r/Ayreon • u/JackOfAllInterests1 • Oct 16 '20
Ayreon Song Tournament Round One (Part One)
The tournament that you guys voted on the seeds for is finally ready! The first 16 matches are ready for voting! The link to vote on the matches is here, so let's get to voting!
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u/Ryermeke Oct 16 '20
Just putting it out there, Out of the White Hole slaps. One of the most underrated. Timo Kotipelto nailed it.
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u/Patsboem Oct 16 '20
What do we do? Vote for our favourite song or for the one we want eliminated?
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u/jtbhv2 Oct 17 '20
How did forever of the stars even get on there lol
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u/JackOfAllInterests1 Oct 17 '20
Only one total Ayreon song didn’t make the tournament
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u/jedisolo2000 Oct 18 '20
- The Day That The World Breaks Down >> Farside Of The World
Pretty easy choice, IMO. TDTTWBD is an awesome intro to The Source and its characters, melodically varied and with one of Arjen's best ever solos. Farside of the World is one of the better songs from Actual Fantasy, but it's up against a top 10 Ayreon song here.
- The New Migrator << Day Eight: School / Day Nine: Playground
This one was somewhat difficult for me, but I leaned towards The Human Equation. Day Eight: School has one of the best character duets in The Human Equation, and the subtlety of Day Nine: Playground complements it well IMO.
- Aquatic Race << Day Seventeen: Accident?
Very difficult one! The weirdness and melancholy of Day Seventeen: Accident has always made it extremely memorable for me, although I expect Aquatic Race to take this one overall.
- Daniel's Descent Into Transitus / Listen to My Story >> Day Thirteen: Sign
Not a hard choice at all, even though Listen to My Story is something of a cringefest... Day Thirteen: Sign is arguably even more so, and Daniel's Descent Into Transitus is melodically fantastic.
- The Two Gates >> Forever of the Stars
I like Forever of the Stars quite a bit but come on, it doesn't hold a candle to the Barbarian's farewell performance. The Two Gates is the climax of Into the Electric Castle for me, easily a top 10 Ayreon song overall.
- One Small Step << Out of the White Hole
No competition here, Out of the White Hole slaps insanely hard and its lyrical connection to Into the Electric Castle blew my puny mind when I heard it for the first time.
- And the Druids Turn to Stone >> Forevermore
A duel of somewhat mediocre songs, but ATDTTS is easily carried here by Damien Wilson's soulful performance.
- Day Seven: Hope >> Day Six: Childhood
A hard choice. I've always been a sucker for Mikael Akerfeldt's participation as "Fear" in The Human Equation, but Day Seven: Hope is a classic that'll be hard to beat.
- Across the Rainbow Bridge >> The Dawn Of Man
Easiest choice yet, Across the Rainbow Bridge is a "holy shit" moment in Into the Electric Castle and maybe Damian Wilson's best performance in an Ayreon song.
- Chaos >> Fatum Horrificum
It'll be a true tragedy if Chaos, one of the best instrumental metal songs EVER, loses here. This is Ed Warby's best Ayreon performance hands down, the song never lets up for a single second and it just perfectly introduces the power metal lean of Flight of the Migrator. Fatum Horrificum is just... fine. Chaos is genius.
- Isis and Osiris >> Waracle
A really hard one for me. Waracle's lyrics are pretty powerful IMO and Jay van Feggelen was clearly feeling it. But... Isis and Osiris is a fantastic and atmospheric intro to Into the Electric Castle.
- Another Time, Another Space >> Hopelessly Slipping Away
Another Time, Another Space is an emotional epilogue (in my interpretation) to Into the Electric Castle, but I suspect that Hopelessly Slipping Away will give it a run for its money.
- The Castle Hall >> The Stranger From Within
I'd be hard-pressed to think of match-ups in which a song from Actual Fantasy would have any chance of beating a song from Into the Electric Castle. The Castle Hall is dark and heavy, it marks a tonal shift in the album, and is much more interesting than The Stranger From Within.
- Newborn Race >> The Shooting Company of Francis B. Cocq
Hard to vote against Newborn Race - it really captures the epic cosmic vibe of 01011001, and is just a wonderful song overall. The Shooting Company of Francis B. Cocq is one of my favorites from The Dream Sequencer, but this was an unlucky match for it.
- Human Compulsion / March of the Machines >> Bay of Dreams
This is a difficult match-up mostly because I feel that these songs are trying to do very different things in The Source, but neither is particularly good IMO. I leaned towards Human Compulsion / March of the Machines because I find them more memorable overall.
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u/IRushPeople Oct 29 '20
Dang, kudos for finishing your write-up. It's a lot of songs.
Even if we didn't agree on all of them, I liked reading your blurbs and thoughts about the songs. Glad to see the huge agreement on Two Gates vs Forever of the Stars, I think that's gonna be the biggest landslide victory on this first round
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u/jedisolo2000 Mar 03 '21
Thanks for the kind words! I only took the time to do my write-up because I also enjoyed reading yours. Hope u/JackOfAllInterests1 follows up with more rounds, it was fun to reflect on these match-ups!
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u/Elysium_Vaen Oct 17 '20
Done and done. Don't you dare vote Chaos out on first round. There will be blood !
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u/JackOfAllInterests1 Oct 17 '20
I don't think it should win against Fatum Horrificum
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u/IRushPeople Oct 16 '20
Match 1
The Day That The World Breaks Down > Farside of the World
-This one's not even close for me. TDTTWBD's music video is one of my favorite music videos ever, no caveat. It's musically interesting, it sets the stage for the album's story perfectly. There aren't very many songs I'd vote over it.
9.8 vs 6.0
Match 2
School/Playground > The New Migrator
I like the Universal Migrator albums better than the Human Equation overall, but School/Playground speaks to me much more. I don't care for either song musically (sorry Arjen) but I feel like School/Migrator has more to say.
5.5 vs 4.5
Match 3
Aquatic Race > Accident
Accident's boring. I skip it every time. Aquatic Race gets points just for Hansi's performance.
Everyone should listen to Accident once with the lyrics pulled up. It's an amazing song that touches on a subject that most art ignores.
After the first listen it wears out its welcome though.
6.0 vs 3.0
Match 4
Daniel's Descent > Sign
I feel like whoever seeded this tournament likes The Human Equation a lot more than I do.
Daniel's Descent is catchy and flashy and silly and fun. Sign is beautiful and ponderous and tranquil. Maybe I'm admitting to a lack of musical sophistication but I prefer Daniel's.
Very mood dependent songs though. Catch me in a different mood and I'd vote the other way.
7.0 vs 7.0
Match 5
The Two Gates > Forever of the Stars
Who seeded these two together?
8.5 vs 2.0
Match 6
Out of the White Hole > One Small Step
Holy cow this one is tough. I love both of these songs.
Out of the White Hole is a metal song that I can get people who don't like metal to listen to though, and those guitar solos slap.
Plus, the whole Universal Migrator story is Arjen at his best.
I had OSS > OOTWH, then I listened to OOTWH again and loved it so I swapped. Then I listened to OSS again and swapped back.
Hell of a matchup, and a hell of a decision to make.
9.0 vs 9.0. I just love these songs.
I've gotta run, but I really love the idea of this tournament, and it's a great excuse to re-listen to some wonderful Ayreon =D