TubularEpi
Group: Members
Posts: 2
Joined: Jan. 2004 |
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Posted: Jan. 04 2004, 14:32 |
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I)
“Pain and beauty are melted to a musical experience that will saturate all senses of the listener”. With these words the press release of the stunning debut album of Epica begins. A new chapter in the successful book of Gothic Metal is written by guitarist and composer Mark Jansen (ex-After Forever), so forget everything you have heard so far and prepare yourself for the awesome beauty of Epica. Inspired by the Arab culture, Epica brings a unique blend of classical orchestra and choir, brutal grunts and screams and the exquisite mezzo soprano vocals of Simone Simons. Produced by Sascha Paeth (Rhapsody, Kamelot), Epica has given the world one of the most impressive debut Gothic Metal albums.
From the moment you hear the first notes of ‘Adyta’, you are captured by the beautiful and mysterious atmosphere of The Phantom Agony, where Arab and Latin influences are mixed with powerful drums and shredding guitars and garnished with grunts and screams by Mark Jansen. Vocalist Simone Simons is a true revelation, as she seemed to have walked right out of an opera, straight into Epica, and it is a pure delight to hear her sing. The use of a real choir as well as choir samples add to the atmosphere in the songs. ‘Cry for the Moon’ has an intro that could have been written by Ravel, as it sounds a bit like the Bolero, and is one of my highlights of the album, a ‘catchy’ melody with lavish choir and orchestra, but also fast and powerful drums and heavy guitar riffs. The music of The Phantom Agony, reflects various cultures, but there is also room for a more serious topic, as ‘Façade of Reality’, deals with the events happened on September 11, 2001 and small samples of the British Prime-Minister, Tony Blair, are mixed in the music. This combined with the, partly latin, lyrics, gives you some food for thought. For a moment, you get the feeling that ‘Run for a Fall’ is a real ballad, but no, in the second half the aggressive, but controlled drums and screams fall in, although only for a moment. ‘Seif al Din’ is an interesting song as it holds various influences: musically there is the Arabic sound in the orchestra, but also in the lyrics (La lllah lllallah, Mohammad rasul Allah), but there is also a strong reference to Rhapsody, by a spoken part by Simone Simons. And then, when you think you have had it all, they leave you with one last song, the title track ‘The Phantom Agony’, which proves the saying ‘saving the best for last’! I think there are no words good enough to describe this song. This song is the very definition of everything Epica is and stands for.
Of course, if you listen to The Phantom Agony, you hear a sound which is very similar to After Forever, no surprise as mark Jansen was one of the main songwriters in After Forever. Also in the artwork are references, like the snake and last but not least, three songs have as subtitle ‘The Embrace that Smothers part…’, continuing the line from After Forever’s debut album Prison of Desire. However, do not make the mistake to view Epica as just a clone of After Forever! Epica is an entirely separate band with their own sound, that differs enough from After Forever, as it is less metal and more classical influences and quite different vocally. With superb production and great artwork, Epica is ready for the world. The question you face is…are you ready for Epica?
II)
Derk's Review
You could be excused to think at first glance that
with his new band Epica, Mark Jansen is merely
building further on the foundation he laid with his
former band After Forever. After his forced departure
from that band in 2002, he founded Epica, and not only
are the line-ups of the two bands very similar in
composition, do they share the same label, and are
artwork and logotype in the same vein, three songs on
Epica's debut album The Phantom Agony are subtitled
parts IV, V and VI of an ongoing musical story that
was started on After Forever's first album Prison Of
Desire. But that is actually pretty much where the
similarity ends. Because notwithstanding the fact that
Jansen was the main creative force behind After
Forever and has the same role in Epica, he has been
able to reinvent himself, assisted by the talented
group of musicians he has gathered around him in his
new band.
The music on this album plays like the soundtrack to a
film set in the time of the Scarlet Pimpernel and the
Three Musketeers, full of romance, adventure and
tragedy. From opener Adyta with its choir singing over
melancholy stringed instruments, to the title track, a
mini soundtrack in itself, it takes you through a
diversity of different moods and experiences. From the
action in Illusive Consensus and Facade of Reality,
played out with rhythm guitars at full speed, grunts
and screams, keyboards and strings keeping the melody,
to the gothic pop of Feint and the first half of Run
for a Fall, carried by mezzo-soprano Simone Simons.
From the eastern influences in Cry for the Moon and
Seif al Din, evoked through Coen Janssen's keyboards,
cello, violin and Simons' vocals, to the more
traditional Sensorium, which most deserves the label
gothic metal in its most common meaning.
Sometimes reminiscent of latter day Therion,
especially in the multi-voiced choruses, and often
orchestral, not strange considering the presence of a
mini orchestra of three violins, two violas, two
cellos and a contrabass, in addition to a choir of two
sopranos, two altos, a tenor and a bass throughout
most of the album! Sometimes heavy, but not ever hard,
keyboards and orchestra play a bigger role on this
album than the twin guitars. The modest use of grunts
is offset by classical voices, and bursts of speed are
followed by moments of reflection. This is quality
classical soundtrack metal (for want of a better
term), expertly produced by industry veteran Sascha
Paetth, who has given the album the rich and warm
sound which best showcases the music.
This is an album that through its hybridness will
appeal to a broad type of listeners. Not only to fans
of those bands that use similar combinations of metal
and classical elements, like Nightwish and the
aforementioned After Forever and Therion, but also
people who are into classical themed soundtracks, or
opera. So what about our readership? In other words,
is this prog? To answer that the way Mark Kelly does:
you tell me what prog is, and I'll tell you if this is
prog.
Dries' Review
While I was forming my opinion on this album I was
constantly comparing this album to After Forever. To
be really prepared I even gave the After Forever
albums an extra spin. And because of that The Phantom
Agony album really disappointed me. "There's too
little heavy guitars", "It is more like an opera or a
musical", a lot of the After Forever power is gone,
etc. It might be wrong to make this comparison, as I
know Fish was always very annoyed when his music was
compared to Marillion's. But in this case the
comparison is even more evident: this album seems to
leave off where After Forever's Prison of Desire
ended. It is like Derk says: The Embrace That Smothers
Part III was on Prison Of Desire while Part IV to can
be found The Phantom Agony.
Luckily after some time I was able to stop comparing
the two. I noticed that I really enjoyed listening to
this album but had a lot of negative remarks towards
it, while comparing. Once I gave this album the chance
to stand on its own it began to dawn on me: this is an
excellent album. Of course there still are
similarities between After Forever and Epica but I do
agree with Derk, it is like Mark Jansen reinvented
himself.
The first track Adyta (The Neverending Embrace) is of
no surprise it is a Gregorian like intro that
transitions into Sensorium a "metal" song that starts
of with an interesting piano loop that returns later
on. This first encounter with the mezzo soprano voice
of Simone Simons is a good one. All that and the
double bass drums make it easy to compare this song to
After Forever. Cry For The Moon (The Embrace That
Smothers - Part IV) has a faint trace of Vangelis'
1492: The Conquest Of Paradise, later on the guitars,
drums and grunts make this trace fade. As many of the
other tracks Feint contains a high number of violins
and Cellos. In Illusive Consensus the violins and
cello's are used to complement the guitars and bass
drums. Facade Of Reality (The Embrace That Smothers -
Part V) the guitar sounds prevail. The pieces of Latin
lyrics and dark grunts give this song an epic quality.
Halfway the song becomes much slower and cello and
violins support Tony Blair's voice commenting the
events on the 11th of September. The whispered lyrics
there-after really sound threatening. Tony Blair's
speech and the remaining part of the music and lyrics
make this song my favourite of this album. Run For A
Fall is a violin filled ballad that really does
Simone's voice justice. This song really makes me
understand Derk's comment on The Scarlet Pimpernel.
Grunts take the leading role in Seif Al Din (The
Embrace That Smothers - Part VI) and again violins and
cello all over the place. The spoken lyrics of title
track The Phantom Agony remind me of the first spoken
words of Lord Of The Rings. Short violin notes, the
choir, the bass guitar and bass drums all are a title
track worthy. The last part of this song is the best
example of how this album compares to a movie
soundtrack.
This album has left quite an impression. It is a
bombastic, highly dramatic, cello and violin filled
album that can not really be classified as just prog
metal or gothic. It most certainly is not prog rock
and still I have no problem what so ever with placing
this album on the DPRP reviews list. I think most of
our readers could like this album. To collaborate on
Derk's, Mark Kelly quote: maybe the best definition of
prog rock in this case is: it should be called prog
rock because I like it and I only really like prog
rock.
III)
"A new chapter in the successful book of Gothic Metal
is written by guitarist and composer Mark Jansen
(ex-After Forever), so forget everything you have
heard so far and prepare yourself for the awesome
beauty of Epica. Inspired by the Arab culture, Epica
brings a unique blend of classical orchestra and
choir, brutal grunts and screams and the exquisite
mezzo soprano vocals of Simone Simons. (...) From the
moment you hear the first notes of 'Adyta', you are
captured by the beautiful and mysterious atmosphere of
'The Phantom Agony', where Arab and Latin influences
are mixed with powerful drums and shredding guitars
and garnished with grunts and screams by Mark Jansen.
Vocalist Simone Simons is a true revelation, as she
seemed to have walked right out of an opera, straight
into Epica, and it is a pure delight to hear her sing.
The use of a real choir as well as choir samples add
to the atmosphere in the songs. (...) Of course, if
you listen to The Phantom Agony, you hear a sound
which is very similar to After Forever, no surprise as
mark Jansen was one of the main songwriters in After
Forever. However, do not make the mistake to view
Epica as just a clone of After Forever! Epica is an
entirely separate band with their own sound, that
differs enough from After Forever, as it is less metal
and more classical influences...."
Marcel, ProgPower Online
IV)
When you've read the demo review of SAHARA DUST in our previous issue, you
knew that there was something special coming up. We already told you about
EPICA, a new well-talented Dutch band in the bombastic gothic metal scene.
The band was named after one of the albums of KAMELOT, a band that they all
adore very much. EPICA's debut album is called "The Phantom Agony", and if
you're into WITHIN TEMPTATION, AFTER FOREVER and NIGHTWISH, then this one is
made for your ears. After the intro "Adyta" (The Last Embrace), the CD
starts off with "Sensorium". The roles are defined in the past already: a
female soprano voice next to a growling male voice, bombastic choirs, fine
orchestral arrangements and a band that shows their abilities in the
instrumental parts. The songs could very well be used for a classical movie.
By means of the massive use of choirs, I'd also like to compare them to
ENYA, although they're much heavier of course. Just listen to the beginning
of "Cry For The Moon" (The Embrance That Smothers Part IV) for example.
EPICA consists of Simone Simons on vocals, Mark Jansen (ex-AFTER FOREVER) on
guitar and vocals, Ad Sluijter on guitars (ex-CASSIOPEIA), Coen Janssen on
synths and piano, Yves Huts (ex-AXAMENTA) on bass and Jeroen Simons
(ex-CASSIOPEIA) on drums. I think, the other bands mentioned in this review
will scratch behind their ears, because EPICA means some serious competition
for them. A band, that is hungry, ready and willing and still very young.
Add to this the very high quality of music and you can talk about a new
band, that directly launch themselves into the highest ranks of the gothic
metal scene, coming from out of nowhere. Highlight for me is title track and
CD closer "The Phantom Agony". This song is so complete and it contains
every aspect of the band in the best way possible. Nine rough diamonds
pressed on a silver disc, containing fifty minutes of heavenly epic music.
V)
Epica have also recorded a second video which is from the song Feint. If you would be so kind to go to www.thebox.nl and subscribe the new video as a clip suggestion. Go to: clips, clip suggestie and then fill in the following:
suggestie: "Epica - Feint"
opmerking: "airplay" (no personal notes)
PLEASE VISIT WWW.EPICA.NL
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