I've been a fan of rock-operas ever since I heard Jeff Waynes' WotW back in the 70s and Queen Flash Gordon in the 80s
(in my defence, I was a lot younger then
)
A few months back I discovered Ayreon's 'The Human Equation' which totally blow me away.
Dutch performer Arjen Lucassen (Ayreon) has got together a load of performers from all types of genres (Hard-Rock, Heavy-Metal, Goth-Rock and the like) and turned out something wonderful, if you're not into these genres don't be put-off, this is not a really heavy double album, there are some very gentle, melodic tracks in there too.
It's one of those albums you have, that when it's finished the second CD you put the first CD back in and listen to the whole thing again and again.
The trouble with this is after listening to an album you think is so good you are afraid to buy anything else by the same artist because you don't think he could possibly do anything as good again. That was until I plucked up the courage and bought his latest album '<01011001>' which was even better than 'The Human Equation'
So now I going back through his earlier works, yesterday I bought 'Into the Electric Castle' and 'Universal Migrator Part 1: The Dream Sequencer'
Here's a link to his official site
http://www.arjenlucassen.com/ayreon/ay_albums.html
This Guy has had his fingers into so many pie it's going to take me ages to track down all he has done
I can't Wait
I haven't been this enthusiastic about an album since 'Arena's 'CONTAGION' and that was back in 2003.