Customer Ratings & Reviews

If I had known how great this CD is, I would have gladly spent double or triple the actual price. Pick a band at random, any band, and think of all their best songs, whether they are on a greatest hits CD or not. In my opinion, the music on this ONE CD is better than all of that band's finest work, that is, if you picked one of 99% of the bands in the world. As all Ayreon fans know, the music is so diverse, and cannot be easily described, categorized, or stuffed into one genre. Not only are there so many changes throughout the disc, but there is also so much diversity among individual songs. Although it is almost pointless to attempt a description of this listening experience, I will mention a couple songs that seem to be the best examples. The first real song after the intro is Isis and Osiris, which is mixture of soft acoustic sections (with beautiful female vocals), and hard rock parts with a powerful beat, not to mention a hypnotic narration and a mind-blowing synth solo of epic proportions. Immediately following is the song Amazing Flight, which is mostly a cross between a slightly slow tempo jazz/blues riff and a catchy psychedellic (probably spelled wrong) acoustic guitar and vocal part. But that's not all. The last 5 minutes or so is a completely instrumental "journey" containing as many instruments and styles as you could imagine. The first few times I heard it, I was speechless, so just buy this CD and hear it for yourself!!!! It probably goes without saying that the rest of the songs are just one classic after another. They just seamlessly shift back and forth between heavy metal, prog, folk, classical, rock, and tons of sounds clearly inspired by music from the 60s and 70s. Oh, and the story is pretty unique and compelling, as long as you're into the whole sci-fi rock opera thing. The only thing I have to say I could do without is the spoken intros in almost all the songs. They are important to the story, but by now, I usually just forward through them. I would prefer if they were just written in the booklet, but I guess it's not much of a problem. Anyway, that's pretty much all there is to say. The entire cast (musicians and singers) is fantastic, and the drumming of Ed Warby is possibly my favorite aspect of the music. It's probably what I focus on most often. Well, that's all. Buy this CD if you like great music. Buy all the Ayreon CDs.