The Source is a 2017 progressive metal/rock opera album by Ayreon. To complement the release of the album, Dutch multi-instrumentalist Arjen Anthony Lucassen posted a lyric video youtube for “Everybody Dies”, the third song from the first chronicle on the first CD of The Source.

While the lyric video is impressive in its own rights both visually and musically (for fans of the genre), I would like to point out one interesting thing about it: It’s chock full of HTML and CSS code. This is code written in the same software languages used describe and design web sites, and is found in every common web browser like Chrome, Firefox or Edge.

In this article I’m about to show that the code samples presented in the lyric video are not simply meaningless cut and paste; they are in fact a clever use of a new literary mechanic. One that is hidden in plain sight, embedded intentionally so that only a limited group of web developers can fully read and grasp it. It actually cleverly fills both literal definitions of the word “code:”

The frame

To set the stage, the lyric video opens with the caption “Planet Alpha”, and an interesting bit of HTML code, which in itself starts with a hypertext-reference to the URL “open”.

<a href="open">

<"default"> <h2 id="tips">Useful Tips</h2>

As you’ll notice, the next line is default surrounded by quotes, a non valid HTML tag. This is not “normal” HTML which supports the exposition by hinting at the race of Forever - Like this piece of code, these humans aren’t normal humans; they are only similar in structure and in appearance. They are in fact ancestors to our very human existence.

The code ends with a Header of second importance titled “Useful Tips”. This leaves us to ponder — what are these useful tips? If only were they wrapped with an H1 instead of an H2 perhaps the race of Forever would have heeded them and saved itself from its impending doom?

As you progress further into the song a pattern emerges. You begin to realize that the same parts of the codes are repeating. This repetition serves as leitmotif to reinforce similar motifs both in the music as well as in the plot. For example, this piece of code repeats alongside the lyrics “DIES”, “DANGER”, “WARNING” and “MAYDAY”.

The red font, color and pointy edges communicate the urgency of the message

<a target="_blank"

This particular piece of code tells the browser to open a link in a new window, rather than replace the current website where the link is present. A divergence, if you will, similar to how the Ten are leaving planet Alpha aboard the Starblade. Their target? to open a _blank page for humanity on a planet orbiting the star of Sirrah. But the tag is not closed — foreshadowing their murky future, to be discovered in future Ayreon albums like 01011001.

A young Mmrnmhrm before they combined with the Chenjesu to form the Chmmr

The Transmigration

The last piece of code I want to discuss is also the hardest to decipher:

<style type="text/css">

background-image: url(/pic/);

height: 16px;

<td class="title"></a>

</div>

</br>

This amalgamation of both CSS and HTML has no clear order to it: The style tag contains definitions with no selectors and is never closed, a table cell element is placed alone outside of any table element and a div is closed with no div to open it. This is the state of the Starblade’s human passengers after being injected with The Source, the life extending drug that enables them to live underwater, communicate telepathically and live forever in this state.

What does it tell us? That this new state of humanity is new and confusing. It’s similar and yet different to the original humanity (“valid CSS and HTML”). There is no order to immortality, and telepathy causes the thoughts of the individuals to blend together into something unfamiliar to the outside observer.

Close the Iris! The Goa’uld are coming!

What about the height: 16px line though? We are never exposed to a visual representation of this alien race. Perhaps they are 16px high, and this is the first clear definition of their physical appearance.

What do you think of my interpretation ? Was this another channel for Lucassen to cleverley convey his artistic vision that could not be relayed using any of the 13 singers in the album? Or perhaps we shouldn’t read too much into it, and it’s all a lazy cut and paste job by the video’s motion artist. What the hell do I know.