Prepare yourselves for another journey into the the musical mind of Arjen Anthony Lucassen with the latest addition to the Ayreon canon, The Source (out today on Music Theories Recordings) and streaming right here at Loudwire.

The album is the ninth from progressive mastermind Lucassen, who once again enlisted an all-star cast of guest contributors, including singers James LaBrie (Dream Theater), Simone Simons (Epica), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian), Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia), and Russell Allen (Symphony X).

The Source is another conceptual double album, this time set six billion years in the past, at least relative to Earth time. Taking place on Planet Alpha, a world where computer intelligence has extended beyond human kind's, ecological and political catastrophe threaten to extinguish humanity. The planet's inhabitants, the Alphans, leave their fate in the hands of the 'Frame,' a global computer mainframe that ultimately discovers humans are the problem and must be eradicated. The Alphans plot escape and the story spills out over the duration of the album.

Musically, The Source is another rich and diverse tapestry of whimsical, epic prog spanning the full spectrum of human emotion with chilling, minimalist passages, cinematic orchestration and a greater sense of the concept with each aforementioned singer voicing a character from the story.

Stream the entirety of The Source above and click here to grab a copy of your own.

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