Ayreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live

Ayreon Universe – The Best of Ayreon Live, alternatively known as Ayreon Universe – Best of Ayreon Live or simply Ayreon Universe, is a live album and DVD/Blu-ray by Arjen Anthony Lucassen's progressive rock/metal rock opera project Ayreon, released on 30 March 2018.^[1] Unlike Ayreon's first live album The Theater Equation, which was a stage performance of the album The Human Equation, Ayreon Universe was performed as a traditional concert, with two additional songs from Star One, another project by Lucassen.^[2] It was recorded during a series of concerts in September 2017, which were the first ever official Ayreon concerts, although The Theater Equation was released (but not performed) as an official Ayreon product.^[3]

Ayreon Universe – Best of Ayreon Live
Live album by Ayreon
Released	30 March 2018
Recorded	15–16 September 2017
Genre	Progressive metal, progressive rock
Length	122:38
Label	Mascot Label Group / Music Theories
Producer	Arjen Anthony Lucassen
Arjen Anthony Lucassen live chronology
The Theater Equation (2016) Ayreon Universe – Best of Ayreon Live (2018) Electric Castle Live and Other Tales (2020)
Arjen Anthony Lucassen chronology
The Source (2017) Ayreon Universe – Best of Ayreon Live (2018) Electric Castle Live and Other Tales (2020)

The performance featured 16 singers, all of whom had previously worked together with Lucassen on his studio albums.^[4][3]

Production

Recording

It was recorded during a series of concerts in September 2017, which were the first ever official Ayreon concerts; over 9000 fans were present in the attendance, with 30 cameras used for the filming.^[3]

Promotion

Lucassen officially announced the album in January 2018.^[3]

On 30 January 2018 Lucassen released the video for "Everybody Dies" on YouTube to promote the upcoming release, calling the track "a personal favorite".^[5]

Release

The album was released on seven different formats: single-disc Blu-ray, 2 DVDs, 2 CDs, 3 black LPs, a 3 gold LPs edition limited to 500 copies, a digital download version, and a "Limited Edition" featuring the contents from all first three editions.^[3]

Track listing

All tracks are written by Arjen Anthony Lucassen except where noted

No.	Title	Lead vocalists^1	Length
1.	"Prologue" (from The Final Experiment)	Michael Mills	3:57
2.	"Dreamtime" (from The Final Experiment)	Edward Reekers	2:31
3.	"Abbey of Synn" (from Actual Fantasy)	Robert Soeterboek	4:16
4.	"River of Time" (from 01011001)	Hansi Kürsch, Marko Hietala	3:58
5.	"The Blackboard" (from The Theory of Everything; lyrics by Lucassen and Lori Linstruth)	Mills, Marcela Bovio	1:52
6.	"The Theory of Everything" (from The Theory of Everything; lyrics by Lucassen and Linstruth)	Mills, Bovio	4:38
7.	"Merlin's Will" (from The Final Experiment)	Floor Jansen	3:10
8.	"Waking Dreams" (from 01011001; music by Lucassen and Anneke van Giersbergen)	Jonas Renkse, Anneke van Giersbergen	3:40
9.	"Dawn of a Million Souls" (from Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator)	John Jaycee Cuijpers	5:08
10.	"Valley of the Queens" (from Into the Electric Castle)	Van Giersbergen, F. Jansen, Bovio	2:50
11.	"Ride the Comet" (from 01011001)	Renkse, Maggy Luyten	3:41
12.	"Star of Sirrah" (from The Source)	Mills, Luyten, Kürsch, F. Jansen	5:56
13.	"Comatose" (from 01011001)	Van Giersbergen, Renkse	2:58
14.	"Day Sixteen: Loser" (from The Human Equation; lyrics by Lucassen and Devin Townsend)	Mills	4:42
15.	"And the Druids Turned to Stone" (from Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer)	Damian Wilson	4:42
16.	"The Two Gates" (from Into the Electric Castle)	Cuijpers, Wilson; spoken vocals by Irene Jansen	6:00
17.	"Into the Black Hole" (from Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator)	Tommy Karevik	6:11
18.	"Actual Fantasy" (from Actual Fantasy)	Reekers	1:25
19.	"Computer Eyes" (from Actual Fantasy)	Reekers, Soeterboek	4:35
20.	"Magnetism" (from The Theory of Everything; lyrics by Lucassen and Linstruth)	Karevik, Van Giersbergen, Hietala	4:45
21.	"Age of Shadows" (from 01011001; music by Lucassen, Van Giersbergen, and Jonas Renkse)	Hietala, Kürsch, F. Jansen	4:48
22.	"Intergalactic Space Crusaders" (from Star One's Space Metal)	Wilson, Luyten	5:33
23.	"Collision" (from The Theory of Everything; lyrics by Lucassen and Linstruth)	Karevik, Hietala	3:36
24.	"Everybody Dies" (from The Source; lyrics and music by Lucassen and Mike Mills)	Mills, Karevik, Kürsch, Luyten, F. Jansen	5:01
25.	"The Castle Hall" (from Into the Electric Castle)	Soeterboek, Wilson	6:30
26.	"Amazing Flight in Space" (from Into the Electric Castle)	Jay van Feggelen, Arjen Anthony Lucassen	6:20
27.	"Day Eleven: Love" (from The Human Equation)	Reekers, Bovio, Soeterboek, I. Jansen, Lisette van den Berg, Ed Warby	4:04
28.	"The Eye of Ra" (from Star One's Space Metal)	Wilson, Cuijpers, I. Jansen, F. Jansen, Kürsch, Karevik, Van Giersbergen, Hietala, Renkse, Mills, Bovio, Soeterboek, Reekers, Van Feggelen, Luyten, Van den Berg, Lucassen	5:51

¹In order of appearance.

Personnel

Vocalists^[6] Floor Jansen (Nightwish, ex-After Forever, ex-ReVamp) Damian Wilson (Headspace, ex-Threshold) Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder) Anneke van Giersbergen (Anneke van Giersbergen, The Gentle Storm, VUUR, ex-The Gathering) Marko Hietala (ex-Nightwish, ex-Tarot) Jonas Renkse (Katatonia, Bloodbath, ex-October Tide) Mike Mills (Toehider) Marcela Bovio (MaYaN, ex-Stream of Passion, ex-Elfonía) Irene Jansen Robert Soeterboek (ex-Erik Norlander) John Jaycee Cuijpers (Praying Mantis) Edward Reekers (ex-Kayak) Jay van Feggelen (ex-Bodine) Maggy Luyten (Nightmare) Lisette van den Berg (Scarlet Stories)

Instrumentalists Ed Warby - drums except on "Comatose" and "And the Druids Turned to Stone", additional vocals in "Day Eleven: Love" Johan van Stratum (VUUR, ex-Stream of Passion) - bass, except on "Intergalactic Space Crusaders" Peter Vink - bass in "Intergalactic Space Crusaders" Marcel Coenen (Lemur Voice, Sun Caged) - lead guitar Ferry Duijsens - guitar Joost van den Broek (ex-After Forever) - keyboards Ben Mathot - violin Jeroen Goossens - flutes, woodwinds Maaike Peterse - cello Rob Snijders - percussion in "Comatose" and drums on "And the Druids Turned to Stone" Arjen Anthony Lucassen - additional guitar and vocals in "Amazing Flight in Space" and "The Eye of Ra"

Charts

Chart (2018)	Peak position
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)^[7]	6
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)^[8]	13
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)^[9]	32
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)^[10]	39

References

1. Lucassen, Arjen Anthony (December 7, 2017). "Big news! Ayreon will be headlining the Marquee tent (capacity 14500) at Graspop, Friday, June 22!". Ayreon's official facebook. Retrieved December 30, 2017.
2. "Ayreon Universe". 21 November 2016. Retrieved 21 November 2016.
3. "ARJEN LUCASSEN Reveals Ayreon Universe - The Best of Ayreon Live Album". Knac.com. January 11, 2018. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
4. "AYREON Universe: The Best Of Ayreon Live, Out March 30". 12 January 2018. Retrieved 14 January 2018.
5. "Ayreon Universe premiere live video for Everybody Dies". February 1, 2018. Retrieved February 10, 2018.
6. "Ayreon Universe – Ayreon onstage live".
7. "Dutchcharts.nl – Ayreon – Universe - Best of Ayreon Live" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved April 11, 2018.
8. "Offiziellecharts.de – Ayreon – Universe - Best of Ayreon Live" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
9. "Album Top 40 slágerlista – 2018. 14. hét" (in Hungarian). MAHASZ. Retrieved April 14, 2018.
10. "Swisscharts.com – Ayreon – Universe - Best of Ayreon Live". Hung Medien. Retrieved April 11, 2018.

External links

• Official Ayreon Website 2009-09-16 at the Wayback Machine