### Ayreon: 01011001

#### 03/01/08 || Euthanatos

Imagine yourself making out with a chick. Things get hot. You reach for the good old ‘gina. This is when you notice something is wrong. Instead of moist heaven, there is a bulk of flesh. A cock. It’s a dude. You’re making out with a dude. Whoa, there, Nelly! Life, as you once knew, is over. Innocence is gone. No turning back. Forever scarred.

This is the kind of surprise I got when listening to “0101101”. Granted, you can call me dense and retarded, after all, when has anyone not listened to something brilliant by Arjen? I’ll tell you, Stream of Passion! Ha! Seriously, though, usually Lucassen is an inspired songwriter who manages to unite some of the coolest people in the metal world in his records. And his greatest talent, at least to me, is making all of those different people with such diverse backgrounds sing in such harmony and all songs within an album sound so coherent, cohesive, co… My vocabulary is not that broad, but you get the point. I guess you could call Arjen a great maestro. There, that’s what it is.

“01011001” continues the musical exploration left off in “The Human Equation”, which was, to me, nothing short of perfect. Fortunately for us, this album is also equally as brilliant, it’s stunning, it’s unworldly, it’s godlike, it’s… yeah, all that jazz.

I really like how, even though musically it goes everywhere from heavy metal to folk/acoustic, every track is entangled with the other. And the vocalists! A collection of the metal world’s most brilliant, which shows not only Arjen’s good taste, but his awareness of his musical peers. Anneke and Floor Jansen deserve a tad more praise than the rest, just because of their sheer power and depth portrayed in their participations. I was also pleasantly surprised by the participation of gifted singers like Evergrey’s Tom S. Englund, Blind Guardian’s Hansi Kusrch, Katatonia’s Jonas Renkse (“Waking Dreams” is Katatonia-Lite and its best) and Pain of Salvation’s Daniel Gildenlöw.

There are also contributions from caliber instrumentalists like Michael Romeo from Symphony X, Derek Sherinian of Malmsteen/Dream Theater fame and Ed Warby from Gorefest, who fucking kicks ass and the some in this record. And I haven’t even mentioned the stellar, fantastic, amazing work, as always, done by Arjen Lucassen himself.

Naturally there is a concept here. Naturally, I have no idea what it is, but I do know that it continues the previous “Into the Electric Castle”, “The Universal Migrator” storyline. What I can tell you is that 0101101 is the binary form of the number 89 and the ASCII form of the letter Y. You know, as in “Planet Y” and all that. Progressive, pretentious, perfect. This is one hell of a way for all of us to start the year of 2008. A true masterpiece.

The cover: Brilliant artwork, typical of Ayreon covers, drawn by Felipe Machado. That’s another great thing about Ayreon. The artwork is always awesome, the booklets are awesome, they throw in DVDs with extra stuff. That’s what everyone should do.

10 transsexuals ready to buttfuck you out of 10.

- Information
- Released: 2007
- Label: MRV
- Website: www.ayreon.com
- Band
- Hansi Kürsch: vocals
- Daniel Gildenlöw: vocals
- Tom S. Englund: vocals
- Jonas Renkse: vocals
- Jørn Lande: vocals
- Anneke van Giersbergen: vocals
- Steve Lee: vocals
- Bob Catley: vocals
- Floor Jansen: vocals
- Magali Luyten: vocals
- Simone Simons: vocals
- Phideaux Xavier: vocals
- Wudstik: vocals
- Marjan Welman: vocals
- Liselotte Hegt: vocals
- Ty Tabor: vocals
- Arjen Anthony Lucassen: guitars, vocals, bass, keyboards, synth, programming, networking
- Ed Warby: drums and percussion.
- Jeroen Goossens: flutes
- Ben Mathot: violin
- David Faber: cello
- Joost van den Broek: piano
- Lori Linstruth: guitar solos
- Michael Romeo: guitar solo on “E=MC2”
- Derek Sherinian: keyboard solo on “The Fifth Extinction”
- Tomas Bodin: keyboard solo on “Waking Dreams”

- Tracklist
- Disc 1: Y
- 01. Age of Shadows
- 02. Comatose
- 03. Liquid Eternity
- 04. Connect the Dots
- 05. Beneath the Waves
- 06. Newborn Race
- 07. Ride the Comet
- 08. Web of Lies
- Disc 2: EARTH
- 01. The Fifth Extinction
- 02. Waking Dreams
- 03. The Truth Is In Here
- 04. Unnatural Selection
- 05. River of Time
- 06. E=MC2
- 07. The Sixth Extinction