This is the second album by Epica, a band formed by Mark Jansen, former mastermind of Dutch gothic opera heroes After Forever. Whoever has heard the first two After Forever albums knows what to expect in Epica. This band is the natural evolution of AF. Their first album, Phantom Agony, was released two years ago, and left me gobsmacked by the sheer quality of the music found therein. The style can be described something between soundtrack score, opera and gothic metal. Mind you, this is not Theatre of Tragedy or Tristania, not even After Forever to be precise, actually the only band that strolls in a similar territory is the brainchild of master composer Morten Venland, Sirenia. This music transcends genres so naturally that exceeds the limits set by the journalistic world. Sure, they’ll get tagged under symphonic or gothic metal, but the reader will never grasp the variety and beauty found here through these etiquettes.

In Epica, the highlight is the grand scale of arrangements, as they come as a cross between Therion, Within Temptation and Kamelot with the bastard child of Tarja Turunen and Amy Lee on the vocals. The vocalist in question is the redhead beauty Simone Simmons, who seduced Jansen through the internet “making” him drop his band After Forever and pursue a new venture with his new muse on lead vocals. Simone’s voice comes a couple of notches deeper than AF’s singer, Floor Jansen. Although, in my opinion, Floor posesses a stronger and more versatile voice, Simone does a spectacular job and actually sounds very improved since Phantom Agony. Being a mezzo-soprano her voice pulsates vibrantly in that familiar mid-range that fellow metal queens Tarja and Amy have trademarked lately. Not to be misunderstood, when talking about Amy Lee, I’m not referring to her band’s generic slab of goth/teen rock but to her voice only. There are also moments in tracks like ‘Quietus’ and ‘Mother Of Light’ among others that Within Temptation’s Sharon Den Adel comes briefly to mind, which is always a good thing, as Sharon is a vocal goddess!

Accompanying Simone are a few scarce brutal death vocals like in ‘Force Of The Shore’ and some black metal rasps that pass more as backing vocals layered beneath the main sonic body, which I found quite fitting. There is also a guest appearance by Roy Khan of Kamelot in a beautiful ballad called ‘Trois Vierges’. Other vocals heard are, of course, the abundant female and male choirs that accompany most of the songs and lend the majestic feeling that reminds of Therion.

Now, the music ranges from complete soundtrack style scoring that should belong to some huge film production of epic proportions, to fast paced bombastic operatic metal to mellow ballads. What remains though after listening to Consign to Oblivion is the feeling of witnessing something unique, truly awe-inspiring music that goes beyond metal and its confines, this stuff should belong to Music Halls not underground clubs and festivals. I think if they get a big enough budget like Therion did with their latest double Opus, so they can use full blown orchestras and big choirs, they could really come up with a timeless masterpiece. Now, my only complaint here is that I think they could benefit from a more beefed up production, get even more depth to their sound… that and some more clean male vox wouldn’t hurt, especially the song ‘Last Crusade’ practically yells for them, other than that this album is pretty flawless.

Standout tracks are hard to pick, since the whole thing flows beautifully but I have to point out the introductory ‘Hunab K’u', with it’s magical soundscapes, ‘The Last Crusade’, the rythmic ‘Black Infinity’ and ‘Quietus’, ‘Force of the Shore’ and ‘Consign to Oblivion’, which fuses all the elements of their music into a 10 minute powerhouse. As you can see I listed more than half the tracklist and I still feel I left some out… If you are into this sort of grand scale operatic metal this will suck the life out of you. Mark Jansen and Epica seem to be unable to do something wrong and if this creativity keeps up, they’re destined for even bigger things.
However, you don’t have to take my word for it… visit their downloads page here and listen to ‘Sensorium’ and the other tracks off their debut Phantom Agony to get an idea of what to expect in this one.

This entry was posted by DoomSword on Saturday, 23rd April, 2005 at 12:17 and is filed under Reviews, Epica. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response below. You may view a   printable version of this page. You may download this page in   PDF format.