Ayreon
The Source

It was one of the names that made me love prog, now my interest in this name has slightly waned but I always follow the releases of the Ayreon project with great interest, the project led by the Dutchman Arjen Anthony Lucassen.

“The Source” does not add anything new to what has already been done in the past but it is a very valid operatic progressive metal album, which can be listened to quite willingly if there are no particular expectations. The sound of the Ayreon project has always been a mix of different elements, but not as vast as it seems and in the end, more or less element, something changes here and there, the soup is roughly the usual, always very good but the usual, and it is precisely for this reason that one is not particularly disappointed. Well actually a little yes; because it comes after three decidedly grandiose albums for variety, ideas, and pomp, the albums where the Ayreon project reached its highest levels.

This album is instead much more stripped down, it seems to be more essential and immediate, although it does not give up a certain compositional richness. There is a particular insistence on the metal component; if before it was more discontinuously present and sometimes marginal, now instead it is the protagonist, if before we struggled to determine if the Ayreon project was actually progressive metal or it was instead a very classically inspired progressive rock but with a strong metal imprint here we have no doubts; we are facing the second most metal record after “Universal Migrator Part 2”. Tracks like “Everybody Dies”, “Run! Apocalypse! Run!”, “Planet Y Is Alive”, “Journey to Forever” and the more hard-rocking “Into the Ocean” really have an incredible kick, they could appeal to any random metalhead, even if they might more easily snare a fan of the power-epic subgenre.

The electronic influences have been significantly reduced (which were instead the highlight of the previous album), but also the folk ones (“All That Was” is a valid remnant). In short, Lucassen has focused on a more “economical” power progressive metal without too many pretensions but with undeniable solidity.

But despite the validity of the work not being in question (after all, it is prog-metal, music composed and played by people with guts) there is nothing that makes you jump out of your chair, everything seems really too ordinary, the hypothesis arises that Lucassen may have slightly exhausted his ideas; you can even see it in the cast, where the already extensively tested James LaBrie and Russell Allen reappear (even though it is commendable to call Nils K. Rue from Pagan's Mind, a rather underrated band).

Definitely a valid album but certainly not in the top ranks of the year's releases.