Review Summary: A solid, if somewhat disappointing, album with plenty talented artists.
In
The Godfather: Part II, Vito Corleone states, "I make him an offer he don' refuse." Recently, such an offer has been made to me, in the form of Ayreon's concept album,
The Human Equation. For a fan of both Opeth and Strapping Young Lad, it is near impossible to not get an album featuring the voices of both Mikael Akerfeldt and Devin Townsend, and so, only an hour after I first heard of
The Human Equation, I already purchased it and was listening to it. While certainly not what I expected,
The Human Equation is quite an entertaining and well-made album.
For those who don't know, Ayreon is a project formed by Dutch composer and multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen. Ayreon writes progressive concept albums in which each of the characters is played by a different singer, making it easier to recognize who is speaking and therefore making the plot easier to understand. While a poor selection of singers could lead to the downfall of an album, Lucassen's willingness to take this risk resulted in a large variety of superb vocalists that are perfect for their roles. Of particular note are Devin Townsend (Rage), whose high pitched screams are appropriately chilling, Mikael Akerfeldt (Fear), whose mix of mellow clean vocals and spectacular, fearsome, growls is as outstanding as on any Opeth album, Heater Findlay (Love), whose soothing voice fits her role perfectly, and, surprising, Arjen Lucassen (Best Friend), whose competent, yet not spectacular, voice fits the music perfectly. In some occasions, most notably James LaBrie's appearance on the otherwise flawless song Day 7: Hope, some of the singers sound out of place, but this is rather rare.
But, even with such a large amount of talent in the vocal department, if the music is weak, then so is the album. Fortunately, this is not the case. Looking at the singers, I expected a metal album, but
The Human Equation is an eclectic progressive rock album in which keyboard driven prog can suddenly go into Jethro Tull-esque flute melodies, and then turn into metal. This change is, for the most part, natural and only rarely contrived. However, while the changes from soft to heavy are natural, a lot of the music seems like it is forced and not spontaneous. At times, such as in parts of the closer,
Confrontation, Lucassen tries too hard to write something that is epic, and the result is almost laughable. Never the less, the songwriting is mainly solid and there are many highlights, such as the near perfect
Hope, which has a pleasant melody accompanied by a fantastic keyboard arrangement,
School, which is introduced by Mikael Akerfeldt's beautiful voice, and soon evolves into an absolute cacophony fueled by Devin Townsend's anger-filled voice, and even has a orchestral interlude which is followed by a confrontation between Magnus Ekwall (Pride) and Eric Clayton (Reason). Disclosure is also another exceptional track, with Lucassen's (Best Friend) and Marcela Bovio (Wife) singing a passionate duet accompanied by beautiful strings and a soulful guitar solo.
The Human Equation's biggest fault is in the lyrics, which is very disappointing, as the plot has much potential. The album tells about a comatose man who was involved in a car crash. His memories are narrated by various emotions, such as Love, Fear, and Reason. However, the lyrics are for the most part very poorly written, leading to cheesy and, frankly, almost cringe-inducing lines such as
"Well I don't care, let's show him who's boss, that's not the way to get your message across", from the duet between Pride and Reason at the end of the song
School. Some parts of the album, such as the first verse of
School and the first half of
Hope, are well written or performed with such emotion that one can see how good the album could have been with better writing.[/indent][indent]While I expected slightly more from an album affiliated with Akerfeldt and Townsend, in the end,
The Human Equation is an excellent album, marred by some occasional weak songwriting and atrocious lyrics. Once the listener will be able to see past these faults, they will be find a well-crafted album filled with very talented performers and interesting music.
