Crap, Arjen Anthony Lucassen dropped the sci-fi themes... That was my first reaction about 'The Human Equation', and of course I hadn't even heard the music! The story of the album is about a man who crashes his car and goes into coma, where he confronts his past life's good and bad times. Does he wake up or does he decide to die?

Mr. Lucassen wrote all the music, no less than over 102 minutes, and majority of lyrics. If his past works are familiar to you, then you know this is more than metal only. I'm not going to tell every bit about every song, because it would take a day or two. So, there's metal (heavy, power, even some dark), rock (Pink Floyd, for example), folk (Irish mainly), synthesizer music, opera and pop (The Beatles way) are all mixed together in a proggy way, but still the whole 'The Human Equation' is seamless, non-leaking compositional work. Usually it offers many a surprise for a listener, even after quite some spins, while some of the songs are strikingly simplistic, although never boring, mind you. The catchiness is of high-level, no matter what kind of approach to the songwriting was taken. Mr. Lucassen's works, this and the past ones, have something I've been familiar with, but they've also offered whole lot of new vistas for me. Some bits might have taken some time for me to accept, but 'The Human Equation' is one of the greatest musical journey's I have taken, ever.

This is a very emotional album, ranging between various human emotions. Mr. Lucassen is a guitar wizard, who is able to present different emotions through his playing. He also has his own kind of sounds and styles, so there is no-one I can relate him to. Human emotions are presented by various singers. Soft-yet-soaring James LaBrie of Dream Theater is the story's "me" and while he's never been one of my favourites he does a very, very good and enjoyable job here. Marcela Bovio plays "me"'s sad "wife". Heather Findlay (Mostly Autumn) plays "love" and sounds exactly like one (oh those cold shivers she gives me, every time). Irene Jansen of Karma has a powerful voice, another one to rise cold shivers. Devon Graves of Dead Soul Tribe as "agony" is truly flexible with his very dark voice. Another dark voice is Saviour Machine's Eric Clayton ("reason"), sometimes reminding of The Sisters Of Mercy's Andrew Eldritch. Mikael Ã…kerfeldt of Opeth plays "fear" fantastically, surprisingly using his softer clean voice and only some of his Earth-shattering growls. The Quill's Magnus Ekwall is Gillan-esque heavy metal voice of "pride". Devin Townsend is mad "rage". Shadow Gallery's Mike Baker is evil "father", remind me of Alice Cooper. Mr. Lucassen plays a big part of "best friend" of "me" and what he loses in skill, he wins in individuality. A very good cast, so to speak. There are loads of instrumentalists, too, and personally I'm delighted to hear Ed Warby (also Gorefest) showing his skills once again. He plays his drum kit, baby! Flutes, violin and cello, plus different batch of guitars, bring human touch among all electronics, which range from Earthly to spacey.

As this album was (mostly) recorded by Arjen Lucassen himself, there are surprisingly no flaws. Why surprisingly? Because when artists record their own stuff, they might lose some side of their sound, thinking they do perfect job, but on 'The Human Equation', mr. Lucassen have done fantastic job! The soundscape is wide. Most fragile emotions are beautifully heard, as well as heavy-as-heck bits.

Two different special versions of the album come with a bonus DVD. Again funny thing to watch and hear, 45-minute "making of" part is its main attraction. Grab with the DVD if you can. Packaging is fantastic, especially deluxe edition digibook, which I didn't get, stupid me! Graphics go hand in hand with the story. Cover painting is simply awesome.

'The Human Equation' is like a good movie; you can go through it many times and you can do it often. You get familiar with things in it, but you don't get bored with it. Maybe there's something in the story that happened to you too? Surely, there's something on this album that I've gone through. Sci-fi might be gone, but it doesn't really matter, because this is definite masterpiece no less. A bit long in its duration? You won't even notice it. Best listened wholly at once, of course. What a journey, this...

Rating: 10 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
04/12/2005 15:00