Ayreon Transitus

[David D]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2PidKn4IbA

this looks amazing!

i am surprisingly most excited about Dee Snider - he sounds sick on this!

[Mardoch]

Another new single out today. Sounds good. This album is guaranteed to be cheesy and silly in the good ways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=miotXaqJ-Cs

[Harvester]

This album is guaranteed to be cheesy

Even by Arjen standards, this album is beyond the pale of cheese.

[LarryD]

This album is guaranteed to be cheesy

Even by Arjen standards, this album is beyond the pale of cheese.

****That is not a good sign ........

[Sir Exar Kun]

Just so long as each disc isn't broken into 42 individual tracks again....

[Mardoch]

This album is guaranteed to be cheesy

Even by Arjen standards, this album is beyond the pale of cheese.

I choose to interpret this in a positive fashion.

[Harvester]

This album is guaranteed to be cheesy

Even by Arjen standards, this album is beyond the pale of cheese.

I choose to interpret this in a positive fashion.

[LarryD]

I am thoroughly afraid now.........

[Harvester]

I'm a firm believer in "To Each, Their Own" when it comes to music. I'm sure the majority of the forum will enjoy it because it is Aryeon after all. This is the first Arjen album I didn't enjoy. It happens. I'm not jumping ship and will be back for the next go around. As for the album itself, Tommy is the star of the show. He sounds amazing. Dee & Simone are great as well. However, Arjen went too far towards the ultra-cheesy rock opera style here and buried the guitar. There is a song called "Dumb Piece of Rock" that...well...never mind. Judge that one yourself. I usually cannot sit through a double Aryeon album because I'm overwhelmed. I can't do it this time because of the exact opposite.

[Mardoch]

I'm a firm believer in "To Each, Their Own" when it comes to music. I'm sure the majority of the forum will enjoy it because it is Aryeon after all. This is the first Arjen album I didn't enjoy. It happens. I'm not jumping ship and will be back for the next go around. As for the album itself, Tommy is the star of the show. He sounds amazing. Dee & Simone are great as well. However, Arjen went too far towards the ultra-cheesy rock opera style here and buried the guitar. There is a song called "Dumb Piece of Rock" that...well...never mind. Judge that one yourself. I usually cannot sit through a double Aryeon album because I'm overwhelmed. I can't do it this time because of the exact opposite.

Oh, hmmm. I've considered other Ayreon albums duds in whole or part before so I'm it's not like I'm just taking them in uncritically so this does give me some reservation. Buried guitars, first and foremost, seems like a huge mistake. Hopefully my lactose tolerance is up to snuff for this, because I would hate to be disappointed. Gonna opt to be hopeful still, though.

[introclaus]

Speaking of Ayreon's new album ... some people (like me) blindly pre-order everything he puts out, and for those who've done so through iTunes will get the new songs once they are released. At this point 4 songs have been released: Talk of the Town, Get Out Now, Hopelessly Slipping Away, and This Human Equation.

I noticed that yesterday an EP was released featuring 4 songs, and I almost clicked BUY when I realized it's the same damn 4 songs!!! What the heck? Is he trying to double-dip here? What's going on?

Anyone know what's up with that crap?

[Mardoch]

I'm a firm believer in "To Each, Their Own" when it comes to music. I'm sure the majority of the forum will enjoy it because it is Aryeon after all. This is the first Arjen album I didn't enjoy. It happens. I'm not jumping ship and will be back for the next go around. As for the album itself, Tommy is the star of the show. He sounds amazing. Dee & Simone are great as well. However, Arjen went too far towards the ultra-cheesy rock opera style here and buried the guitar. There is a song called "Dumb Piece of Rock" that...well...never mind. Judge that one yourself. I usually cannot sit through a double Aryeon album because I'm overwhelmed. I can't do it this time because of the exact opposite.

Oh, hmmm. I've considered other Ayreon albums duds in whole or part before so I'm it's not like I'm just taking them in uncritically so this does give me some reservation. Buried guitars, first and foremost, seems like a huge mistake. Hopefully my lactose tolerance is up to snuff for this, because I would hate to be disappointed. Gonna opt to be hopeful still, though.

Well...I wanted Glenn to be wrong, but that wasn't what happened. It's a fine album, but...not super interesting other than the B Movie trappings. It's just...pretty ok. And it's definitely too drawn out for the quality on tap. Some tracks are excellent, and Tom Baker's narration is great. Cammie and Tommy are an amazing vocalist pair, though, and I'll take more of that action.

[Mardoch]

Universal Migrator started playing when Transitus ended and I have to say that both discs of it are so much stronger. I think Arjen needs to have constraints to not just...wank himself into a poor product. He didn't have this much money to play with 20 years ago, and that seems to have helped him make tighter albums. I'm open to the idea that I'm just a grumpy asshole, though.

[introclaus]

Universal Migrator started playing when Transitus ended and I have to say that both discs of it are so much stronger. I think Arjen needs to have constraints to not just...wank himself into a poor product. He didn't have this much money to play with 20 years ago, and that seems to have helped him make tighter albums. I'm open to the idea that I'm just a grumpy asshole, though.

I don't think you're a grumpy asshole, as I'm with you. There's no denying Arjen's qualities as a song writer and producer, but sometimes the less-is-more approach would have been preferred. The album is too long, and there are way too many songs that are of the 2-3 minute length, which doesn't really do anything except moving a storyline along - the song itself never gets to build and evolve and at the end I honestly don't remember many of the tunes. And, (Larry will be the one loving this) there are way too many spoken parts ... oh my, just shut the heck up!!!

[Scott B]

The positive I will say is that Arjen really has a knack for arranging chorus vocals, especially female vocals. On the not so positive side is that this is the stupidest thingI've heard in a long time. I am so glad I listened to this with earbuds so that the rest of the world wasn't subjected to that shite narration. Remix the album without the narration and I think there would be at least a listenable album, but as it is, horrible.

[LarryD]

I may not like every Ayreon release - but I have always bought every disc blindly without hearing a note. With these reviews and thoughts being so negative, I'm getting scared even to listen it .......and I'm a chump for narration.

Let's face it - a guy that has been around this long, is entitled to release something less than his usual stellar material ........we all have our favorites, and so many discs to fall back on -- even if this sucks royally, it won't bother me.

That said - I recently picked up The Final Experiment and Actual Fantasy on vinyl and was immediately transported to that incredible greatness we all know and love about him ......

[Locust0311]

I'm going to be in the minority here and say the narration doesn't bother me one bit. Overall I enjoy the album. Is it because I had my expectations lowered by people here and elsewhere and was in mind that this would be something akin to The Astonishing? Perhaps. But this is not sleep-inducingly dull like I found The Astonishing to be. There is plenty of variability to the music here and more than enough heaviness to be found, unlike that Dream Theater album where they basically sounded neutered (at least to me).

[introclaus]

I'm going to be in the minority here and say the narration doesn't bother me one bit. Overall I enjoy the album. Is it because I had my expectations lowered by people here and elsewhere and was in mind that this would be something akin to The Astonishing? Perhaps. But this is not sleep-inducingly dull like I found The Astonishing to be. There is plenty of variability to the music here and more than enough heaviness to be found, unlike that Dream Theater album where they basically sounded neutered (at least to me).

So interesting you’re saying that because all I could think of when listening to it was how much it reminded me of The Astonishing and that Larry should be all over this...

[LarryD]

So interesting you’re saying that because all I could think of when listening to it was how much it reminded me of The Astonishing and that Larry should be all over this...

****I haven't heard much of this disc --- but I'm reading things about it and I'm getting further and further away from the interest in it ....... When it comes to narration, I don't mind it at all - especially if it's telling a story and the disc is a concept disc. I love The Astonishing, and there isn't much, if any, narration on that disc .....there are more sound effects than anything else.

Take Transitus for instance - people are saying that the music is very cheesy and sometimes awful - yet the narration is done perfectly. Now take as disc like Seventh Wonder / Mercy Falls ... where the opposite is true. The music is awesome and the narration is cheesy. I'll take this scenario over the Transitus scenario. Give me the great music over the cheesy narration vs the opposite any day.

[Locust0311]

So interesting you’re saying that because all I could think of when listening to it was how much it reminded me of The Astonishing and that Larry should be all over this...

****I haven't heard much of this disc --- but I'm reading things about it and I'm getting further and further away from the interest in it ....... When it comes to narration, I don't mind it at all - especially if it's telling a story and the disc is a concept disc. I love The Astonishing, and there isn't much, if any, narration on that disc .....there are more sound effects than anything else.

Take Transitus for instance - people are saying that the music is very cheesy and sometimes awful - yet the narration is done perfectly. Now take as disc like Seventh Wonder / Mercy Falls ... where the opposite is true. The music is awesome and the narration is cheesy. I'll take this scenario over the Transitus scenario. Give me the great music over the cheesy narration vs the opposite any day.

For the record, I found both the music and narration well done. Probably the worst thing I can say about it is that it can feel a tad disjointed at times with the shorter tracks. As counter intuitive as it may seem with a double album, some of the tracks could have used more room to breathe.

[Mardoch]

So interesting you’re saying that because all I could think of when listening to it was how much it reminded me of The Astonishing and that Larry should be all over this...

****I haven't heard much of this disc --- but I'm reading things about it and I'm getting further and further away from the interest in it ....... When it comes to narration, I don't mind it at all - especially if it's telling a story and the disc is a concept disc. I love The Astonishing, and there isn't much, if any, narration on that disc .....there are more sound effects than anything else.

Take Transitus for instance - people are saying that the music is very cheesy and sometimes awful - yet the narration is done perfectly. Now take as disc like Seventh Wonder / Mercy Falls ... where the opposite is true. The music is awesome and the narration is cheesy. I'll take this scenario over the Transitus scenario. Give me the great music over the cheesy narration vs the opposite any day.

A bad Ayreon album is still a lot better than most of any given year's output, and this album isn't BAD, it's just not up to par for our (or at least MY) expectations. I actually very much enjoy Baker's narrations. It's the lack of pyrotechnics in the music itself that's got me going "meh."

[Sir Exar Kun]

Very much mixed feelings on this album. Frankly, the narration largely kills it for me. It's not that it's BAD, or poorly done, there's just WAY TOO MUCH of it. Every single track, no matter how short..... When I listen to the album, to me it sounds like Arjen tried to encapsulate the last couple of Ayreon live shows in a studio format. I can absolutely see this being performed in a theatrical setting, complete with narration, but on the studio album all this should have is a good set of liner notes (another big MISS he readily admits..... the album doesn't come with lyrics!) and let the songs tell the story. Had he done that, it would be a decent album....

The biggest difference I hear between this and most of the rest of the Ayreon catalogue is that he relies on the storyteller to tell the story, and makes that the focus of the recording rather than writing good individual songs that collectively tell the saga. There's definitely a few really good tunes on here, but there's also a lot of 1:30-2:30 songs that just connect pieces.... Very much like "The Astonishing".... Very much trying to be a musical, rather than a rock opera.

Personally, I would have put this out under a different moniker than Ayreon. It's not really an Ayreon album in the sense of the style he's created. It comes across sort of like Therion's "Beloved Antichrist" compared to the rest of their catalogue.... It has aspects of Aryeon for sure, but is structurally quite different.

I'll go back to it now and again..... Probably more than "Theory of Everything" (and definitely more than "Astonishing") but it's a letdown for sure.