I shall be honest here. I’ve neglected Arjen and his works for a while. He immediately fascinated me with The Final Experiment which was quite surprising coming from someone I only recalled from his sleezy rocking eighties days with Vengeance. Actual Fantasy was a decent follow up (Abbey of Synn alone is worth it) but Into the Electric Castle his truly shiny moment. Third time was the charm and he really got the hang of it with a marvellous cast of suiting vocalists.
And then I lost track when The Universal Migrator came out. It just didn’t grab me and especially the Dickinson parts, from which I had expected a lot, were… meandering.
There was something missing there which is hard to pinpoint. Working with a lot of vocalists is tricky. It does not make everything ‘great’ automatically. The vocals have to fit the story, the composition and, of course, the interaction with other vocalists. It just isn’t a matter of simple copy-paste to release a space opera which works. The chemistry has to be there.
Fast forward to 2008. 01011001, meaning Y. An album called ‘Why’ and often including songs with Extinction in the title or description. It felt dark. Gloom, eeriness.
What in fact makes this album better than the previous two is that even the non-metal parts, often due to their electronic performance, have a certain ‘Pink Floyd goes Depeche Mode’ atmosphere which adds to the melancholic atmosphere of the concept. Just try ‘Waking Dreams’ which is electronic melancholic pop perfection. The combination of Jonas Renske and Anneke van Giersbergen really shines here and for me these are the two vocalists adding most of the atmosphere to the album. I’ve never listened to much Katatonia but after hearing 01011001 I must honestly admit I will do so in the near future since his voice, timbre and overall timid melancholic creepiness really got to me on 01011001.
It’s pure coincidence that this favourite Ayreon album features van Giersbergen just like my other favourite one, The Electric Castle. But she sure as hell always just adds more to my liking than other (Dutch) female vocalists, who, by the way, also positively surprised me on this album since I normally ignore bands like After Forever. Also the group of vocalist are put in exactly when and where they’re needed. Making the album reach perfection on a level not earlier reached by Ayreon.
Sometimes genius isn’t enough and one needs coincidence/exterior conditions to reach maximum efficiency. And since the material is pretty damn perfect but also the choice of vocalist was his best so far, everything falls into place and doesn’t feel like a project but a true entity on it’s own. Add to that the fact that mr. Lucassen was going through a difficult period in his life, which, painful or not, makes the depression, pain and fear sound much more real than on earlier releases.
Of course it’s not all dark in sound, since it’s an Ayreon album after all, for instance on the Jethro Tull meets Blind Guardian folk song ‘River of Time’ but melancholy shines through pretty much everything here. Don’t expect a ‘grim’ album in the black metal sense of the word. It’s gloomy and melancholic.
Not everything can be described as a great ‘song’ on the album. But a story like this is more than a collection of songs. Often a recitativo is needed or a section of the album not focussing on basic structures but pure story telling which in Ayreon’s case often goes accompanied by soundscapes. So those in search of strong ‘songs’ would do well to leave an album like this alone or first the first learn the basic principles of opera, rockopera and soundscapes in general if they’re to enjoy a 102 minute space opera experience
Honestly, after listening to this album for a few days in a row, I tried playing Universal Migrator and Human Equation and they really fall short compared the dark efficiency of 01011001. Which doesn’t mean they’re bad, but Arjen Lucassen surpassed himself on 01011001. I understand this’ll be the last album under the Ayreon name for a while (or maybe forever) and I can’t imagine how anything in the future, with the name Ayreon on it, can come close to this. And seeing how Arjen Lucassen’s personal life was going through a difficult period, which he himself claimed added to the atmosphere, I hope he won’t release an album like this anymore, ever.