Ayreon
01011001

I'm seriously starting to think that Arjen Anthony Lucassen enjoys making all his listeners feel a sense of total inadequacy and smallness in the face of his (master)works, because let's face it, since "The Final Experiment" in 1995, Mr. Ayreon has really had very few missteps, whether due to the great artistic depth of this man or because he found the perfect recipe for composing progressive rock/metal. The fact is that there are truly very few minor songs in his discography, and even this latest "01011001" from 2008 does not shy away from this judgment.

Surrounded by a truly stellar cast of guests, featuring, just to name a few, people of the caliber of Hansi Kursch, Daniel Gildenlow, or even Jorn Lande and Bob Catley, Arjen once again gifts us a bold work, rich with musical influences ranging from the most disparate, from electronics to pure heavy metal, passing through more easygoing passages with an almost pop flavor, not disdaining some excursions into folk, creating an extremely dynamic, continually evolving platter, never static, but managing to be extremely cohesive.
Divided into two episodes totaling 15 songs, this "01011001" seems divided based on the soul of the songs, since if in the first part the work proves to be more melodic and characterized by moments that have very little metal, even when deciding to hit the accelerator, it is in the second that all the power and charge that this little man is capable of bringing forth come out, and it is here that we encounter tracks like "The Sixth Extinction", capable of moving from calm and airy moments to others full of tension, where extremely atmospheric, yet dark, gothic choirs make their appearance, and (drum roll) for the first time even growl.
Always worth mentioning on the same coordinates is "The Earth Extinction", the second of the suites over ten minutes, which despite being deeply indebted to the folk rock of Blackmore's Night and similar, manages, thanks to its extremely powerful riffs, to maintain its intensity without being exasperated. Excellent is the use of keyboards in this piece, by none other than a certain Mr. Derek Sherinian, which help make the piece even more appealing.
However, as mentioned before, there is also a sweeter and more sensitive side to the record, mostly found in the first part, and so we have songs such as "Beneath The Waves" or the album's introductory track "Age Of Shadows", enriched by Jonas Renkse's splendid and opaque voice (for those who don't know, the voice of the ever-green Katatonia... or rather not green, more gray perhaps), which infuses pathos into a piece that would otherwise have been perhaps the weakest of the entire LP. It is also in the first disc that you find what, in my opinion, is perhaps one of the best things ever written for this project, namely "New Born Race", a mix of easy listening melodies, folkish parts, and carefree rhythms giving rise to an episode that, like a ray of light, breaks into a somewhat gray day, providing that touch of brightness that would otherwise have been missing.
Talking further about the songs seems pointless and would also take away the element of surprise from listening to the tracks. Instead, I want to emphasize the performance of each individual musician, truly excellent, clean, and free from any negative criticism, with peaks of excellence for each participant in the project, who in their own way adds a small piece to a mosaic that has nothing wrong with it and instead stands out, for originality and listening pleasure, over half of the mundane releases that each year increasingly lead me to think that progressive metal is resting a bit on the laurels of a glorious past; but luckily there's Anthony who maybe yes, makes us feel a tad small in the face of these metal works, but he also makes us happy with products of always high quality and enjoyment.