Ayreon - The Theory Of Everything

[Zauls]

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQFmfZCcrYw[/video]

 

Throughout the years, rock and metal music has mostly followed particular trends and patterns and things like song structure, album structure, instrumentation etc. This is not a bad thing and it defines what people love about the genre. People have been very imaginative and creative with it in the past and have produced masterpieces, but none quite as revolutionary as this album. 

Ayreon, if you didn't know, is the largest of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's musical projects. He plays most of the instruments on this album but includes many guest singers and other regular musicians that have been included on many of his previous albums. The singers on this album include Rick Wakeman, Tommy Karevika, Cristina Scabbia and more. These singers all portray different characters on the album and it becomes an epic story about a mentally disabled genius discovering what I understand to be String Theory (The Theory of Everything). Throughout the course of the album, you get a true sense of each character and I personally became gripped by the story. 

The instrumentation on the album is also extremely unique. While it is still based on the staple guitars, bass and drums of rock/metal, Arjen also uses elements of folk music, classical music and electronica. People say that with Ayreon is an entire new genre of its own and I would be inclined to agree.

The song structure and structure of the album as a whole is very unique and further emphasises the "rock opera" storyline-based lyrics. There is pretty much no "Verse-Chorus-Verse-Chorus-Middle 8- Chorus etc." to this album. Any repetition is used very effectively to express certain moods or take you back to earlier parts of the story. The hour and a half long album has 4 tracks, or "phases", of just over 20 minutes each. The entire album can be split in to exactly 42 (that was intentional) mini sections, some of which are purely instrumental. However, the album progresses from section to section so seamlessly and naturally that is really does feel like a single hour-and-a-half long epic, which I personally love. You won't get bored, though, due to all the different elements and moods that are got across so well in this album. I don't read fictional books, but if the story were transferred into a book, I would certainly read it, I suppose this is the definition of "progressive".

You might be saying "Ayreon have done similar things for nearly 20 years, this is just like the others and isn't revolutionary at all" (if you have ever listened to their other stuff, anyway). However, I personally feel that the storyline, instrumentation, progression and talent encompassed into this album set it apart from all other Ayreon works.

Take the time to listen to it, it will take you on a true journey!