UNIVERSAL MIGRATOR, PART 2: FLIGHT OF THE MIGRATOR

Ayreon, Flight of The Migrator. Little after when I purchased Ayreon's Human Equation, my big bro got these Universal Migrator albums both in the same package. I must say I like them, not as much as Human Equation, but still very much. I enjoy listening to both, and like both equally, because they are both better than the other in their own way. This one is progressive metal, altough I would say that Ayreon is not progressive music. But it has something, it's not that clear to decide. Trying to figure it out while moving to invidual songs:

'Chaos' is the opener of the album. Very fine opener. It is very powerful and fast track. It is supposed to describe the big bang if I remember correctly. I love the drumming and little drum solos in the middle of the song. Guitarring is very good as well. 'Dawn of Million Souls' is the next track. It starts with a keyboard, which is trying to sound very epic, and partly succeeds. Then comes guitars and a nice metal riff. Vocals on this track are sung by Russel Allen, and I think he does a great job. I like his clear, powerful voice. The next song is 'Journey on the Waves of Time' with Ralf Scheepers. Good job by him and pretty good song by Arjen. The keyboard melody and the guitars are fine and vocals are good. Decent track. Moving to 'To the Quasar' with Andreas Deris. I love his voice, it is so unique. And he doesn't fail me on this one. Very good track, one of my favourites of the album. The a) part is very laid back and easy goin'. An orchesteral transition to the b) part, which starts with good, basic metal riff. The song flows at its end, where there are fine solos by guitar. Very good track. Then comes 'Into the Black Hole' with Dickinson. My least favourite track in the album. I like his voice, I like the music, and I like the very slow, and very heavy riff at the middle, but the song is just too long compared to the music in it. Arjen could've made far better song. A 6 minute long song with the same music and perhaps the same lyrics could be possible, and I think much better. Maybe trying to make this song very epic, but that fails for me. 'Through the Wormhole' and 'Out of the White Hole' are fine tracks, but not as clearly stuffed in my brains than the rest. Good work by Fabio Leone and Timo Kotipelto. Both are fine Ayreon tracks, speedy metal songs and fit the album. 'The Solar System' is good track. Starts with kind of ambient guitarring. The rest of the song is good, metal riffs and rhythms, basic stuff of this album. The final track 'The New Migrator' is good track, with nice horrory intro. Good speedy metal track with nice guitar solo and fine work by Ian Parry.

All in all, this is a good melodic metal album with a slight progressive edge. There aren't bad songs, only one disappointment (Into the Blackhole) and all the singers did very good job. I like this album very much, but if you are not Ayreon fan, you should try something else first, like The Human Equation. This album is not essential: a masterpiece of progessive music, and not an excellent addition to any prog music collection, but I say that the album is good, but non-essential.