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Crispy

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Crispy
Crispy

It's time for a long overdue re-updated OP (as of 9/29/13). Spoiler tag it up if you want to check it out.      

Crispy
Crispy

This must be in here.  

phantomignition
phantomignition

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSX86zPnUkY Awesomeness above -------^

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Evilshy

Evilshy 5,089

Yes. I am. I've heard a lot of good things about it, but there are so many albums in the series it's confusing.

 

It's a huge scifi story. All the albums can be listened to and understood by themselves, but they do frequently reference each other, and they all do fit into a one big story line (except for Actual Fantasy, which has similar themes and full of sci fi stuff, but isn't part of the story, and Aryeonauts Only and Timeline, which are compilations of previous songs and different versions of them and stuff like that).

There's not really a chronological listening order, since the story involves a good deal of time travel, and the albums jump around a lot. I'll try to give a general idea, though.

 

The story actually starts with the last album, 01011001. A distant earth-like planet called Planet Y is inhabited by an extremely advanced race called The Forever. They have long since connected themselves with their machines, allowing them to live forever, at the cost of losing most of their ability to feel emotion. However, the lack of emotion, combined with the ability to get whatever they want at the push of a button, the civilization is in decline. Some of the older ones look back and remember what it was like before they became immortal, and feel some small desire to feel higher emotions again. They come up with a plan to find a planet similar to their own and seed it with their own DNA to create similar beings that they can then link into and feel their emotions, hopefully revitalizing their race. They attach microbes infused with their DNA to a comet and guide it into a different region of space. They find the Earth, but there is debate over whether they should just "plant their seeds", or study the planet extensively and tweak it to more ideal conditions. They "have waited far too long", and do some preliminary examination, finding extensive life already there, most of it large (dinosaurs) and detrimental to the survival of their creations . There is a debate over the ethics of wiping them out and letting the planet start over to give their creations a better chance at survival, or letting them live and, in all likelyhood, dooming their creations from the very beginning. They eventually decide to guide an asteroid towards the planet to cause a mass extinction, and then let their creations rebuild and evolve along with the rest of the planet.

 

The album skips forward a bit,a nd we see a human race thriving, but still at the mercy of the planet. The Forever debate over whether or not it's right that "their greatest foe is but a small microbe", but if they do help them, they may advance too quicjly and end up like the Forever, completely dependent on their technology. They eventually decide to begin stimulating the brains of humans to allow them to advance more quickly so they can survive.

 

And what do you know, I mis-judged the time and have to leave for work right now. I'll finish this later :/

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Treeboy

Treeboy 418

It's a huge scifi story. All the albums can be listened to and understood by themselves, but they do frequently reference each other, and they all do fit into a one big story line (except for Actual Fantasy, which has similar themes and full of sci fi stuff, but isn't part of the story, and Aryeonauts Only and Timeline, which are compilations of previous songs and different versions of them and stuff like that).

There's not really a chronological listening order, since the story involves a good deal of time travel, and the albums jump around a lot. I'll try to give a general idea, though.

 

Wow. Would 01011001 be the best place to start? And where would I go from there? Confusing...

 

Is this metal enough for you?

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ph0cDjGELNU

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MVC NVMXD JVRXD

MVC NVMXD JVRXD 2,406

Well, I already posted this album in it's entirety, but I've been enjoying this song, so deal with it.

That bass tone just comes out at you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1bsn1KfJsQ

And some thrash, to switch things up.

 

Unfortunately, since switching my OS, my metal listening has been very limited. The only metal I have on this computer is some SYL and Gorguts I happened to have on a flashdrive :/

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Treeboy

Treeboy 418

Djent with deathcore elements. And progressive stuff in there too. It's stuff like this that makes Chelsea Grin look like amateurs. Oh wait they are

 

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NeverNeverland

NeverNeverland 1,940

This is a pretty good death metal cover of a normal song, especially since Death made it.

 

I'll admit, its a good cover. And I'm not the biggest fan of Death, but I'm a fan nonetheless.

 

You guys wanna hear another Judas Priest cover?

 

 

 

I fucking love Jeff Waters...

 

 

And you thought I was gonna post SYL's Exciter cover, didn't you?

 

 

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NeverNeverland

NeverNeverland 1,940

That's reminds me. This is a pretty cool Thrash band from Hamilton, Ontario (about a few hours from Toronto) and they released their new album recently.

 

 

I recommend you listen to their first album (a song is posted below) if you want a little more raw aggression to your metal.

 

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NeverNeverland

NeverNeverland 1,940

Hey NNL, I have some advice for when you get those teeth pulled.

 

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhFMMiTmHb4

 

HAR HAR HAR I'M REALLY PUNNY, AREN'T I.

 

YES! BECAUSE IF ANYONE CAN GET MY TEETH PULLED OUT RIGHT, ITS FUCKIGN CLIFF FUKCING BURTON!!

 

Also, this is relevant.

 

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Evilshy

Evilshy 5,089

(edited)

Wow. Would 01011001 be the best place to start? And where would I go from there? Confusing...

 

It probably would, although I started with Into the Electric Castle and fell in love with Ayreon :/

 

Anyway, to continue where I left off...

They start advancing the humans technology, and at first all is well. But then eventually, they see how the quick advance in technology has created quite a few problems. They lament all the war, pollution, hate, and other things that, though they always existed, the quick burst in science and technology was a catalyst for. On the other hand, all the hardship and adversity has brought out the best of humanity, as well, and The Forever praise the humans for the "fire in their eyes" and the "beauty of their art", among other things (here's that whole song. WARNING: IT'S TOTALLY KICKASS):

 

http-~~-//youtube.com/watch?v=ebHbuL3l12Q

 

 

Eventually, they decide that the only way to save the human race is to give them the secret to time manipulation and allow them to go back and correct their mistakes. They do this, and the events of Final Experiment are the result.

 

Now, I haven't listened to much of Final Experiment, but the basic storyline is, a blind bard named Ayreon recieves visions of the future, which were sent back in time by the scientists near the end of 01011001. He tells people about them, but is ultimately written off as insane, and nothing changes.

 

Back to 01011001, the scientists realize that the Final Experiment failed, and the war ends up completely ravaging the Earth. The Forever watching are understandably quite sad about all this, and talk about the results of the war. Interestingly, they also watch and say a few brief lines about the man from Universal Migrator, and how he travels with and eventually becomes the UM. They are, however, pleased that they were able to feel emotions again, and that they have completed their purpose. They disconnect themselves from their machines and die with emotions of their own.

 

Into the Electric Castle and Human Equation happen somewhere during the timline of 01011001. ITEC involves a shitload of time travel, so it's hard to tell exactly when, but HE is somewhere during modern times.

ITEC is widely regarded as the nest Ayreon album, and has avery strange story. Basiaclly, one of the Forever take a bunch of humans of various backgrounds and time periods and places them in a strange (probably virtual, but it never says) world where they must overcome challenges. A mysterious voice (the Forever) guides them through the world, giving them clues about what they will face next. The characters are a viking, a hippy, a woman from ancient egypt, a knight from the crusades, a man from the future, a scottish highlander, and a member of ancient roman nobility. The challenges are strange and super natural, with the eventual goal to "enter the nuclear portals of the Electric Castle", which will take them back to their own time periods. They travel through a wasteland, fly through what seems to be space (but they don't suffocate, for some reason :P), and arrive at the decision tree, where they must choose one who will stay behind and die. Eventually, the highlander, regretting his past sins and fearing the extremely bright light coming out of the tunnel ahead, volunteers to stay behind.

The rest go through the tunnel, and arrive at the Rainbow Bridge, which "spans a sea of tears". They must cross a shrinking bridge, lest they fall into a sea full of their sadness and regrets. They reach the other side and enter the Garden of Emotion, in the courtyard of the Electric Castle. In the garden, it's a bit vague how it works, but I see it as plants growing to reflect each person emotions. The knight and viking are increasingly at odds with each other on the best way to get through the garden, causing a monster made of thorny vines to appear and attack the group. The future guy realizes that "it must be feeding on our negative emotions" and urges the rest of the group to work together to weaken the monster. Based on the music and instrumentation, I believe it is implicated that eventually, the hippy uses his love and tolerance to destroy the hate monster. In the background, the egyptian women is dragged down by vines made of her own regrets and lack of self-esteem (since she believes herself to be weak and worthless, and has belived herself to be on a journey to the underworld since the beginning of the album). She gets her own song, where she is resigns herself to death, and says that her "soul yearns for the Valley of the Queens."

The survivors enter the grand hall of the castle, where they are confronted by the ghosts of people they have wronged. Those who have killed or committed other heinous acts against are attacked by the ghosts of their victims. Obviously, the viking and the knight have quite a fight on their hands ;)

While they are fighting, the roman and the hippy make their way to the Tower of Hope, where they are shown doors to their own perfect fantasy worlds. Hippy nearly gets lost while wandering through an Earth where everybody loves each other and shares everything and all is perfect, but the roman realizes that it is all fake and that they still aren't out of the castle. He pulls hippy back to reality.

The group meet again in the Mirror Maze, where they see themselves from the outside, as others see them, as well as seeing all of their flaws exposed. The roman is especially effected by this, and actually, Knight is the only one who seems to be able to handle it well at all. He tells the others to "break through the mirror now, follow me, I will show you how." Whether or not these are literal or figurative mirrors is never erally confirmed. In another part of the maze, viking is able to overcome his own problems (mainly his pride, although he doesn't really) and reach the end as well.

On the other side of the maze, they are shown a door, which is said to lead to the future. The future man is the only one brave enough to open it (though it is mainly his own morbid curiousity than courage) and sees Planet Y. Although he is actually seeing the Forever in their pathetic, machine dependant existence, they look so similar to humans that he believes this to be the actual future of humanity. He wonders if it's true, and that humanity will "yield on the battlefield of natural selection to an inorganic, digitial perfection." He is, however, able to go on, supposedly because he still hopes that humanity will be able to stop before going that far (this is guess work, it doesn't actually say that in the album).

In the final challenge, the group is presented with two doors, one beautifully crafted out of gold, the other simple door made of aging wood. They are told by the voice that one leads to everlasting oblivion, and the other will take them back to their own times. The viking goes first, and takes the gold door. He falls into oblivion, and belives that he is dying, and that soon the Valkyries will come to take him to Valhalla. His story line ends here, and it never says if he really does stay their for eternity, or if he simply dies. The rest take the other door and are transported to their own times. They all wake up and realize that it was all a dream (or at least, that their bodies were asleep while their minds were taken away to the other world) and all question the purpose of their ordeal. The mysterious voice reveals itself as a Forever, and gives them all a 30 second synopsis of 01011001 (that the forever found earthm killed the dinosaurs, and created the human race in order to regain their emotions) and that this was all an experiment to allow the Forever to feel the many emotions that were evoked by the various challenges. It is implied that the Forever dies after telling them this.

 

Human Equation, I actually haven't listened to yet, but from what I understand, a man is reliving traumatic events in his past while in a coma after suffereing a car accident. He takes a good look at his life, forgives peiopel who have wronged him, repents for many of his past sins, and wakes up a better man. At the end, it is revealed that the whole album was a Forever reliving the mans life in order to feel his emotions.

 

 

So... yeah, that's Ayreon. It's totally amazing.

Also, the guy behind it all, Arjen Lucassen, writes all the music and lyrics, and play the majority of the instruments. He gets tons of guest singers and players, which include James LaBrie and Derek Sherinian (Dream Theater), Devin Townsend (Strapping Young Lad and all his other stuff :)), Mikael Akerfeldt (Opeth), Mike Baker and Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery), Russel Allen and Michael Romeo (Symphony X), Simone Simmons (Epica), Ed Warby (Gorefest), and many other famous and/or talented musicians.

Edited by Evilshy and His Own Ego
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Crispy

Crispy 5,563

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Your song name, Reflections. I see what you did there.

 

 

I really like their guitar tone, it's nice and sharp in the low tones.

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Treeboy

Treeboy 418

Just gotta let this loose. Another killer band with an upcoming 2012 album. Interesting video, too. Don't know if it's fan made or not.

 

Upcoming? It's already out. I've listened to most of it, and it is pretty killer. Have more French djent.

 

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abcdefggggg

abcdefggggg 34

One of my favourite Dream Theater songs, even though every other fan seems to have forgotten about it because its on the first album...

 

-snip-

 

Interesting story actually, last year at New England Metal Fest we had dinner with Dream Theater. We were waiting to sit at an Uno and they recognized my dad from the mosh pit and they invited him over for some drinks and to eat. We also spent most of the day hanging out with the people from IWrestledABearOnce and The Acacia Strain (songs below). It was a very awesome time, think it was my second Metal Fest and my Dad's tenth or something.

 

 

 

IWABO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2urHTbCryM

 

TAS

 

 

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NeverNeverland

NeverNeverland 1,940

(edited)

Take pride in your metal! You're here for a reason! Posted Image

 

Now, here's a sweet Iron Maiden cover.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0wUOBqNP_8

 

All honestly, I was going into this cover with low hopes, but Mille and the rest of Kreator blew my fucking mind when I heard this. Especially the solos and the verses. Aggressive!

Edited by Artemis
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