Ayreon Human Equation: Is It Ayreon or is it Pink Floyd?

“Move to the truth

Breath the sunlight burning in her open arms

Break the chains that

Bind you to a past that feeds this bitter days

Seize your only chance

Follow the stars that beckon you through blackened skies”
--from Ayreon “Signs,” 2004.

Ayreon’s Human Equation is a progressive metal concept album about how complicated one’s past can make ones present…to a degree.

The album’s musical talent is the rock opera mogul Arjen Anthony Lucassen. The trick in the music is to make the metal standup to a backdrop of a story—in this case a relatively simple one where an auto accident victim’s best friend and girlfriend watch over him as he suffers from a coma. Each day of his twenty day ordeal develops a different emotion, not only for the victim, but for those watching over him.

The album is interesting to listen to and unique; my problem is that it has way too many prog-rock Pink Floyd, Moody Blues, and Jethro Tull overtures. I love the bands I just listed, but when I play metal, I expect…well...metal.

Certain ideas of concept albums I respect (Kamelot’s Epica and jag Panzer’s Thane to the Throne as examples) and others bore me (Tommy By The Who or Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd).

The music in this one saves me to a degree from being bored; but I cannot give it a whole-hearted hoorah. It is simply indulges and outright copies Pink Floyd song structures and signatures far too often for my tastes.

I will try it again when I feel more relaxed and not in the mood for a “Metal” album and perhaps my feelings might change.

Ayreon Human Equation Tracklist:

CD 1
Day One: Vigil
Day Two: Isolation
Day Three: Pain
Day Four: Mystery
Day Five: Voices
Day Six: Childhood
Day Seven: Hope
Day Eight: School
Day Nine: Playground
Day Ten: Memories
Day Eleven: Love
CD 2
Day Twelve: Trauma
Day Thirteen: Sign
Day Fourteen: Pride
Day Fifteen: Betrayal
Day Sixteen: Loser
Day Seventeen: Accident?
Day Eighteen: Realization
Day Nineteen: Disclosure
Day Twenty: Confrontation