Ayreon- 'The Day That the World Breaks Down'

i know the video would be insanly long, but I would LOVE to see you react to the entire concept album! (maybe split up for video's sake)

Wow, amazed that you finally reacted to Ayreon. Some of Arjen's songs rank in my most favorite songs of all time. This is also such a rabbit hole, as this project offers so many styles (and is yet so easily recognisable soundwise...). Arjen has severe stagefright and for many years, a big liveshow seemed completely impossible. Yet he's done it several times now, always in Tilburg, Netherlands, where he creates a concept and performs this 3 days in a row. Of course, the songs presented are not always sung by the original singer from the album (due to availability), but he always manages to find a great substitue. With Ayreon you almost always receive a full concept album, with the interesting part being, that most of his albums form one big overarching story. The song you just heard, as it was told is from the Album "The Source" which is the prequel to the main story, told in many of the other albums. When looking for "Ayreon Live" you almost never can go wrong, but a couple of outstanding songs are these: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h46c6UoHvHA - My House on Mars https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_C7CsNhgEw - Isolation He even put a complete concert online: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDp_PtuyOwCZcq4yr-yrEcScfPcxnI_B_ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAJ0zTMLClQ - The Sixth Extinction And my two alltime Favorites - featuring the absolutely incredible Damian Wilson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lR-foGKsus0 - And the Druids turned to stone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcHn0kCgmAs - Twisted Coil

As promised, here is a list of all the singers from the album and a little extra info. Thanks for getting around to this! James LaBrie - Dream Theater (Progressive Metal) - Boston, MA USA Tommy Karevik - Kamelot (Power Metal/Progressive Metal) - Band is from Florida, USA but Tommy is from Sweden Tommy Rogers Jr. - Between the Buried and Me (Progressive Metal) - From Raleigh, NC, USA Simone Simons - Epica (Symphonic Metal) - The Netherlands Nils K. Rue - Pagan's Mind (Progressive Metal) - Norway Tobias Sammet - Avantasia (Power Metal/Rock Opera) - Germany Hansi Kürsch - Blind Guardian (Power Metal) - Germany Mike Mills - Toehider (Progressive Rock) - Australia Russell Allen - Symphony X (Progressive Metal) - New Jersey, USA Michael Eriksen - Circus Maximus (Progressive Metal) - Norway Floor Jansen - Nightwish (Symphonic Metal) - Finland, but she's Dutch The whole album follows this story of ancient humans that lived on another world. The AI they developed to solve their societal, polical, and ecological problems determined the only way to do this was to destroy humanity. The album is about the various characters attempting to find ways to preserve humanity, ultimately sending some to populate other worlds. Arjen Lucassen does not often tour or do live performances of his concept albums, but he did for this album. You can find videos on YouTube of most of the concert. Arjen does not perform himself, and has mentioned getting nervous performing live previously. He was not able to get all of the original singers, so he brought in other singers he knows or has worked with. If you want to see a live performance, I highly recommend the song "Everybody Does." The link is below. It's a wild song and I'm pretty sure Mike Mills covers several octaves during his parts. And, one of the background vocalists is Floor Jansen's sister. https://youtu.be/9AAXtUdM7xE?si=DVhQmQKTCl1tWWGz

Fun fact: "lul" is Dutch for "dick". But said affectionately... 😆