Arjen struggled in the beginning but now ..... he has got a Rolodex with names of musicians and singers and .... when Arjen calls ..... the answer is always YES. Artists love to participate in his projects.
FYI: The 11 guest singers are: [James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder), Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me) , Simone Simons (Epica), Nils K. Rue (Pagan's Mind), Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Mike Mills (Toehider), Russell Allen (Symphony X), Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus), Floor Jansen (Nightwish)]
Arjen Lucassen composes under the name Ayreon. He always has a lot of guest singers, like Simone Simons from Epica , Floor Janssen and even Marco from Nightwish. There is a lot of the music on youtube. Arjen does not perform live with his projects, but there are live concerts with a lot of famous musicians and singers. Arjen is a great and nice person. He even unblocked the video for an other reaction channel where it got blocked. Thank you for this reaction.
as an American, I am blessed to have found bands like Nightwish, Ayreon, Epica, Rhapsody ... etc over 20 years ago... A follow up to Napster was a file sharing chat room that led me to Euro folks who introduced me to Music I would otherwise never have known of until now, maybe!
If I had to choose a word to describe Arjen would be GENIUS. I had the chance to meet him and have a brief talk during Stream of Passion gig in Madrid some years ago and I was greatly surprised. He's not only able to make GREAT music, but it's not so common to find someone that humble, down-to-earth friendly person. UNIQUE!
Queensryche meets Queen meets Deep Purple. Hammond B3 with Leslies!! OMG cannot duplicate that sound EVER with digital! This is like an epic Shakespeare Play done through music with all the different moods and tempo's and sounds in the progression of the "song".
This literally could have went on for another hour and I would have loved it. Super Collaborations are GOLD!!! We need more of this type of thing. It's like a movie, a play, a concert, a video, pure creativity and Art! Love it.
Loved the reaction, thank you! Yes, it's the correct video you watched and I see that plenty of others have already started to explain the project. Oddly, it is an album that I do listen to a couple of times a week. Arjen really is a genius similar to Tuomas Holopainen. They have a different tone to their music, as Arjen is a bit more 'progressive' than Tuomas but both use ambitious and complex musical structures to basically blow our minds! Some of Ayreon's live videos are extremely entertaining.
The singers in order of appearance are: James LaBrie from Dream Theater Tommy Karevik from Kamelot, Seventh Wonder Tommy Rogers from Between the Buried and Me Simone Simons from th most epic Epica Nils K. Rue from Pagan's Mind and Eidolon Tobias Sammet from Edguy and here mentioned Avantasia Hansi Kürsch the „Bard from Walhalla“ from Blind Guardian Mike Mills playing a computer and singing binary from Toehider Russell Allen from Symphony X Michael Eriksen from Circus Maximus and last but not least the incredible Valkyrie Goddess Floor Jansen from Nightwish
Thanks for this reaction! Ayreon, and this song in particular, is something you'd have to listen a couple of times to take it all in, cause there is so much going on. Arjen Anthony Lucassen is a genius and with this fantastic line-up, it sucks you right in. This is not just a song, it is a musical journey!
Ayreon projek genie virtuoos Arjen Lucassen, hij is self een kluisenaar en woon afgesonderd, maar tog is baie musikante gretig om saam met hom te werk en aan sy unieke projekte deel te neem.
As you will discover, Ayreon is a project that has been ongoing since the 1990's. With a list of contributors that can bring tears to the eyes of ardent hard rock and metal fans. Even good, old Bruce Dickinson participated on one of the earlier albums.
Arjen is the best! He writes his albums as plays or stories. He has the drummer fulltime and has several incredible guest musicians. He's been doing this for so long. A true visionary. Cheers!
It's rare that one of these videos feels genuine, and this one totally did! I've met Arjen Lucassen many times over the years, supported everything he did with music and every single time you're done talking to him, you're left in awe of how good a dude can be. I swear, if you ask him for 20 bucks, he'd probably give it to you. Enjoy the vortex you've just been sucked into, there are none like it. He will absolutely watch this video, too 😅
Ayreon is not really a band as such but a name for Arjan Lucassen musical projects. When he is finished composing the music and writing his lyrics he gets all these amazing vocalist and musicians to create a one of a kind album. All of his albums tell a central story line and some of the albums are also connected. (It sounds a bit like Jeff Wayne's War of the worlds album. If you never heard that take a look at that to). His live performances are really rare and sold out in minutes. You can imagine how difficult it is getting all these successful artists on a stage at the same time. Dedicated fans of him will travel world to see it. Funny thing is that even though he loves creating these albums he has a very serious case of stage fright and is also very shy. Here are 2 links to get a taste of what the live performances look like. "Everybody dies" ruclips.net/video/9AAXtUdM7xE/видео.html (the woman on the left side of the back-ground singers is Irene Jansen, Yes that is Floor's sister who is pretty awesome herself) "The valley of the queens" ruclips.net/video/TbebO5BZi-I/видео.html The blond in the middle called Anneke van Giersbergen who was the lead vocalist of the band "The Gathering" and was the inspiration for Floor to get in to metal and become a professional singer . According to Tuomas she was also an inspiration for him. So she has quiet a lot answer for :-)
All the albums are connected, not some. Now, there are two that aren't really Ayreon albums but were released under the Ayreon name and he has a solo album that really is an Ayreon story.
Who doesn't love / get influences from Anneke? Here, with Amorphis (Amongst stars) ruclips.net/video/Jg2VqUTNjsw/видео.html - A recommendation to your playlist, also ❤
Here is a list of the composer and singers in order of appearance: Arjen Lucassen - Composer - Dutch singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer best known for his long-running progressive metal/rock opera project Ayreon. James Labrie - Lead singer for Dream Theatre. Tommy Karevik - Lead singer of Kamelot and Seventh Wonder. Tommy Rodgers - Lead singer of Between the Buried and Me. Simone Simmons - Lead singer of Epica. Nils K. Rue - Lead singer of Pagan's Mind and also worked with Eidolon. Tobias Sammet - Lead singer of Edguy & Avantasia. Hansi Kürsch - Lead singer of Blind Guardian and Demons & Wizards. Mike Mills - Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and main songwriter for Toehider. Russell Allen - Lead singer of Symphony X and Allen/Lande. Michael Eriksen - Lead singer of Circus Maximus. Floor Jansen - Lead singer of After Forever, ReVamp & now Nightwish. Next I would suggest reacting to the performances at Ayreon Universe concert, especially the following Intergalactic Space Crusaders, River of Time, Merlin's Will, Valley of the Queens, Ride the Comet, Star of Sirrah, And the Druids Turn to Stone, Age of Shadows & Everybody Dies.
Hi Songs and Thongs, these are all of the singers that are on this album and the bands that they are in: Simone Simons (Epica) as The Counselor Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) as The Astronomer Floor Jansen (Nightwish) as The Biologist Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder) as The Opposition Leader Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me) as The Chemist Nils K. Rue (Pagan's Mind) as The Prophet Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus) as The Diplomat James LaBrie (Dream Theater) as The Historian Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia) as The Captain Mike Mills (Toehider) as TH-1 Russell Allen (Symphony X) as The President Zaher Zorgati (Myrath) as The Preacher
Ayreon is a project by Arjen, he uses different vocalist for different parts. Arjen is a genius, multi instrumentalist. He actually discovered Floor and her sister Irene. Besides Ayreon he has Star One, Stream of Passion, Ambeon. Many great side projects.
I love this album, and especially this song. It never gets old.Arjen has once again created an opus - and to gather so much talent... Can you imagine? I laughed when you mentioned Tatiana... knowing Floor was going to make her appearance... Love Tati too... :)
The male vocalist you liked so much was Tommy Karevik, Lead singer of power metal band Kamelot. If you want to hear more check out Sacrimony or liar liar. I personally really like Vespertine as well.
The single greatest sci fi audiobook series ever created. A journey through space, time, the mind and other dimensions. This rabbit hole is deep, and like you said, you can't listen to it once and take everything in. There's wonders to be discovered everywhere your focus goes
Ayreon is Arjen Anthony Lucassen's project - he gather some of the best musicians and singers, and creates a sort of rock opera with a story and parts. Hope you'll keep on digging, there is a lot of good stuff to be found.
It is simple, you know the Alan Parson's project? Well this is similar, Arjen Anthony Lucassen is the genius behind the project, he creates his own universe and a lot of instruments are played in the studio by him, plus he invites guests artist to contribute. The live performance of his work is done by other artists, he takes a backseat in those and lets other shine on stage.
So, I hope that you two will soon react to more Ayreon songs. And the druids turn to stone, Intergalactic space crusaders, Eye of Ra and many many more!! Please! The ultimate prog music encyclopedia will unfold!!
I love how you described Ayreon. He definitely writes masterpieces of metal "operas" or "plays". I'm sure someone else has a better description. I love them. Your expressions are priceless throughout this video. Keep up the great work!!!
Definitely the right video! Arjen Lucassen is the tall, long haired hippie dude who twiddles synth knobs and plays a mean guitar. Ayreon is his project. - A who's who of metal! Arjen brought this, the family, together! Michael Mills!! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! 🇦🇺 His binary code lyrics actually spell TH-1 - his characters' name.
if you're gonna do this Aryeon song, you'll also need to do the various Aryeon live songs that float around: "Intergalactic Space Crusaders", "Everybody Dies" and various others. Only now I see you are located in SA. I have a long-time friend in Paarl, she's a school/music teacher who may have heard of you two as well. :o)
I highly recommend after this one that you look into kamelot(both Tommy[current singer] and Roy Kahn[old singer]), Symphony x, and Avantasia after to look at some of the singers featured here. And I need to join you on looking more into Between the Buried and Me, Toehider, and circa survive
I play the Universe concert every Friday. There's singers you won't know and that's ok but there are at least 2 that you will and the very tall back up singer is Floor's sister Irene who is a damn good singer in her own right.
Ayreon is a kind of rock opera project by Dutch singer/musician Arjen Lucasson plus lots of guest musicians. He/they have released 10 albums over the last 26 years.
U guys remibded me of when i 1st listened to the sing the day it came out and CRYED ao much cuz it was so awsome and we were wqiting for that album fir so long 🤩
Ayreon is the project of Dutch producer, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen. He does scifi concept albums since the 90's. He as had over 80 different singers on his 9(double) albums. Floor is on of the singers that have been on several albums almost from the start. 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
Hello you two beautiful people :-). Love seeing a new fav of mine being done! Glad you liked the performance as much as the rest of us :-). A true all star cast of singers and musicians on this one. A tru Sci-Fi journey and this intro sets the cast for the rest of the album. I laughed when the beat dropped LOL. Harry's "Yeeesss!" said it all, though Sharlene's bemused and questioning look was pretty keen as well. Tommy from Kamelot is indeed one hell of a special singer. Probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite in this list after Floor of course. Keep up the awesome work kids, you're doing great!
Yes it's a project', most alike to a metal science fiction opera. Many of the artists appearing are long term friends of Arjen, Ayreon goes back to 2000 when a very young Floor appeared on stage where no one had still heard of her.. There are various live performances of Ayreon songs, in which Arjen, who dislikes to be on stage all the time, does only a few roles, but the invités are top musicians. AND you're an adorable couple to react: You noticed all the jokes that Arjen strewed in
I always enjoy to see reactions to this video. Most is hit by a big surprise!✨ . If you do react to the Ayreon "Universe" concert (SOOOO amazing) - remember to save "The Eye Of Ra" for last. It has such an epic ending! ✨
You MUST watch the entire 2 1/2hr Ayreon Universe Rock Opera, all the best musicians & vocalists from the worlds top symphonic metal bands. Your eyes have just been opened to a whole new scene. Ayreon Lucassen is brilliant
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 awesome 😎
Everybody please say hi to our new Ayreonauts. Do you remember that moment when you discovered Nightwish? This is the same and good for you with some 25 years of backlog Arjen's music and all of his projects. Ayreon, StarOne, Ambeon etc etc
Ayreon is an ongoing project and creation of the Dutch progressive metal mast, Arjen Anthony Lucassen. For something much heavier, check out "Star of Sirrah" live from Ayreon Universe. See link. The guitarist will blow your mind. Most of Arjen's creations are like progressive rock operas, involving elaborate sci fi stories. The musicians and singer he uses for his music are all world class. ruclips.net/video/3dEHQNAZsIo/видео.html - Star of Sirrah - Ayreon Universe live - This is another song from the album "The Source". The same one you just heard.
Oh! Now you two are from SA so you (should) know Afrikaans and that's just ancient Dutch, so you know Ayreon is an English phonetic of the Dutch Arjen; yes? Michael Mills, the "digital Pavarotti" has, it is told, a 4 octave range, he plays the part of the android TH-1 and if you go look up a table for real old fashioned ASCII you find the digital words say "Trust TH-1", TH being a reference to Michaels band Toehider. You never mentioned NWOBHM - new wave of British heavy metal. Yep Ayreon is a one man project although co-produced by the fabulous keyboard player Joost van den Broek. You should do more !!
Your faces were priceless, going from pure skeptical into Floorgasm. Did you honestly believe that members of the Nightwish Army would trick you into something plain and boring 💤 Arjen Lucassen has worked with approximately 100 of the top of the top in musicians and singers from all over the world, during the years. Like Floor - he started working with her, back in 2000!! The guy Joost playing Grand Piano, used to be in After Forever (were Floor started her career) - and he followed her when she formed ReVamp in 2009 - and he is in Floor's upcoming solo album.
Ayreon live is so much fun, you have to watch some of the videos even if you don’t do any reactions. I don’t think there’s a bad one out there, I haven’t found one yet, anyway.
You should listen to (and WATCH) any Ayreon Universe Live video. Arjen Lucassen (the mastermind behind Ayreon) has stage fright, but he does play live once every few years, and in 1 venue ONLY: Tilburg, the Netherlands. For your next Ayreon reaction, I'd suggest Everybody Dies Live!
it is very simple Ayreon is the lovechild of musical genius Arjen Lukassen he writes the music and then he ask the musicians he thinks are the best for that song to join the project , sometimes he only give them a lead that they can fill in themselves like the binery he give to Michael Mills and then let Mills do his thing.Arjen knows if you give amazing artist some creative freedom within the lines to color it only get better and make the artist feel they are a part of the project.
You had the right clip and Ayreon is just the one guy. He makes prog music that takes place in the Ayreon universe and each album is a story that takes place there. A while ago he started doing live shows that, due to the extremely large cast, is done with some different singers....not that you would notice considering the talent he can call upon. The live stuff is also highly recommended. I would name names but there are probably dozens of recommendations already and I would just mention the same ones.
Tommy Karevik fronts Kamelot, but his lesser-known band Seventh Wonder is actually where you should listen to him. Kamelot he doesn't get to flex his skills nearly as much, but Seventh Wonder he gets to show off, and it's mind blowing. Welcome to Mercy Falls is a great song to start with!
You know you have a great team with Floor as your closer!! 😂 Edit: also I have met Arjen and he is just the greatest person to be around what an infectious personality and really good person!
Ayreon is an entity with interchangeable players and the best international vocalists out there including Floor's sister Irene. Please do yourself a favor and find Ayreon Universe live concert. You will not believe your eyes and ears. This is a "best of" concert from a man, Arjen Lucassen, who doubted the material could be played live and that anyone would want to see it performed. Boy was he wrong! You can find it on RUclips. I heartily suggest Intergalactic Space Crusaders (featuring Maggie Luyten...amazing). Also Ride The Comet (Floor and Irene do the backing vocal), Eye Of Ra, Valley Of The Queens, The Theory Of Everything and on and on. Arjen Lucassen wrote everything and you just saw him on keyboards, bass and guitars. He also sings on several cuts. Welcome to the world of Ayreon. You won't be disappointed. By the way 01001100 Mike Mills is featured as well. He's a nut. Be well. Till next time.
And don’t forget Anneke van Giersbergen! She’s in several songs and in the “The Gentle Storm” project with Arjen! An album that brings you back to our Dutch golden age with VOC ships going to the east
A lot of Good live songs from this album. Y'all should check out a few of them. A lot of the singer in this song are doing the singing. One of my favorite is RIDING THE COMET
Ayreon - Valley Of The Queens (Ayreon Universe) - (Marcela, Anneke and Floor) Ayreon - The Eye Of Ra (Universe) (Well who is not here..., but you get to hear Floor and Floors sister singing together...)
Ayreon is not a band, but one of the many musical projects of Dutch composer/multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucasson (the guy narrating the video and playing the guitars, bass and keyboards). All Ayreon albums are concept albums and tell a story…he always gets top-notch vocalists to portray the various characters in the story. Some of his other projects include Star One, Guilt Machine, The Gentle Storm, and Ambeon.
Ayreon is a project indeed, the only "full member" is Arjen the guy that talks in the video and plays guitar, bass and keyboards, the rest are all guests, some of them are more recurrent, like Floor, Simone, the violin and flute guys... The albums are all conceptual Opera Rock style as far as I know. He also usually watches reactions and comments on them so maybe he appears here as well.
Ayreon was also a great inspiration to Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish back in the day. My first introduction was way back in 1995/96 (can't remember). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayreon So Ayreon is a musical concept that spans over many years, albums, and artists. The Final Experiment Prologue describes it better (not reaction worthy): ruclips.net/video/ECcd4zy5o-w/видео.html&ab_channel=ArjenAnthonyLucassen His live performances tend to mix and match from several concepts, and may even rewrite the story to match the singers. Such as The Eye Of Ra (reaction worthy): ruclips.net/video/odcO0SciTUY/видео.html (Warning; if you're into the heavy scene, some familiar faces may appear - you have been warned ;))
I thought of it earlier so I'm gonna say it: I'd love to see what Arjen would do with Aurora. I feel like the two of them would 'get on like gang busters" as they say. Glad you liked it so much! (btw, if you don't know Aurora's music, do check her out, she's not metal, but for some reason I'm not the only metalhead drawn to her. She's so damn pure of soul, yet mischievous like a fae. She's seriously too good for this world, lol.) I'm going to go search your playlist before I recc anything else... ;) Obviously you've already discovered Jinjer, hehe.
Ah, my young friends...another rabbit hole has opened before you! I think going into your first Ayreon experience cold, through this video, is a wonderful beginning. I would be more than slightly surprised if Arjen, genius composer, producer and circus ring master didn't have something like that in mind when he chose this specific format to launch this album. He's just that fuckin cool! And I think your reaction supports my theory perfectly. Enjoy the journey!
Now "Everybody Dies" live? It's like this song compressed in a 5 minute live performance... Amazing.
Absolutely
I second (or third) that - sorry lost track ;o)
Why not a different song like Liquid Eternity, Garden of Emotions, The Banishment or The Fifth Extinction?
@@Metalton95 I'm kind of new fan of Ayreon, heard about 10 songs and suggested what I liked most...
@sleeepwalk, thanks for the recommendation, we've added it to our list 🙂
Arjen struggled in the beginning but now ..... he has got a Rolodex with names of musicians and singers and .... when Arjen calls ..... the answer is always YES. Artists love to participate in his projects.
Haha, i was just about to write the same: imagine his Rolodex 😁
@@impugnu7852 I think he has three of them .... singers, musicians and one with people who want to work with him 😉
Wasn't there one female singer who said No when Arjen called...?
So I've heard anyway. Cheers / B.
@@mbo191 Must have been "wrong number" 😜
@@MisterJ56 - 😂😂😂
Dutch Master, Arjen Lucassen is not only an amazing musician and songwriter, he is also such a cool, friendly dude.
Arjen and tuomas in a Project mind Blowing lol
and SOOO TAALLLLLL!!! Makes Floor look "mortal" height!
@@christianhansen6061 make it happen!!!!!!!!
@@christianhansen6061 Hmmmm, I wonder how that would work out. It's like the Mozart and Beethoven of Metal working together....
@@peterkeijsers489 exactly 😜🥰
FYI: The 11 guest singers are: [James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder), Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me) , Simone Simons (Epica), Nils K. Rue (Pagan's Mind), Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Mike Mills (Toehider), Russell Allen (Symphony X), Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus), Floor Jansen (Nightwish)]
all first class singers.....
@@sonjaschweinsberger1637 Agreed !
All my favorites
All the time that has passed, and so little has changed.
Harry still being confused and oblivious 🤣🤣🤣
(Love you guys..........really 😘) 🤪
Arjen Lucassen composes under the name Ayreon. He always has a lot of guest singers, like Simone Simons from Epica , Floor Janssen and even Marco from Nightwish. There is a lot of the music on youtube. Arjen does not perform live with his projects, but there are live concerts with a lot of famous musicians and singers. Arjen is a great and nice person. He even unblocked the video for an other reaction channel where it got blocked. Thank you for this reaction.
Arjen is really such a cool dude. Our video got blocked as well and he white listed it for us. So rad 🙂🙂🤘🤘
@@SongsandThongs did you already heard more of Ayreon? Or “The Gentle Storm” another project of his
@@famvanhout6346 I couldn't get behind The Gentle Storm, the first song or two was excellent and then nothing, IMO.
I think I know who you're talking about because I'm watching their reaction video and she mentions the blockage and how he removed it for her.
@@famvanhout6346 ambeon, star one, vengeance, bodine, stream of passion, guilt machine
as an American, I am blessed to have found bands like Nightwish, Ayreon, Epica, Rhapsody ... etc over 20 years ago... A follow up to Napster was a file sharing chat room that led me to Euro folks who introduced me to Music I would otherwise never have known of until now, maybe!
If I had to choose a word to describe Arjen would be GENIUS. I had the chance to meet him and have a brief talk during Stream of Passion gig in Madrid some years ago and I was greatly surprised. He's not only able to make GREAT music, but it's not so common to find someone that humble, down-to-earth friendly person. UNIQUE!
Queensryche meets Queen meets Deep Purple. Hammond B3 with Leslies!! OMG cannot duplicate that sound EVER with digital! This is like an epic Shakespeare Play done through music with all the different moods and tempo's and sounds in the progression of the "song".
This literally could have went on for another hour and I would have loved it.
Super Collaborations are GOLD!!!
We need more of this type of thing. It's like a movie, a play, a concert, a video, pure creativity and Art!
Love it.
Unless I'm mistaken, this is "just" the opening track for the album "The Source" by Ayreon.
Loved the reaction, thank you! Yes, it's the correct video you watched and I see that plenty of others have already started to explain the project. Oddly, it is an album that I do listen to a couple of times a week. Arjen really is a genius similar to Tuomas Holopainen. They have a different tone to their music, as Arjen is a bit more 'progressive' than Tuomas but both use ambitious and complex musical structures to basically blow our minds!
Some of Ayreon's live videos are extremely entertaining.
The singers in order of appearance are:
James LaBrie from Dream Theater
Tommy Karevik from Kamelot, Seventh Wonder
Tommy Rogers from Between the Buried and Me
Simone Simons from th most epic Epica
Nils K. Rue from Pagan's Mind and Eidolon
Tobias Sammet from Edguy and here mentioned Avantasia
Hansi Kürsch the „Bard from Walhalla“ from Blind Guardian
Mike Mills playing a computer and singing binary from Toehider
Russell Allen from Symphony X
Michael Eriksen from Circus Maximus
and last but not least the incredible Valkyrie Goddess Floor Jansen from Nightwish
you only showed half
@@Drizzt_Do_Entreri ups, you are right. Something got lost. I had this problem already some time before :(
Thanks for this reaction! Ayreon, and this song in particular, is something you'd have to listen a couple of times to take it all in, cause there is so much going on. Arjen Anthony Lucassen is a genius and with this fantastic line-up, it sucks you right in. This is not just a song, it is a musical journey!
Ayreon projek genie virtuoos Arjen Lucassen, hij is self een kluisenaar en woon afgesonderd, maar tog is baie musikante gretig om saam met hom te werk en aan sy unieke projekte deel te neem.
As you will discover, Ayreon is a project that has been ongoing since the 1990's. With a list of contributors that can bring tears to the eyes of ardent hard rock and metal fans. Even good, old Bruce Dickinson participated on one of the earlier albums.
And Dee Snider on the latest album. 😁 And Joe Satriani.
@@darkiee69 And freakin Tom Baker narrating for Transitus! 😵
Arjen is the best! He writes his albums as plays or stories. He has the drummer fulltime and has several incredible guest musicians. He's been doing this for so long. A true visionary. Cheers!
It's rare that one of these videos feels genuine, and this one totally did!
I've met Arjen Lucassen many times over the years, supported everything he did with music and every single time you're done talking to him, you're left in awe of how good a dude can be. I swear, if you ask him for 20 bucks, he'd probably give it to you.
Enjoy the vortex you've just been sucked into, there are none like it.
He will absolutely watch this video, too 😅
Ayreon is not really a band as such but a name for Arjan Lucassen musical projects. When he is finished composing the music and writing his lyrics he gets all these amazing vocalist and musicians to create a one of a kind album. All of his albums tell a central story line and some of the albums are also connected. (It sounds a bit like Jeff Wayne's War of the worlds album. If you never heard that take a look at that to). His live performances are really rare and sold out in minutes. You can imagine how difficult it is getting all these successful artists on a stage at the same time. Dedicated fans of him will travel world to see it. Funny thing is that even though he loves creating these albums he has a very serious case of stage fright and is also very shy.
Here are 2 links to get a taste of what the live performances look like.
"Everybody dies" ruclips.net/video/9AAXtUdM7xE/видео.html (the woman on the left side of the back-ground singers is Irene Jansen, Yes that is Floor's sister who is pretty awesome herself)
"The valley of the queens" ruclips.net/video/TbebO5BZi-I/видео.html The blond in the middle called Anneke van Giersbergen who was the lead vocalist of the band "The Gathering" and was the inspiration for Floor to get in to metal and become a professional singer . According to Tuomas she was also an inspiration for him. So she has quiet a lot answer for :-)
Anneke is probably the best singer EVER!!!
All the albums are connected, not some. Now, there are two that aren't really Ayreon albums but were released under the Ayreon name and he has a solo album that really is an Ayreon story.
@@scorpiusbalthazar4327 Dude, Arjan made 27 Albums by now, 2 where with Bodine, 5 with Vengeance and only 10 are from the Ayreon Universe.
@@Kullioking I know he does other stuff
Who doesn't love / get influences from Anneke? Here, with Amorphis (Amongst stars) ruclips.net/video/Jg2VqUTNjsw/видео.html
- A recommendation to your playlist, also ❤
Arjen is like Tuomas. A master of composition
but much better
Such a great song. Great reaction. I have listened to this song at least 400 times
Yes! You’re gonna love this! Can’t wait.
Here is a list of the composer and singers in order of appearance:
Arjen Lucassen - Composer - Dutch singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer best known for his long-running progressive metal/rock opera project Ayreon.
James Labrie - Lead singer for Dream Theatre.
Tommy Karevik - Lead singer of Kamelot and Seventh Wonder.
Tommy Rodgers - Lead singer of Between the Buried and Me.
Simone Simmons - Lead singer of Epica.
Nils K. Rue - Lead singer of Pagan's Mind and also worked with Eidolon.
Tobias Sammet - Lead singer of Edguy & Avantasia.
Hansi Kürsch - Lead singer of Blind Guardian and Demons & Wizards.
Mike Mills - Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and main songwriter for Toehider.
Russell Allen - Lead singer of Symphony X and Allen/Lande.
Michael Eriksen - Lead singer of Circus Maximus.
Floor Jansen - Lead singer of After Forever, ReVamp & now Nightwish.
Next I would suggest reacting to the performances at Ayreon Universe concert, especially the following Intergalactic Space Crusaders, River of Time, Merlin's Will, Valley of the Queens, Ride the Comet, Star of Sirrah, And the Druids Turn to Stone, Age of Shadows & Everybody Dies.
Ayreon is not a band, its a universe. each album depicts a story. this song alone. to me? more than wow.
This album is a story... and one of the best money ever spend.
Hi Songs and Thongs, these are all of the singers that are on this album and the bands that they are in:
Simone Simons (Epica) as The Counselor
Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) as The Astronomer
Floor Jansen (Nightwish) as The Biologist
Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder) as The Opposition Leader
Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me) as The Chemist
Nils K. Rue (Pagan's Mind) as The Prophet
Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus) as The Diplomat
James LaBrie (Dream Theater) as The Historian
Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia) as The Captain
Mike Mills (Toehider) as TH-1
Russell Allen (Symphony X) as The President
Zaher Zorgati (Myrath) as The Preacher
Yes, definitely check out more Ayreon, awesome thanks 😎
Wow. Thanks for exploring all sorts of things I've not heard before and expanding my horizons.
Theres a ton of Ayreon all over youtube. Enjoy
Ayreon is a project by Arjen, he uses different vocalist for different parts. Arjen is a genius, multi instrumentalist. He actually discovered Floor and her sister Irene. Besides Ayreon he has Star One, Stream of Passion, Ambeon. Many great side projects.
Everything he does is just fantastic everyone he jams with does so because they respect his talents and story telling all ayreon albums kick ass
I love this album, and especially this song. It never gets old.Arjen has once again created an opus - and to gather so much talent... Can you imagine? I laughed when you mentioned Tatiana... knowing Floor was going to make her appearance... Love Tati too... :)
The male vocalist you liked so much was Tommy Karevik, Lead singer of power metal band Kamelot. If you want to hear more check out Sacrimony or liar liar. I personally really like Vespertine as well.
'' Is this a band , Is this a project'' ....... YES and YES.
Ayreon - Everybody Dies (live) has to be next! Great reaction :)
The single greatest sci fi audiobook series ever created. A journey through space, time, the mind and other dimensions. This rabbit hole is deep, and like you said, you can't listen to it once and take everything in. There's wonders to be discovered everywhere your focus goes
Ayreon is Arjen Anthony Lucassen's project - he gather some of the best musicians and singers, and creates a sort of rock opera with a story and parts. Hope you'll keep on digging, there is a lot of good stuff to be found.
It is simple, you know the Alan Parson's project? Well this is similar, Arjen Anthony Lucassen is the genius behind the project, he creates his own universe and a lot of instruments are played in the studio by him, plus he invites guests artist to contribute. The live performance of his work is done by other artists, he takes a backseat in those and lets other shine on stage.
Also check out the rest of Ayreon. Fan for like 20 years. Saw m once live. The only one they played live. In their 25 year existence.
excited for this one! cant watch the premier but will watch when i get home from work tonight!
So, I hope that you two will soon react to more Ayreon songs. And the druids turn to stone, Intergalactic space crusaders, Eye of Ra and many many more!! Please! The ultimate prog music encyclopedia will unfold!!
I love how you described Ayreon. He definitely writes masterpieces of metal "operas" or "plays". I'm sure someone else has a better description. I love them. Your expressions are priceless throughout this video. Keep up the great work!!!
Definitely the right video! Arjen Lucassen is the tall, long haired hippie dude who twiddles synth knobs and plays a mean guitar. Ayreon is his project. - A who's who of metal! Arjen brought this, the family, together! Michael Mills!! Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! 🇦🇺 His binary code lyrics actually spell TH-1 - his characters' name.
Operatic Metal. Brings in talent from everywhere.
if you're gonna do this Aryeon song, you'll also need to do the various Aryeon live songs that float around: "Intergalactic Space Crusaders", "Everybody Dies" and various others. Only now I see you are located in SA. I have a long-time friend in Paarl, she's a school/music teacher who may have heard of you two as well. :o)
Star of Sirrah
I highly recommend after this one that you look into kamelot(both Tommy[current singer] and Roy Kahn[old singer]), Symphony x, and Avantasia after to look at some of the singers featured here. And I need to join you on looking more into Between the Buried and Me, Toehider, and circa survive
I play the Universe concert every Friday.
There's singers you won't know and that's ok but there are at least 2 that you will and the very tall back up singer is Floor's sister Irene who is a damn good singer in her own right.
Ayreon is a kind of rock opera project by Dutch singer/musician Arjen Lucasson plus lots of guest musicians. He/they have released 10 albums over the last 26 years.
U guys remibded me of when i 1st listened to the sing the day it came out and CRYED ao much cuz it was so awsome and we were wqiting for that album fir so long 🤩
Fun reaction. Ayreon is a masterful prog-opera.
Now you've done it. This is going to be a great journey if we go through Ayreon
... And yes, the "Floor bomb" is there again... ❤❤❤❤
What else do you do to end an already epic composition in style? You get Floor at the very end.
@@flavio_spqr oh yeah!! After all, Arjen knows about Floor better than anyone 😁
Ayreon is the project of Dutch producer, composer, singer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen. He does scifi concept albums since the 90's. He as had over 80 different singers on his 9(double) albums. Floor is on of the singers that have been on several albums almost from the start.
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
Hello you two beautiful people :-). Love seeing a new fav of mine being done!
Glad you liked the performance as much as the rest of us :-). A true all star cast of singers and musicians on this one. A tru Sci-Fi journey and this intro sets the cast for the rest of the album.
I laughed when the beat dropped LOL. Harry's "Yeeesss!" said it all, though Sharlene's bemused and questioning look was pretty keen as well. Tommy from Kamelot is indeed one hell of a special singer. Probably my 2nd or 3rd favorite in this list after Floor of course.
Keep up the awesome work kids, you're doing great!
Thank you so much for this great comment 🙂🤘
Yeeeeahhh!! Ayreon is great !! Look for Ayreon Universe live. Everything is golden. 😊🔥
And that was also my entry for the bandemic! I love it!
Hook line and sinker for one of the best music projects in the world!!
Glade you back keep it metal you 2 rock Cant wait for next vid
Yes it's a project', most alike to a metal science fiction opera. Many of the artists appearing are long term friends of Arjen, Ayreon goes back to 2000 when a very young Floor appeared on stage where no one had still heard of her.. There are various live performances of Ayreon songs, in which Arjen, who dislikes to be on stage all the time, does only a few roles, but the invités are top musicians.
AND you're an adorable couple to react: You noticed all the jokes that Arjen strewed in
It even goes back a few years more!!! 1993
I always enjoy to see reactions to this video. Most is hit by a big surprise!✨ . If you do react to the Ayreon "Universe" concert (SOOOO amazing) - remember to save "The Eye Of Ra" for last. It has such an epic ending! ✨
Yep... Awesome!
You MUST watch the entire 2 1/2hr Ayreon Universe Rock Opera, all the best musicians & vocalists from the worlds top symphonic metal bands. Your eyes have just been opened to a whole new scene. Ayreon Lucassen is brilliant
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 awesome 😎
🤔 Arjen Lucassen is the Dutch mastermind composer of this. you know the tall hippie ( 2.03) in the vid...
Most of epicea and ayreon fans loves are team floor. But luv you for being open minded to open for more kind of music !
I suggest listening to The Eye of Ra live Ayreon Universe. There’s an awesome surprise towards the end involving all the singers at the show
Would have loved to been there to watch this. EPIC
Everybody please say hi to our new Ayreonauts.
Do you remember that moment when you discovered Nightwish? This is the same and good for you with some 25 years of backlog Arjen's music and all of his projects.
Ayreon, StarOne, Ambeon etc etc
Ayreon is an ongoing project and creation of the Dutch progressive metal mast, Arjen Anthony Lucassen. For something much heavier, check out "Star of Sirrah" live from Ayreon Universe. See link. The guitarist will blow your mind. Most of Arjen's creations are like progressive rock operas, involving elaborate sci fi stories. The musicians and singer he uses for his music are all world class.
ruclips.net/video/3dEHQNAZsIo/видео.html - Star of Sirrah - Ayreon Universe live - This is another song from the album "The Source". The same one you just heard.
Oh! Now you two are from SA so you (should) know Afrikaans and that's just ancient Dutch, so you know Ayreon is an English phonetic of the Dutch Arjen; yes?
Michael Mills, the "digital Pavarotti" has, it is told, a 4 octave range, he plays the part of the android TH-1 and if you go look up a table for real old fashioned ASCII you find the digital words say "Trust TH-1", TH being a reference to Michaels band Toehider.
You never mentioned NWOBHM - new wave of British heavy metal.
Yep Ayreon is a one man project although co-produced by the fabulous keyboard player Joost van den Broek.
You should do more !!
Your faces were priceless, going from pure skeptical into Floorgasm.
Did you honestly believe that members of the Nightwish Army would trick you into something plain and boring 💤
Arjen Lucassen has worked with approximately 100 of the top of the top in musicians and singers from all over the world, during the years. Like Floor - he started working with her, back in 2000!! The guy Joost playing Grand Piano, used to be in After Forever (were Floor started her career) - and he followed her when she formed ReVamp in 2009 - and he is in Floor's upcoming solo album.
Ayreon live is so much fun, you have to watch some of the videos even if you don’t do any reactions. I don’t think there’s a bad one out there, I haven’t found one yet, anyway.
You should listen to (and WATCH) any Ayreon Universe Live video. Arjen Lucassen (the mastermind behind Ayreon) has stage fright, but he does play live once every few years, and in 1 venue ONLY: Tilburg, the Netherlands. For your next Ayreon reaction, I'd suggest Everybody Dies Live!
And “Plant Y is alive” for some adrenaline! 🤟🏻
it is very simple Ayreon is the lovechild of musical genius Arjen Lukassen he writes the music and then he ask the musicians he thinks are the best for that song to join the project , sometimes he only give them a lead that they can fill in themselves like the binery he give to Michael Mills and then let Mills do his thing.Arjen knows if you give amazing artist some creative freedom within the lines to color it only get better and make the artist feel they are a part of the project.
This song always goes by so fast.
Now, that was damn impressive!!! 🤘🤘🤘
Satriani plays a solo on Ayreon's latest album, Transitus.
You should also watch Argen's band, the Gental Storm, with Anneke Van Giersbergen on vocals.
You had the right clip and Ayreon is just the one guy. He makes prog music that takes place in the Ayreon universe and each album is a story that takes place there.
A while ago he started doing live shows that, due to the extremely large cast, is done with some different singers....not that you would notice considering the talent he can call upon. The live stuff is also highly recommended. I would name names but there are probably dozens of recommendations already and I would just mention the same ones.
Tommy Karevik fronts Kamelot, but his lesser-known band Seventh Wonder is actually where you should listen to him. Kamelot he doesn't get to flex his skills nearly as much, but Seventh Wonder he gets to show off, and it's mind blowing. Welcome to Mercy Falls is a great song to start with!
Thanks for the recommendations. We will be sure to check it out!
You know you have a great team with Floor as your closer!! 😂
Edit: also I have met Arjen and he is just the greatest person to be around what an infectious personality and really good person!
Ayreon is an entity with interchangeable players and the best international vocalists out there including Floor's sister Irene. Please do yourself a favor and find Ayreon Universe live concert. You will not believe your eyes and ears. This is a "best of" concert from a man, Arjen Lucassen, who doubted the material could be played live and that anyone would want to see it performed. Boy was he wrong! You can find it on RUclips. I heartily suggest Intergalactic Space Crusaders (featuring Maggie Luyten...amazing). Also Ride The Comet (Floor and Irene do the backing vocal), Eye Of Ra, Valley Of The Queens, The Theory Of Everything and on and on. Arjen Lucassen wrote everything and you just saw him on keyboards, bass and guitars. He also sings on several cuts. Welcome to the world of Ayreon. You won't be disappointed. By the way 01001100 Mike Mills is featured as well. He's a nut. Be well. Till next time.
And don’t forget Anneke van Giersbergen! She’s in several songs and in the “The Gentle Storm” project with Arjen! An album that brings you back to our Dutch golden age with VOC ships going to the east
Areyon is not a band is a project but an experience out of this world
It reminded me of Yes.
i like Michael Mills and Toehider a lot, i finally catch him on his livestream yesterday, he sang Ed Sheeran's I See Fire and that was great.
A lot of Good live songs from this album. Y'all should check out a few of them. A lot of the singer in this song are doing the singing. One of my favorite is RIDING THE COMET
the tall guy is arjen lucassen he is aryeon the mastermind
Ayreon - Valley Of The Queens (Ayreon Universe) - (Marcela, Anneke and Floor)
Ayreon - The Eye Of Ra (Universe) (Well who is not here..., but you get to hear Floor and Floors sister singing together...)
All ayreon albums are amazing. Lost in the new real is my favourite though.
That's what you get when you get involved with the Metal Music scene in The Netherlands ... Enjoy more of Ayreon ... Plenty on RUclips ...
Ayreon is not a band, but one of the many musical projects of Dutch composer/multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucasson (the guy narrating the video and playing the guitars, bass and keyboards). All Ayreon albums are concept albums and tell a story…he always gets top-notch vocalists to portray the various characters in the story. Some of his other projects include Star One, Guilt Machine, The Gentle Storm, and Ambeon.
Enjoy
Majestic European progressive metal, lucassen multi strumental composer.
Ayreon is a project indeed, the only "full member" is Arjen the guy that talks in the video and plays guitar, bass and keyboards, the rest are all guests, some of them are more recurrent, like Floor, Simone, the violin and flute guys... The albums are all conceptual Opera Rock style as far as I know.
He also usually watches reactions and comments on them so maybe he appears here as well.
Harry: “I don’t like the Strat.”
Also Harry: Has two Strats hanging on the wall behind him.
I was just about to write the same. 😁 Can't live with them, can't live without them I guess. Like he said, nothing else sounds like a strat.
fretboard thing probably. very slick neck arjen is playing here
There's a pretentiousness to the strat. I blame Yngwie.
Ayreon was also a great inspiration to Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish back in the day. My first introduction was way back in 1995/96 (can't remember).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayreon
So Ayreon is a musical concept that spans over many years, albums, and artists. The Final Experiment Prologue describes it better (not reaction worthy):
ruclips.net/video/ECcd4zy5o-w/видео.html&ab_channel=ArjenAnthonyLucassen
His live performances tend to mix and match from several concepts, and may even rewrite the story to match the singers. Such as The Eye Of Ra (reaction worthy):
ruclips.net/video/odcO0SciTUY/видео.html (Warning; if you're into the heavy scene, some familiar faces may appear - you have been warned ;))
Hell yes, Tatiana!!!!
I thought of it earlier so I'm gonna say it: I'd love to see what Arjen would do with Aurora. I feel like the two of them would 'get on like gang busters" as they say. Glad you liked it so much! (btw, if you don't know Aurora's music, do check her out, she's not metal, but for some reason I'm not the only metalhead drawn to her. She's so damn pure of soul, yet mischievous like a fae. She's seriously too good for this world, lol.) I'm going to go search your playlist before I recc anything else... ;) Obviously you've already discovered Jinjer, hehe.
You should do some Ayreon Live now 👌
Tommy Karevik is the singer in Kamelot, I STRONGLY suggest to listen to them. He is a GREAT singer.
Ah, my young friends...another rabbit hole has opened before you!
I think going into your first Ayreon experience cold, through this video, is a wonderful beginning. I would be more than slightly surprised if Arjen, genius composer, producer and circus ring master didn't have something like that in mind when he chose this specific format to launch this album. He's just that fuckin cool! And I think your reaction supports my theory perfectly. Enjoy the journey!
Seeing how much you liked the singer I'd say you'd really enjoy some Seventh Wonder, great band.
Scarlet Dornan featuring Chris harms I love the way you say my name