Band:	Ayreon
Album:	The Source
Style:	Progressive metal, Progressive rock
Release date:	April 28, 2017
Guest review by:	Metren

Disc I
[Chronicle 1: The 'Frame]
01. The Day That The World Breaks Down
02. Sea Of Machines
03. Everybody Dies

[Chronicle 2: The Aligning Of The Ten]
04. Star Of Sirrah
05. All That Was
06. Run! Apocalypse! Run!
07. Condemned To Live

Disc II
[Chronicle 3: The Transmigration]
01. Aquatic Race
02. The Dream Dissolves
03. Deathcry Of A Race
04. Into The Ocean

[Chronicle 4: The Rebirth]
05. Bay Of Dreams
06. Planet Y Is Alive!
07. The Source Will Flow
08. Journey To Forever
09. The Human Compulsion
10. March Of The Machines

More than 20 years have passed since Ayreon's inception. With many long-time admirers understandably experiencing considerable metal opera fatigue and Arjen himself sadly growing older, the project's latest album The Source might easily be dismissed by many as an unimaginative and possibly even unimportant rehash of previously released material. Such opinions have merit to be sure, but there is still plenty to enjoy about this album, whether one is a lifelong Ayreonaut or not.

The guest vocalists on The Source are more or less evenly divided into those who are new and those who have cooperated with Arjen Lucassen in the past, with newcomers including fellow metal opera mastermind Tobias Sammet of Avantasia and Zaher Zorgati of Myrath, among others. To say that Arjen's guidance brings out the best in the vocalists he gathers or even to say that the majority of the guests bring their A-game to The Source would be an understatement. Whether it is the absurdly epic (even by Ayreon's standards) chorus of "Aquatic Race" or the fact that, for once in the last 10 years, Floor Jansen is using her more operatic vocal style again, the guests all shine brighter than "The Star Of Sirrah", with Nils K. Rue of Pagan's Mind possibly shining the brightest.

The music performed by Ayreon's talented cast is as melodic, catchy and pompous as ever with the cheese factor being more obvious (and therefore more tolerable) than on the more serious The Human Equation or the previous Ayreon release The Theory Of Everything. Whether one finds the ridiculously positive-sounding "Everybody Dies" annoying or ironically enjoyable is largely a matter of taste, but on the whole, the album does feature one too many lazy songwriting moments and auditory deja vu is unavoidable for listeners, who are familiar with Arjen's other works. One might be tempted to say that if you've heard previous Ayreon albums, you've heard The Source already. There are, however, some surprising and surprisingly fantastic moments on the album, such as the gorgeous, Eastern-flavored vocal melody found on "Deathcry Of A Race" or the a capella opening of the aforementioned "Aquatic Race."

Arjen Lucassen's style of musical storytelling has always been somewhat divisive, with the classical metal crowd finding his works to be overrated, while prog lovers consider him a demigod of sorts. The first group will likely dislike The Source quite a bit, while the second may discover that, as inconsequential as this album is and as overly-familiar as most of its elements are, Ayreon still being around is a positive phenomenon rather than a negative one.