After his adventures with the successful rock band Vengeance in the eighties, multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen started the solo project Ayreon. Among fans of symphonic rock, the name Ayreon quickly became a guarantee for pure quality. Lucassen often uses well-known artists for the vocals for his large-scale projects. Performances only happen sparingly, due to the large-scale nature of his music.
As a result, Lucassen manages to retain a hint of mystery surrounding his project. His sixth album The Human Equation is again a concept album but for a change not based on themes from science fiction or the fairytale world. This time Lucassen tries to translate the different emotions of a person in music into twenty pieces. Pure bombast is alternated with calm spherical parts. With Ayreon it can happen that a heavy metal piece suddenly turns into a folk song with violins and pan flute. The guest musicians include veterans such as Devin Townsend and newcomers such as keyboardist Joost van den Broek (After Forever). (MS)more
