Author: Rok Klemše
Artist: Epica
Label: Nuclear Blast
Release: 2007
When a new metal subgenre started popping up in the mid-nineties, symphonic or gothic metal if you like, its popularity shot up fast… and then, thanks to a flood of bands who took the genre’s pioneers like After Forever and Nightwish as their template, and didn’t really differ much from them, it quickly sank into obscurity. Even today there are tons of bands happily milking the “beaty and the beast” vocals concept, and if a band wants to break out of anonymity it needs a little something extra. With their new, fourth studio album, The Divine Conspiracy, Epica, in a short career of barely five years, have pulled that off.
The Divine Conspiracy is the best album from the Dutch quintet so far! After a long hiatus from the genre’s standard-bearers Nightwish (truth be told, with Dark Passion Play they veered hard into the dark… but that’s a topic for another review), the whole genre had been stagnating, and with this new record Epica give it the kick in the ass and the momentum it badly needed. A whopping 75-minute epic masterpiece takes us down a road full of gloomy atmosphere, gothic darkness and bombastic symphonics, with the light along the way coming from mighty, epic tracks packed with all sorts of tempos, which are calmed by quiet, introspective moments. Despite the length, Epica don’t allow themselves a single dull moment, because this is an incredibly varied and dynamic piece of work. The songs are a lot more aggressive and bombastic this time, and so less catchy, which keeps the listener’s attention sharper than on previous Epica releases. Of course, that also makes the album stick in your memory for longer. The Divine Conspiracy is the band’s most aggressive record, with the guitars pushed to the front this time and the keyboards moved to the background, where they mostly handle the symphonic elements. Fast guitars with shred riffs mix the aggression superbly with a healthy dose of melody. The guitar duo of Jansen and Ad Sluijter, on tracks like Menace of Vanity, Never Enough and The Last Embrace, make sure the album is heavy and mighty on the guitar front. Structurally the songs are far more complex, with many arrangements edging toward progressive metal, which gives the music a huge drive. Repeated choruses are almost nonexistent, while a much bigger role goes to the extreme vocals of guitarist Marko Jansen, who reaches all the way from shrieking black metal screams to deep, bestial death metal growls for outstanding vocal dynamics, further boosted by guest vocals from Sander Gommans of After Forever on Death of a Dream. Guest drummer Arien van Weesenbeek also adds to the aggression, delivering plenty of dynamic transitions and blast beats. Oriental motifs, already well known in Epica, return, but this time they’re placed even better in the music. Front and center in Epica is surely Simone Simons, and it’s hard to tear your eyes away from the cover because of her. But Simone isn’t in Epica just for show, because her vocals are the group’s central driving force. On The Divine Conspiracy, Simone delivers the best performance of her career and simply shines, whether in the calm, angelic passages or the operatic ones sung in flawless soprano. Simone is right now without a doubt one of the best female vocalists in metal, as her many guest appearances prove – from Kamelot, Primal Fear and Aina to the new Ayreon album. Just when you think that after an hour of intense metal Epica will let you catch your breath, they close with the opus of the record, the 14-minute title-track masterpiece, which is incredibly complex yet easy to listen to and catchy right away.
The only thing you can hold against the new album is the overchewed concept about God and religious beliefs, but with every record Epica climb one more step toward the throne of symphonic metal. Epica ages like fine wine!
Lineup
Simone Simons – vocals
Mark Jansen – guitar and vocals
Ad Sluijter – guitar
Coen Janssen – keyboards
Yves Huts – bass
Ariën van Weesenbeek – session drums
Production
Sascha Paeth
Track list
1. Indigo (Prologue) 02:05
2. The Obsessive Devotion 07:13
3. Menace of Vanity 04:13
4. Chasing the Dragon 07:40
5. Never Enough 04:47
6. La‘petach Chatat Rovetz (The Final Embrace) 01:46
7. Death of a Dream (The Embrace That Smothers Part VII) 06:03
8. Living a Lie (The Embrace That Smothers – Part VIII) 04:56
9. Fools of Damnation (The Embrace That Smothers – Part IX) 08:42
10. Beyond Belief 05:25
11. Safeguard to Paradise 03:46
12. Sancta Terra 04:57
13. The Divine Conspiracy 13:56
