Review Summary: 2004 - Ayreon release an overrated yet fantastic album...
In 1995, Arjen A. Lucassen began the journey into time and space known as Ayreon. He gained a fairly sized and loyal fanbase throughout the years with numerous albums like "Into the Electric Castle" and "The Universal Migrator". Combining the sound of two overly pretentious styles of music, rock opera and prog, many would come to expect nothing but failure from a man fusing these. But somehow, Arjen manages to create something fantastic in Ayreon that many in the genre fail to achieve.
2004, Ayreon release what many of it's fans would call the projects magnum opus, "The Human Equation". A double disk offering featuring everything you can come to expect from the band. A slew of vocalists? Genre hopping madness? Spacey interludes and folky passages? Check. Check. Check.
"The Human Equation" Starts on a high note with a short intro that segues into "Day 2: Isolation". This track covers a lot of the ground that you will hear over the next 2 hours. Very quickly, you hear the large number of vocalists that Ayreon is known and loved for. You quickly find the heavy passages that are very carefully intertwined with spacey keyboard interludes. And most importantly, you will hear the variation that this band is known for. This band is built upon the foundation of variation and you find that in nearly all of their work. After this mammoth of a track, the album continues on to find more gems throughout most of the first disk and parts of the second disk.
As for the story, "The Human Equation" has an odd and unique place in the Ayreon timeline. It's meaning within the grand concept is largely up to the listener and took myself a long time before I fully understood it. It tends to deal with the more down to earth emotional side of the spectrum, rather than delve into the universal space themes Arjen tends to conjure a lot of the time. Nonetheless, it's a fantastic concept that is relatable on numerous levels.
And how are the individual vocalists? You might ask... You have both some of metals finest and worst on this album. Here we have greats like Mikael Akerfeldt and Devin Townsend who, in my opinion, dominate this album. Alongside them, you have other fantastic vocalists such as Heather Findlay, Irene Jansen, and Mike Baker. However, on the other hand, you have James Labrie, who tends to be very hit and miss to many within the prog community. As for me, he is a total miss, and doesn't live up to the album. Also, you have Arjen on vocal duties. While Arjen is a fantastic composer and a magnificent instrumentalist, his vocals are entirely out of place. Outside of these, I would also like to quickly mention, Eric Clayton, Magnus Ekwall, Mercela Bovio, and Ed Warby. While I didn't put these singers into either the highlight or bad section, they all do a great job and have a recognized position on this release.
While "The Human Equation" has it's moments of majesty, it is not without its faults. As I scratch through the second disk, I can't help but feel a sense of boredom. About 1/4 this album feels like filler to me. Something that I expect from something as long as this. Second, the vocals of James Labrie, tend to get very obnoxious and annoying at times. This would not be a problem if he was one of the minor characters. But sadly, he plays the roll of the main character of this tale. My final complaint? At times this album is rediculously cheesy, which isn't always a bad thing. In fact Arjen has pulled off rediculously cheesy music off in a masterful way before. Yet in tracks like "Day 9: Playground", it sounds entirely pointless and awkward.
So where does that leave me and my opinion of "The Human Equation". I am largely in the middle in the sense that I consider this a great album yet I do not see all the praise around it. It has its moments of light and its moments of dark. Moments of happiness and sadness. Good tracks and bad tracks... I do not consider this either Ayreons best (A right given to 01011001), or their worst (Actual Fantasy). Yet, all in all, "The Human Equation" is most definitely worth your time and patience to get into.
Pros:
Extremely varied
Many fantastic vocalists
Great concept
Cons:
Too long
Occasionally too cheesy
Lackluster performances from a couple of the vocalists
