εpsilon

"How dare you diss Idolator while liking this?" I can already see the shitstorm brewing now. Oh well, at least I've written my fair share of terribly hot takes in the past, so I'm used to it. It's not like my music taste isn't already appealing to the obscure and extreme.

Epsilon marks the third album where BSC dabbles in this style of melodeath and trance, but this time they went too far in the trance direction and adopted a more uplifting and optimistic sound. Not only that, this marks the first (and only) time they have female vocals in a BSC full length (Nuclear Trance and Metropolis don't count). Suffice to say that this album will be alienating to those looking for a next step from the sound they have established in Idolator, and instead this album will be their most accessible, even when I'm writing this in 2023, full of elements that would not be out of place in a synth pop/trance album.

But first things first, let's talk about the production. While this is mixed by Ettore Rigotti of Disarmonia Mundi fame, this might be his weakest effort barring Mind Tricks and Cold Inferno. For one, the EDM elements are pushed too far forward into the mix, which causes the said elements to bury the other instruments. And as a direct consequence, the rest of the instruments sound really muddled, but not too muddled to the point where all the instruments blend together like one singular source of noise. You can still make out the guitars and drums (they sounded more creative here than in Idolator), they just don't sound as loud as they did during Idolator. The bass is unfortunately pretty inaudible here, typical modern melodeath/death metal stuff, and considering that this is Ettore after The Isolation Game, he went full Lars Ulrich and Newsteaded the basslines. What's with death metal/melodic death metal producers and their grudges with bassists?

Songwriting-wise, this might be their best since Mystic Your Heart. This time they did not take the Gothenburg melodeath approach to songwriting, and instead the songwriting here has a more minimalistic approach similar to trance music. The songs do not all follow the verse-chorus structure; they do what they have to, and once it's done, the song ends (kind of paraphrasing Jon Nodtveidt here, he's still a piece of shit, good riddance that he killed himself instead of wasting time killing gays or Jews). As a result, the songs here flow better because they do not have to deal with songwriting bloat. The guitars seemed to benefit from this too, for they have more creative riffs and solos that fit the songs and enhance them, unlike in Idolator, where the riffs sounded like they were taken from a Gothenburg riff factory. One example of this is the solo within Stargazer; after a small synth bridge, both guitars promptly picked up from where the bridge ends and did a back-to-back solo before Sophia took over from there. The album also has the closest thing BSC has to a full-on trance song, Electricity. The peculiarity of this song and how out of place it is makes it one of the best tracks in the album and solidifies this album as one of the most unique albums within metal music that has a major electronic influence, like Crossfaith and Crystal Lake. Regarding Sai-Ka-No, I heard the version with Royal Sky that comes after that so I treated Sai-Ka-No as an intro to Royal Sky, so that is why I did not complain about its inclusion.

Speaking of vocals, another thing that makes this album stand out is Sophia's vocals. Her vocals are unlike most female vocals in that they have a deeper, more soulful sound to them, while most female vocalists are trying to sound as operatic or poppy as possible. Besides fixing the Engrish lyrics and vocals that the band suffers from, her vocals also serve to stop Ryu from exerting his obnoxious cleans and instead give the band some good cleans for once, which really helped the songs, as now BSC has someone to contrast Ryo's harsh vocals with that actually sounds great. And as a lover of vocal contrasts, this can only be a good thing (I know Sadew did cleans in Neo Gothic Romance from Mozaiq, but that is just one song). One example of this is during the rerecorded version of Final Sky here (now named Royal Sky). While the song still has Ryo's harsh vocals as if it were not changed at all from the original, Sophia added a lot of impactful cleans into the song, replacing the half assed and ineffective cleans of the original courtesy of Ryu. This might be a hot take, but I actually like this better than the original Final Sky.

Despite losing a lot of metal elements compared to Idolator or Mozaiq, I still think this is their best effort after Mystic (I do not hold Amateras in high regard). Who cares if they have more trance than metal in this album? At least this is genuinely enjoyable from start to finish, unlike the terrible electronic metalcore and melodic death albums they influenced. But yeah, this album does not deserve the hype it has, nor does it deserve the hate it gets from fans of older material.

If you want something similar to Idolator, go listen to Kamikakushi by MergingMoon instead of complaining about Epsilon.

Highlights: Sirius VI, Forever Free, Stargazer, Royal Sky, Electricity, LA+