I‘ll give you a 9.0 for your reaction. As nearly always. Yes a 9.0. If eel good with it. Here‘s why: You where skeptical with 11 main singers, but you gave the song a chance. You honored the singers themselves at the end and explained, why you nevertheless would have preferred less singers in the song. As always you provided interesting pieces information for the visual guy with music enthusiasm but no music knowledge. You could even passed the 9.0 if you had realized, that Arjen himself was the guy who was playing the guitars („I used an …“) 😜

This is not a charity event, Arjen write "sci-fi prog rock operas", each album tell a part of the same story. This song is a showcase for the rest of the album, each singer play a role, and in the other songs they are involved only if their characters are needed. Each album the singers involved are changing, but there are some that are in many albums, like Floor. Arjen must be a very smart and enjoiable guy, as he always does an amazing job to group all these singers and musicians, and they are always so happy to work with him.

I asked Arjen on his website about the microphones in the Hammond. He placed two microphones on 90 degrees ('quarter before 12') at the rotating bass speaker and two on 90 degrees at the rotating treble horn speaker. I have no idea what that means, but he asked me to answer to you :)

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)]

Ayreon is a musical project by Dutch songwriter, singer, musician and record producer Arjen Anthony Lucassen. Ayreon's music is described as progressive rock, progressive metal and power metal sometimes combined with genres such as folk, electronica, experimental and classical music. The majority of Ayreon's albums are dubbed "rock operas" because the albums contain complex storylines featuring a host of characters, usually with each one being represented by a unique vocalist. Each Ayreon album tells a different story, but all, with the exceptions of Actual Fantasy, The Theory of Everything, and Transitus, take place in the same fictional, science fiction universe; additionally, Lucassen's solo album Lost in the New Real is also set in the Ayreon universe. Ayreon's music is characterized by the use of traditional instruments in rock music mixed with instruments more native to folk and classical music. Lucassen writes the music and the lyrics, sings and plays most of the instruments on all of the Ayreon albums, alongside many guest musicians. His most regular collaborator is drummer Ed Warby. The binary code means "Trust TH-1" NWSU/Ayreonaut 🤘😎🤘

You missed the full impact of Ayreon. Watch the live concert 'Universe' to see an amazing performance! You can't be faulted for being a naive American like me. I was in may 60's when my Son took me and my Wife to see the Swedish metal group Sabaton. That's all it took for me to begin exploring the breadth of music in Europe and Scandinavia! I was starved for good music here in the states. Except for some of the amazing blues groups touring small venues, I'm tired of the same old 70's-80's being played over and over again, and the modern commercialized stuff is garbage! These groups, especially the metal bands, are insanely talented, produce great music, and many of the lyrics are thought provoking ...

It wouldn't shock me if Arjen eventually shows up and leaves a comment and maybe he'll explain the use of 4 mics on the Hammond when he does

4 mics on the Leslie : with 4, you can get a 'direct pan' effect on BOTH the upper horn AND the lower rotor without doing a single-mic amplitude-triggered panning technique in post (such a pain, and usually it missing the 'edges' of transition.) I played with a WIDE unidirectional mic w/a dead-air-baffle at about 30 degrees off center. This over-emphasized the Leslie cab's vent-effect and made for a hyperactive Leslie sound. Fun stuff. Anyway, Nice reaction. EDIT : ... and then I read down the chain of comments and find @GWDH (thumbs up) who actually talked w/Arjen about his actual placement. Putting 2 mics at 90 from each other will give a wide frequency shift (Doppler, from the mic moving either toward or away from the mic) WITHOUT inducing that high amplitude variation between them.... with a 90 degree spread, I find the amplitude shift is manageable with a touch on compression to take the extremes off the highs/low-amplitude excursions without is sounding flat.... just a touch will keep it from sounding ampli-wobbly. But then, I'm not telling you anything new.

Omg I love this song. I listened this for Floor Jansen a couple of years ago. but all of them are amazing! Simone Simons is my 2nd metal goddess (#1 is Floor) brilliant project 🙌🏻🤘🏻🔥

Nice reaction David - I agree with you on the use of the 11 singers on the track - I guess this is the difficulty of reviewing a single track from a concept album - you're right to assume that on the other tracks it's generally about 4 each, although they are mostly shorter too. It's widely said that Arjun has stage fright and so this is why he doesn't tend to perform live (as well as the difficulty of getting so much talent together in the same place at once). If someone has suggested "Everybody dies" from the same album (The source) then you can check out some showmanship with a live version.

Arjen looks like he belongs in a Wayne's World movie.

I also get the impression from a lot of these singers that it was an absolute treat for them to show up to do this and regardless of how much they actually sang or performed it didn't matter the bigger picture was you know the conglomeration of everything...... That is how much respect all of these musicians and singers have for Arjen Anthony Lucassen........ It speaks volumes to this gentleman that all of these singers who are all first class dropped everything they were doing practically and went to go do this with him and a few singers that couldn't make it especially in this video they filmed their own part and sent it to him that's just incredible so I think we all understand what you're trying to say but when you watch a lot of the other videos by these guys I think you'll understand this a lot more

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….!!!!!

Good choice check out every body dies to and thx for naming me 👍👍👍🤘🤘🤘

the title of this one is very prophetic considering this current decade. i'm afraid we'll all be seeing that day soon enough.

Somehow I knew you wouldn’t be disappointed by the song… You are absolutely right about the singers and the intro song. On the other songs, not all singers are featured all the time. Right again. About the 4 mics: my guess is they were used for the dolby surround mix. Not sure though. You‘d have to ask the maestro himself. Just hit him up on Facebook.

The irony: you complaining about a 13 minutes song at the beginning of a 40 minute Reaction video. 😂 The story that the album tells is great, especially for us sci-fi fans. Glad you dug it! Rock on, bro! 🤘🏽

This is why i love Ayreon , as it opens up your interest to other bands and singers.

Thanks for the reaction, very interesting. You hit just the topics I'd hoped you would. You're correct, this was an introductory track meant to introduce the characters. The following songs have fewer singers with longer parts. Although, Arjen does tend to hold Floor back for a final punctuation mark in several songs. She does have songs with longer parts as well, though.

You’re about to fall into a big rabbit hole. See Wikipedia for everything on Ayreon. Ayreon quickly became my third favorite band after Pink Floyd and Nightwish. No, not for charity. This song is a nice introduction to Ayreon. You really should see the two live concerts: Ayreon Universe live The electric castle live and other tales. This is an anniversary concert of the concept album Into the electric castle. You should hear this concert in order of songs. No need to blur Ayreon videos. They won’t get blocked.

Not a charity, just conceptual theater.

No charity, unless you want to call yourself one :P We and music are the winners. Ayreon has many albums.

So glad you finally got to this one! It's an amazing album! Been watching for a while, but I rarely comment. Wanted to say thanks for your honesty, insight, and thoughts. They are most appreciated! As for Nightwish, wanted to make sure the following are in the que : Song Of Myself (live Wacken 2013) Devil and the Deep Dark Ocean (live Buenos Aires) The Islander (live Tampere) 7 Days To The Wolves (live Wembley) Shoemaker (official lyric video) The Greatest Show On Earth (live Tampere) Sorry, I know it's a bunch lol! They have SO many amazing songs, it's difficult to narrow down! I suppose I'll have to start commenting and adding more of their great ones! It's wise to have lyrics pulled up, but thats totally up to you! Really enjoy all of your reactions! The information you offer is always great to hear! Thanks again! Here for it all! Hope you & your wife have an amazing day!

Great Band,Great Song Thx for that...;-)

The genius that is Ayreon...... Was so carefully constructed that it does not seem overwhelming it's like a couple of them have the spotlight at a time and it's almost like you know pro wrestling where they'll tag and then another personal run on stage so if anything this is a little underwhelming at times and when you continue to react to them more because I know you will you will see that there's only like one song at this concert that is live where they all come out at the end and by the time that happens you want it to happen lol this was so well done and thought out that as good as these singers and musicians are no one was really outshining anyone else or taking anyone's spotlight away and what goes unnoticed or unspoken about in these live videos are the musicians behind the instruments...... I don't know all their names but they are all ridiculously talented 👍

I was secretly laughing when you start saying that it would be some kind of charity song. As you may know by now this isn't the case.

This song is basically an introduction to the characters of the album. It’s a project by Dutch singer, song writer, composer Arjen Luccassen. He writes themed albums and incorporates vocalists and musicians from several bands. The live show is like a rock opera based in science fiction. I’ve never heard that it’s for charity although it might be.

Yeah, I'm not sure there's any way around using all 11 singers in this track. If you're going to put 11 singers on a concept album (technically a rock opera too, since the singers each play a character in the story), I think it is important to give them all an introduction at the start, before breaking them up into groups for the remaining tracks. But even on the rest of the album, the average singers per track is around 6 (generally only 2 or 3 vocalists have _major_ roles on a track though), which seems like a lot...but that's just how Arjen operates (indeed, only 6 of the 16 remaining tracks on _The Source_ have fewer than 6 singers). He's always been this way, and you eventually not only get used to it, but come to appreciate it (as it's unique; even other projects in the same vein as Ayreon usually only have half a dozen vocalists total). There is method to his madness though, that you discover as you experience more Ayreon. For example, Arjen likes to use Floor as his song closer, because how in the world can you top the Floorgasm? And he *ALWAYS* carefully chooses the right voices for the characters he has written, which really facilitates the storytelling aspect of his work. In the same vein, he often juxtaposes very different voices back-to-back, like Russell Allen as the President, with his bluesy, gritty croon that sounds exactly like a no-nonsense leader atoning for his mistakes and making the case that he can still make this right (he's in some serious denial), immediately followed by Michael Eriksson as the optimistic Diplomat, whose voice has a fragile clarity to it that really matches the idealism of his character and highlights his belief that his people can solve any problem if they just work together. The voices match the characters, and they play off each other really well (as you noted, Arjen has some SERIOUS songwriting skills, and an instinct for how to structure his vocal parts is one of them). It is a tremendous honor in the prog rock and metal community to be asked to participate on an Ayreon album, and I think basically nobody turns him down unless they have a significant scheduling conflict (one that Arjen can't resolve by getting them to record their parts wherever, and whenever they can, and then just sending him the recordings). He's recorded everyone from Bruce Dickenson (Iron Maiden) and Devin Townsend to Fish (Marillion) and Mikael Åkerfeldt (Opeth)...and that's just the vocalists. Notable intrumental contributors include Steve Hackett (Genesis), Joe Satriani, Keith Emerson (ELP), Rick Wakeman (Yes), and both Jordan Rudess AND Derek Sherinian from Dream Theater. I've always said I'd love to get a glimpse at Arjen's Rolodex! And while there is likely little money in it for them up front (beyond reimbursement for either studio expenses or travel to the Netherlands to record with Arjen), that doesn't mean that there's no benefit, as there is tremendous crossover appeal between artists. For example, I bought my first Ayreon album because I was a Dream Theater fan, and James LaBrie had a major role. Because I did so, I am now a fan of Elfonía, Devin Townsend (+ Strapping Young Lad, which was his band back then), Shadow Gallery and Opeth (yes, Ayreon was my introduction to Mikael Åkerfeldt). Anyway, there's a lot to discover here for a fan of accessible progressive rock/metal. I suggest "Star of Sirrah" which is the fourth track off of _The Source_ (the live version is awesome - kzfaq.info/get/bejne/acp1e7R_psDXeaM.html ...just note that Arjen, true to his word, doesn't usually participate in the extremely rare live productions of his work).

I enjoyed the reaction David. I knew you would like this song. Thanks to Insolent Umbrella for bumping this up in the queue. I did have problem with reaction that had nothing to do with David. As an audience we often try to "sell" a song that we love to a reactor. In doing so, sometimes we give away spoilers. In this video, David knew ahead of time that there were 11 singers and who they were. That influenced his reaction. IMHO, some of the fun of watching reactions to this song is seeing the reaction to singers appearing that the reactor is familiar with but not expecting. Just my thoughts. I am by no means the Reaction Video Police. Now for suggestions from the Ayreon Universe live show. I suggest "Everybody Dies", "Valley of the Queens", "Intergalactic Space Crusaders", "Dawn of a Million Souls", and "Theory of Everything".

Haha, apart from the fact that I really appreciate Ayreon for the music, I always find new artists to listen to by listening to Ayreon. So many win actually :)

One of my favorite "bands" along with Pagans Mind, Circus Maximus and Nightwish. Very nice reaction. Hope you will react to when Ayreon plays live.

Great really great

One of the 50 greatest masterpieces!!! Arjen Lucassen created the Ayreon (air ee on) project/universe and his influence and collaborations are only impressive if you find that anyone (not contractually prohibited) love working with him. BTW... Michael Mills is brilliant and because he's from Australia unknown in the American market. His vocals as the 'code machine' and as the voice of STARBLADE are typical of his range and virtuosity. And Russell Allen from Symphony X has a body of work dating back to 95, when the genre exploded. The supernova of talent from this period includes Evanescence, Nightwish, Avantasia, After Forever, Blind Guardian, Delain, Skillet, TSO and Within Temptation. While you might have a preconceived concern of artists trying to outdo each other or get muddled...Arjen (ar yen) is not only a master composer but an exceptional engineer.

This song title seems to go well with the current state of our country!

I always enjoy to watch musicians reacting on this track :-) I try to sort reaction videos - i am only interrested in watching reations from musicians because of their ways to "crumble" a track into "what i like" and "what are their skills". Strange but true - your channel just popped up today...and i have now seen your reactions for Nightwish, Epica and Ayreon (and in a moment "jinjer") Which are my fave bands for the moment. I have watched a ton af reactions from musicians and vocalists and for your ego i wants to say.... as you said about Floor from Nightwish....You are THE hole package i could wish for from a reactor (AKA my fave reactor!). Im a Danish former drummer in metalbands and love to see musicians cut though tracks that i like. I watch your reactions without jumping foreward or just cancel the reaction when the music has finished. I can relate to what you see and feel - and furthermore - you give me new perspectives and new ways to explore my already favorite bands. So...THUMBS UP for YOU and you channel - KEEP them cumming :-) Dont get me wrong - i also desagree on many of your veiws, but no matter what....i see a honest reaction and not a reaction to just get "likes" By the way....you deserve to take a look on Ayreons live shows " the Caste" and "universe". You will be blown away by talents and amazing shows✨

Buon Natale Davide

Symphony X has been around since the 90's Russell Allen is a very awesome singer he can sound bluesy but listen to songs by Symphony X like The Odyssey and A Serpent's Kiss also Domination he's also very metal based and also can be symphonic metal in some of the later symphony X songs My favorite album is 2007's Paradise Lost the whole album is Fire also his Guitarist Micael Romeo is quite the production artist himself and his 2 solo albums War of The Worls Part 1 and War of The Warlds Part 2 really bring that fact home.

Ayreon is a metal opera genius The Source the album this song starts is fire and he has multiple albums in this universe he has created from fantasy. even his earlier album 01011001 is what happen immediately after this album even though it came out in 2008 and this one was in 2017 he had a ton of forsight to come back and recreate a prequal to all his albums

Arjan lucassen is playing keys gitar and bass himself he might react to you he oftens does

The four mic of the Hammond is done because of the rotation of the speaker in mind. This in coming en out going sound can be used in especially 5.1 recording for creating a feel of the sound going from in front to behind you. With the four mics set in a curve around the speaker you will get this effect.

There's just one cook here, Arjen himself, but there's 11 ingredients for him to work with in one soup. And it's brilliant.

Hey, you should definitely check out more Ayreon especially live shows, awesome thanks 😀

Great reaction! Symphony X is a great band! Saw them live with Blind Guardian in 2002. One of the best concert I have been to. Russell Allen is just a beast. I would suggest to you Seven from The Paradise Lost album. Another one is Star One Intergalactic Space Crusaders live. Thank you for the breakdown for Ayreon. Ayreon has many great live songs. Other songs : Blind Guardian-Wheel of Time, Kamelot-Elizabeth 1,2,3, Between The Buried and Me-White Walls, Emperor-With Strength I Burn. I will let others suggest the Ayreon and Nightwish songs. Keep it up!

I love European Metal, especially since they have Soooo many more female vocalist's....

I’m always surprised when people don’t know who Tobias is cause I’ve been listening to his music for so long. His voice is so unique in the power/ prog scene

Gerry NL says thx for the good reaction

As others have said wouldn't be surprised if Arjen himself eventually dropped in and left a comment, he's done that on other reactions to this. This was the opening to an original Sci-Fi themed rock opera, but 20 years ago Arjen had another project called Star One which did a bunch of stand alone songs about various Sci-Fi shows and movies, such as Stargate (the original movie, not the TV show). A particularly cool one was a song called "Intergalactic Space Crusaders" - don't know if you are a fan of sci-fi or not but if you are you seem to be about the right age to possibly remember a show called Blake's 7 (at first glance it was a low budget British version of Star Trek, but actually had an ongoing story with some very dark themes and became a cult hit - PBS aired it here in the US back in the 80s) - anyway Intergalactic Space Crusaders manages to do a pretty good job condensing all 4 seasons into one 6 minute song- so if you know the show it's pretty cool (warning it does have major spoilers for how the show ends). There are two live versions of it out on You Tube - the original Star One version and a newer Ayreon version - the Ayreon version has much better video quality but the Star One version has a very young Floor Jansen doing backing vocals (Floor's older sister Irene does backing vocals on both versions and Russel Allen is one of the two lead singers in both versions).

Symphony x is one of my favorites. Check out set the world on fire, domination, and inferno.

4 mics on the Leslie - a stereo pair on the rotating horn, and a stereo pair on the rotating drum.

Maybe the 4 mics had something to do with his big studio? I don't know, I'm asking ;) I loved your reaction and comments.

Thx for this reaction. Indeed Ed Warby is one of the best drummers in prog/metal :)

David, hello! Russell Allen, "Symphony X" ...Remember this band, you should know their work, we will all like it, we will appreciate their art through your analysis and opinion, thank you!

Hey there. I know it's a year, but honestly, js reach and ask him. He will respond. I'm honestly surprised he didn't comment on your video. He frequently watches and talks to reactors. If you haven't already seen the interview that Charismatic Voice with him, go watch it. You'd be surprised from interview, that he doesn't believe himself to be a good musician. He just believe he has a good ear for what something should sound like. But, if no body pointed it out to you. He did play like half of the instruments in this video. If you go back, half of them are the same person. Not a lot of reactions notice that.

Symphony X's suggestion: «Set the World on Fire (The Lie of Lies)» and «Domination» amongst many others...

told you 😁

Listen to the baseline on the reprise. Pick up any shades of Hendrix?

I'll give you a 7, I've spoken!

You should listen to russel allen from symphony x

Charity? Who told you that? 🤣

Welcome to the world of Ayreon! Also, go listen to Symphony X’s Paradise Lost album. You’re welcome. ~Queenie ;)

8.8 🤣

8,8.........that's almost Arjen's heigth!

the track has 11 of the 12 singers on the album and this first track is the introduction to all of them while they sing on the entire album they aren't all on every track but appear as the story unfolds.

Well, the singers don't just feature on this one song but they are the singers on the whole album so all of them enough time to shine. And the only real cook is Arjen Lucassen.

Thank you to the people who have posted on here about how the guy already judged and criticized the video. I read your comments and therefore I won't be watching this reaction to one of the best creative minds in all of music Arjen Anthony Lucassen!!!

NOT a charity event.

Symphony X.....you sure missed a lot....😉😁

Why should you present 11 characters in a story with only 3-4 singers? What would the the point?

I don't know what you did with the sound here - like run it through some compression or whatever. You killed the sound of the recording. Nice reaction and commentary though.

I just feel the end with Floor ends too quick.Otherwise amazing

Please put in que REM Happy Shiney People

I will forgive you for thinking this was a project for charity. That would be the only way you could get a group of entertainers together in north america to do this.

Maybe if you skipped a full review of the song before you watched it, you might come off better. You might have set a record for most erroneous statements in a preview. You lost credibility with me on this song. Sorry.

send Arjen an email he is a very nice guy he will contact you he did some live streams with reactors.