[REACTION!!] Old Rock Radio DJ REACTS to Ayreon ft. "The Day that the World Breaks Down" 

Thanks for this excellent reaction video, Eric, I really enjoyed it! You’re absolutely correct mentioning the Who’s Tommy and Quadrophenia and also ELP, they all had an enormous influence on me. And yes... Todd Rundgren’s Utopia (The Ikon!) was also an immense inspiration. And Floyd, Boston, etc. Artwise Giger and Hipgnosis (the name you were looking for) are my absolute favorites, so it’s surely no coincidence that there are similarities. Wow... guess you must be my brotha from onotha motha! Only... my name is pronounced Ar-Yun... but hey... I forgive you for that one :-) Please keep up the good work and thanks again for the inspiring words!

Arjen Lucassen was interviewed live by reactorThe Charismatic Voice today..

Next up :"Everybody dies" , "Intergalactic space crusaders" and "Eye of Ra" just the immense amount of talent on that stage alone , just blows my mind 😮😮

Here is a list of the composer and singers in order of appearance: Arjen Lucassen - Composer - Dutch singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer best known for his long-running progressive metal/rock opera project Ayreon. James Labrie - Lead singer for Dream Theatre. Tommy Karevik - Lead singer of Kamelot and Seventh Wonder. Tommy Rodgers - Lead singer of Between the Buried and Me. Simone Simons - Lead singer of Epica. Nils K. Rue - Lead singer of Pagan's Mind and also worked with Eidolon. Tobias Sammet - Lead singer of Edguy & Avantasia. Hansi Kürsch - Lead singer of Blind Guardian and Demons & Wizards. Mike Mills - Multi-instrumentalist, vocalist and main songwriter for Toehider. Russell Allen - Lead singer of Symphony X and Allen/Lande. Michael Eriksen - Lead singer of Circus Maximus. Floor Jansen - Lead singer of After Forever, ReVamp & now Nightwish. Instrumentalists Joost van den Broek (ex-After Forever) - grand piano and electric piano Maaike Peterse (Kingfisher Sky) - cello Ed Warby - drums Ben Mathot - violin Jeroen Goossens (ex-Pater Moeskroen) - flute, wind instruments Arjen Anthony Lucassen - electric and acoustic guitars, all other instruments (composer) Next I would suggest reacting to the performances at Ayreon Universe concert, especially the following Intergalactic Space Crusaders, River of Time, Merlin's Will, Valley of the Queens, Ride the Comet, Star of Sirrah, And the Druids Turn to Stone, Age of Shadows & Everybody Dies.

Anneke Van Giersbergen is the redhead in Gentle storm. She is considered the first of the Dutch metal queens. Great reaction Eric, your encyclopedic knowledge is impressive!

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

Everybody Dies, intergalactic Space Crusader’s Live for a Start Can I get a Amen I mean a CONCUR!🙏🤘🤘🤘🤘🤘

The Gentle Storm is also written by Arjen Lucassen and so is Star One (must check!) and The Guilt Machine

Big chance mr. Lucassen himself will appear in the comments, he does frequently. He's very down to earth and approachable. And his music is amazing!

Now you have to watch the live stuff ...Everybody Dies , Age Of Shadows , Valley Of The Queens , I'm sure it has all been requested but it's fantastic stuff. Thx.

I am a fan of Arjen since I am 12 years old. I have been at the concert (Star one), A memory never to forget. Arjen / Anneke / Floor makes me proud to be Dutch. But If you ask me to pick one song... I won't, you will have to play all of them... starting with "And the druids turn to stone" (live) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-lR-foGKsus0.html

HOT DAMN!!!! Somebody actually *mentioned* ELP - if only in reference to the artwork. Along with Rush, they were a BIG part of the soundtrack to my youth. Listening to a lot of today's symphonic metal, I can't help but think ELP had a pretty strong influence.

FYI, the name is pronounced "Yohst", not "Juust". Double-o in Dutch still sounds as a single 'o'. BTW, during the Joost comment, the line "You're still a lul" translates to "You're still a dick", but obviously used as a term of endearment. Sir Joost (yes, he is knighted) is Arjen's right hand man during Aryeon concerts. They are great friends.

I just now discovered Ayren.....where the hell have I been all of these years? Better late to the party than never. Thank you for this wonderful reaction. You have one of the best music reaction channels on RU-vid. I so enjoyed this!!

The cool thing about Ayreon is that all the albums sort of tie into the same story. 'The Source' (the album which this song is from) is technically the start of the story. It's about a race of humans that give control of their planet to a computer (the 'frame) to help solve an environmental catastrophe, but the computer determines that the best course of action is to eliminate the humans. Ten humans and the robot TH-1 escape the planet on the only interstellar ship they have (the 'Starblade') along with the ships crew and head to an ocean planet. The chemist creates a drug ('The Source', aka 'Liquid Eternity') that allows them to evolve into an 'aquatic race'. The drug also makes them basically immortal and allows them to communicate telepathically. The album ends with the survivors (ten plus the ships small crew) living on their new planet ('Planet Y') in relative peace, but in the final track we learn that TH-1 is becoming a new version of the 'frame deep in the ocean. The next album in the timeline, 01011001 ('Y') tells us how machines have now taken over this new planet, and the humans have basically merged with the machines are losing their emotions and sense of time. They now call themselves 'The Forever', since they are essentially ageless drones at this point. We also learn about how they seeded a comet with DNA and sent it to Earth, where it creates human life on our planet. The Forever believe they can live through us telepathically and that they may regain their emotions by doing so. Some of The Forever believe that we need to advance more quickly, and use their telepathy to give us medicine/technology, but this results in us advancing quicker than our morality can cope with. Eventually The Forever realize humanity is doomed and has to decide if they will give them the technology to reverse their past mistakes. Somewhere in the timeline sits the album 'The Electric Castle'From a summary by Arjen: "At the end of the journey those that successfully dealt with their personal demons find out that the voice belongs to an alien named 'Forever of the Stars', a member of an alien race living in a distant galaxy. These aliens created planet Earth and its people as an experiment so they could study, and hopefully one day experience emotions, as they themselves lost feelings eons ago." That's only three albums (less than half!) but I believe those three give you a solid foundation for how the story plays out. Also, I highly recommend any of the Electric Castle Live videos; They are just so fun to watch, plus John de Lancie ('Q' from Star Trek) plays the 'Forever of the Stars' character, which Arjen said he originally based on Q.

The next Ayreon song you should check out is a live version of Everybody Dies and yes it is off The Source as well.

Arjen gets amazing artists to join him on his compositions!

I am here, because i want to know, what *YOU* think of it. And you did, at least for me, bring some Light in Aspects, i did take as just somehow use to.The more, you did it Review your way, with just , like always, on the edge of*stop it plz* Infos about your rich Expertise in Rock History, thats what i really love on your Presentations. 45 Minutes of my Life NOT wasted. Cudos, thx Stay healthy NW Army Bavaria out.

You are such a good listener. All the great names you mentioned are the people and bands that Arjen always talks about in interviews. Enjoying you rrections.

I did love your comments and musical connections to the older generation of music which I know well, including ELP, Pink Floyd, Moody Blues, Yes etc. You did add more than most reactors out there, and I am glad you enjoyed and could properly appreciate the talent he showcased. I also do like Arjen's comments in the video, which IMHO add some context to the composition and the people he has included in his concept album/Rock Opera story. It was a shame you blocked the 2nd line of the Arjen's comment text with your ad, but although I knew what it said already, others may not. It would be good if that could be fixed. Hopefully people will watch the original video if they are curious.

In an interview this week, Arjen said he was also influenced by Tangerine Dream.

great video, thank you. I was hoping that you would recognizea few of the singers, but you recognized them all straight away. I haven't seen so many reactors like you before. I came across you because of Nightwish, but now I'm clicking on more and more of your videos because of the great analyzes and aftertalk. thanks again, looking forward with a :)

Pick your suggested at your pace and as you want. This is your journey, we are viewing and listening to get your analysis base from your experience. All of us are not going to agree with every choice or viewpoint you have. Don’t worry about just keep doing what you are doing. Thank you for your viewpoint and the time you take to review, react, and provide your analysis 🧐 from your experience and personal taste of music.

A few disjointed comments: Floor and Simone were flatmates when starting out their metal careers and are close friends often performing as guest singers. Arjen recruited Floor for one of his albums when she was a teenager. They have been close friends since and she has performed on many Aryeon songs. Floor also met Russell Allen as a teenager and has always thought of him as one of her mentors. Joost, the pianist, was one of Floor's After Forever bandmates. Arjen describes himself as a recluse but this week he did an interesting interview on "The Charismatic Voice" reaction channel in which he discusses the process that he uses in choosing the performers for his albums.

I had a feeling you would have a bit to add to Arjen's tidbits. You may get a comment from him soon. He checks out a lot of people's reactions. He's one of the most down to earth guys in the business as well as an insane artist.

Now Eric, you can go down the rabbit hole of listening to each singers band! Seventh Wonder (Tommy Karevik) - Tiara's Song

Once again, another great reaction. I concur with the suggestions below. I hear a lot of Deep Purple and some Kansas in this song, and on the entire album. The Source is one of the best Prog albums I’ve heard.

I’ve discovered this masterpiece thanks to your reaction and thank you very much for that 🙏 Since 3 days I’m listening to this song over and over and I still want more 😅 Your reactions are the most professional music reactions I saw - it looks like you know a lot about music 🎶 Thank you again! I’ve had fun watching this video ☺️

Keep doing what you're doing, because it's good and you are great at it! One of the more individual knowlegde and comments I have seen in a while from reaction channels.

Thank you very much. Hope you liked the song. I am gonnna start watchting now!

That drummer Ed Warby was originally from the Dutch Metal band "Gorefest". When i was younger is was at the saterday evenings in a cafe called "de Vrijbuiter" in the place Goes. It was more or less the cafe those guys where. Gorefest was the father of metal in The Netherlands. They were fantastic.

Hey. Came to drop this comment. Many people have reacted to this song yes, but your point of view is unique. I am mostly unfamiliar of many songs and artist you mention, so for me it is a learning exprience. I am a young woman from Finland, but this amazing music brings us together. So don't think you don't have anything to offer.

Ayreon fan for over 20 years. Seen a lot of reaction vids of this song, but man, finally someone who knows what he's talking about, someone who has deep knowledge of music, even music history. Liked and suscribed.

I know that "Everybody dies" (live from Ayreon Universe) has been mentioned several times already but hey, here's [several+1]th time 😁 It's 2 songs after this prologue, in the story of "The Source", if you want to know what happens next 😉. Great analisys by the way, you brought up remarkable comparisons (and yeah, Pink Floyd definitely did great stuff after Waters, but I think I'd listen to Gilmour strumming pointlessly a guitar for days so I'm very partial here).

I ADMITT IT 😳😳😳 I did not know who Aureyun is! But let me asure you I am gonna check him out more 🥰🥰 I think he has a working style in the same direction as Jari Maenpaa from Wintersun. He builds his music up with maybe 200 layers/ tracks! He plays all instruments, exept drums, himself, and edits every note into place, before taking in the band to play "the rest"😄❤️ Epic music too 🥰🥰

Another great reaction! I discovered your channel with your first video and it is a real pleasure to listen to you talking about music. Thanks from Spain!

The story of Ayreon is more than one concept album :)

I think I watched almost every reaction video to this song, but yours is definitely one of the best. Really enjoying your knowledge and recognition of almost every singer. Impressive.

By the way: The Gentle Storm and Star One are all also Arjen. He is a fkn genius.

New subscriber from France. I watched like 40 reviews of this masterpiece, and you were the only one to recognize all the singers. You are an encyclopedia of rock. I'm a fan of dream theater since 20 years now, and discovered Ayreon music this year, don't know why I never hear of this super band before. Ayreon music is just magic.

Here is the list of main singers for reference: 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, ex-After Forever, ex-ReVamp) as The Biologist

Thanks Eric! Now my viewing/listening experience for this song has been satisfied (for a while at least). All it needed was a serious reaction/review which you delivered perfectly. Ayreon is no band in the literal sense of the word; it is a musical prog rock project. The first name that came to my mind when comparing: The Alan Parsons Project. Indeed The Source is a concept album, like most other Ayreon albums for that matter. But there is something very special going on here and I'm curious if you can tell me if this has been done before: the Ayreon albums all link into each other. Arjen tells us a (his!) sci-fi story by weaving concept albums together. Thanks for giving me 45 minutes of quality time!

You will probably get a visit of him here, he does that. Great musiscian and seems to be a great person also.

YES!! Everybody Dies!!!

Okay it's tangent time. So you're reacting to Ayreon and you mentioned Tipper Gore & the PMRC hearings. You will of course remember Dee Snider, of Twisted Sister, destroying her in the senate hearing. Arguably TS's most famous song was "We're Not Gonna Take It", where he is rebelling against his overbearing father. Fast forward to 2020 and things have come full circle with Dee singing on Ayreon's last album Transitus where he is playing the overbearing father to Tommy Karevik's character Daniel. Also the Gentle Storm where you saw Ed Warby is one of Arjen's projects along with Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering, VUUR, Devin Townsend). A couple of Arjen's other projects are Star One (with a new album coming out this year), and Stream of Passion (With Marcela Bovio). As for Ayreon yes they are rock operas with a central story line. Arjen is a good musician but his real talent is as a producer. He is great at picking the right singers for each character and getting the best out of them. Eric: Wow Jukka is a really great drummer. Eric: Wow Arien is a really great drummer. Me: Eric you didn't get enough exposure to Vlad from Jinger. I anticipate hearing you say "Wow Vlad is a really great drummer" Eric: Wow Ed Warby is a really great drummer. So I'm getting the impression you really like drummers. I am looking forward to you experiencing Kai Hahto.

It's just so lovely watching you react. You really know your job and what you are doing. Thanks for an awesome reaction

Joost played the piano for the Heart song Alone that Floor Jansen did worth a look.

Hi Eric, have you noticed how he changes the music/time signatures to better fit the characters/voices? Gives them more room to breath and shine. the guitar influence you are looking for on the solo bits is "hey Joe"

One of those videos where i wish we had more then one thumbs up. Excellent reaction, oh an i concur with the other suggestions ;-)

that was a fast delivery, thanks and hello from Germany Greets Martin 🙂

Dude i dont know how many fantastic bands i discovered because of arjen Lucassen 🤩

A great reaction. You did contribute a lot more than most reactors.

Was waiting for this one.... This should be good!! I believe the band for Nils is Pagan's Mind.

Great analysis. I have seen a lot of people trying to pick this song apart, but none of them have done it in a way that does the song justice in my opinion. Seeing the whole picture while respecting the separate artists. Here in the Netherlands we are privileged to grow up with Ayreon. Then again, I am sometimes amazed how obscure it seems to be outside of our little country. Quite scandalous if you ask me ;) And thanks for recognizing how Ed Warby's skills really contribute to this song. Thank you for this great breakdown of the song, and please check out some of Arjen's other stuff sometimes. Ayreon isn't his only project you know. Star One is another one of his great projects, to name one.

Great reaction! :) My prediction? You can expect Arjen himself to come accross it, enjoy it and comment ... he is known to do that. :)

Sir, You just gave, in my humble opinion, 'the' best reaction to TDTTWBD on the whole of YT! Very detailed, very respectful! Subscribed... Good luck with your journey and massive greetz from The Netherlands.

Fans of Ayreon don't need or want analysis any longer. At least I don't. I love your style and you are clearly one of the most knowledgeable about rock genres. I think those that have requested this over and over wanted you to experience it. We know this was special and we hoped you would love it to and continue exploring Ayreon. Arjen Lucassen is a genius and one of the nicest people in general. He is a very generous with his fans and it shows.

Be sure to check out Aryeon Everybody Dies.

Btw if your'e wondering what "LUL" means in the in the sentence Arjen (aryuhn) wrote to Joost (yohst), it's basically "dick" as in "dickhead", but in a good spirited way.

So this is like a who's who. A lot of groups didn't get popular, or as popular, untill a certain member joined. The Silver Beatles didn't become The Beatles until they got Ringo as their drummer. Nightwish was good, but greatly improved with Floor Jansen. Some artists just seem to be in their own category.

Ayreon, Star One... both projects of Arjen Anthony lucassen. You are in for a treat, looking into those. Very prog. And when you watch the interview with The Charismatic Voice, a lot will be clear about this awesome producer, writer, composer, multi musician that Arjen is. He will also answer your question of how he got to these great singers and musicians.

Your thoughts are always interesting and insightful. I love concept albums, so Pink Floyd Animals, Radiohead Ok Computer, and Opeth Blackwater Park are my favourites. I have listened to a fair bit of Arjen - but I really need to sit down with headphones and listen to some albums start to finish. I don't do that enough these days.

such an amazing song 11 great metal singers on one song Floor Jansen, Simone Simons, and the lead singer of Symphony X all on one song blew my mind.

I love that Arjen has a guitar for every occasion......!😎

You're the only reactor who knew everyone on sight. Props. Edit: Gieger definitely did Brain Salad Surgery, but the cover of Tarkus was a silly cartoon, not a weird cyber-erotic gieger thing.

Nearly blasted tea across my computer monitor at the "for everything covered in chocolate." Close call for my nose & mouth! 🤘

The whole ‘universe’ concert is epic if you want to do more! Sure you will love it❣️ Arjen Lucassen is the mastermind behind Ayreon. He writes rock opera’s and prog rock and then invites musicians from all over the world he admires to join him. There are many songs with Floor in it and her sister Irene as well. Try: Merlin’s will Dawn of a million souls Valley of the queens Age of shadows The theory of everything Everybody dies the eye of Ra.

any of Arjen's projects is like a hub for everyone to explore and find new artists to enjoy

Going be there in september when Simone will do a show with her band Epica. This is epic too Eric. Very well composed and executed by a ton load of great singers and fantastic musiscians. The video is fun to watch. Thanks for posting Eric.

Been a big fan of Arjen Lucassen and Ayreon. Id highly recommend Star One, and the song Digital Rain. Every one of his albums are so good. Ive been listening since I was 15. Half my damn life now.

I think that I said in previous comments in some Nightwish reaction that there was a Universe to discover yet. Well, you are entering that Universe now. I really love that you were able to reckon with most of the artists in this video. Me quito el sombrero ante ti (Sorry, I don't know how to say that expression in English) In the recent interview of Arjen, he said that he is not a multi-instrumental musician. He only knows how the instruments sound and that helps him to compound music. The other thing he said was that he gives artists freedom when collaborating in what he compound. The more that I know about Arjen Luccasen, the more I admire this hippy dude! As always, great reaction! Thanks!

Today there was also a great interview with Arjen with Elizabeth Zharoff he was also talking about his new album that will come out next week. To hear Floor and Simone together I recommend you to do Epica with Sancta Terra

You made me listen to "A Momentary Lapse of Reason" again. Thanks!

1984 I moved to New Orleans from the countryside of the U.P. of Michigan, and while riding my bicycle around I rolled past Tipitina's on the famous corner of Napoleon Avenue and Tchoupitoulas Street, and when the door opened I was about blown off my bike. Tower Of Power was playing Tip's.

Afternoon! I was waiting for this to pop up and you didn't disappoint! Great references and, as usual, I agree with everything you said! I don't have much to add that hasn't already been dropped by other commenters, so I'll refrain. So excited for you to get to Kai & Troy with Nightwish. There are 2 songs in particular that come to the forefront of my mind - I think you'll really like them. Both have Kai on drums and of course Troy is there with them. 7 Days To The Wolves - live from Wembley Tribal - official lyric video. They have such a huge catalog of excellent music, it's so hard to narrow down to just one! Hope this finds you well! Always appreciate the time you put in and your thoughts on these videos. Looking forward to the next one! Blessings to you & your boys from me & my family! PS - will reach out as you suggested. Thanks so much, again, for that! Hubby is very much looking forward to it!

The Gentle Storm is another of Arjen’s many projects. Others include Star One (new album coming out next month), Ambeon, and Guilt Machine. Floor….and her sister Irene…are frequent contributors, as is Michael Mills. All Ayreon albums are concept albums, and all are components of the same “universe.” Your comments re: the context of the song itself vs its place within the larger concept of the album is right on. Arjen is one of the few artists today who still practices the art of the album as an entity, rather than just a collection of individual songs. Great reaction.

Just a nice taste of an amazing collaboration. :)

we all had to learn about Scandinavian stuff at some point, brother. we didn't have to record our own first attempts then broadcast them to the internet. so you're one of the brave ones for that alone. i would say that Floor has done the same for Nightwish. Her, and reaction channels on YT. definitely opened them up to a wider audience. i'm a bigger fan of NW than i would be if Tarja was still there. Floor replaced the girl who replaced the legend. knew you would dig this one. everybody here knows H.R. i've been an ELP fan since college, and was gratified to find this community. you'll be even more impressed when you get to Ayreon live. "Everybody Dies" . he just released a new Ayreon album. or it's in the process of being released.

Great reaction..Surprised you knew each vocalists. Just great..Glory,glory MUFC.

Dude you're wild, wydle? Great ear and great review. Just give it a few days and Arjen will probably show up lol.

One of the Most Epic Composers alive today 😍 The south of The Netherlands has a big musical pool of artisism. Oh and you do this voice like Bill Bur does kinda, it's funny.

Best comment I ha e seen on this is Arjen manages to bring together a ton of world class talent , and not in a "we are the world" kind of way.

Arjen really is a far too unknown genius. His way of getting top musicians together and writing entire opera's - cause really, that's what they are - set in an ever growing universe is absolutely breathtaking. I can hardly recommend listening to the source entirely; The binary sung by TH1 by the way stands for "trust TH1". I won't spoil anything but he gets the last word in the story. :-). The gentle storm was indeed something Arjen did with Anneke van Giersbergen, who he wanted to work with for a long time and it is an amazing work on it's own. If you want to be blown away by another one of his amazing opera's life: check out the video's for "into the electric castle". The entire album live on stage, separated in different video's. Anneke features there too, with an amazing cast of singers and musicians. Amazing stage and Arjen himself appears on stage - despite suffering from crippling stage fear - and plays the character of "the hippy" :-). Fits him like a glove too. once again, an amazing video and analysis. Thanks for this and see you on the next one!

Hey, Eric, what you're hearing at 19:47 I think is Hendrix - "Hey Joe", it's what I'm hearing. You didn't translate Mike Mills' extended ASCII - he is playing the android TH-1, could TH be ToeHider ? :-) But it says, without any spaces or the like "Trust TH 1" Good stuff, I'm enjoying your discoveries and analyses.

Hi Eric, I hope after a reaction video you let yourself enjoy listening again to the song without the need to pause, so you can immerse yourself in the story and tapestry of music. Joost rhymes to boast ;-) TheCharismatic Voice did on her channel a great interview with Arjen last week.

These are indeed musicals. I love pretty much almost all that Arjen has done, but as a story the Human Equation album is very close to me, it's a lot but i do recommend trying it out personally at some point.

Well, you most likely get this a lot! - Love your voice. :)

Yes!! Proud to be Dutch :)

Ayreon/Arjen have released 10 full concept albums, all very different and worked with a huge cast of the great and the good of the Rock World. He has also released 2 albums of songs as Star One and has another due out 18th Feb. Arjen just produces amazing music and gets the right person to sing or play the role. He even managed to Get Steve Vai to record for the Star One album.

You’re very interesting to listen to I like your stories :) I shouldnt worry about pronunciation of names you make a great effort and I think you pronounce things just fine. Unfortunately there will always be negative people in the comments, most of us are nice hopefully you can just take notice of the good ones. You mention Kamelot Tommy is also part of another band more prog rock ish called seventh wonder which i quite like :) looking forward to your next video!

I deserve scolding for not listening to that before. Brilliant. All-star talent. Doing everything that's great with a gift bow!

Every time I hear this song, I keep thinking about Jeff Wayne and his musical version of The War of the Worlds.

And how cool is it when the artist himself reacts to your reaction....!

Hi my friend... time to put on the headphones now...

29:45 I would put Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime up there as the best concept album of all time. But that's my opinion :)

Eric friend thx for this one i bet a sixpack beer that arjen will show up himself in the comments

Hi Eric, I must have seen every reaction to this song and yours is one of the most profound! Did you know that Devin Townsend was also singing on Ayreon albums? Maybe there is a reaction coming to my favourite vocal and guitar hero? If he isn't #1 on the request list... Greetings from good old Germany

Arjen= simple pronunciation = R- jen (like the short version of Jennifer). Btw note the fact that all persons involved having a blast of a time,they are all eager to participate,this makes this collaboration between them and Arjen so unique. The same goes for the new Album "Star one",check out who is on there ,you will be astonished. And the one you mentioned is Anneke van Giersbergen, The one who is held responsible for the wave of female symphonic metal singers in the Netherlands ,so Floor,Simone,Sharon den Adel and much more.

Great reaction and nice analysis at the end. I suggest Epica - Sancta terra feat Floor Jansen live next... It's great combination of metal and opera with mind blowing duet of Floor and Simone.

I was laughing because I was watching you getting drawn into this more and more after sounding uncertain before you put it on. You certainly seemed to be having fun. I will echo some suggestions here that you should take a look at Aryeon Universe - it was recorded from a couple if live concerts he put on after years of this being a studio project. The level of the performance of the band and the many singers is amazing - for many of them perhaps their best ever. Arjen has a gift for getting the best performance out of them. Keep up the good work.