Yea it's a really cool video. Works great to combine commentary and recording footage.

[cramx3]

Yea it's a really cool video. Works great to combine commentary and recording footage.

Yea, that video was awesome all around.

[ErHaO]

Yeah, the song has been on repeat quite a few times today, it is great  I think the song flows really well, despite constantly juggling between vocalists and shifting gears quite often. Nice to hear some of the teaser samples fall in to place perfectly.

Oh, and yes, can commentary please be a new standard for these type of videos? Way too many artists have these lyric videos with a crappy (unreadable) font that jumps in all directions at all times. This is actually an interesting watch.

Regarding the cover, I have said it before I think but I like the image. However, I don't think it works well as an album cover. I don't know, it looks like a still from a film/game or a panel from a graphics novel or something. One that looks nice but I think the composition doesn't really work as a cover with text pasted on top of it.

Great song! The singers all sound fantastic, and I really liked the bluesy section.

Yeah, I did not expect that. And Russel fits that type of music really well (I think I recall reading that his roots lie there, hence his solo album having a lot of blues influences as well).

[jakepriest]

Rusell was easily the weakest part of the song for me. But I guess that happens when you dislike the vocalist. 
Give me more of Michael Mills, LaBrie and Tommy and I'll be happy. I hope Zaher shows up often, his preview was the one I enjoyed the most. Love the arabic influence in Ayreon's sound.

[Nick]

To anyone that cares, I translated the binary that Mills sings and it comes out to: "Trust TH1", with TH1 being his character.

[ErHaO]

Rusell was easily the weakest part of the song for me. But I guess that happens when you dislike the vocalist. 
Give me more of Michael Mills, LaBrie and Tommy and I'll be happy. I hope Zaher shows up often, his preview was the one I enjoyed the most. Love the arabic influence in Ayreon's sound.

Zaher does not, unfortunately. Arjen said his appearance is brief (hence why he is not in this songs, which features all the main vocalists). Arjen did also say he is interested in working with him more in the future.

[Adami]

Listened to the song, man it was great!

Best Ayreon production yet, and the binary code thing was insane. When does the album come out? Super pumped for this one.

[Nick]

Listened to the song, man it was great!

Best Ayreon production yet, and the binary code thing was insane. When does the album come out? Super pumped for this one.

If only some super cool mod type dude had already edited the release date into the thread title. Then this type of info would be easy access. If only.

[Adami]

Listened to the song, man it was great!

Best Ayreon production yet, and the binary code thing was insane. When does the album come out? Super pumped for this one.

If only some super cool mod type dude had already edited the release date into the thread title. Then this type of info would be easy access. If only.

I don't look at thread titles! You never know when Black_Floyd turned them into a boner reference.

[Nick]

Listened to the song, man it was great!

Best Ayreon production yet, and the binary code thing was insane. When does the album come out? Super pumped for this one.

If only some super cool mod type dude had already edited the release date into the thread title. Then this type of info would be easy access. If only.

I don't look at thread titles! You never know when Black_Floyd turned them into a boner reference.

Fair enough, it's April 28th.

[ronnibran]

That was an amazing song!!!  I'm sure it was chosen as the first single just because of all the singers.  It was pretty busy!  Arjen has a sense of humor, I loved the commentary along with the video.  Definitely my most looked forward to release so far for 2017.  Definitely going to have to get a physical copy of this so I can read the lyrics and try and follow the story.  I find the Ayreon albums to be fascinating.  Tommy K sounded great, that was probably my highlight of the song just based on his performance alone.

[Adami]

Yea, Tommy sounds insane. I'd never heard of Seventh Wonder, so I'm really grateful to Kamelot and Ayreon for giving this guy a platform, just an incredible talent.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Arjen also did a commentary for the video of Lost In The New Real, from the album of the same name. I hope he continues with it, because it's a lot of fun to read.

[countoftuscany42]

anyone having a problem ordering the album from mascot label group?  when I'm on the page for any of the products theres no button to order or add to cart, can't figure out how to fix it 

[Nick]

Unfortunately their servers have risen up against humanity, and it's time for us to prepare for when the entire site breaks down.

[abydos]

Computers started torrenting people.

[Zook]

Rusell was easily the weakest part of the song for me. But I guess that happens when you dislike the vocalist. 
Give me more of Michael Mills, LaBrie and Tommy and I'll be happy. I hope Zaher shows up often, his preview was the one I enjoyed the most. Love the arabic influence in Ayreon's sound.

We are not a match.

I've only heard the song through my phone speaker, and sounded alright, but a bit disjointed.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

That Mike Mills part is amazing. Funny though, I didn't think at first that he actually sang the numbers in the correct order, I just assumed he adlib 0 and 1s.   

[jcmoorehead]

anyone having a problem ordering the album from mascot label group?  when I'm on the page for any of the products theres no button to order or add to cart, can't figure out how to fix it 

I had some issues with it loading incredibly slow yesterday when I went to pre-order. Decided on the double CD/DVD with T-Shirt package. Love the artwork from this one.

 I really enjoyed the first track from it, can't wait to hear the entire thing.

[wolfking]

I've lost a little bit of interest in Ayreon over the last couple, but that song was really good.  Looking forward to this one.  What a list of singers too, amazing.

[Elite]

The video with multiple videos and text throughout was really good. I enjoyed that indeed. It's funny though, that he released the longest track of his album as the 'single'. it was nice hearing all these singers, but I got the felling that they weren't really 'interacting' with each other, since they all got their own part in the song. I hope we'll see more of that on the rest of the album.

[ronnibran]

It's going to be a struggle to not over-listen to that song.  We have a long wait until release date. 

[abydos]

JP/Rudess should call Arjen to ask him how to record/produce vocals. James sounds so much fuller on Ayreon.

[NoseofNicko]

Wow so many of my favorite singers in one song.

[MirrorMask]

Heard it as well! Songs is good, obviously it will need many more listenings. The video was very cool, loved the "Are you still with me" part, like he didn't know that 12 minutes for prog fans is just a hearbeat 

[Nick]

I seriously love this song so much.

I honestly can't remember the last time I listened to a song 10+ times in the span of a few days. Usually I give it 2 or 3 listens and then shelve it till I can hear the whole album. The hype is real.

[Ben_Jamin]

Can't stop listening. I showed my Boyfriend this song and he loved it. Especially the A Capella part.

[jakepriest]

Track is definitely growing on me. I find myself humming the main heavy riff a lot.
Another thing I would like to add... this is what good production sounds like. James should borrow Arjen for a few albums. 

[Adami]

Track is definitely growing on me. I find myself humming the main heavy riff a lot.
Another thing I would like to add... this is what good production sounds like. James should borrow Arjen for a few albums. 

James' solo albums have great production. Do you mean DT should borrow him?


And, this also might be my favorite Ayreon production sound yet.

[jakepriest]

I meant that James should recruit him to produce DT albums, since he's the only one who works with Arjen apart from Jordan's guest solo on TTOE. I actually never tend to notice Ayreon's production, because it is that good. I have never listened to an Ayreon album and noticed something off about the actual sound of it (which I tend to do a lot with modern albums, especially the drums and compression).

But yeah, James' solo albums sound terrific.

[Scorpion]

That song was amazing. Definitely looking forward to The Source now!

[goo-goo]

Man, what a kickass song. Loving the heavyness with this one.

[KevShmev]

Ayreon is not really on my radar anymore, but given all of this chatter, I gave that new song a listen earlier.  Not bad. I thought the video was really neat, with all of his fact tidbits and commentary, but I've never liked when he shoehorns that many singers into one song like that.   It's almost distracting, trying to figure out who is singing what, and before you know what, you've lost track of what is what and the song is over.

[Ben_Jamin]

Ayreon is not really on my radar anymore, but given all of this chatter, I gave that new song a listen earlier.  Not bad. I thought the video was really neat, with all of his fact tidbits and commentary, but I've never liked when he shoehorns that many singers into one song like that.   It's almost distracting, trying to figure out who is singing what, and before you know what, you've lost track of what is what and the song is over.

But it's a part of the story and plot.

[KevShmev]

Ayreon is not really on my radar anymore, but given all of this chatter, I gave that new song a listen earlier.  Not bad. I thought the video was really neat, with all of his fact tidbits and commentary, but I've never liked when he shoehorns that many singers into one song like that.   It's almost distracting, trying to figure out who is singing what, and before you know what, you've lost track of what is what and the song is over.

But it's a part of the story and plot.

I understand that.