MMA Best of Year 2020 Results

Thanks Chris, made me fully appreciate how much work Adam put into it in the past. Luckily I was at home in lockdown (if you can call that luck) and had the time on my hands to do it.

In terms of his own discography, especially if just considering the Ayreon albums, it's distinctly lower end. 

In terms of how it's generally been received, both here and elsewhere, then for me it may just be the most underrated album of the year. 

It getting as high as it did doesn't alter that belief. Stranger things have happened in our votes. The Astonishing came 3rd in 2016 and most people fucking hated that. 

I just remember when Transitus came out that people, not so much here, but certainly elsewhere, just had such wild and conflicting views on it, that it was like everyone listened to a different album. Some complained it wasn't enough like The Source. Others because it was too much like The Source. Some said it was unclear on the story yet others said it put too much emphasis on story. 

It's clearly a divisive record. That's fine. But a divisive record will always do better in a vote like this as those who like it, will give it points. Those that don't like it have no power to take points away from it, only give points to other releases, which may not be as well liked or known in a community, so do worse. Que sera sera.

I personally think it's a really good album. I believe Arjen tired to do something a little different with it while retaining the rock opera format. Absolutely a release with some issues in terms of both concept story and song-writing (there are very few tracks that actually work well as standalone pieces) though, but maybe that should be expected with an experiment. It will never be an Into the Electric Castle or The Human Equation level release, even if it gets some critical re-evaluation years down the line. But despite what some said about it, it most certainly wasn't a carbon copy of The Source. I suspect those on other sites who said that listened to it once off of streaming and didn't take the time to properly explore it before passing judgement. To be fair on them, it really does need that comic book that comes with it to fully appreciate the concept, which is an issue onto itself. But even so, I find it a quite fun album to listen to, one best taken as a whole. It won't be one to revisit that often though. 

I've listened to a few now and very impressed with what I've heard though the new one is still my favourite so far.

Talking of Japanese metal I've just ordered this new one from Evil recently....   http://www.metalmusicarchives.com/album/evil(japan)/possessed-by-evil