The Final Experiment is the debut album of dutch multi-talented musician/composer Arjen Anthony Lucassen's project Ayreon, released in 1995. The album itself is a concept album; a rock opera that begins the Ayreon story that spans several albums. While the album didn't achieve a breakthrough for Arjen, it did receive just enough popularity to warrant more Ayreon albums to be made, which is very lucky for us!
The album starts off with 'Prologue', which introduces us to the plot of the album; scientists from the year 2084 (in which mankind is in its final days due to a war) develop a program called 'Time Telepathy' - a desperate attempt to send a message to the past in order to change the future of humanity. These messages are received in the form of visions by a blind minstrel (perhaps as a result of a heightened 'sixth sense' due to his blindness) in the sixth century. His name is Ayreon (from which the project is named after). Musically, this song is an overture of the awesome musical themes to come.
The next song, 'The Awareness', shows Ayreon having his first horrid vision of the future. The song has a brilliant chorus with female vocals. The vocals combine really nicely throughout the song to create a magical effect; something that is present throughout the entire album (throughout pretty much every other Ayreon album, too).
'Eyes of Time' is a song in a similar vein, which explores Ayreon's confusion over the visions and the curiosity of the villagers. Once again, the chorus is fantastic due to the range of vocals. The second half of the song features a 'duel' of sorts between the guitars and keyboards, which is also very cool.
Ah, 'The Banishment'. 11 minutes of prog metal awesomeness. This is by far the standout track, and perhaps one of Arjen's best. It begins with an orchestral opening, creating that magical atmosphere that inspires wonder in the ears of the listener. A trumpet fanfare signals the beginning of the next section, which uses a powerful guitar melody to describe the gathering of the townspeople to judge Ayreon. Then it all fades to a single flute, then a piano comes in, and we're into the next section of the song. The townspeople accuse Ayreon of being 'the devil's spawn', while Ayreon tries to convince them of his innocence. Several vocalists participate to add several layers of depth. It. Is. Awesome. Eventually, they throw stones and drive him out of the village. The music sounds very medieval, but of course uses electric guitars and synthesisers to sound vaguely modern at the same time. After a groovy bass solo followed by an equally groovy guitar and synth solo, we're thrown into a bombastic section, which will have any metalhead banging their head. The song takes an unexpected turn as we see Ayreon stumbling blindly through a forest as the music turns to borderline death metal. This song goes through so many moods and styles, it is impossible not to love.
Ayreon, perhaps guided by fate, arrives at King Arthur's castle in Camelot, where he becomes a minstrel in the song 'Ye Courtyard Minstrel Boy'. As the title would suggest, it sounds very medieval, complete with harpsichord.
The one single of the album is 'Sail Away to Avalon'. This is a song sung by Ayreon about the knights of the round table and their journey to Avalon. It goes back to that style that appeared at some points in 'The Banishment'; a medieval tune performed in a metal style. It is once again very affective at getting the foot tapping in this song.
Things get quiet again in the song 'Nature's Dance'. Ayreon sits in the garden of Camelot, appreciating the serenity despite his blindness, and reluctantly accepts his fate. It's all acoustic, and while the melody itself if quite happy, the lyrics are quite sad, giving the song a bittersweet effect. One of the most impressive feats of this album is the empathy that Arjen establishes between the listener and Ayreon; we are made to feel genuinely sorry for him.
We now move to something quite different; 'Computer-Reign (Game Over)', which describes Ayreon's vision in which technology reigns supreme over mankind. The music departs the medieval feel and instead has a very futuristic feel, which is somewhat jarring, not helped by the bizarre 'computer vocals' in the chorus.
Ayreon's next vision is depicted in the song 'Waracle', which shows how the end of humanity was spelt out by the decision of one man to press one button to start a (presumably nuclear) war. The verse of the song has yet another different feel, quite dark, but this eventually gives way to another huge, operatic chorus.
'Listen To The Waves' shows Ayreon's vision of the degraded environment in the future. The song is somewhat guitar driven, and is hard to describe, but it sounds like Arjen is channeling both his inner hippie and prog genius into one awesome tune.
Fed up with all of these nasty visions, Ayreon commands the 'eyes of time' (the scientists from the future) to give him one last moment of peace and quiet in the song 'Magic Ride'. His attempt at escaping the stress of his life is futile as nobody hears his plea to forget about the horrors of the future. The song has a similar bittersweet feel to 'Nature's Dance'; the music is quite pleasant and daydreamy, but the lyrics convey Ayreon's feeling of helplessness.
In the next song, 'Merlin's Will', we are introduced to a nasty character: Merlin, King Arthur's magician. Merlin assumes that Ayreon is a fraud and is making up the visions just for the sake of attention. As Merlin grows envious, he decides that Ayreon must be silenced. The chorus of this song is sung by the knights - which sounds like a bass choir. It's a strong tune that further heightens the empathy we feel for poor Ayreon.
In 'The Charm Of The Seer', Ayreon realises that he will never be able to complete his quest of alerting the world of the impending dangers, nor will he ever be able to rid himself of the horrifying visions. So he admits defeat and realises that the only way out is to surrender himself to Merlin. The song, although relatively upbeat, is quite melancholy. The music is somewhat repetitive of the phrase 'I bow in fear... to the charm of the seer", but more vocals accumulate to form an operating choir as the song fades out.
Merlin grants Ayreon his final wish - to have one last moment of peace and quiet - in the 'Swan Song'. It's entirely instrumental, based around depressing flute and piano melodies. Some string instruments join in towards the end to create a very emotional piece.
In 'Ayeron's Fate', we see Ayreon have one last attempt to convince Merlin that he is not a fraud. Merlin still refuses to believe Ayreon despite everything, and casts his spell to kill Ayreon. However, the time telepathy program now transfers its visions to Merlin now that the original receiver has died. Merlin is shocked to find out that Ayreon was genuine, as the music turns from pessimistic and dark to optimistic and powerful. A fantastic chord progression, led by the guitars, plays while Merlin vows to complete Ayreon's quest for him, and spread the word of the impending dangers of the future by the end of the 20th century. The music now fades as a dream-like recapitulation of some lyrics from the album echo. This too fades, and a voice announces that 'the outcome of the final experiment has now been place in your hands' as a clock begins to tick in the background, revealing that this album itself is the result of Ayreon and Merlin's quest to warn of the future. This ending certainly had a profound effect on me the first time I heard it; never before had I come across music that breaks the fourth wall like that. This is compounded by the guilt of Ayreon's suffering and death - the listener should feel like they must do something to make sure it wasn't all in vain. Overall, the ending is a very powerful effect pulled off successfully by the genius of Arjen Anthony Lucassen.
The special edition comes with a bonus disc of 'semi-acoustic' versions of some of the songs, which work quite well for some songs... and quite interestingly for others (most notably the hidden track: an acoustic version of the 'death metal' part of The Banishment). A range of singers also perform on this bonus disc, making it definitely worthwhile to listen to.
The artwork depicts a castle (Camelot) sitting in the ocean underneath a red night sky, being watching by a giant eye (representing the 'eyes of time'). The album title is in a digital-styled font, to clearly show the contrast within the album between the future and the dark ages. The whole artwork is very red and blue, which strengthens this contrast. It looks pretty cool overall, thanks to the artists Jacoby Peeters and Richele Nijst.
So, what's the verdict? The Final Experiment is a great concept album and rock opera, both musically and story-wise. In terms of its ability to evoke emotion through empathy, it succeeds quite well, and manages do to so through a multitude of different musical styles. It uses music inspired by the distant past and the future, yet still manages to sound like an early 90's prog record (not a bad thing)... It serves as a great example of what progressive music in general should be, especially 'The Banishment', which stands out amongst Ayreon's discography. Although it wasn't a commercial success and didn't lead to Ayreon's breakthrough, it - at the very least - served as a 'vision' of the greater things to come from Arjen Anthony Lucassen.
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