Released 20 June 2000 Release date 20 June 2000 Label InsideOut US | Length 65:34 Producer Arjen Anthony Lucassen | |
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Recorded October 1999 - April 2000, The Electric Castle Studio Similar Ayreon albums, Progressive metal albums | ||
Universal Migrator Part 2: Flight of the Migrator is a metal rock opera released in 2000 by Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen Lucassen, and is the fifth album of his Ayreon project.
Contents
- Ayreon 02 dawn of a million souls universal migrator part ii flight of the migrator
- Plot background
- Reception
- Track listing
- Vocalists
- Instrumentalists
- Technical
- Songs
- References
The musical styles found on Flight of the Migrator contrast its counterpart The Dream Sequencer, illustrating a wild, raucous journey through the tumultuous and chaotic reaches of outer space. In keeping with the setting of the story, the album's tone is much heavier, exuding a powerful, guitar-driven metal feel throughout.
Both albums were released simultaneously, sold well and were received positively. In 2004, Lucassen moved to a new record label - InsideOut Music - and with this move came re-issues of all the previous Ayreon releases, including The Dream Sequencer. The special edition re-issue merged both albums into a single release, titled Universal Migrator: Parts I & II. The album was also released on vinyl in December 2012.
As Universal Migrator had enough content to form a two-CD album, Lucassen decided to sell each disc as a separate release. He believed his fans to be fundamentally divided into two groups by genre of choice, being either progressive rock or heavy metal fans. The Dream Sequencer was meant to appeal to the prog enthusiasts, and Flight of the Migrator to the metal fans, so that each could simply purchase the album of their choice, if so inclined, and to his surprise both fanbases bought and enjoyed both albums.
Ayreon 02 dawn of a million souls universal migrator part ii flight of the migrator
Plot background
Flight of the Migrator continues the story of the final living human being, the colonist on Mars, and his decision to go even further back in time. Using the Dream Sequencer machine, he travels all the way back to just before the Universe was formed, theoretically before the Big Bang, when there was nothing but chaos. The colonist observes the creation of the very first soul, known as the Universal Migrator. It is from this soul that all others are formed, through a division of the original soul. Each resulting soul then travels off into the Universe to bring life in some form to the planet they inhabit.
The colonist follows the soul bound for Earth, as it travels through countless astronomical entities, such as quasars, pulsars, supernovas, eventually entering a black hole, traveling through a wormhole, and coming out the other side through a white hole directed towards our Solar System. The colonist's ambitious time travel subsequently overloads the Dream Sequencer, resulting in his death while hypnotized by the machine; however, his eternal self receives a message from the Migrator: "Eternity lies before you. You are the new Migrator!"
Reception
Allmusic reviewer Glenn Astarita felt that Flight of the Migrator wasn't as good as its counterpart, saying that "Lucassen's applied concepts and compositional acumen fare much better on the highly recommended 'The Dream Sequencer'."
Track listing
All lyrics written by Arjen Anthony Lucassen, except track 8 by Lucassen/Robert Soeterboek and track 9 by Lucassen/Ian Parry; all music composed by Lucassen.
Vocalists
Instrumentalists
Technical
Songs
1Chaos5:11
2Dawn of a Million Soul7:45
3Journey on the Waves of Time5:47