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I have to give it a solid five star rating because there are VERY few albums I have ever heard that accomplish this level of scope in both music and in story without one handicapping the other. I think the music is a solid four stars, and the story is a solid four stars, but the fact that they both occupy the same album is something of a rarity. Even more rare, this album shines new light on earlier works. After listening to this album, you will listen to the previous albums in this series with new ears and new insight. Quite an achievement.

I'm not sure what pushed me over the edge on this one. Perhaps it's the more melancholy tone. Perhaps it's the dramatic improvement in Arjen's skill as a lyricist. Perhaps it's the sheer scope and solidity of the story, tying together and encompassing all of the previous albums and somehow putting them into a better perspective. Maybe it's the more introspective lyrics. I've been listening to this record (and occasionally the prior releases) almost non-stop for the last month and it still keeps my attention.

I think this is the best album to get into the entire series. In a nutshell, this is the history of the enigmatic Forever of the Stars, which it turns out is also something like the history of life in the universe. Forever's quest to find the answer to life is the heart and soul of the entire Ayreon series and it finally has a clear expression in this new album. I think the music is just a bit less progressive this time, trading a bit of complexity in the arrangements for a more story-centered approach. It's a good trade off in my opinion. The music is more subservient to the story and I hope Arjen continues in this vein. It leads to a more polished whole.

Age of Shadows opens with a clear musical reference to Giorgio Moroder's score for the 1980s re-release of Fritz Lang's classic Metropolis, the great-grandfather of all science fiction cinema and one dealing with a theme not far removed from Ayreon's own. This mechano-electric tone bubbles just under the surface of the entire album, accentuated by creative use of electric guitars and synthesizers. At times I thought I was listening to Tool or even NIN, but it's always Ayreon; even the celtic influences are still there. This is a very dark album. There's not much hope in the story or in the music, though one gets the sense that perhaps Ayreon's next release will deal with that.

(Plot Spoilers Follow, Beware)

Age of Shadows is a spectacular opening number, perfectly setting the stage for the rest of the album. It paints a dark picture of the bones of Forever's homeworld, still on life support. Comatose's simple, dark arrangements mark one of the most chilling tracks from Arjen yet. We get a sense of the price of Forever's immortality and knowledge, one driven further home by Liquid Eternity.

Connect the Dots provides us with a brief snapshot of modern day life on Earth, contrasted against what we know of human history and now of Forever's home world. There are many none-too-subtle parallels to be drawn here, all of them bad for Earth. I can see some people having trouble with this track - it's one of the weaker ones, a bit off-joint, and somewhat disrupts the flow of the narrative. It still won me over after a few listens.

Beneath the Waves takes us back in time to Forever again, lamenting on what they have lost and the hopelessness of their future. Despite the inevitable end, Forever resolves to attempt a final solution, discarding morality in the process, covered in New Born Race. Ride the Comet details the experiment, which has surprising and unexpected results: humanity.

Web of Lies is by far the weakest track on the album, and is also thankfully the shortest - a bit of a love song about online relationships. I think Arjen was making allusions to the Internet's ability to disconnect people (a precursor to the total loss of emotion Forever deals with) but it feels a bit contrived. I could have done without this one as well.

In The Earth Extinction, Forever finds hope by attaching to humanity, living as some kind of psychic leech through the minds, hearts, eyes, and hands of all humanity. Intoxicated by emotion, Forever begins meddling almost immediately by guiding humanity's evolution, despite reservations about this course of action. We learn the depths of this meddling in Waking Dreams: Forever is responsible for humanity's intelligence explosion and rapid evolution. We are treated to a vision of Arjen's own mind in The Truth Is In Here. The self-reference is subtle, but it's there.

Unnatural Selection is the standout track for me on the record. Forever's machinations finally push humanity to the breaking point, with too much knowledge too fast and not enough wisdom to use it well. Everything goes wrong, and humanity takes the same disastrous turn Forever once made, but without Forever's complete knowledge mankind is doomed. The lyrics and songwriting here are delicious, some of Arjen's best work. This is quite literally the brink humanity stands on now in the real world, and Arjen is not subtle in his references, even using a sound clip from Al Gore in the music.

Forever is crushed by what has happened, and now that the fate of two races hangs in the balance, resolves to solve this Human Equation at any cost. Forever meddles with the time stream in River of Time by giving man the technology to perform The Final Experiment. Forever broadcasts the destruction of their own homeworld into Humanity's collective consciousness throughout time in E=MC2, but nothing changes and humanity's destruction finally comes to pass in The Sixth Extinction, another standout track. Towards the end, there is some hope - the Migrator returns with Forever, but to what purpose we do not yet know.

An excellent release. I'll be waiting eagerly for the next release to see what Arjen makes of this grand mess of music and scifi. It feels like we may be edging in on a conclusion of sorts...

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