CD-Charts Position 1
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01011001

by: Ayreon, Arjen Luccasson, Bob Catley, Hansi Kursch, Michael Romeo, Anneke van Giersbergen, Ty Tabor, Daniel Gildenlow, Jonas Renke, Tomas Bodin

Release Date January 28, 2008
Very disappointed in this. If you are a fan of the Human Equation or Into the Electric Castle you'll also be disappointed
Too many tracks lacking a change of pace with heavy rifts not backed up with the usual synth and guitar passages.
The only reason I give this 2 stars is the somewhat unexpected brilliance of Waking Dreams, oh if only there had been more tracks like this one.

CD-Charts Position 2
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01011001 Ltd Edition Digipak

by: Ayreon, Arjen Luccasson, Bob Catley, Hansi Kursch, Michael Romeo, Anneke van Giersbergen, Ty Tabor, Daniel Gildenlow, Jonas Renke, Tomas Bodin

Release Date January 28, 2008
Hi! I decided to share my opinion since the existing all came from people who had expectations. I, for myself, can tell that I had none. I came in contact with Ayreon through this album only, so I will cannot compare it to other work of Arjen Lucassen.
This is an absolutely great musical work which grows and grows at every new listen. Arjen chose his vocalists wisely, and they all present some great moments, especially some of the male vocalists (can't point their names, though).
Musically, I believe it to be a small treasure in the immense heavy metal scenario! I have no words to describe Arjen Lucassen's talent but awesome. He combines textures, vocals and melodies like only a true music composer does.
This is one of those albums ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

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01011001 Bonus DVD

by: Ayreon, Arjen Luccasson, Bob Catley, Hansi Kursch, Michael Romeo, Ty Tabor, Daniel Gildenlow, Jonas Renke, Anneke van Giersbergen, Tomas Bodin

Release Date January 28, 2008
I've been a fan of Arjen A Lucassen since Electric Castle. His works just seem to get better and better. This is possibly the heaviest Ayreon CD to date, which isn't a bad thing. There are still plenty of hooks and melodies, more so than Human Equation I think. The opening track, Age of Shadows, just won't leave my brain - crunching rhythms, powerful chorus and some beautiful haunting melodies in the middle section.

I find the first CD 'Y' to be significantly better than the second 'Earth', where I think the music suffers at the expense of the narrative on a couple of tracks. This isn't too bad if you're following the story from the lyric book, which you really have to do if you want to distinguish between the performers. As usual for Ayreon, ... Read More: