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

[Cyclopssss]

Or you could use Paypal?

[Evermind]

They've put a little trailer on Facebook. Almost nothing new here, but it says the artbook and Blu-Ray editions will feature nearly 90 minutes of bonus video content.

[The Cat Of Tuscany]

So... any word on future plans for Guilt Machine?

[Evermind]

Okay, pre-orders for The Theater Equation DVD will be opened at May 20th, Friday. That's the exact same day Nightwish is playing at Moscow so I'll be hella busy that day. Damn, I hope the huge artbooks are still in stock when I arrive back from the show, I think I'll need, what, three of them? This actually makes me kind of nervous.

[abydos]

I did not appreciate the growls over Anneke's parts in that trailer.

[Nick]

I typically don't review live albums, so I'm just going to post a few thoughts here since I got a chance to hear the audio today.

I think that generally they did a great job covering for those who were unable or didn't want to participate. Between the new vocalists and the choir everyone sounds really good.

The choir allowed them to change some parts, and add others, which makes this more than a simple note for note playing of the album, which is really nice. I really enjoyed some of the alternate stuff.

Having the strings and such there was huge. They sound great, and I'm glad it wasn't just keyboards playing that stuff.

[Onno]

I just watched the trailer. Looks great. James sounds really awesome!

[jingle.boy]

DVD + Bluray + 2CD ordered.  Pricey as shit, but well worth it for my #2 album of all time.

[goo-goo]

DVD + Bluray + 2CD ordered.  Pricey as shit, but well worth it for my #2 album of all time.

80 bucks with shipping included to the US for the DVD/BR/2CD...not sure if I will bite the bullet for the signed copy. Maybe just the signed Blu Ray.

The Inside Out US shop has several configurations for 13 bucks but not the Deluxe artbook.

[kaos2900]

The blu-ray is available for preorder on amazon for $20.

[Cyclopssss]

Artbook ordered. 

[Nick]

Normally that artbook would be an automatic buy, and may still be IF it's made available from the US, but for now I'll wait to see. Otherwise I'll just get the blu-ray for now.

I got a chance to watch half of the first set today, and well cinematically it's rather simple, it captures the wonderful set and acting. This is going to be so cool to watch on the big screen in its full glory.

[Anguyen92]

Is there somewhere where I can get the DVD but not the blu-ray?  Looking at Best Buy and Amazon and I'm mainly seeing CD and Blu-ray.

[Nick]

InsideOut US store has 2CD+DVD for $13.

[DarkLord_Lalinc]

JLB sounds great in the trailer, but seems really stiff throughout the performance. 

I can't wait for this. THE was one of the albums I first was an extreme and annoying fanboy with.

[Anguyen92]

So I just want to clarify, because I'm a noob of online shopping.  For $13, we get 2 CDs of the show and the DVD?  I jump all over that one if that's the case.

[McNugg]

Shame there isn't a Bluray + CD option.  Would really like it in HD and have the audio too but no way am I paying for the package with Bluray, DVD and CD, far too pricey.

Will have to settle for DVD+CD I suppose.

[Anguyen92]

All righty, then.  Preordered the $13 CD+DVD bundle.  Not too pleased that the shipping and tax fees is almost the same amount of the purchase (This does come with the 2 CDs and DVD right?), but it's going to be worth it in the end to buy and watch this.

[Dr. DTVT]

Shame there isn't a Bluray + CD option.  Would really like it in HD and have the audio too but no way am I paying for the package with Bluray, DVD and CD, far too pricey.

Yeah, that doesn't make sense.  If you have a Blu-ray player, you don't really need the DVD version.

[Evermind]

Shame there isn't a Bluray + CD option.  Would really like it in HD and have the audio too but no way am I paying for the package with Bluray, DVD and CD, far too pricey.

Yeah, that doesn't make sense.  If you have a Blu-ray player, you don't really need the DVD version.

Yeah, that's kind of baffling.

Ordered one copy of each edition from EU store, artbook for myself and CD+DVD / Bluray editions for friends I visited the show with.

[The Letter M]

Hnnnngggghhhh that artbook is definitely something I want, but there's just SO MUCH NEW MUSIC coming out this summer and I've already pre-ordered like 5 albums coming out, and I still need to pre-order Marillion's new album, too (though the closing date for those is June 17th, so I have some time for that).

Going to have to wait til at least Wednesday's payday to pre-order this. BurningShed just put up their pre-orders for this, all 3 versions, and the artbook comes to $61.20 after shipping, and for a deluxe artbook with 2 CDs, 2 DVDs, and a BD, that's actually not bad.

Question for Nick, since you've heard it already - how did they handle the ending of Day 20? On the studio album, it's just cut off, a la "Pull Me Under", just as JLB gives a mighty scream into a crescendo, just when it seems like things are getting amped up. Was it just a quick cut-off on stage, or did they actually play an ending to the song?

-Marc.

[Evermind]

It was a cut off on stage, very similar to the studio version, except JLB'S scream was more like a scream and less of a high note. At least that's what happened on Friday show.

[abydos]

Did they really put growling over all of Anneke's parts or was it just some? I saw one of the bootlegs and it was just her that I could hear but in the trailers there's someone ruining her parts. Surprised they don't know this fundamental law of physics - one does not layer other voices on top of Anneke, unless it's more of Anneke. Newton came up with that iirc.

[Evermind]

Did they really put growling over all of Anneke's parts or was it just some? I saw one of the bootlegs and it was just her that I could hear but in the trailers there's someone ruining her parts. Surprised they don't know this fundamental law of physics - one does not layer other voices on top of Anneke, unless it's more of Anneke. Newton came up with that iirc.

It was just some parts (as far as I remember, it was the parts where Mikael did growls on the album, but I might be wrong on that count), and those parts worked wonders for me. And I usually dislike growls.

I love Anneke's voice, but if I had a choice to replace one singer on this live show, it would be her. She didn't really fit the role of Fear, in my opinion.

[abydos]

I don't know, from what I heard on YT I loved how she sounded as Fear. It was somehow eerie.

[ZirconBlue]

Looks like I can buy the Blu-Ray and the CDs separately on Amazon for $37.  Added to wishlist.

[Evermind]

I don't know, from what I heard on YT I loved how she sounded as Fear. It was somehow eerie.

Well, maybe the Sunday show was different, but on Friday show her voice felt way too thin and breathy for me, and she just wasn't too convincing as Fear as far as acting went, in my opinion. I'm looking forward to hear how she sounds on this release though.

[Adami]

Who played Fear on the original album? It's been a while.

[Shadow Ninja 2.0]

Akerfeldt, I think.

[goo-goo]

Looks like I can buy the Blu-Ray and the CDs separately on Amazon for $37.  Added to wishlist.

The CDs include the DVD. You can see in the details it's 3 discs (2 audio, and one video).

[twosuitsluke]

So I have The Human Equation, Into The Electric Castle, 01011001 and both the Star One albums. I got all of them of this Canadian guy who I met whilst travelling (he also got me to give Devin Townsend's solo stuff a proper listen, up until  then I'd only heard Strapping Young Lad).

He was a huge fan of Arjen's work and I was intrigued by the Star One album in which all the songs were using different sci-fi films as inspiration. I gave all of the albums mentioned above plenty of listens but never really 'got it', although I enjoyed all the music really.

After joining this site I noticed how many fans there were of his music. I've seen a lot of praise for THE especially (I liked the album but didn't really get the amount of praise it was receiving) so decided to try and give it a proper go and dive into the concept fully. When checking out the Wikipedia page I suddenly realised that I didn't have the full album!!!! Disc 1 was complete but disc 2 only had the first 2 tracks. I've since downloaded the rest and given it a full listen and appreciate it a whole lot more. I've read up on the concepts on some of the other albums and like how they all kind of interlink.

Sooooo, I'm going to give all the albums I have a few more proper listens then maybe get some more of the Ayreon back catalogue. Where would you guys suggest I go next?

[Evermind]

After joining this site I noticed how many fans there were of his music. I've seen a lot of praise for THE especially (I liked the album but didn't really get the amount of praise it was receiving) so decided to try and give it a proper go and dive into the concept fully. When checking out the Wikipedia page I suddenly realised that I didn't have the full album!!!! Disc 1 was complete but disc 2 only had the first 2 tracks.

Wow, that's actually kind of hilarious.

Well if you liked The Human Equation, you might want to try The Theory of Everything, the second best Ayreon album in my opinion.

[Kwyjibo]

What Evermind said.

Theory Of Everything is a close second behind THE.

[twosuitsluke]

After joining this site I noticed how many fans there were of his music. I've seen a lot of praise for THE especially (I liked the album but didn't really get the amount of praise it was receiving) so decided to try and give it a proper go and dive into the concept fully. When checking out the Wikipedia page I suddenly realised that I didn't have the full album!!!! Disc 1 was complete but disc 2 only had the first 2 tracks.

Wow, that's actually kind of hilarious.

Well if you liked The Human Equation, you might want to try The Theory of Everything, the second best Ayreon album in my opinion.

It's ridiculous, I remember thinking "it's weird that disc 2 only has two tracks, why not just split the album so each CD has an equal amount." But because I got the album as mp3s off this guy I thought maybe they were bonus tracks on the album and they had been tagged as a second disk or something.

I'll get that album next

[Evermind]

Official song preview is on YouTube.

Day Two: Isolation

Pretty cool but I'm kind of bothered by some camera shots where you can see people's heads in the bottom of the screen, and also some shots where the camera took some sweet moments to focus. And apparently there's some spoken parts added or maybe they were performed on Sunday show, because they weren't there at the Friday show.