Review by Rexorcist for Ayreon - The Final Experiment (1995)
Time for the next project for my Metal Academy prog metal challenge: Ayreon. I've been putting these guys off for quite a while due to the nature of my charts and the necessity for more jazz, EDM, folk, etc. So I'm gonna listen to this band a little slowly overtime, as I shouldn't only listen to ONE Ayreon album for the challenge and am aware that these guys have several essentials in the prog metal community. I'm honestly a bit impatient to get through them, but won't forsake my jazz and EDM studies for it.
Ayreon is the first band formed by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, who later formed the sci-fi movie concept act Star One. This is the album that launched his career in prog metal, and focused on a conceptual story from the getgo. And since the lead character shares the band's name, the story won't end with one album, much like Rhapsody. I totally admire that a band's willing to stick with a recurring original concept rather than writing about the same metal and pop tops we're all familiar with.
As far as what the album did right: the structures of these songs felt totally fine to me. Ayreon wasn't afraid to stick an eleven-minute song in this album four tracks in, and that track held itself throughout the entire runtime. So when it comes to structuring a song, Ayreon already had some skill in it. Having said that, I felt like sometimes the trumpets and violins came on a little too strongly, and were more there for show rather than for a core, despite the fact that the compositions were still fun and spirited. I mean, even when the tempos are slower, this album is pretty high energy. Of course, not everything is all 2112 and Dream Theater. Nice, softer, shorter and folksy songs like Nature's Dance recall shorter tracks like Mother on Pink Floyd's The Wall. So one definite pro is that the album isn't beating us over our fragile little noggins over guitar wankery. They're certainly not one of those sellouts catering to a specific generic group: they're thoughtful.
But what did it sacrifice to get this end result? Well, first of all, despite all the time travel themes, it starts off with futuristic cyberpunk vibes and then makes a complete 180 to Arthurian mythology. So thematically, it's a bit challenged. On top of that, the story certainly didn't amaze me. It's basically no different than any Bible tale. Thankfully it's never fully gone. The prog electronic backdrops of Computer-Reign are a nice recall, but that one song certainly wasn't enough for me. In fact, the song itself wasn't even long enough for me to really fall in love with. After the skillfully crafted 11-minute epic, I figured that concept certainly needed more album time. if I were to be specific, I know these guys could've doubled the time.
So now for the four questions:
1. What is the goal of this album?
To be a diverse, well-written and new concept in fantasy metal, recalling the prog rock albums of the 70's.
2. Does this album meet it's goal? Yes, it totally does. There's a lot of spirit here, and you can tell that the band not only wrote the songs fairly well at least, but had fun with it.
3. What did the band neglect or sacrifice to meet this goal? I'd say a thicker story and more instances of the sci-fi vibe are necessary.
4. Are the sacrifices made up for by other aspects of the album? Not really. I still miss the sci-fi and wanted more of a mingling of the two genres.
Well, Ayreon made it perfectly clear that they were willing to maximize on the popular tropes of yesteryears prog concepts and structures. There are faint hints of Rush, Floyd, Dream Theater, etc. here that you may enjoy. But even if this fun and spirited album never reaches truly glorious prog heights, it's still a fun and varied debut with the same sense of fun as a good 80's fantasy movie. If I had to compare the quality and the vibes of this album to a movie, I'd easily choose Clash of the Titans.