Today in 2000 Ayreon released the album Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator Waalwijk, North Brabant,Netherlands Progressive Metal/Rock Status:Active Years active: 1994-present Ayreon is the flagship musical project of Arjen Anthony Lucassen, a Dutch multi-instrumentalist, composer, and vocalist. Ayreon releases are usually rock-operas with an ongoing science fiction storyline, although there have been exceptions in the form of Actual Fantasy (not a rock opera) and The Human Equation (not science fiction, but still containing ties to the main storyline). A common misconception is that the name Ayreon is derived from Arjens own name, but this is purely coincidental: originally the minstrel from the first album The Final Experiment was called Aries, but when this didnt fit the meters for the songs (Arjen himself mispronounced it A-ri-es (Note: This is how the Dutch do pronounce it), it was changed to Ayreon to sound both old-fashioned (Ay) and futuristic (Eon). The Ayreon project is currently on hold while Arjen Lucassen works on other projects. Transmission Records Lana Lane - voice on track 1; backing vocals on tracks 4, 5, 6, and 9 Russell Allen (Symphony X) - track 2 Damian Wilson (Threshold) - backing vocals on track 2 Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear) - track 3 Andi Deris (Helloween) - track 4 Bruce Dickinson (Iron Maiden) - track 5 Fabio Lione (Rhapsody of Fire) - track 6 Timo Kotipelto (Stratovarius) - track 7 Robert Soeterboek - track 8 Ian Parry (Elegy) - track 9 Instrumentalists Arjen Lucassen - electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, analog synthesizers, Mellotron, Hammond, additional keyboards; guitar solos on tracks 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 Ed Warby - drums Erik Norlander - analog synthesizers, vocoder, Taurus pedal, Hammond, additional keyboards; synth solos on tracks 1, 3 (Hammond), 4, 5, 7 Michael Romeo - guitar solo on track 2 Oscar Holleman - second guitar solo on track 4 Gary Wehrkamp - guitar and synth solo on track 6 Rene Merkelbach - last synth solo on track 4 Clive Nolan - second synth solo on track 5 Keiko Kumagai - synth solo on track 9 (plus Hammond) Peter Siedlach - strings 1. Chaos (5:11) 2. Dawn of a Million Souls (7:45) 3. Journey on the Waves of Time (5:47) 4. To the Quasar (8:42) 5. Into the Black Hole (10:25) 6. Through the Wormhole (6:05) 7. Out of the White Hole (7:10) 8. To the Solar System (6:12) 9. The New Migrator (8:15) Total Time: 65:35 Re-released in 2004 by InsideOut Music as a double-disc set with The Universal Migrator Part I: The Dream Sequencer. Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator is a progressive metal album released in 2000 by Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen, and is the fifth album of his Ayreon project. The musical styles found on Flight of the Migrator contrast its counterpart The Dream Sequencer, illustrating a wild, raucous journey through the tumultuous and chaotic reaches of outer space. In keeping with the setting of the story, the albums tone is much heavier, exuding a powerful, guitar-driven metal feel throughout. Both albums were released simultaneously, sold well and were received positively. In 2004, Lucassen moved to a new record label - InsideOut Music - and with this move came re-issues of all the previous Ayreon releases, including The Dream Sequencer. The special edition re-issue merged both albums into a single release, titled Universal Migrator: Parts I & II. The album was also released on vinyl on December 2012. As Universal Migrator had enough content to form a two-CD album, Lucassen decided to sell each disc as a separate release. He believed his fans to be fundamentally divided into two groups by genre of choice, being either progressive rock or heavy metal fans. The Dream Sequencer was meant to appeal to the prog enthusiasts, and Flight of the Migrator to the metal fans, so that each could simply purchase the album of their choice, if so inclined, and to his surprise both fanbases bought and enjoyed both albums. Flight of the Migrator continues the story of the final living human being, the colonist on Mars, and his decision to go even further back in time. Using the Dream Sequencer machine, he travels all the way back to just before the Universe was formed, theoretically before the Big Bang, when there was nothing but chaos. The colonist observes the creation of the very first soul, known as the Universal Migrator. It is from this soul that all others are formed, through a division of the original soul. Each resulting soul then travels off into the Universe to bring life in some form to the planet they inhabit. The colonist follows the soul bound for Earth, as it travels through countless astronomical entities, such as quasars, pulsars, supernovas, eventually entering a black hole, traveling through a wormhole, and coming out the other side through a white hole directed towards our Solar System. The colonists ambitious time travel subsequently overloads the Dream Sequencer, resulting in his death while hypnotized by the machine; however, his eternal self receives a message from the Migrator: Eternity lies before you. You are the new Migrator! youtube/watch?v=y_z4LTWvpOY
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 19:58:18 +0000