AYREON – Live Beneath The Waves

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9.0

• Bands:
  AYREON
• Duration: 02:15:00
• Available from: 05/17/2024
• Label:

• Music Theories Recordings

Streaming not yet available

An Ayreon live show is an event, both because too few are held (it started in 2017 with “Ayreon Universe”, continued in 2019 with “Ayreon-Electric Castle Live & Other Tales” and, due to the forced break due to Covid, what was scheduled for 2021 has been postponed to 2023 and we are here now talking about it) and because it is really too complex to organize, because bringing a metal opera on stage means blocking the activities of more than ten for at least one weekend groups. That's why it's such a rare event; but if the scruple of Arjen Anthony Lucassen (the mind and creator of some realities such as Ayreon and Star One, as well as a visionary multi-instrumentalist) and his partner Lori Linstruth is that, if it has to be done, it must be perfect, then you can be sure that the result will actually be completely flawless.
And so it is for this “Live Beneath The Waves”, which reports on disc (available in various versions, between 3 LPs, double CD+DVD and Blu-Ray) the event of mid-September 2023 where, with five sold-out concerts in five minutes, in front of over fifteen thousand people, Ayreon's album “01011001” was performed at the Poppodium 013 concert hall in the Dutch city of Tilburg.
It's not just a live album, it's not just a series of concerts: for a week that Dutch city was transformed into a real branch of the worlds that we have been accustomed to hearing through the transposition into notes. And then, ladies and gentlemen, the show begins.
'Exciting' is the first adjective that comes to mind when listening to him, because you can hear the shivers in the screams of the onlookers, jubilations that anticipate for us not present the entrance on stage of a super singer; a few seconds and the unmistakable timbre of Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) or Anneke van Giersbergen (formerly of The Gathering, who also collaborated with Lucassen in The Gentle Storm) spreads from the speakers to our cortex.
In the end, while not wanting to wrong anyone, we will not mention all twenty-six singers and musicians who took part in this show: discover, song after song, the distinctive mark that each of them left.
Another adjective to describe “Live Beneath The Waves” is 'incredible', given the cleanliness of the sounds and the mastery of structuring the different parts of this metal opera, with the numerous changes of protagonist on stage but the linearity of the succession of the tracks. It's difficult to remain indifferent, this double album is what everyone would like to have as tangible proof of a unique live event and the idea of ​​keeping a track (“Speech”) in which we hear Arjen's thanks, the fact that feel guilty for doing few concerts and the dedication for his life partner.
In addition to a short introduction and three bonus tracks after the speech just mentioned, “Live Beneath The Waves” does not change the trend of Ayreon's 2008 album one iota but certainly increases it in value, as the live melodies – the solos of guitarists Timo Somers and Marcel Coenen, the keyboard parts of Joost van den Broek, the drums of Ed Warby and also the classical parts of Jeroen Goossens (flute), Ben Mathot (violin) and Jurriaan Westerveld ( cello)- and the ovations from the large audience are an added value of one of the most beautiful live shows released in recent years.
The presence of great performers such as Simone Simons (Epica) and Daniel Gildenlöw (Pain of Salvation), assisted by certainly not second-rate choristers (Marcela Bovio and Irene Jansen) create a game of vocal intertwining that has few equals.
The progress of the tracks follows the pathos present in the studio version; therefore, there are some decidedly tense and more engaging moments (“Age Of Shadows”, “Ride The Comet” and “The Fifth Extinction” stand out above all) and others that are more calm and ethereal (“Connect The Dots” and “Web Of Lies ” with the participation of Arjen himself on vocals creates an atmosphere of inner peace). Instead, after the acceptance speech, the icing on the cake are the three pieces added as a gift to the fans, among which we also find “Fate Of Man” taken from Star One's latest and the final “The Day That The World Breaks Down” (and here specifically final and choral with its connection to the album “01011001”).
This “Live Beneath The Waves” is an album that every enthusiast must have in their collection, given the emotion transmitted by every single note and the perfect performance obtained.