Ayreon
„Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator“
CD with Booklet.
Progressive Rock/Metal

In short: Ayreon makes progressive, metallic rock music. Concept albums to which Arjen invites a host of guest musicians. Clive Nolan, Bruce Dickinson, Damian Wilson, Lana Lane…

On July 20th, one month after "Part 1: The Dream Sequencer", "Part 2: Flight of the Migrator" was released. Arjen Lucassen, the mastermind behind Ayreon, delivered a significantly rockier, more metal-oriented space opus here than "The Dream Sequencer." A total of six albums form a long narrative thread, and "Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer" and "Part 2: Flight of the Migrator" belong to the sixth part of my interpretation of the Forever cycle.

“Flight Of The Migrator” continues the story of “The Dream Sequencer”. A Mars colonist resumes his fantastical journey, which the Dream Sequencer takes him further and further back in time. Despite warnings, he now travels back to before the beginning of time and space. The body of the last human dies in the overloaded Dream Sequencer, but his soul is transferred by the old Migrator to become the new Universal Migrator. After the Big Bang, he brings the seed of life back into the universe. The Alphans of the planet Alpha are born and die. The Forevers that emerge from them foresee their own demise and create humans from their DNA to understand human emotions. But humanity, too, destroys itself. The last human becomes the new Migrator, and the cycle repeats itself. That's my interpretation.

Now things get a little scientific. Why haven't we had contact with extraterrestrials yet—or rather, why haven't they with us? One particularly grim scenario is the Great Filter. According to this theory, every species could perish before reaching interstellar space travel. For the Forever Cycle, this means there's no escaping the cycle. We Earthlings probably won't survive the Great Filter either if we continue to show no respect for our planet.

The CD itself is adorned with a picture of Mars. The sound is crystal clear and, as always with Ayreon, technically perfect. Highlights from this concept album include “The Dawn Of A Million Souls”, “Into The Black Hole”, “Out Of The White Hole” and “To The Solar System”. That's already 32 minutes of the 65-minute playing time. As I said, the whole album goes down a treat. I can already hear the conclusion knocking at the door.

And the credits are something special…

My conclusion is simple. If you're looking for prog, metal, rock, and epic synthesizers with perfect sound, look no further. If perfectly arranged music is too much for you, then this isn't for you. The argument "too many cooks spoil the broth" doesn't apply here either. Arjen Lucassen is the head chef and arranges everything to his liking. 

Order of the albums in the "Forever" cycle, by release date.

11995 The Final Experiment
1998 Into the Electric Castle
2000 Universal Migrator Part 1: „The Dream Sequencer“
+
2000 Universal Migrator Part 2: „Flight of the Migrator“
2004 The Human Equation
2008 01011001
2017 The Source

The photos are all from my CD. The rights to all motifs, logos, texts and fonts that can be seen in the photos are of course owned by the copyright holder.

TheProgThief
©19.09.2024