The assessment of the "Storm" version:
At first sounds the criticism already mentioned, the songs were all similar, understandable - but the arrangements are very, very good!
It's just kept rather bleak classic (which has the '92er Dracula Soundtrack), Speed freaks will be disappointed, friends of melancholic and doomy Känge should find delight in the plate! That here is Ed Warby (including Hail Of Bullets, Gorefest, The 11th Hour), which has indeed recorded with almost all Ayreon albums in charge of the drums, thus should not be surprising.
"The Diary" is compositionally and mood moderately very rich - "Shores Of India", "Endless Sea", "Cape Of Storms" or "Eyes Of Michiel" can by no means be described as "uniformly", especially with "Eyes ..." is the classical instrumentation (cello is' really crude ...) something of awesome!
I refer for example to the extremely brilliant vocal lines in "The Moment", or "The Storm" from min. 2:50.
And "Brightest Light" is already almost as "Lumsk" (Norway) in the best of times.
Overall, very consistent, the vocals of Anneke's just very self-contained, no one can deny!
To understand the concept, but one must also with the "Gentle" Version deal!
This is sort of the "folk classic" alternative, constructed quite differently, Anneke has the vocal parts sung completely different, how should I say, "fragile", that alone is an art in itself!
The violin and flute solos, the spinet in "The Moment" are absolutely IRR, and alone is worth listening to the "Light" version!
Iconic Anspieltipps the "Gentle" version - "New Horizons", crazy song, more intense than the "Storm" version, and "Cape Of Storms" is soooo awesome in this variant, the cello, the violin part ...!
So there are two separate versions that sound totally different, so to speak, a "good" and a "bad" version. But of course it takes more than one or two passes!
The plate is absolutely fantastic in both versions.
The strategy, to pack everything again as an instrumental version of it, but I also have long been a mystery, not must not be, at least if you a singer at the start so ;-) has four CDs brauchts then but not necessarily!
. Small notes on the negative reviewers: No one needs to still buy a disc at once, there are plenty of opportunities for pre ANY completely to organize before the net somewhere - if it's like, then I buy the correct version, right?