Marcela sounded like she was doing a bit of a Floor impression in parts there, which threw me off. Glad to see her getting the spotlight again though. I wish Arjen would release an album with the guide vocals that she and Marjan Welman have done.
Transitus had the guide vocals as a bonus disc in the earbook. Hopefully future (re)releases will do the same, I think it is a nice bonus feature.
Oh, really? Sounds like Arjen is already a step ahead of me! I was underwhelmed by
Transitus, but that alone will compel me to purchase it. Is it Marjan's, Marcela's, both, or also anyone's else's?
Decent Ayreon song. Really dug parts of it.
Let me know when he releases a Star One song.
Well, it sounds like a mash-up of
The Dream Sequencer and
Flight of the Migrator, which was Arjen's pilot episode for Star One, with more of the focus on electronic instrumentation. Once he released
Space Metal and then
The Human Equation the sound of the two projects diverged a bit, with Ayreon being a bit mellower and slower on average and including the folkier elements, and Star One being more uptempo and riffy, and not quite as expansive in terms of lineups.
The Source drifted back in the Star One direction, and now this one drifts a bit in the Ayreon direction. But Star One always had slower-paced tracks as well, like "Starchild", "The Eye of Ra", "24 Hours", or "It All Ends Here." This doesn't build up orgasmically like those first two do especially, but it's not like it's unprecedented. I quite liked the choir passage in this one in particular. Operatic and choral elements in metal frequently don't live up to their potential, so it's nice when they're well-executed.
I agree with Arjen in saying that the second Star One album wasn't nearly appreciated enough, but I wish he would have helped correct that by giving it some love at one of the Ayreon shows. And while those two albums are different to a degree, they do have a common thread for sure, and I agree with those here who say this is a nice Ayreon song to release. Will be interesting to see if this ends up veering more strongly back to the Star One direction.
I enjoyed Victims of a Modern Age, but not as much as the first one. Human See, Human Do, Earth that Was, Digital Rain and Cassandra Complex are the standouts i think, but i haven't listened to that album in years. It was strange he didn't play anything from that at the Universe show, i think a couple of those songs would have fit right in.
Yeah, I wouldn't have minded
Universe starting out with "Into the Rabbit Hole/Digital Rain", which was my favorite song from it, very much in the spirit of "Lift-Off/Set Your Controls", but still distinct.
Space Metal bowled me over when I first heard it, but VotMA took awhile to grow. I still don't like it quite as much, but grow it did.
Really sweet solo from Timo here. Never would have guessed it. Delain is one of my favorite bands, but he doesn't get as much room to stretch out there (though fortunately more than the average symphonic metal band, which is part of why they're a cut above most). Shame the current lineup is no more. "Combustion" hinted at this sort of stuff, too bad they couldn't have incorporated it more regularly. I'm hoping maybe he convinced Charlotte to be on the album as well, that would really make my day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au1elP9g158