Ayreon - The Day That The World Breaks Down 

singers in order of appearance . James Labrie - Lead singer for Dream Theatre. Tommy Karevik - Lead singer of Kamelot . Tommy Rodgers - Lead singer of Between the Buried and Me. Simone Simmons - Lead singer of Epica. Nils K. Rue - Lead singer of Pagan's Mind . Tobias Sammet - Lead singer of Avantasia. Hansi Kürsch - Lead singer of Blind Guardian Mike Mills - Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and main songwriter for Toehider. Russell Allen - Lead singer of Symphony X . Michael Eriksen - Lead singer of Circus Maximus. Floor Jansen - Lead singer of After Forever, ReVamp & now Nightwish. May I suggest their song "Everybody Dies" its a live performance - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9AAXtUdM7xE.html

Hi Nikki, Ayreon is a Arjen's (Ar-yen) prog rock/metal opera project, he's Dutch. He writes the songs and invites guest singers and musicians, each singer is a different character. It's mostly a studio project ,though they have put together a few live shows, including one just 2 months ago although no pro shot vids from that have been released so far. He writes concept albums, telling a story across multiple records. This is from the album, The Source, and is the first chronologically in the story arc. One that works with Arjen often is Sir Joost van den Broek, a musician and producer himself, he's seen here on grand piano. He was the keyboardist in After Forever (04-09) with Floor, played with and produced ReVamp(Floor's band before Nightwish), produced the last 3 EPICA albums, and more. He does a lot of work on the live Ayreon shows too. The numbers that Mike Mills is singing is binary, his character is a machine, it translates to Trust TH-1, TH for his band Toehider. The 11 vocalists are: James LaBrie (Dream Theater) as The Historian Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder) as The Opposition Leader Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me) as The Chemist Simone Simons (Epica) as The Counselor Nils K. Rue (Pagan's Mind) as The Prophet Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia) as The Captain Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) as The Astronomer Mike Mills (Toehider) as TH-1 Russell Allen (Symphony X) as The President Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus) as The Diplomat Floor Jansen (Nightwish) as The Biologist For more Ayreon ,try something from the Ayreon Universe concert in 2017. Everybody Dies, Star of Sirrah, Intergalactic Space Crusaders ,Valley of the Queens, or the show closer Eye of Ra with all 16 singers on stage. This show is pretty much a best of Ayreon and another of Arjen's projects ,Star One. And if you decide to check out Tommy Karevik with Kamelot, the keyboardist is Simone's husband.

Arjen, My favorite Space Hippie 🥰!!! I also call it: "The song that exploded my music world"!!!! The binary code means "Trust TH-1" The singers in order of appearance are: James LaBrie from "Dream Theater" Tommy Karevik from "Kamelot", "Seventh Wonder" Tommy Rogers from "Between the Buried and Me" Simone Simons from th most epic "Epica" Nils K. Rue from "Pagan's Mind" and "Eidolon" Tobias Sammet from "Edguy" and here mentioned "Avantasia" (Also a massive project by Tobias). Hansi Kürsch from "Blind Guardian" Mike Mills playing a computer and singing binary from "Toehider" Russell Allen from "Symphony X" Michael Eriksen from "Circus Maximus" and last but not least the incredible Valkyrie Goddess Floor Jansen from "Nightwish". NWSU/FloorFan/Epican/Ayreonaut 🤘😎🤘

This is a true Masterpiece! Excellent casting of singers, and then there's Floor 💗👸. The genius behind all this is "The Tall Hippie Dude", Arjen Anthony Lucassen, the tallest known rock musician (203 cm). ⛄😜

Floor is my favorite too, but Arjen himself is the true superhero here. Of the other vocalists, all are awesome, but Tommy Karevik (the one he said gave him tears of joy) really stands out. All the musicians are fantastic too, but I really love the drummer Ed Warby and the pianist Joost van den Broek (though he didn't have a big role in this one).

Great Band,, Beautiful Song, Gorgeous Nikki. Grazie mille

You should check out Tobias Sammet's Avantasia with the song called misplaced among the angels feat, Floor Jansen in my opinion one of Floor 's best guest appearance the harmonizing is incredible maybe the best and I can easily say one of the best choruses in any song

Ayreon is another rabbit hole leading to many other bands as Arjen picks talented musicians from all over. This is not the most people involved in one song, I think "The Eye of Ra" has that record as the finale of the universe concert. The next Ayreon reaction has to be the live version of "Everybody Dies" from that concert.

Ayreon is not really a band; it's a project by a single genius musician, Arjen Anthony Lucasson. He was the guitarist, bassist, and keyboardist you saw in the video. Arjen writes the music and gets musicians from all over the world to perform it. It's generally considered an honor to be asked to participate in an Ayreon album. He has also done a few live shows, which I'm sure you would enjoy.

Hey Nikki, so glad you choose Ayreon this time. I see in the comments below that you've already got some background story. Here are other fun facts for you: 1. Arjen Anthony Lucassen (Ayreon/Star One) has got favourite artists returning all the time. Among those one, he took under his wings when she was 16 or 17, and help her improve her vocal abiliies by constantly challenging her lower tones and harmonies, and more, was Floor Jansen. He then took Floor's little sister Irene under his wings and both played many gigs with him under the Star One project, but also ever since as semi-fast Ayreon members. 2. Arjen Anthony Lucassen mention Joost van der Broek as a fantastic musician and friend. Joost use to be in "After Forever" - Floor's first band and is still Floor's good friend who helps her and sometime plays the grand piano for her, like in her cover of "Alone". Joost has also produced Epica 3-4 last albums. He is Netherland Mr. Metal. 3. Epica is named Epica after an album from Kamelot. Epica was on tour together with Kamelot in the US. Tommy Karevik is the current lead sing of Kamelot. 4. During their US tour in 2012, Nightwish asked Floor Jansen to join the band as a replacement vocalist after Anette Olzon’s exit. This was the result of the so-called Denver Debacle where Nightwish had the difficult task of choosing between cancelling the gig and going ahead with support band Kamelot’s backing vocalists Elize Ryd (now Amaranthe) and Alissa White-Gluz (The Agonist, now Arch Enemy) in Olzon’s place. With the audience’s blessing they chose the latter, resulting an unforgettable and historic show. Elize, Alissa and Nightwish were applauded for their efforts by seemingly everyone except Olzon, who made her rather ungrateful opinions known the next day via an online post. A few days later - October 1st, 2012 - Olzon was officially given the boot and the tour continued with ReVamp / ex-After Forever singer Floor Jansen fronting the band. 8. Elisa Ryd and Alissa White-Gluz are still appearing now and then in Kamelot live performance or albums. Here is a recommendation: Sacrimony ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-1WvWbUgCcJw.html 9. Arjen's brother writes the latin texts for Epica. Ayreon/Star One song recommendations - you've already got tbe best in the comment below, but basically, the whole Universe Concert in Tilburg is a recommendation.

Loved it! I’m impressed how the European artist do these collaborations and seem to have so much fun! Thank you!🤘🎸

By the way the pianist in this video also worked with Floor on her solo album.

The Mike Mills part is the most amazing thing I have ever seen a musician do.

Well done!

Thx Nikki !! There are so many great musicians and singers out there for us to watch you react and enjoy lol , try Evergrey, In Orbit featuring you know who 🙃🤘🏼💥🤘🏼

In 2003 Aryeon had the Star One project and Damien Wilson (Threshold) and Russell Allen (Symphony X) performed with backup singers Floor and Irene Jansen

Hi Nikki, greetings from UK You nailed it! (even though you then changed your mind) 🤣 I think that this will be a fantastic reference tool for you. If any of the singers are recommended to you, or their bands, at least you will have one reference where you can say that you have heard their voice before Spoiler alert: Floor's sister Irene also features in other Ayreon songs, sometimes singing with Floor It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that you see Floor making a guest appearance in other band's songs. She is the very best and a lovely person so everybody wants to work with her 😁(in my opinion). Also, as you learn more you will discover that there are connections throughout symphonic metal that you never knew existed. For instance, did you know that Epica was founded by guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen (no relation to Floor) after his departure from 'After Forever' which was a band that Floor was also a member of? Joost (the piano player) has played in some of Floor's cover songs

Oh girl, another rabbit hole to discover, Hope you have enough time but it will be worth while. Greetings from The Netherlands, (btw also American singers involved)

YES Floor-bombed! Told you.. whomever would win the poll, you were destined to experience TDTTWBD. My next prediction is that you'll check out this fantastic live one: "Ayreon - Everybody Dies (Ayreon Universe)". Cheers from Amsterdam! 🤘

This one is also very nice...Ayreon - Intergalactic Space Crusaders (Universe) but there are so many.......all good songs !

Nils K. Rue is the lead singer of Pagan`s Mind,and here is the funfact: Floor headhunted the guitarist in Pagan`s Mind when she wanted to start a rock n roll project,a project that later on become Nightwishes most popular sideproject,with Floor (Nightwish) and "Jurn" Viggo (Pagan`s Mind) joining forces,wich lead to a full album with pure rock n roll music. Both "Jurn" Viggo and Floor are excellent songwriters. Pagan`s Mind has been touring in the US to attend in Prog Power USA over several years,and has won alot of people that experienced them live,over. Still,they are really underrated as a band. And sadly,they havent released a single song in years. No news about them departing,they just havent released anything in forever. Last message was that new songs was in the works,but that "its hard". Like they lacked motivation from trying and trying and really not getting where they wanted. 10:48 Michael Eriksen is not only from Circus Maximus,but that entire band is best friends with everyone in Pagan`s Mind. Michael even performs with them while at Prog Power: Pagan's Mind - Eyes of Fire (feat. Michael Eriksen)

Great reaction! From four of my most favorite bands were featured here; James LaBrie from Dream Theater, Simone SImons from Epica, Russell Allen from Symphony X and finally, Floor from Nightwish! Russell Allen and Floor are my most favorite singers of all time, and they've done a couple of duets in the past, one time they did a duet on Phantom Of The Opera. You should check those out too!! 😁🤘🤘🤘

Nikki, what a great choice. With so fantastic artists - all in one song. And it seemed they played it all alone - only for recording…. ‼️🏆👍

So you see whether you chose Christmas Truce or TDTTWBD you were going to be Floored at the end. 😂

Ayreon is a project band put together by Arjan Lucasson. Every Ayreon Album will feature different singers etc. Arjan also has a different project group called Star One which will deal with different subjects to what features in Ayreon

And there are brilliant drummer's around...

I've seen Arjan life about 30 years ago in the Dutch heavy metal band Vengeance. He is a musical magician!

Tobias Sammet And Floor Jansen Misplaced Among the Angels please. Arjen is the dude playing the Bass and Guitar and The keys. He's Amazing.

Symphony X, Paradise Lost is one the greatest songs ever written, it's a masterpiece, though not actually typical of Symphony X's usual heavy prog style. Also check out Avantasia, Journey to Arcadia or Lost in Space.

Avantasia is another supergroup like Ayreon with loads of singers. Tobias is the songwriter there as you rightfully thought. Also worth listening to. Both Ayreon andAvantasia though stylistically different are looking for great singers they want to have on their songs and try to make that happen. Great music overall. And an opener to expand on all the other singer's own bands.

Jump into the live performances of ayreon. "Star of sirrah", Day 16: looser" or "everybody dies" are a good start Nothing more to say. Playlist of the 2017 concert: ru-vid.com/group/PLJGn3wi7b7b606GfoKAdOgm6rtX9OliRc&si=qfcHxbhFmitRkE1P

May I suggest Ayreon The two gates (universe)? It's a live version where Irene Jansen (Floors sister) introduces the whole band.

welcome to the world of Arjen, he writes and composes the music. He then asks anyone in music to help bring the songs to life. If you think 11 is crazy he has has a song with about 30-40 singing live on stage.

Welcome to the rabbit hole! Please check Everybody dies Star of Sirrah Into the black hole Valley of the queens

Mike Mills! Aussie!Aussie!Aussie!.... Hansi still looks like my dentist!... Arjen is brilliant. Love his work. He is so tall!!! Makes Floor look almost "merely human"!

The bonus with this is that, if you don't know all the singers, you now have new stuff to explore from the sample sized taste herein. I had never heard of Michael Mills and loved his part (not just the sound of it, but also his character that seems to shine thru just from the faces he makes😅), so I've dipped my toe (lol, pun initially not intended, but I'm keepin it!) Into his work. Already in love with his song "How Much For That Dragon Tooth." I *knew* I'd like his sense of humor!

Next song would be a live song , Every body dies . its from the first ever live show , Ayreon universe .

Also: each Ayreon album tells a story (literally).. Each album is interconnected to the whole story. Each singer is a different character (Arjen actually wanted to never repeat characters/singers in the whole Ayreon Universe, but I guessche hadcrannout of singers).

First of all, welcome to the Ayreon universe. Ayreon is a musical project created by the Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen in 1995. In every Ayreon album, Arjen composes a greater 95% of music and texts average and plays electric guitars, acoustic guitars, electric bass, synth and keyboards, and invites several guest vocalists to join him to play a part in his own metal operas. The Ayreon's album sequence is the following one: 1) in 1995 Arjen created the first Ayreon album "The Final Experiment", talking about the story of a blind ministrel of the 6th century britain, named Ayreon, who receives from the future visions of humanity decline and tries to sing about these visions to save the world from its own downfall. The prologue of this album is that in the year 2084 a.d. (chosen by adding 100 years to 1984 referring to George Orwell's most famous novel) mankind has virtually destroyed itself, it's survival depends on the final experiment. 2) Ayreon's second album "Actual Fantasy" (1996) is the only Ayreon album not being a concept album, but it is a group of song each of them narrating story related to science-fiction themes or fantasy themes 3) in 1998, "Into the Electric Castle" talked about eight different characters each of them taken by a different historical age of the earth, that are brought to another dimension and are given a quest by a mysterious alien presence, to go through this unknown land to find the electric castle and try to survive it to go back home. It is the first album to talk about the alien race named "forever", but this seems to be a completely different story from the first two albums 4) in 2000 "Universal Migrator" an album split in two different parts, each of the released as a unique album [pt1: the Dream Sequencer] and [pt2: flight of the migrator]. This is the first album to make clear that all the stories told by "The Final Experiment" and "Into the Electric Castle" are connected to create a bigger picture, a real "Ayreon Universe" 5) in 2004 "The Human Equation", that seems to be disconnected by the "Ayreon Universe" big picture, until the last 30 seconds of the last song, in which it is revealed that the story developed all through the album is a program run by the Forever race to try to solve "The Human Equation" in order to save us and them from the final catastrophe. 6) in 2008 there are two events: --> a) the album 01011001 (binary code for the letter "Y") is declared by Arjen to be the final chapter of the "Forever race saga" and reveals that the Forever alien race is the human race ancestor arrived from another planet after a global catastrophe and they are guiding our evolution from the dawn of human race until now to make us save them from their destiny --> b) the best of "Timeline" contains a poster describing how all the album related to the "Forever Saga" are connected and their own part in the "Ayreon Universe big picture", and contains also a new song "Epilogue: The Memory Remains" that is the final epilogue of the "Forever Saga" 7) in 2013 the album "The Theory of Everything" is the first Ayreon concept album completely disconnected by the "Forever Saga" telling about the research of a father and his son of the theory of everything 8) in 2017 with the album "The Source" Arjen returns to his beloved "Forever race" characters, telling us the prequel of the Forever Saga, explaining us where they lived, what was the extinguishing event they have to face, what caused that event, and how the Forever race faced it. 9) in 2020 with the title "Transitus" Arjen created a complete different story, set on earth in the 19th century, and being a tragic love story with dark and gothic vibe. This album was conceived to be a musical, so there are more songs each of them being shorter than an average Ayreon's song. In more than 25 years of Ayreon, they released only three live albums: The Theater Equation (a live performance of the album "The Human Equation"); Ayreon Universe (a live performance with a best of the songs created by Arjen for Ayreon and Star-One projects); Electric Castle Live and Other Tales (a live performance of the album "Into the Electric Castle" and a selection of 1 song for every Arjen's side project + the Marillion song "Kayleigh" performed by Fish, the original Marillion singer, that has played the "Highlander" part in the Arjen's metal opera). Each one of these live performances deserves to be considered a masterpiece in the music history. There's a fourth live album that will be released on May the 17th. Its title is "Live Beneath the Waves" and is the live show with the album "01011001" played live in its entirety. Another absolute masterpiece in the music history that I had the honor to witness. Arjen also released a lot of other music throughout the years, with many side-projects as "Ambeon", "Star One", "Guilt Machine", "Stream of Passion" , "The Gentle Storm", "Supersonic Revolution", the new project "Plan Nine" (out May 17th 2024) and his own solo albums. When he creates new music, he creates music, words, story and everything else and when he feels the real mood of what he's creating, he decides if the following creation will be an Ayreon album, another of his own existing side-projects, or a complete new side-project. Fun fact is that Floor Jansen has been a guest vocalist for Arjen since 2000 when she appeared on Universal Migrator. Since then she was a guest in Arjen's project in both the project Star One's albums and in the "01011001" Ayreon album. I hope this post will help you to go through the wonderful world of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's music p.s. if you'd like to listen to more Ayreon music, i strongly recommend to listen to his 3 live album and then the following selection of songs: 1) From "The Final Experiment" react to the first 3 tracks (Prologue, The Awareness, Eyes of Time) and the last track (Ayreon's Fate) 2) From "Actual Fantasy" react to "Abbey of Synn" [based on Umberto Eco's novel "The Name of the Rose"] 3) From "Into the Electric Castle" react to "Valley of the Queens", "Across the Rainbow Bridge" and one song chosen between "Isis and Osiris", "Amazing Flight", "The Two Gates" 4) From "Universal Migrator" react to "2084", "And the Druids Turn to Stone", "Chaos", "Dawn of a Million Souls" and "Into The Black Hole" (song sang by Bruce Dickinson) 5) From "01011001" react to "Age of Shadows (includes "We Are Forever")", "Ride the Comet", "The Fifth Extinction" and "The Sixth Extinction" 6) From "The Theory of Everything" react to the whole first suite "Phase I: Singularity" that goes from track 1 to track 11 of the first CD of the album 7) From "The Source" react to "Star of Sirrah", "Condemned To Live", "Acquatic Race" and "Journey to Forever" 8) From "Transitus" you can react to "Hopelessly Slipping Away" and "Get Out! Now!", "Condemned Without a Trial" and "Message From Beyond" Enjoy yourself in the Arjen's rabbit hole :)

Love Ayreon, I've listened to the project for years! And I love that the vocalists for two of my favourite bands are in this song as well: Michael Eriksen of Circus Maximus and Nils K. Rue of Pagan's Mind! Speaking of, I wish Nils had been used more, because his vocal range and power is barely touched upon here!

Arjen is a great writer this is like star wars of bands ....musicians telling a story

Heavy guitar and cello can be nice too, e.g. "Therapy! - Diane" Another one in that realm: "Smashing Pumpkins - Disarm"

HI Nikki Now you're in to Ayreon check the first LIVE song ! Everybody Dies ! and yes ,you will see Floor on the end of the song !!!! and there's more live to discover......... one by one to prevent Ayreon overload 🤣🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘👍 new rabbit hole for you ???

hi, of you watch closly, you can say that Tommy Karavik speaks with his hands...

Symphony X is my favorite band. They are a group that I can play their whole discography (except the first album with a diff singer) and not skip a single song.

It always amazes me how so many people never heard of Circus Maximus, is not a very popular thing but is well worth it your time, Michael Eriksen's voice is so good. You have an Avantasia song called Raven's child that has both Tobias Sammet and Blind Guardian's Hansi Kursch, along some other people.

Do everybody dies live by them

Your hair looks fabulous in 4k

All these singsrs are ultra talented i love most of them and their bands...but as i always say. .....most singers sing what they can..... Floor Jansen sings whatever she WANTS .....THE one and only valkyrie goddess

Hallo Nikki, check out "Ayreon Universe and Electric Castle live" , other projects of Arjen are Guilt Machine, Space Metal and Star One.

Lovebites premiered today their live of Stand and Deliver (Shoot 'Em Down) with new bassist Fami

Nikki, NWOBHM - New Wave Of British Heavy Metal. :-)

Ayreon is a great project with many good songs. Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) with The Bard`s song live in Wacken would be a great experience.

you need to listen to symphony x, russel allen's voice is incredible, check out songs like seven or The Sacrifice and you will see ;)

They are like the Avengers, the best of the best that all have or could easily have a lead role in their own band. And then you just take 5-20 of those musical geniuses and put them on one stage, just for fun. It's insane. :D

Great Nikki, Arjen Lucassen the composer of this masterpiece, he is playing the guitar, bass and the keys in this video...

Tommy is from Kamelot check them out.

I agree areon is a project but really good

if it ain't dutch it ain't much... Welcome in the amazing world of Arjen A. Lucassen Aka Ayreon Universe (Ayreon, Ambeon, Star One, Supersonic Revolution, Guilt Machine, Gentle Storm, Stream of Passion).... Enjoy this 100+ artist thick rabbit hole….!!!!!

Very nice reaction, definately will watch more. Please please please, can you react to Blind Guardian and Avantasia. And more Ayreon :D

I think you might also like the following bands, parasite inc. Obscura or Linus Klausenitzer.

Arjen Lucassen essentially 'discovered' Floor Jansen when she was a teenager.

Yuo are best ....Reacting!

hansi kürsch is singer of Blind Guardian

I hope you can react to Tommy Körberg! ... you will love him!.....find him and love him!

🤗🍒🤘🏻😘

I love you 🌹

So.. Only singers are "artists", now?! What about the drummer and the guitar/bass/organ/synth (which were recorded by the man himself, Arjen Lucassen?

Ayreonn its project..what's a ignorance..omg maybe better listen and reacts on DJ bobo or Kaja Goo

Tooooooooo much talk...