Arjen is a time bender. This 13 minute song feels like it's about 4 minutes. And if you like Russels grit Maggy Luyten will blow your head right off. So next on your Ayreon travel should be "Everybody dies"
Intergalactic Space Crusaders from Universe is also spectacular. This hulking giant (relatively) of a man with such a soft voice and then there's tiny waif Maggy Luyten with her enormous rock voice.
Aw, yeah! Glad you're finally getting to this masterpiece, Ken! Arjen himself is just a wonderful, very humble, and very talented human being. This *WILL* rock!
Honestly, one awesome thing that has come from all the vocal coach reaction channels is all the people that have been discovering the genius mind and music of Arjen Anthony Lucassen. Incredibly underrated by most people. I've been a fan of his work (in all his projects) for a while and absolutely love the way he makes these incredibly epic metal operas.
I'm kind of surprised that it has taken you this long to discover Ayreon, I've casually watched most of your journey into symphonic Metal and most reactors are recommended this much sooner as a companion to almost all of the featured singers. I'm glad you enjoyed it, Ayreon is a fantastic rabbit hole to go down.
I loved this :) By the way you really seemed to love Tommy Karevik’s voice, he has two bands Kamelot and Seventh Wonder. Both are worth a listen. And Ayreon live is just something else 😍
A different solo every night is a valid artistic choice, not just "to hide the fact that you can't reproduce the studio version". it's the very basis of the jam-band scene--and, for that matter, of jazz. Other than that one comment, great job. Glad you liked it.
The cool thing about Ayreon is that all the albums sort of tie into the same story. 'The Source' (the album which this song is from) is technically the start of the story. It's about a race of humans that give control of their planet to a computer (the 'frame) to help solve an environmental catastrophe, but the computer determines that the best course of action is to eliminate the humans. Ten humans and the robot TH-1 escape the planet on the only interstellar ship they have (the 'Starblade') along with the ships crew and head to an ocean planet. The chemist creates a drug ('The Source', aka 'Liquid Eternity') that allows them to evolve into an 'aquatic race'. The drug also makes them basically immortal and allows them to communicate telepathically. The album ends with the survivors (ten plus the ships small crew) living on their new planet ('Planet Y') in relative peace, but in the final track we learn that TH-1 is becoming a new version of the 'frame deep in the ocean. The next album in the timeline, 01011001 ('Y') tells us how machines have now taken over this new planet, and the humans have basically merged with the machines are losing their emotions and sense of time. They now call themselves 'The Forever', since they are essentially ageless drones at this point. We also learn about how they seeded a comet with DNA and sent it to Earth, where it creates human life on our planet. The Forever believe they can live through us telepathically and that they may regain their emotions by doing so. Some of The Forever believe that we need to advance more quickly, and use their telepathy to give us medicine/technology, but this results in us advancing quicker than our morality can cope with. Eventually The Forever realize humanity is doomed and has to decide if they will give them the technology to reverse their past mistakes. Somewhere in the timeline sits the album 'The Electric Castle'From a summary by Arjen: "At the end of the journey those that successfully dealt with their personal demons find out that the voice belongs to an alien named 'Forever of the Stars', a member of an alien race living in a distant galaxy. These aliens created planet Earth and its people as an experiment so they could study, and hopefully one day experience emotions, as they themselves lost feelings eons ago." That's only three albums (less than half!) but I believe those three give you a solid foundation for how the story plays out. Also, I highly recommend any of the Electric Castle Live videos; They are just so fun to watch, plus John de Lancie ('Q' from Star Trek) plays the 'Forever of the Stars' character, which Arjen said he originally based on Q.
Regarding Arjen's distaste for practicing, at the time this video was made Ayreon had literally never performed live. They have since, but in those shows Arjen mostly doesn't appear on stage, and instead hires a whole stable of musicians to play his myriad parts.
if it ain't dutch it ain't much... Welcome in the amazing world of Arjen A. Lucassen Aka Ayreon Universe (Ayreon, Ambeon, Star one, Guilt Machine, Gentle Storm, Stream of Passion).... Enjoy this rabbit hole….!!!!!
You should check out the band Toehider - it's Michael Mills' band (the guy who sung the binary code in this song). The guy is an incredible musician and vocalist. Take a look at the songs "Whatever Makes You Feel Superior", "How Do Ghosts Work?", or "He's There...And Then He Does THAT!". There are videos for at least the first two of those of Michael performing them on a livestream from last year that are worth watching. The guy is insanely talented and deserves more recognition.
why? so he could sit there and say "nice". This guy is as useful as cardboard. Btw, Love Michael and have corresponded with him a bit. He and I follow each other on IG and he's very into Sloths as you can imagine. Great person and so humble. Maybe th best voice in music today.
8:19 Funfact: Nils K. Rue is the lead singer for Pagan`s Mind,and in the band is also "Jurn Viggo" (how its pronounced) Lofstad,and Jørn Viggo is the male opposite member of Floor Jansen (Nightwish) in theyr duo project Northward. Another funfact: Once you see the Mel Gibson in Nils,you cant unsee it.
I hope you listen to the whole album. Specially "The source will flow" which had a contest for the video, the winner of the competition got to be the official one, and it's incredible
Ayreon is the (main) project of Dutch composer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen. He does scifi concept albums. He has had over 80 different singers on his 9 (double)albums. Most albums are part of the bigger story called the Ayreon Universe. He has not done many live-shows but the ones he did are all killer. The 4 main shows are: 1.) Star One - live on earth (actually starone is a side project, but they did play some Ayreon songs) 2002-dvd2003 2.) The Theater Equation (a playthrough of the cd human equation, this is more a broadway-theater show) 2105-dvd2016 3.) Ayreon Universe (a best of full on prog-rock-metal show) 2017-dvd2018 4.) Ayreon - Electric castle live and other tales (a playtrough of the cd Into the electric castle, and 1 song of each side-project) 2019-dvd2020
By the way, the accented syllable in Ayreon is the first one. I used to think that it was a variation of Arjen's name, but he said that the similarity is only coincidental.
ok, I love Arjen (not only Ayreon, everything he is working with musically) and I like your video... so it was very fast click I was never really into "prog", more power and darker stuff, but since I discovered Ayreon I tried to listen to some prog bands and I like few things. Arjen is still the best in this genre for me... can't wait for new Star One (he said, Jan 2022)
Hi Ken, the forth singer in this video Simone Simons is the lead singer for Dutch symphonic metal band EPICA, awesome band, check them out: Epica - Unchain Utopia (OFFICIAL LIVE VIDEO) EPICA - Beyond The Matrix (OFFICIAL VIDEO) EPICA - The Skeleton Key (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
This is Progressive Metal. Anything Ayreon is AMAZING! Star One is older and has many of the same people. Floor was 19 when she first started singing for Arjen! If you want clear vocals you should do Ayreon " The Druids Turn To Stone!" Damien Wilson is fantastic!
You really have to listen to "And Then There Was Silence" by Blind Guardian. Hansi Kürsch is an incredible vocalist and Blind Guardian have written some great complex orchestral songs. The studio versions highlight their enormous orchestral writing ablities and in the live versions you can enjoy Hansi Kürsch and the band live of course. They have more great studio and live performances, so you can pick freely.
I'm glad you picked up on and mentioned the vibrato variances between the vocalists...the wide vibrato seems almost to be a signature of certain styles of metal (especially in Power Metal bands from Europe)
The Moog break at 5:30 I think is intended to honour prog rock gods like Yes, Moody Blues & others who did things like War of the Worlds. Which is what very obviously inspires Ayreon.
Russel Allen is an AMAZING vocalist you NEED to check out Symphony the funny thing is that he usually doesn't sing in this gritty way on Symphony X i highly recommend "The Accolade" it's a masterpiece
I can mantion that when this was recerded Arjen didn't expect it to ever be performed live, as all the other albums from Ayreon. He felt they where to hard to do live, but he allowed others to do so, and some managed to do a live "theatre" from one of his albums, and so he have done two live gigs himself. Sadly Arjen has stagefright and only appear in two songs out of the 20 or so. As a comment to the not performing it live. Tommy Kårevik is as someone wrote the current singer for Kamelot. This is the first track of the album, and the third track "everybody dies" has a live recording. That I suggest if you want to listen to them live. All ayreon albums is set in the same universe and tell parts of the story, and as he wrote this is a prequal. There is a very great fan made lyric video that shows all the singers what they sing, and lights up the person singing. Great if you want the story, and those exists for all ablums. For instanse the binary code that was in this song says "trust Th1" So basicly the computer intelligense is telling us to trust him as he shuts down all systems including life support. If anyone enjoyed this song, I higly suggest listen to all the albums, they have a variaty of styles and tempo to them. Keep doing great work Ken!
Great reaction! Thank you...To you point of the "reproduceabilty" of solos live: I 100% agree... You wouldn't ask Picasso to redraw his masterpieces live... I think a reaaallly good solo is a one of a kind experience and that is the way it should be... Now that doesn't mean that you couldn't come up with slightly different - maybe even as epic - solos when repeating the song, but to simply reproduce it would be a disservice to a great piece of music like this...
Tommy Karevik (aka "dude can sing" as you put it lol) is one of my favourite singers of all time. He's the current lead vocalist of Kamelot, but he doesn't get to flex his chops there very much. To really hear what he's capable of, you need to go to his lesser-known band, Seventh Wonder. They don't have much for music videos, but some of the songs with just album art are here on RUclips. Then they did one live DVD at ProgPower USA in Atlanta Georgia if you want to hear him live. There's only one person who's uploaded the entire show to RUclips. I recommend starting with the song Welcome to Mercy Falls, either live or studio, both versions are fantastic. He married Kobra from the band Kobra and the Lotus (Calgary based metal band) and they are living in BC, I think on the coast or maybe even on the island. You might run into them on the street!
I actually really like his performance in 'Into the black hole' from the Ayreon Universe concert. It's really difficult to find any videos of Seventh Wonder live, but I can tell you first hand that they're absolutely amazing live! I even had the chance to chat a little with Tommy, and take a picture with him afterwards. 😊 He's such a great guy!
Welcome to the Universe. There are many journeys up ahead. The far future, distant past, human mind or other dimensions.... Take your pick, Arjen is an excellent tour guide, and he's a master at telling tales in both text and music
You must check out Tommy Karevik, he's an excellent singer and firefighter. With his own band Seventh Wonder and the more known band of Kamelot, he brings such a great texture of singing, mostly versatile in Seventh wonder (check out "The great escape"). He's also very prominent in Kamelot which is a bit heavier if you're into that.
I'm absolutely with you Ken on being slightly envious of vocalists that have natural grit/soul/rasp in their voices, because like you , I always struggled with that aspect of my own musical career (12 years in a semi-pro metal band), with a voice that was more comfortable producing cleaner/softer tones (AOR/pop/country). I managed, but probably not always in a healthy way, vocally. Thanks for your video's, always enjoy seeing knowledgeable and passionate music lovers reacting to good music. Cheers!
Thanks Phillip - I try (when no one is listening) to evoke that rasp in my voice and it that sound just eludes me. listening to those voices that can create that grit with such seeming ease where I struggle only makes me appreciate their talent and ability more.
This track is about the best intro to great voices in metal that you could find. A few like Sharon den Adel, Maria Brink, Charlotte Wessels, Clementine Delauney, Tarja Turanen, Sabine Edelsbacher are missing. And those many Italians (Chiara Tricarico, etc) and Russians (Masha Scream etc) who took up the genre & get better every album.
Ken, good stuff. Allegedly Michael Mills has a 4 octave range. . . . . . . . . . .If you go look at a good old ASCII table for what the "Digital Pavarotti" is singing, then you get "Trust TH1" and of course Michael's band is called Toehider. . . . . . . . . .
You would enjoy “The Vivaldi Metal Project” by Mistheria, he brought together many singers & musicians for a metal version of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”. Excellent
A great band! Russell Allen is one of the best singers of the last decades, he has a very versatile voice. You could hear him on the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Especially in this version: Trans-Siberian Orchestra 12/30/17: 18 - For the Sake of Our Brother -Columbus 8pm TSO Russell Allen
Tommy Rogers has a great Geddy Lee layered wail here. Tobias Sammett with the wide slower vibrato sounds so very 1970s it's almost a fusion of all the great expressive male vocalists of that time. Tommy Kerevik really brought that gravitas early. Nils had such a sense of humour, did a Leo Morachetti type bit there. Hans and Michael took very simple parts lyrically and put a great amount of expression in too. Just listen to all the ways Michael Mills can sing "one" and "zero". It's like a textbook. Note the final digit is the one that pretty much decides their doom, digitally, so he speaks it with appropriate weight. Russell Allen puts that penultimate Aerosmith type real feel in, and no it can't be faked. Again the throwback to the 70s sound. Michael Erikson and Joost sound more like that late 70s relaxed bluesy sound the instrumentals are doing. The instrumentals that follow them are absolutely worthy of Zen, Queen or Bowie - or Nina Simone for that matter. Play just that part blind for a 70s obsessed person, they'll call it a lost master of that era. And they'll be certain they can name the vocalist. And of course they finish with the Valkyrie - needed to drag all the other vocalists to Valhalla when the world ends.
That was amazing. Unbelievable good. So I would like to recommend more Ayreon please. Why not start with some Ayreon Live? Ayreon-Universe! I've never seen anything like that. Can you imagine how hard it must be to get all this greet Musicians and fantastic Vocalist all together for a live show? But he did...❤️ That's another fact it's so hard to reproduce something like that. I mean, something I think this whole Ayreon Thing is bigger than Pink Floyd ever was, in my opinion. This is big. And today, if you're an Musician, you can't really call you a Musician if you haven't played with Arjen. Or if he'd never ever recall's or invite you to be part of the Ayreon Family. ^^ But if you ask me, for what to do next? I would like to answere THE Ayreon QUEENS! In the Live Video of Valley of the Queen's. Please just give it a listen. 42! ^^
Imagine some politicians starting to sing in parliament while fire is raining from the sky and the earth's crust is cracking! A "we are the world" as the world is ending!
Ayreon is not what I would call Symphonic Metal, to me I would equate it more to Progressive Rock/Metal. Also more Ayreon please! I promise it is also great for a vocal coach, while this song is a great introduction to Ayreon, the live performances suggested by MisterJ56 here contain various singers, that are all extremely talented and very different from one another.
I subbed a long long time ago, but hey :D great channel - love watching your reactions. Can't wait till you get something by Ulver or Antimatter on your plate :D all the musical love from Poland
@@wtglb Yesssss. To be honest any of their live performances could be great - Bergen 2018 from the Assassination era. I'm enourmously interested in impressions on Ulver's sound and approach to music :-)
Tommy Karevik - band "Kamelot" - very theatrical! Aryen is a giant in every way. There is a picture of him standing next to Floor and .... take a look! The Hammond gives a "Uriah Heep" feel... Agree with you about reproducing solos!
Glad you finally found Ayreon Ken! Fun reaction there. Now I can only hope you will find the time and curiosity to check out how master Arjen also masters his live performances with his all-star ensembles. Check MisterJ56's post for recommendations (or my mail if you still have it).
Ah, ye, wanted to mention the work by Arjen and Anneke (of course): The Gentle Storm and their double album and tour with a gentle and storm version of a storyline concept string of tracks around a dutch sailor and his wife in 17th century Amsterdam. Arjen and Anneke did an intimate acoustic tour with gentle versions, and they formed a band with many Ayreon and Anneke's musicians to tour Europe with the storm versions. Vocally and also muscially very interesting for you I think. Just like any of Arjen and Anneke's work.
Fascinating - I will try to check out The Gentle Storm (time willing) in the coming week. I am glad you enjoyed the reaction Gunge Grumpy - always nice to se your thoughtful comments.
@@KenLavigne Nice. If you're interested, check The Gentle Storm performing The Storm at Masters of Rock in 2015. Band and both vocalists (Anneke supported by Marcela) nail it. Melodic prog/folk metal that has become trademark of both Arjen and Anneke. Reminder: 'Travel' or 'Waking Hour' by The Gathering, TG25, 2014. Epic vocal lines carried by Floydy metal soundscapes.
Love watching reactions to "The day that the world breaks down". Thanks for that! It was a nice little journey with you :) Can you react to Shinedown - "Call Me" or "Simple Man"?
Please react to Queen+ Adam Lambert "Who wants to live forever" Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 2016 :) His voice is just beyond this world! Other songs that I really love that I think you would like to react to is: Still loving you/Woman by Scorpions, She`s Gone by Steelheart, The Death of Music by Devin Townsend. Thanks ^^ These songs are amazeballs, if you haven`t listened to them before then definitely check them out! Love your reactions! Love from Stavanger, Norway :)
great reaction once again, thank you for your effort you should check out Joe Cocker, his with a little help from my friends cover is legendary and his voice is different
Love your work mate, new subscriber here bud........ loved the iron maiden reaction..... if possible please listen to ......... special ones by George....... a fantastic Aussie band, but the female singer is mind blowing..... seriously great, cheers mate, 👍🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
Hey, you should definitely check out the scarecrow live show and the Moonglow official video featuring Tobias Sammet and Candice Night, thanks , Candice Night is only in the music video of Moonglow, and the Raven Child lyrical video, awesome thanks 😃😎request thanks 😃
Hello Ken, if you go back to some singers and their songs in Spanish, I really want your reaction to: 1- Demis Roussos singing in Spanish (I don't know another version I like) the song: "MORIR AL LADO DE MI AMOR". 2- Rapahel singing two songs: "Los amantes" (The lovers) and "El tamborilero" (The little drummer boy) 3- Paloma San Basilio while she sings "No llores por mi Argentina" (Don't cry for me Argentina. Keep doing this great job and thanks a lot.
Sir, if you liked Russell Allen's grit, I strongly suggest to listen to Symphony X - The Odyssey, a masterpiece showcasing what that singer can do with his voice.
Hey, you should definitely check out The eye of rah live show and the age of shadows live show featuring Floor Jansen and Marco from nightwish as guest singers and Intergalactic space crusaders live live show, awesome thanks 😎also the Electric Castle album live shows featuring John de Lance the actor who played Q from Star Trek the next generation series as a live narrator, awesome thanks 😎request thanks 😃
Hi Ken if you could review any song by @DanMcCabe Music. He's an Irish folk singer and his voice is amazing. His songs are getting a lot of attention at the minute. Especially The Galway Shawl, Grace or The Town I Loved So Well. Thanks!!
Ayreon is great. The binary code says: Trust TH1 Lul is Dutch slang for dick. Just have a look at the two live concerts: Ayreon Universe live ( with Floor Jansen and Marko Hietala, Hansi Kursch, Anneke van Giersbergen etc.) The electric castle live and other tales (with Simone Simons and Mark Janssen from Epica, Anneke van Giersbergen, Fish etc) And don’t forget the albums of course. Avantasia with Tobias Sammeth is also great. Same concept as Ayreon.
Next Ayreon: Everybody Dies Live!
Ayreon is the best prog space metal opera ever!!!
And the only prog space metal opera too :p
@@0rthogonal true!
Arjen is a time bender. This 13 minute song feels like it's about 4 minutes. And if you like Russels grit Maggy Luyten will blow your head right off. So next on your Ayreon travel should be "Everybody dies"
This. Seriously, this.
Intergalactic Space Crusaders from Universe is also spectacular. This hulking giant (relatively) of a man with such a soft voice and then there's tiny waif Maggy Luyten with her enormous rock voice.
@@fnglert Damien Wilson.
"Into the Black Hole" with Tommy Karevik
Everybody Dies (Live - Ayreon Universe)
The Eye Of Ra
Valley Of The Queens
Arjen is doing more than making music. He is creating a musical experience and story that is rare and joyous to the few of us that are aware of himm
Aw, yeah!
Glad you're finally getting to this masterpiece, Ken!
Arjen himself is just a wonderful, very humble, and very talented human being.
This *WILL* rock!
Honestly, one awesome thing that has come from all the vocal coach reaction channels is all the people that have been discovering the genius mind and music of Arjen Anthony Lucassen. Incredibly underrated by most people. I've been a fan of his work (in all his projects) for a while and absolutely love the way he makes these incredibly epic metal operas.
Found him back in hs around 07 still listen to him when I get bored with regular music
not my personal style of music, but it was a lot of fun to experience this. You could tell they had a ton of fun recording this video. love it
Every one these videos I'm like: "Wait 'till they get to Mike Mills..."
I'm kind of surprised that it has taken you this long to discover Ayreon, I've casually watched most of your journey into symphonic Metal and most reactors are recommended this much sooner as a companion to almost all of the featured singers. I'm glad you enjoyed it, Ayreon is a fantastic rabbit hole to go down.
Listened to this song many times, and it still doesn't feel at all long!
Russell Allen is just the best. His clean vocals are just as lovely.
Yeah and he is awesome live. One of the best ❤️
One of the GOATs.
@Crabuki All gest vocalist are great but I prefere Mike Mills. I always waiting for his part.
@@pin-upmariposa412 The binary part is amazing.
ABSOLUTELY! Symphony X rocks. 🤘🏻😍🤘🏻He's my favorite prog. Metal singer. Then Damien in all of his roles. 💕🙏🇺🇸
I’ve been waiting for you to react to this! Welcome to the wonderous world of Ayreon. ❤️
I loved this :) By the way you really seemed to love Tommy Karevik’s voice, he has two bands Kamelot and Seventh Wonder. Both are worth a listen.
And Ayreon live is just something else 😍
Speaking of Kamelot, I would highly recommend checking out Kamelot - Elizabeth. It is absolutely mind-blowing as a vocal performance.
Cool I also loved Tommys performance in Ayreon, but have not heard him in those bands...
@@JanOlofSvensson it’s two very different sounds and both amazing in their own right :) definitely worth a look
I have a hard time with him in Kamelot, he's not Khan, but I love Seventh Wonder
@@fencingfool4 Agreed.
I’m surprise Arjen hasn’t stop to see this reaction, he has been in some. He’s so cool.
A different solo every night is a valid artistic choice, not just "to hide the fact that you can't reproduce the studio version". it's the very basis of the jam-band scene--and, for that matter, of jazz.
Other than that one comment, great job. Glad you liked it.
The cool thing about Ayreon is that all the albums sort of tie into the same story. 'The Source' (the album which this song is from) is technically the start of the story. It's about a race of humans that give control of their planet to a computer (the 'frame) to help solve an environmental catastrophe, but the computer determines that the best course of action is to eliminate the humans. Ten humans and the robot TH-1 escape the planet on the only interstellar ship they have (the 'Starblade') along with the ships crew and head to an ocean planet. The chemist creates a drug ('The Source', aka 'Liquid Eternity') that allows them to evolve into an 'aquatic race'. The drug also makes them basically immortal and allows them to communicate telepathically. The album ends with the survivors (ten plus the ships small crew) living on their new planet ('Planet Y') in relative peace, but in the final track we learn that TH-1 is becoming a new version of the 'frame deep in the ocean. The next album in the timeline, 01011001 ('Y') tells us how machines have now taken over this new planet, and the humans have basically merged with the machines are losing their emotions and sense of time. They now call themselves 'The Forever', since they are essentially ageless drones at this point. We also learn about how they seeded a comet with DNA and sent it to Earth, where it creates human life on our planet. The Forever believe they can live through us telepathically and that they may regain their emotions by doing so. Some of The Forever believe that we need to advance more quickly, and use their telepathy to give us medicine/technology, but this results in us advancing quicker than our morality can cope with. Eventually The Forever realize humanity is doomed and has to decide if they will give them the technology to reverse their past mistakes. Somewhere in the timeline sits the album 'The Electric Castle'From a summary by Arjen: "At the end of the journey those that successfully dealt with their personal demons find out that the voice belongs to an alien named 'Forever of the Stars', a member of an alien race living in a distant galaxy. These aliens created planet Earth and its people as an experiment so they could study, and hopefully one day experience emotions, as they themselves lost feelings eons ago." That's only three albums (less than half!) but I believe those three give you a solid foundation for how the story plays out. Also, I highly recommend any of the Electric Castle Live videos; They are just so fun to watch, plus John de Lancie ('Q' from Star Trek) plays the 'Forever of the Stars' character, which Arjen said he originally based on Q.
Regarding Arjen's distaste for practicing, at the time this video was made Ayreon had literally never performed live. They have since, but in those shows Arjen mostly doesn't appear on stage, and instead hires a whole stable of musicians to play his myriad parts.
if it ain't dutch it ain't much... Welcome in the amazing world of Arjen A. Lucassen Aka Ayreon Universe (Ayreon, Ambeon, Star one, Guilt Machine, Gentle Storm, Stream of Passion).... Enjoy this rabbit hole….!!!!!
You can hear similar quality in Ayreon - Everybody Dies - live.
The whole ‘Universe’ concert is epic, please do them all! 🙏🏻
You should check out the band Toehider - it's Michael Mills' band (the guy who sung the binary code in this song). The guy is an incredible musician and vocalist. Take a look at the songs "Whatever Makes You Feel Superior", "How Do Ghosts Work?", or "He's There...And Then He Does THAT!". There are videos for at least the first two of those of Michael performing them on a livestream from last year that are worth watching. The guy is insanely talented and deserves more recognition.
Aussie!Aussie!Aussie!
Yes yes yes! Mike is a genius!
why? so he could sit there and say "nice". This guy is as useful as cardboard. Btw, Love Michael and have corresponded with him a bit. He and I follow each other on IG and he's very into Sloths as you can imagine. Great person and so humble. Maybe th best voice in music today.
8:19 Funfact: Nils K. Rue is the lead singer for Pagan`s Mind,and in the band is also "Jurn Viggo" (how its pronounced) Lofstad,and Jørn Viggo is the male opposite member of Floor Jansen (Nightwish) in theyr duo project Northward. Another funfact: Once you see the Mel Gibson in Nils,you cant unsee it.
Incredible piece of work.
I hope you listen to the whole album.
Specially "The source will flow" which had a contest for the video, the winner of the competition got to be the official one, and it's incredible
Ayreon is the (main) project of Dutch composer, producer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen. He does scifi concept albums. He has had over 80 different singers on his 9 (double)albums. Most albums are part of the bigger story called the Ayreon Universe.
He has not done many live-shows but the ones he did are all killer. The 4 main shows are: 1.) Star One - live on earth (actually starone is a side project, but they did play some Ayreon songs) 2002-dvd2003
2.) The Theater Equation (a playthrough of the cd human equation, this is more a broadway-theater show) 2105-dvd2016
3.) Ayreon Universe (a best of full on prog-rock-metal show) 2017-dvd2018
4.) Ayreon - Electric castle live and other tales (a playtrough of the cd Into the electric castle, and 1 song of each side-project) 2019-dvd2020
By the way, the accented syllable in Ayreon is the first one. I used to think that it was a variation of Arjen's name, but he said that the similarity is only coincidental.
Try Avantasia "The Seven Angels". A whole bunch of powerful singers in that one track. Lead by Tobias Sammet.
ok, I love Arjen (not only Ayreon, everything he is working with musically) and I like your video... so it was very fast click
I was never really into "prog", more power and darker stuff, but since I discovered Ayreon I tried to listen to some prog bands and I like few things. Arjen is still the best in this genre for me... can't wait for new Star One (he said, Jan 2022)
Hi Ken, the forth singer in this video Simone Simons is the lead singer for Dutch symphonic metal band EPICA,
awesome band, check them out:
Epica - Unchain Utopia (OFFICIAL LIVE VIDEO)
EPICA - Beyond The Matrix (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
EPICA - The Skeleton Key (OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO)
This is Progressive Metal. Anything Ayreon is AMAZING! Star One is older and has many of the same people. Floor was 19 when she first started singing for Arjen! If you want clear vocals you should do Ayreon " The Druids Turn To Stone!" Damien Wilson is fantastic!
You really have to listen to "And Then There Was Silence" by Blind Guardian. Hansi Kürsch is an incredible vocalist and Blind Guardian have written some great complex orchestral songs. The studio versions highlight their enormous orchestral writing ablities and in the live versions you can enjoy Hansi Kürsch and the band live of course. They have more great studio and live performances, so you can pick freely.
I'm glad you picked up on and mentioned the vibrato variances between the vocalists...the wide vibrato seems almost to be a signature of certain styles of metal (especially in Power Metal bands from Europe)
Tobias in particular sounds a lot like Bruce Dickinson, the vibrato is quite similar. I think many singers in Europe emulated Bruce and Michael Kiske.
this song feels like a round of stellaris but with musicians, it's fucking awesome!
The Moog break at 5:30 I think is intended to honour prog rock gods like Yes, Moody Blues & others who did things like War of the Worlds. Which is what very obviously inspires Ayreon.
Russel Allen is an AMAZING vocalist
you NEED to check out Symphony the funny thing is that he usually doesn't sing in this gritty way on Symphony X
i highly recommend "The Accolade" it's a masterpiece
I can mantion that when this was recerded Arjen didn't expect it to ever be performed live, as all the other albums from Ayreon. He felt they where to hard to do live, but he allowed others to do so, and some managed to do a live "theatre" from one of his albums, and so he have done two live gigs himself. Sadly Arjen has stagefright and only appear in two songs out of the 20 or so. As a comment to the not performing it live. Tommy Kårevik is as someone wrote the current singer for Kamelot.
This is the first track of the album, and the third track "everybody dies" has a live recording. That I suggest if you want to listen to them live.
All ayreon albums is set in the same universe and tell parts of the story, and as he wrote this is a prequal. There is a very great fan made lyric video that shows all the singers what they sing, and lights up the person singing. Great if you want the story, and those exists for all ablums. For instanse the binary code that was in this song says "trust Th1" So basicly the computer intelligense is telling us to trust him as he shuts down all systems including life support. If anyone enjoyed this song, I higly suggest listen to all the albums, they have a variaty of styles and tempo to them. Keep doing great work Ken!
Great reaction! Thank you...To you point of the "reproduceabilty" of solos live: I 100% agree... You wouldn't ask Picasso to redraw his masterpieces live... I think a reaaallly good solo is a one of a kind experience and that is the way it should be... Now that doesn't mean that you couldn't come up with slightly different - maybe even as epic - solos when repeating the song, but to simply reproduce it would be a disservice to a great piece of music like this...
Well said! Thanks for the comment!
Your reaction to Russell Allen earned you a subscribe...check out some more Ayreon, Star One, Symphony X...Guilt Machine...
Glad you're a Flight of the Concords fan :)
Nice reaction video!
Yes! Thank you!
Tommy Karevik (aka "dude can sing" as you put it lol) is one of my favourite singers of all time. He's the current lead vocalist of Kamelot, but he doesn't get to flex his chops there very much. To really hear what he's capable of, you need to go to his lesser-known band, Seventh Wonder. They don't have much for music videos, but some of the songs with just album art are here on RUclips. Then they did one live DVD at ProgPower USA in Atlanta Georgia if you want to hear him live. There's only one person who's uploaded the entire show to RUclips. I recommend starting with the song Welcome to Mercy Falls, either live or studio, both versions are fantastic.
He married Kobra from the band Kobra and the Lotus (Calgary based metal band) and they are living in BC, I think on the coast or maybe even on the island. You might run into them on the street!
I actually really like his performance in 'Into the black hole' from the Ayreon Universe concert. It's really difficult to find any videos of Seventh Wonder live, but I can tell you first hand that they're absolutely amazing live! I even had the chance to chat a little with Tommy, and take a picture with him afterwards. 😊 He's such a great guy!
Symphony X - The Odyssey, Russell Allen is the singer for this amazing band. You have to hear this track, its an absolute masterpiece.
Welcome to the Universe. There are many journeys up ahead. The far future, distant past, human mind or other dimensions.... Take your pick, Arjen is an excellent tour guide, and he's a master at telling tales in both text and music
You must check out Tommy Karevik, he's an excellent singer and firefighter. With his own band Seventh Wonder and the more known band of Kamelot, he brings such a great texture of singing, mostly versatile in Seventh wonder (check out "The great escape"). He's also very prominent in Kamelot which is a bit heavier if you're into that.
the creative dude must have LOVED and listened to KANSAS - LEFTOVERTURE album a jillion times in his youth and got inspired to the max.
I'm absolutely with you Ken on being slightly envious of vocalists that have natural grit/soul/rasp in their voices, because like you , I always struggled with that aspect of my own musical career (12 years in a semi-pro metal band), with a voice that was more comfortable producing cleaner/softer tones (AOR/pop/country). I managed, but probably not always in a healthy way, vocally. Thanks for your video's, always enjoy seeing knowledgeable and passionate music lovers reacting to good music. Cheers!
Thanks Phillip - I try (when no one is listening) to evoke that rasp in my voice and it that sound just eludes me. listening to those voices that can create that grit with such seeming ease where I struggle only makes me appreciate their talent and ability more.
You should check out the 3 part Farewell off the Tiara album from Seventh Wonder. Tommy Karavik blows my mind on that album!! Love what you do!!
This track is about the best intro to great voices in metal that you could find. A few like Sharon den Adel, Maria Brink, Charlotte Wessels, Clementine Delauney, Tarja Turanen, Sabine Edelsbacher are missing. And those many Italians (Chiara Tricarico, etc) and Russians (Masha Scream etc) who took up the genre & get better every album.
Plse brother don't forget the goddes of female fronted metal.
Anneke van Giersbergen
Ken, good stuff.
Allegedly Michael Mills has a 4 octave range. . . . . . . . . . .If you go look at a good old ASCII table for what the "Digital Pavarotti" is singing, then you get "Trust TH1" and of course Michael's band is called Toehider. . . . . . . . . .
Such a great experience. Have to listen many man times to begin to catch it all.
You would enjoy “The Vivaldi Metal Project” by Mistheria, he brought together many singers & musicians for a metal version of Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons”. Excellent
A great band!
Russell Allen is one of the best singers of the last decades, he has a very versatile voice. You could hear him on the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Especially in this version:
Trans-Siberian Orchestra 12/30/17: 18 - For the Sake of Our Brother -Columbus 8pm TSO Russell Allen
As @Howard Stark said: FINALLY 😉👍
You should see Ayreon live performance
Thank you. Very nice reaction. ;-)
Check them out live indeed, Everybody dies
Tommy Rogers has a great Geddy Lee layered wail here.
Tobias Sammett with the wide slower vibrato sounds so very 1970s it's almost a fusion of all the great expressive male vocalists of that time.
Tommy Kerevik really brought that gravitas early. Nils had such a sense of humour, did a Leo Morachetti type bit there.
Hans and Michael took very simple parts lyrically and put a great amount of expression in too. Just listen to all the ways Michael Mills can sing "one" and "zero". It's like a textbook. Note the final digit is the one that pretty much decides their doom, digitally, so he speaks it with appropriate weight.
Russell Allen puts that penultimate Aerosmith type real feel in, and no it can't be faked. Again the throwback to the 70s sound.
Michael Erikson and Joost sound more like that late 70s relaxed bluesy sound the instrumentals are doing. The instrumentals that follow them are absolutely worthy of Zen, Queen or Bowie - or Nina Simone for that matter. Play just that part blind for a 70s obsessed person, they'll call it a lost master of that era. And they'll be certain they can name the vocalist.
And of course they finish with the Valkyrie - needed to drag all the other vocalists to Valhalla when the world ends.
That was amazing.
Unbelievable good.
So I would like to recommend more Ayreon please.
Why not start with some Ayreon Live?
Ayreon-Universe!
I've never seen anything like that.
Can you imagine how hard it must be to get all this greet Musicians and fantastic Vocalist all together for a live show?
But he did...❤️
That's another fact it's so hard to reproduce something like that.
I mean, something I think this whole Ayreon Thing is bigger than Pink Floyd ever was, in my opinion.
This is big.
And today, if you're an Musician, you can't really call you a Musician if you haven't played with Arjen.
Or if he'd never ever recall's or invite you to be part of the Ayreon Family. ^^
But if you ask me, for what to do next?
I would like to answere THE Ayreon QUEENS!
In the Live Video of Valley of the Queen's.
Please just give it a listen.
42! ^^
Imagine some politicians starting to sing in parliament while fire is raining from the sky and the earth's crust is cracking! A "we are the world" as the world is ending!
Ayreon is not what I would call Symphonic Metal, to me I would equate it more to Progressive Rock/Metal. Also more Ayreon please! I promise it is also great for a vocal coach, while this song is a great introduction to Ayreon, the live performances suggested by MisterJ56 here contain various singers, that are all extremely talented and very different from one another.
Next Ayreon: Everybody Dies Live! please :)
You are talking about Arjen Lucassen, he is a genius!
I subbed a long long time ago, but hey :D great channel - love watching your reactions. Can't wait till you get something by Ulver or Antimatter on your plate :D all the musical love from Poland
I was just saying, I’d love an analysis of Ulver! “Shadows of the Sun” is one of my all-time favorite albums 👍🏻
@@wtglb Yesssss. To be honest any of their live performances could be great - Bergen 2018 from the Assassination era. I'm enourmously interested in impressions on Ulver's sound and approach to music :-)
Tommy Karevik - band "Kamelot" - very theatrical! Aryen is a giant in every way. There is a picture of him standing next to Floor and .... take a look! The Hammond gives a "Uriah Heep" feel... Agree with you about reproducing solos!
Very nice reaction. Cool tie, as well.
More Please!
I'm just here for the expressions, Darth Vader of the Vocal Fry.
To be honest I think you don't understand his humor nor his talent. But great to see you enjoy this really different style of music.
Glad you finally found Ayreon Ken! Fun reaction there. Now I can only hope you will find the time and curiosity to check out how master Arjen also masters his live performances with his all-star ensembles. Check MisterJ56's post for recommendations (or my mail if you still have it).
Ah, ye, wanted to mention the work by Arjen and Anneke (of course): The Gentle Storm and their double album and tour with a gentle and storm version of a storyline concept string of tracks around a dutch sailor and his wife in 17th century Amsterdam. Arjen and Anneke did an intimate acoustic tour with gentle versions, and they formed a band with many Ayreon and Anneke's musicians to tour Europe with the storm versions. Vocally and also muscially very interesting for you I think. Just like any of Arjen and Anneke's work.
Fascinating - I will try to check out The Gentle Storm (time willing) in the coming week. I am glad you enjoyed the reaction Gunge Grumpy - always nice to se your thoughtful comments.
@@KenLavigne Nice. If you're interested, check The Gentle Storm performing The Storm at Masters of Rock in 2015. Band and both vocalists (Anneke supported by Marcela) nail it. Melodic prog/folk metal that has become trademark of both Arjen and Anneke.
Reminder: 'Travel' or 'Waking Hour' by The Gathering, TG25, 2014. Epic vocal lines carried by Floydy metal soundscapes.
Love watching reactions to "The day that the world breaks down". Thanks for that! It was a nice little journey with you :)
Can you react to Shinedown - "Call Me" or "Simple Man"?
I would suggest also the eye of Ra from ayreons live show!
Leprous- Castaway Angels
Now that's just fun!
The Avett Brothers - Ballad of Love and Hate
Please react to Queen+ Adam Lambert "Who wants to live forever" Live at the Isle of Wight Festival 2016 :) His voice is just beyond this world!
Other songs that I really love that I think you would like to react to is: Still loving you/Woman by Scorpions, She`s Gone by Steelheart, The Death of Music by Devin Townsend. Thanks ^^ These songs are amazeballs, if you haven`t listened to them before then definitely check them out! Love your reactions!
Love from Stavanger, Norway :)
You should react to the Gazette Deux live, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the vocalist!
I subscribed 🙌🏽🙌🏽
Russel Allen! Symphony X!!! "!Paradise Lost"
Tommy's vocals reminded me of Stan Bush's style.
Please react to (Rammstein's singer) Till Lindemann's new Single "Любимый город "LUBIMIY GOROD” (Beloved Town)". I'm sure you'll enjoy it a lot.
great reaction once again, thank you for your effort
you should check out Joe Cocker, his with a little help from my friends cover is legendary and his voice is different
Not enough people say this, but Pagan's Mind. Go and listen to Nils tear it up there. Resurrection is my favorite song by them.
Love your work mate, new subscriber here bud........ loved the iron maiden reaction..... if possible please listen to ......... special ones by George....... a fantastic Aussie band, but the female singer is mind blowing..... seriously great, cheers mate, 👍🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
Hey, you should definitely check out the scarecrow live show and the Moonglow official video featuring Tobias Sammet and Candice Night, thanks , Candice Night is only in the music video of Moonglow, and the Raven Child lyrical video, awesome thanks 😃😎request thanks 😃
Hello Ken, if you go back to some singers and their songs in Spanish, I really want your reaction to:
1- Demis Roussos singing in Spanish (I don't know another version I like) the song: "MORIR AL LADO DE MI AMOR".
2- Rapahel singing two songs: "Los amantes" (The lovers) and "El tamborilero" (The little drummer boy)
3- Paloma San Basilio while she sings "No llores por mi Argentina" (Don't cry for me Argentina.
Keep doing this great job and thanks a lot.
Sir, if you liked Russell Allen's grit, I strongly suggest to listen to Symphony X - The Odyssey, a masterpiece showcasing what that singer can do with his voice.
Hey I subscribed!
Hey, you should definitely check out The eye of rah live show and the age of shadows live show featuring Floor Jansen and Marco from nightwish as guest singers and Intergalactic space crusaders live live show, awesome thanks 😎also the Electric Castle album live shows featuring John de Lance the actor who played Q from Star Trek the next generation series as a live narrator, awesome thanks 😎request thanks 😃
Now watch another track from this live... Star of Sirrah
ruclips.net/video/3dEHQNAZsIo/видео.html
Tommy is a volunteer fire fighter
It would be so cool if you would react to Made in Abyss OST Hanezeve Caradhina - Kevin Penkin (Tekeshi Saitou Cover) . It's such a beautiful song
Anything off the 01 album I got hooked by it
Hi Ken if you could review any song by @DanMcCabe Music. He's an Irish folk singer and his voice is amazing. His songs are getting a lot of attention at the minute. Especially The Galway Shawl, Grace or The Town I Loved So Well. Thanks!!
Hi. I subscribed. I recommend also that you search London grammar, strong. On jools holland. Also Jose Gonzales heartbeats.
Ayreon is great.
The binary code says: Trust TH1
Lul is Dutch slang for dick.
Just have a look at the two live concerts:
Ayreon Universe live ( with Floor Jansen and Marko Hietala, Hansi Kursch, Anneke van Giersbergen etc.)
The electric castle live and other tales (with Simone Simons and Mark Janssen from Epica, Anneke van Giersbergen, Fish etc)
And don’t forget the albums of course.
Avantasia with Tobias Sammeth is also great. Same concept as Ayreon.
You need to listen to symphony x if you like russel allen
I shall search out more Russel Allen for future reactions for sure.
Ken, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Falling In Reverse "I'm Not A Vampire Revamped!!!!" PLEASE PLEASE PLEAE!!!!
Among Ayreon/Arjen fans it's know that he doesn't like to do live shows :)
When you check??
Adam Sztaba
Orkiestra online
Russell Allen of Symphony X, Trans-Siberian Orchestra among other bands.
If u liked Russel Allen, listen to We Wil Fly, a song he made for his wife ;)