Design Your Universe

Of all the bands I listen to, I’m probably most conflicted over Epica. When I want to hear them, it always comes with a caveat – do I have the patience for it? Considering how entry-level metal they are, they write pretty overblown songs. They’re way too arrogant to rein it in at this point. Coming from the same country where their peers, Delain, streamlined the symphonic metal process, it makes bands like this slogs to get through. This brings me to Design Your Universe, the first Epica album I ever heard. Along with Delain’s April Rain, it’s responsible for breaking my barrier of elitism toward female singers. So for that alone, I have a soft spot. What's strange, however, is how it'll come across as me shitting on it.

First point of contention - I’m in love with Simone Simons, but she’s not the centerpiece. The nucleus of Epica is Mark Jansen. Simone lures you in; Mark won’t let you leave. So if I want her, I have to put up with him and his grunts. Or if I’m more in the mood for him, I’ve got to bear with endless operatic or choir wailing. They try to play to their strengths: Simone’s range is vast and her voice is wonderfully expressive, while Jansen took the old After Forever formula and Kekkei Genkai’d the shit out of it. Secondly, if it weren’t for the overabundance of theatrics, I’d be complaining about the overcompensation of melodic death. The band tries to be two things at once: a grandiose, epic symphonic band and a potent, pseudo-progressive melodic death one. I would say they excel at neither, cause what they ended up creating here was as palatable as whatever Disney can cook up.

Design Your Universe showed an increased proclivity for aggression, no doubt helped by new acquisitions in two ex-God Dethroned members, Delahaye and van Weesenbeek. Prior to this, I’d say the metal was at best, secondary; at worst, an afterthought. Now it’s at the forefront. Put that nice cinematic sheen over all that and you have a bloated, blockbuster symphonic melodic death experience. It’s pompous, it’s cheesy, and with all the lyrical mumbo-jumbo it’s a pretentious dump… but it’s my pretentious dump. I’m no fan of skippable preludes and interludes (the samples and talking segments are eye-rolling, too), and “Our Destiny” is unimpressive but other than that they mostly sold me on the rest.

They take their sweet time getting to where they need to be. This happens as soon as the album starts with Rhapsody levels of pomp, paying off with the accessible romper “Resign to Surrender”. They brought riffs and chords that are like halfway to Scar Symmetry’s caliber backed by the towering choir handling obligatory Latin duties. It’s got flow, the chorus is easy to get into, and finally guitar solos are an option (they used to avoid them because ex-mate Sluijter didn’t want to do them). I like the modern production balance while not being overkill (yet). “Unleashed” stresses the catchiness even further with what sounds like, to me, a rip-off of the Pirates of the Caribbean theme. I can’t help but crack a smile whenever I hear it.

“Martyr of the Free Word”, “Deconstruct”, and “Burn to a Cinder” all have flare, majestic synths, and solid rhythmic bumps. I even enjoy the ballads, “Tides of Time” and “White Waters”, for toning it down the right way – emotion on full-effect and just letting Simons (and Kakko, too, in the latter case) come in the clutch to do the rest. Her upper / operatic style is fine, but her straightforward, natural singing has me jonesing. However, too much of something can also be a detriment. The band was starting to grow accustomed to these 80-minute musical journeys so I do wish they trimmed the fat. “Kingdom of Heaven” is the more interesting of the two mid-paced behemoth tracks, and certainly the one they put more effort in. While longer than it needs to be, it’s heavy, got some bursts of blasting, and is a bit looser when it comes to structure. It exhibits both the good and bad when it comes to what an Epica song is (with a sweet, soaring solo to cap it).

It’s exhausting getting through one of these albums in its entirety. That’s normally why I don’t. Epica’s a good band that wants to accomplish so much when, honestly, I’d be happy if they dialed it back. Their continued conceptual ambitiousness means good songs get weighed down by the scope of the entire album. Often this means filler, fluff, and whatever they can think of to spice up their sound. It’s a flawed formula that, surprisingly, hasn’t caused the band to implode. And thank goodness, because they have many years left in the tank to regale us with their nonsense.

In 2017, I rather mercilessly threw cold water into the review section of Epica's overrated 'The Quantum Enigma', unfairly saddling one of my very favorite bands with a low score when I had not bothered to write a review appraising their most excellent works. (Not that the score was wrong; I just think I owe them something after having crapped on them.) Well, I'm back, and I'm here to not only declare Design Your Universe the best symphonic metal album of the last 10 years, but maybe the pinnacle of the genre; together with the other half of the 'New Age Dawns' metal-symphony, it might even be remembered 50 years from now as a work of art representative of the best trends in music of its time. To explain why this is, we will have perform a rather through dissection of this record, correct some misunderstandings propagated by shallow and lazy listeners and reviewers, and point out some things the band doesn't necessarily even notice about its own work.

I am delighted that Epica has chosen to elevate the place of Design Your Universe in its canon; no other album has received the deluxe 10th-anniversary treatment, complete with (good) special artwork, (good) acoustic re-recordings, and (good) new merchandise, plus a small world tour in which they are playing most of the album, much for the first time in 10 years. I give thanks to God each day for having led me to have attended the original Design Your Universe Tour.

The overwhelming majority of albums with ambitions this big fail spectacularly and fall somewhere in the vicinity of cheese and camp on one side and pretension and overkill on the other. Artists who try to create albums like this had better know what they are doing, because if you don't, you end up like bloated, lower-tier symphonic metal perpetual mediocrities like Ancient Bards or Xandria. I dropped those names precisely because these bands are usually considered among the best in the genre in 2019, which really goes to show how thin 'symphonic metal' as a genre has turned out to be; there is even a degree to which we can say that Nightwish created a unique sound and spawned 10,000 sound-a-likes. But while Epica makes big, ambitious symphonic metal, it's not really a 'symphonic metal' act in the Nightwish mold. It's equally power metal, gothic metal, blackened melodic death metal, and whatever the hell else Mark Jansen and Simone Simons feel like throwing in the pot.

That exchange of energies is what made Epica's second, third, fourth, and fifth albums -- Design Your Universe is the fourth -- so spectacular. The push-and-pull of the universal and the particular, the contemplative and the devotional, the theoretical and the action-based, represented by Jansen's aloof, borderline-sanctimonious psychedelic intellectualism on the one hand and Simons's compassionate, intimate, romantic, borderline-melodramatic feminine 'healer' disposition -- this is what spurred Epica to crank out several jaw-droppingly-good pieces of considerable length and effort and insight from 2005-2012. This is also what made it possible for them to craft their own, truly unique, sound, distinctive from Nightwish but also from reigning gothic and power metal bands. Lyrical themes tend to include self-criticism, not so much nature as the idea of nature and how we relate to it, the intersection of and debate between religion, philosophy, and science, with smatterings of social criticism, romantic longing, and epistemological brooding.

This blueprint reached its zenith with Design Your Universe.

To really properly appreciate the album, one must also listen to the first three tracks from the little symphony 'A New Age Dawns', of which an interlude and parts IV, V, and VI are included on this record. The first three parts are found on the band's second album, 'Consign to Oblivion.' Besides a change in the polish of the production, the six songs come together coherently and captivatingly. We will resume this thread of thought shortly.

The production on this record marks a decisive break with the style of the band's first three records. With Design Your Universe, Epica has crossed the Rubicon from a production style that's essentially gritty to one that's essentially polished. The production is still not nearly as slick and polished -- thank God -- as it is on overproduced albums 'The Quantum Enigma' and 'The Holographic Principle', which are inferior copies of 'Design Your Universe' -- but this album has a modern-metal gloss to it that is not present on, say, 2005's 'Consign to Oblivion.' The most obvious consequence of this is a greater sense of balance and compression, which is, admittedly like many things in music, a double-edged sword, often sacrificing distinctive parts of the composition -- the importance of this counterpoint here, this instrument here, this little run here -- to the great god of the whole, the 'wall of sound.' But because it has not yet totally given itself over to the matrix, but still sees modern production techniques as a partner and aide rather than a god demanding sacrifice, Epica is able to actually turn what could have been a not-cold-enough/not-hot-enough problem into an asset that employs the strengths of both gritty and polished production methods. The end result is something like a cinematic feel, or as if one is taking in a Broadway play, or an opera. The production is raised to a height that lovers of the theatrical will find much to enjoy, but the grandiosity is not so unrestrained or unfocused as to slip into the indiscriminate bombast of a band like -- like -- well, like Epica five years later.

The album is not a 'concept album', but still stands out as a cohesive, tightly-knit contemplative piece with a vision and purpose. Perspective-wise, it stands somewhere in between seeing through old illusions and building up new ones. Jansen's sanctimony is evident from the get-go, lecturing us in 'Resign to Surrender - A New Age Dawns: Part IV' about how the 'current system leads to profit-seeking deeds', but superior lyrics flow afterward like cool water and overwhelm the lukewarm ones: "Now that all hands are tied/We're panic-stricken/Wealth out of sight/Demolition - the damaged pride/The price of ambition!" As the Western world dances on the edge of manic, apocalyptic techno-narcissism, these lyrics are specific and particular enough to be prescient and relevant, yet vague and general enough to mean many things to many people. It is possible to write lyrics like these and get them basically right, and Jansen mostly gets it right throughout this album.

This track and a few others are milestones on the way that hold the album together as a whole. We will discern the meaning of the record as a whole by looking at a handful of songs closely, since the key tracks show the way to entering the 'space' of this record as a whole.

'Resign to Surrender' features orchestrations that carry over from intro track 'Samadhi', which also serves as a sort of interlude to the New Age Dawns saga or metal-symphony as a whole. None of the musical themes from the first three parts make it onto 'Design Your Universe', unfortunately, which might indicate a lack of care or precision on Mark Jansen's part, given that the latter three tracks and 'Samadhi' have several interlocking motifs of varying significance and interest. Details like these make it more difficult to prove metal's worth as an artform to skeptics.

Nonetheless, the dividing point between the two records is coherent and compelling. The 'New Age Dawns' tracks on 'Consign to Oblivion' -- 'The Last Crusade', 'Mother of Light', and 'Consign to Oblivion' -- were largely about rejecting the past: seeing through it, struggling with the inner turmoil that accompanies such a revelation, and vowing to destroy this rotten system and return to nature. On 'Design Your Universe', the new trinity of tracks -- 'Resign to Surrender', 'Kingdom of Heaven', and 'Design Your Universe' -- are about transforming all that self-doubt and lashing out from the first three phases into something bigger: fighting the old, rotten order, investigating the arguments and debates over the possibilities for the future, and resolving in favor of a sort of proto-gnostic, psychedelic spiritual vision for life in the 2000s. The saga as a whole is a 'sign of the times'; a symptom of a world in radical political and spiritual transition. The world is always in transition, of course, but from the perspective of most of human history, modern Western life is increasingly peculiar and distinctive, and musical efforts like this -- the six songs together are fifty-four minutes and constitute a coherent whole -- do as good a job of telling us something about ourselves and our situation as anything else on the market. 'Kingdom of Heaven' is a dialogic exchange about science and spirituality, smartly weaving every side of the issue into its patchwork. It's slightly bloated, but what's done well is done so well that it ends up a winner.

The range of styles traversed on this record is pretty vast: the final minute of 'Burn to a Cinder' is a breathtaking showcase of Simone Simons's vocal talent, and the song as a whole is a solid slice of poppy, accessible metal, with crunchy riffs and a particularly memorable bridge. 'Martyr of the Free Word' is a great example of the push-and-pull between Jansen and Simons. 'White Waters' even manages to rope in Sonata Arctica's Tony Kakko -- although it's unfortunately for one of the album's blander moments. Another favorite of mine that has not received sufficient praise in reviews is the solid 'Our Destiny,' crunched between 'Kingdom' and 'Martyr' and too often forgotten despite being a quality, brooding mid-tempo.

The only true misfire on this record is a late-record slump consisting of 'Deconstruct' and 'Semblance of Liberty', which are aimless and dull. But things roar back into action for an excellent conclusion, the title track, which also concludes the 'New Age Dawns' saga.

This is not an album on which every track is strong, not an album without clear flaws, not an album that won't frustate at times. But what's here is so good, and serves as such a shining signpost for the genre, that it's impossible not to award it highest honors. It is just shy of being a masterpiece in a genre that has so much potential and is so starved for real art.

Epica, a symphonic metal band that has increased her popularity massively the last few years. With their blend of rhythmic technicality and classical melodies, this band is able to separate themselves from the average symphonic metal bands. Just like all bands out there, it is rare to have a flawless discography. Personally I perceive "The Divine Conspiracy" to be quite a weak album, however "Design Your Universe" begs the differ.

The album kicks off with a dramatic vocal piece entitled "Samadhi (Prelude)". This piece might not intrigue most listeners at first, but it sure as hell makes a great intro to the album. It sets the oppressive tone and the serious sphere that this album is drenched in. It somehow warns you that this won't be a simple record to take for granted. No, this album deserves more credit than that.

Songs such as "Kingdom of Heaven (A New Age Dawns Part V)" and "Resign to Surrender (A New Age Dawns Part IV)" will amaze you at first listen because of several reasons. Their structure that is not cliché yet familiar if you listen to the genre a bit more often. The rhythms will grab you by the horns and drag you along the record. Quick (almost thrashy) guitars and tight drums make a intense and clear fundamental piece of this record. And to finish this album they've put their bombarding symphonies and divine female vocals (by Simone Simons) onto the album.

This album does have its flaws, particularly the production. You see, the production might be flawless and clean, yet the problem is....the production is too flawless and too clean. There is just no room for error or a tad sloppier playing. This is a problem that most modern metal bands have, in my honest opinion. Though the volume balance is quite amazingly done, the generic sound is just not fitting and adequate for this particular record.

All in all, this album is rather amazing in the rhythmic section as the melodic section is fantastic. Unfortunately the production ruins a bit of the record with its generic sound. I still have to give Epica credit for distributing an amazing album.

Epica returns from the highly successful and overall excellent Divine Conspiracy. Epica has always been one of those bands that has flaws in every album, but manages to distract me from those flaws so that they really don't detract from the album. This is no exception although it actually has the least amount of flaws yet in an Epica album, so bravo to them. Obviously what makes an Epica album is a very dark, aggressive and yet subtle approach all centered around Simone Simons incredible voice. Now I don't usually like female vocals, I really don't like Nightwish or Xandria, but I do like the vocals in Seven Kingdoms and Ancient Bards. Simone's voice is an interesting combination of the incredibly operatic approach of Tarja Turunen and combine it with the more accessible approach by Sabrina Valentine and Sara Squadrani to make for a very interesting and varied vocal performance.

The flaws in this album are almost all found in the last 5 songs of the album and mostly, it's the ballads. I don't love ballads, most of the time ballads are an excuse for the singer to get a solo and let the others be really boring for however long the ballad is, this is metal, we do not like slow anything. A good ballad happens when the instrumentation is interesting and not too slow. The ballads are both slow and kind of boring, though this is old news for Epica, in general their ballads are pretty slow and boring. What saves their ballads from completely destroying the balance and pacing of an album is Simone and the orchestra behind her. Instead of doing the guitar solos and stuff behind the vocalist Epica just has Simone, the keyboards and the orchestra in the background for most of it which really makes it interesting, plus Simone's voice is just amazing and it really shines on the ballads and Tides of Time is Epica's best so far (I would like to note though that White Waters is pretty bad and the only reason I don't skip it is because Tony Kakko sings on it). The other flaws reside in the lyrics, as usual Epica is doing some socio-political commentary which is fine and all, but this time around it's a bit... well lame. Using George Bush l's "Read my lips" speech was really, really corny and Malcolm X's speech was just rather unnecessary, plus with a lot of the lyrics it seems to me as if Epica is playing it safe with very predictable, nothing special lyrics. All in all these flaws are pretty small though.

This album has some of their catchiest songs yet with some awesome choruses in songs like "Resign to Surrender", "Unleashed", "Martyr of the Free Word" and "Burn to a Cinder" these also being my favorite songs on the album. The thirteen minute epic is interestingly placed right in the middle of the album, which is an interesting decision and ultimately might work against it. While it is a good song, it's not nearly as good as "The Divine Conspiracy" and being in the middle gives it a rather anti-climactic feel. I do give it credit however because it brings in some interesting progressive touches that are a bit unusual for Epica and the solos in it are really freaking good.

In the end, what stands out most for me are the excellent songs as well as the aggressiveness balanced with subtle dark emotion; not anything unusual for Epica, but definitely their most consistent effort so far thematically and musically. The consistency is what makes this Epica's best album so far.

Pretty much all of the problems I have had with Epica’s other work I have with this album as well. It listens like symphonic metal written and played by a band familiar only with the genre’s clichés, and it is made infinitely worse by the insufferably pretentious, self-righteous asshattery of the songwriters. New rule for anyone else wanting to do symphonic metal: if your band’s name isn’t Rage and you aren’t performing ‘Dies Irae’ on Unity (good brain bleach for this, by the way), singing in Latin doesn’t make you sound cool. It makes you sound like a twat. But before we get too deep into the lyrics (actually much shallower than they first appear), let’s have a little chat about the music.

Orchestral elements in symphonic metal have to be used with, if not discretion, then at least some level of self-awareness. Overblown orchestras and full choral sections suit well the styles of music that Turisas or Powerwolf perform, for example, precisely because they fully understand that their music is not serious; they play it over the top for fun, and their audience is well aware that they are doing so. But if you aren’t integrating orchestras into a style of music that they enhance, then the result is aurally confusing and frustrating. Epica wants it all and it wants it now – death-metal growls and black-metal rasps (of which I am sorry to hear that Mark Jansen’s delivery hasn’t improved at all), churning groove-metal bass riffs, and saccharine, poppy female lead vocals courtesy of Simone Simons. A lot of what went into the blender would have sounded okay on its own strengths – for example, the guitar solos on a lot of these songs (‘Resign to Surrender’, ‘Martyr of the Free Word’, ‘Burn to a Cinder’) are not half-bad at all, but you have to wade through a lot of shit to get to them. But what comes out the other side is less than the sum of its parts, and ends up sounding jumbled.

Speaking of wading through shit, it took me several tries before I could make it all the way to the end of ‘Kingdom of Heaven’ without looking for the ‘next track’ button. The track is such a mess one hardly knows where to begin – it’s as though Nuclear Blast told Mark Jansen et al to write a progressive metal song without briefing him on what progressive metal was, and without him having any clue about how to transition time signature shifts. Add into that the dilettantish New-Agey hipster schlock about merging scientific progress and spirituality along with a fashionable ersatz interest in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism and Mayan astrology (speaking of abuses of religion, I note that though Jansen and Simons are voluble enough when it comes to the Abrahamic faiths, they have next to nothing to say about the shameful history of serfdom or the lethal suppression of Dorje Shugden worship by the Tibetan would-be theocrats, or the ritual murders to which the Mayans were regularly prone) and tamen magis fornicabitur Latine and you have the one of the biggest piles of putrid, piping-hot poseurdom you are ever likely to find in the world of metal.

And then, of course, you have the end of ‘Burn to a Cinder’ and ‘Tides of Time’, which with their commercial, emotionally-manipulative piano melodies and diabetes-inducing vocal lines sound for the world like they would be right at home on a James Cameron movie soundtrack. Is this some kind of bad joke? What the fuck is this shit and who put it right in the middle of my metal?! God, please at least send me some Edenbridge or Trans-Siberian Orchestra – even they would be heavier than this pap, and they at least have some semblance of sincerity behind them.

And then there are the lyrics. We’ve already covered my problems with the Latin, and of course still more comfortably bourgeois, studiously uninformed, holier-than-thou horseshit about freedom of speech and how religious people are stupid not to have it is par for the course. Instead of Tony Blair speechifying on this record, we now have Barack Obama and George Bush Senior – again, if I want to listen to political speeches I’ll turn on the History Channel or C-SPAN, thanks much.

Poor, foolish, gullible me – I would have thought that somewhere between The Phantom Agony and Design Your Universe Epica might have improved somewhat. But no. If anything, they’ve regressed. If you are a slavish devotee of anything with a strings section and don’t really give a shit about the emotional sincerity of the music you’re listening to, then go ahead and give Design Your Universe a shot. Otherwise, steer well clear; you have been given fair warning.

5 / 20

After Epica's previous album, The Divine Conspiracy, Epica had a hell of a job to improve upon what they had already done. Their previous albums were all improvements over what came before and at some point that run of improvement has to end... right?

Well not on this occasion. If anything, Epica have produced an album better than anything they have done before. There is just as much bombast as with previous efforts in regards to choirs and orchestra, but here is sounds more powerful. DYU is heavy and probably more so than previous efforts and is something that is probably a direct result from the introduction of former God Dethroned guitarist Isaac Delahaye. Not forgetting that from the same band Ariën van Weesenbeek was recruited, giving the band a very heavy edge to it. The biggest negative for me of all things on previous albums was there were no guitar solos, however this time Isaac brings some good melodic death-styled riffs to the band in songs like Kingdom of Heaven and Deconstruct. Having said that, he also brings a more laid back style of playing in tracks like Tides of Time which is a ballad and very soft for the majority of the song.

Since I mentioned Tide of Time, I will also mention this is Simone's best performance. Simone Simons is, in my humble opinion, one of the very best female vocalists not just in metal, but in the world and is matched only by Vibeke Stene, Tarja ,and Magali Luyten. At times she has a very classical edge to her voice and at others sounds more like a rock vocalist, but whatever voice she adopts is just perfect for the song in which it accompanies.

Mark Jansen has never been the best at doing harsh vocals and at times he sounds to me like he is struggling. He certainly isn't as accomplished as Johan Hegg, for example. There are times when he sounds great, but they are few and far between. The rest of the time he sounds average.

The album also has a guest appearance from Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica on the track White Waters which is a hauntingly beautiful ballad. Simone sounds almost hypnotic and flirtatious as she beckons the subject of the song towards the water:

"Lie down in my arms
Try not to breathe
Quiet love, you are now with me
You need no words to speak"

The production is very crisp and clear. Sascha Paeth has done a great job and nothing is drowned out at the expense of something else. It is all balanced very well. The album cover in my opinion is ok, but not as good as The Divine Conspiracy.

On past Epica records, the lyrics have been the weakest point (if you don't include a lack of solos), not because the ideas behind them were bad, but because they sounded awkward in the way they were written. This time around they are a bit better, though still not spectacular. The lyrics deal with a variety of things like love, quantum physics, and greed, for example, and the New Age Dawns saga is also continued here, something that was last done on Consign to Oblivion.

Choice cuts: Kingdom of Heaven is the longest song on the album at nearly 14 minutes, but remains interesting throughout. The song has a varying pace and uses a variety of different atmospheres to keep you engaged. Mark is good here with his grunts and Simone is amazing as always, especially in the softer sections. The song contains a spoken passage that some have commented sounds bad, but I like it and I usually hate spoken sections in music. This is one of the strongest songs here and the solo is great as well.

Tides of Time is a beautiful ballad as described above while Resign to Surrender is one of Mark's better performances, although the lyrics themselves could use some work. Simone is great and the ending of the song is superb. Isaac is again great and the performance from Ariën van Weesenbeek is good not only here but throughout the album.

Our Destiny has great riffs and again great vocals from Simone and the ending where the choir and Simone are trading lines always give me a tingle down the spine

The negatives: "The Price of Freedom (Interlude)" seems a little out of place and unnecessary. It also goes straight into Burn to a Cinder which it has nothing to do with that I can make out.

Aside from a good solo and the very last verse sung by Simone (which is one of my favorite parts of the album) - "Why can't I bleed with you? Forever I will be thrown to the wolves.
They'll feed on all our dreams." - Burn to a Cinder reminds me of Twilight and I hated that movie (my girlfriend wanted to see it and I was dragged along) and aside from the aforementioned positives is quite a weak track.

Conclusion: Overall, the album is great, the lyrics are mostly an improvement, and the instrumental skills of the band have improved thanks mostly to Isaac whose repertoire is larger than Ad Sluijter. Simone puts in yet another jaw-dropping performance and Mark's harsh vocals are mostly decent. The drumming is powerful and consistent and Yves Huts and Coen Janssen are solid on bass and piano respectively.

Any fan of their older work will no doubt love this album and anyone who is not convinced whether symphonic metal is any good may just be convinced otherwise. A great album and well worth the time to give it a listen

Side note: If you can get a hold of the Japanese version, it includes a cover of a song called Nothing's Wrong. It is a cover from a band called Heideroosjes and is very good.

Without fail, 2 years after each consecutive album, Epica returns to deliver another consistent exercise in longwinded song creation befitting their title. Their success is measured in their unique little niche between the worlds of popular gothic tinged metal and symphonic grandeur, almost like a less folksy Turisas with a sad princess and a poetic beast in place of the Vikings and dragon boats. The analogy might seem tenuous to some, but it wouldn’t be surprising to discover that a lot of followers of “The Varangian Way” also go for Simone Simons’ angelic melodies and Mark Jansen’s compositional endeavors, with or without the insistence of their girlfriends.

In some respects, Epica’s latest studio offering in “Design Your Universe” could be seen as the most accessible of their offerings. There is a massive amount of attention paid to catchiness, and the album moves a bit more quickly from one point to the next. The same winning mixture of Nightwish meets Theater Of Tragedy vocal displays alongside a Rhapsody Of Fire meets Cradle Of Filth instrumental collage remains, though the guitar sound is a bit less bass heavy and has a bit more edge to it. The inclusion of new guitarist Issac Delahaye provides an occasion for some solid lead guitar displays, something that the band has not been known for up until the is point, and is a definite draw for anyone who normally enjoys most of this band’s rivals such as Dark Moor, Fairyland and Hamka.

However, this is an album that seems to backslide a bit, particular in terms of what is going on alongside of the solid musical and vocal performance. When listening to the otherwise solid parts of the continuation of the “A New Age Begins” series off of “Consign To Oblivion”, one can’t help but be taken aback by all of the abrupt spoken narrations and somewhat campy lyrical content. Granted, Epica has always been somewhat hit or miss on lyrical subjects, taking the real life angle to conceptual albums rather than the fantasy based ones of their competitors. But things get a bit out of hand with the “Price Of Freedom” and “Burn To A Cinder” area at the halfway point of the album, where their tendencies towards politically correct themes gets slightly obnoxious, particularly the famed “Read my lips” speech by former American president George H. W. Bush, which was old news before Theatre Of Tragedy and Rhapsody (Of Fire) first began dabbling in what became Epica’s signature style, not to mention out of place.

Thankfully this is a band that is able to play off weaknesses in messaging with prowess in just about every other area. When listening to longer parts of the “A New Age Begins” series, namely “Kingdom Of Heaven” and the title song “Design Your Universe”, a healthy helping of genre eclecticism that straddles the many fences between Within Temptation and latter day Emperor. “Unleashed” also takes a few swipes at the world of power/thrash riffing ala Iced Earth alongside the dense orchestral and operatic realm of middle era Nightwish with impressive results. Even the dreamy balladry of “Tides Of Time” with strings and keyboards aplenty, and the equally serene duet with Tony Kakko in “White Waters” are a treat to the ears. It just could have been so much better had this album taken a slightly different conceptual route.

One of the safest bets in the metal world is that if any of Epica’s albums appeal to you, they all will, barring perhaps those seeking only the most refined of the style which would predispose them to only owning “The Divine Conspiracy”, as well as only “Oceanborn” and “Gates Of Oblivion” out of Nightwish and Dark Moor respectively. But pretty much any metal fan that hasn’t got enough out of the admittedly cliché beauty and the beast format of metal vocal work and the densely populated symphonic genre will find a winner here. It’s the weakest of their regular studio albums thus far, but still a respectable effort by all standards.

Whereas the other reviewers (except one) have given 90+ scores to this album I will be the first one to kind of dive the middle waters and I am going to explain why. First and foremost I am a fan of the band, I love all the albums and I certainly enjoy this one but there are some flaws and BIG ones that need to be taken into consideration.

Being with this record label could be both a blessing and a curse. It could be a blessing since they now have the money to get a really good studio for recording. They now have a powerful promotion, tour dates, etc. In other words all the paraphernalia of marketing necessary to survive on this ‘download-free-albums from the internet’. They have a powerful record label to back them up. They enjoy the ‘stars’ status becoming a worldwide recognition and stardom with video clips and airplay everywhere. It might be a curse because you basically get ‘sold-out’. Your soul has been sold to the market-devil. I say this because I am NOT attacking the record label. They have the right to sing up bands and make money out of them but that means less time to be creative, since there is a contract to fulfill. There must be catchy-radio friendly tunes so any moron who listens to it can say: hey, I listen to Epica and I like it, the lady sings like hell! The music needs to be accessible, which does not mean that it can become less complex but that it needs ‘hits’ and that can distort your perception of a record and a file example of this is ‘Never Enough’ which sounds completely out of place from the ‘Divine Conspiracy’.

Thus, what does this offer? I am not going to detail the songs since it has been appointed already. Mostly I will point out the things I consider points less than the ‘Divine Conspiracy’ album. Since the band has been evolving constantly and with D.C. they ventured into further heavier depths we now get basically a metal onslaught of death metal-esque qualities but with symphonic elements. How is that? Well, they are not YET death metal but let’s just say that without the orchestral elements and the female vocals this might very well fit into the melodic death metal category, yes, par to Arch Enemy and some others. In other words, Simone, the majority of the time takes part in the walls of choruses in the back but the grunts are taking more and more predominance and even black metalished vocals as well. We already know that Mark is not a natural grunter or growler, thus I still think comparing it to

Next to this is the fact that Simone is going more and more into the background. One of the reviews for Nightwish ‘DPP’ states that since the vast majority of the masses do not like opera it is easier to put a pop-ished singer that will appeal to more fans. That is 100% correct and Epica is applying it as well. From the Phantom Agony up to this point Simone barely sings in the operatic stye. Not that this is bad, but to me she is not reaching higher potential and the fact that she only sings in the higher notes from a pop perspective is quite a disappointment from this band who offered the classical influenced awesome album in ‘the Phantom Agony’. Maybe I am one of those picky fans who do not think that heaviness equals good metal but anyhow, seeing the rather contradictory path the band is taking I wonder what will offer next: a black metal album with 2 or 3 pop tunes? I am not saying by any means that this is a bad album. On the contrary it is a solid effort full of really heavy songs with walls of choruses and the addition of guitar solos brings an air of fresh to them.

In regards to this department and the style of the guitar solos they are very death metal influenced. Take for example the solo from ‘Martyr of the free world’ which will perfectly in a Cannibal Corpse album. This is a nice touch and certainly presents another evolution step in their career. Fortunately enough, the drumming has improved and the changes are no longer repetitive as they were on D.C. so the guy is adding nice touches of heaviness, nice double bass and really aggressive patterns plus the solid rhythm sections.

Another element worthy of mentioning is the progressive elements they are mixing more and more each time. Certainly Phantom Agony was really classical straight by all means. Consign to Oblivion ventured more into modern gothic and power elements. D.C was a heavier effort and the glimpses of progressive elements appear for the first time with Menace of Vanity, Chasing the Dragon with its awesome build up into a more explosive tune as it moves forward and the outstanding title track. The pinnacle of this evolution path on this album is certainly ‘Kingdom of heaven’. Here we get basically all the faces of Epica into one song: tempo changes, orchestral arrangements, fast and even blast beat parts, solid background vocals, very solid riffs ala Arch Enemy. In here we do listen to Simone on some operatic style that will not appeal to pop or commercial fans and some really subtle vocals plus the rhythm guitar melodies very Arch Enemy again. This is easily the best track from the entire album, not because of its length but because the many ideas creatively performed.

‘Burn to a cinder’ is a good demonstration of how pop and catchy tunes are infusing into metal. The riff which is by the way identical to ‘Threshold of the Annihilation’ by Metanoia is although solid is pure commercial metal at its best. Simone’s vocals are flat and simplistic and there is no emotion on them. If you notice it, there are no death vocals on this, and it is the reason young metal will approach the band but when they listen to the black-death metal influences and tunes either they will run away or become black metal fans in the end. On the contrary to reinforce my point is ‘Martyr of the free world’ where furious drumming opens and then some middle eastern flavored melodies. The vocals are again flat and simple and then the song becomes pop again. Despite the rather aggressive grunted vocals the song is a simple poppy tune with ‘Enigma’-alike background vocals.

I like the album and the band as stated before and I do not criticize the path taken but more of the inconsistency between the heavier approach on one hand but the poppish elements that are coming forth on the ‘hit tunes’ more and more. Still, this is a metal feast because of the many aggressive elements that are taking predominance. Nevertheless, that is, without any doubt, the price of freedom.

Two years later "The Divine Conspiracy" and after a lineup change Epica returns, with an album very well structured and with lyrical themes much more positives: while "The Divine Conspiracy" dealt with religion wars and prejudices, "Design Your Universe" tells you straight forward that you are free and free to project the world you live in, if you want this strongly enough. This is the prominent message on the album, explained with many sub-themes such as Tibetan and Maya cultures, quantic physics and near-death experiences - all of these expressed with poetry: "Don't forget you are able to design your own universe".

Everything begins with "Samadhi", an introduction both lyrically and musically; but is "Resign to Surrender" that explains the overall style of the album: as for the voices we could listen to choirs, growling vocals and female vocals (both clean and opera), as an Epica trademark, but the instrumentation is changed, we listen to a more extreme sounds with many death metal influences, a more guitar-oriented sound that anyway doesn't forget the symphonic part. The album goes through some very good songs (like "Unleashed", the first and gorgeous single), but the real highlight of the album is reached with "Kingdom of Heaven", a five-part track with both extreme parts, opera choirs and symphonic parts and even an acoustic part that the listener could relate to Opeth's style.

The album continues with songs that are just as good as the precedent ones: the best song on this second part of the album is ballad, "Tides of Time", that will melt even the more iced hearts with the beautiful performance of Simone Simons (that improves her vocals on every album). After some more heavy tracks, such as "Semblance of Liberty", being the hardest track on the album, and a last ballad, "White Waters" with the guest vocals of Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica, we find the title-track, "Design Your Universe": another long track with many different sounding parts and perfect vocal performances.

This is "Design Your Universe": the best Epica album yet, and with no doubt one of the best album 2009 gave us - so get ready to design your own universe through the excellence of this musical experience...

After an A grade live album release earlier in the year titled "The Classical Conspiracy" people were wondering if they would be able to top this great live release featuring a 60 piece orchestra and 30 piece choir as well as their soundtrack and 3 other great studio albums. With this release it seems that they have released a very worthy follow-up.

Now you may ask how does this album sound any different than Epica's previous since a lot of bands in the symphonic metal genre seemingly keep the one sound for their entire discography? Well ever since the departure of former Epica drummer Jeroen Simons there has drastic increase in the heaviness of each album. "The Divine Conspiracy" marked the beginning of this increase and the acquirement of ex God Dethroned guitarist Isaac Delahaye for "Design Your Universe" only contributed more to the factor.

You still have your awe-inspiring choirs and orchestras that gel together flawlessly with the band but something feels different. "Design Your Universe" feels completely different than any other Epica album, to me it is an album I would listen to when I feel in the mood for one of the heavier metal sub genres e.g thrash/death metal as some of the songs come very close to the heaviness. I think the main song writer Mark Jansen and Isaac have taken a strongly God Dethroned inspired guitar tone and used it well. You will notice the difference straight away after the excellent orchestral prelude "Samadhi" on the incredibly strong opening track "Resign To Surrender". Epica previously only had utilized one solo before on the track "Beyond Belief" but in this album there are several ranging from good to great contributed by Isaac with a shredding melodic death metal sound.

As for the other members they have evolved as well. Lead vocalist Simone Simons angelic vocals sounding better ever before, truly showing what she can do in "Tides of Time", an emotional ballad dedicated to the passing of Mark's grandmother. It was a bit of a shame that Simone's normal singing voice is used much more than her incredible soprano voice, this voice is used rarely in the album, really only being evident in the last chorus of "Unleashed" and sections of "Tides of Time". The harsh/growl vocals by both Mark and Arien sound better than previous efforts, there is never a spot where it seems inappropriate or illegible. Yves Huts bass is easier to hear, check out "White Waters" which also features a guest appearance by Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica fame and you will see what I mean. Coen Janssen keyboard ability is top notch for the whole of the album but the outro to the title track is one of the many moments to get shivers over.

The most single biggest improvement over Epica's other studio albums is the drumming. Ariën Weesenbeek was the session drummer for "The Divine Conspiracy" but as a session drummer he wasn't able to use all of his skill just in case if he decided not to continue with the band then a replacement could replicate his drum patterns without too much of a problem. Now since Arien is a full time member of Epica he is being used properly. Arien is quite capable at drumming at lower tempos but really shines at fast speed drum fills, blast beats and lightning fast double kick, an example would be the first half of "Kingdom of Heaven" that has the inclusion of a weird samba drum beat, something that is really out of Arien's comfort zone.

There are some minor hiccups about this album but they really shouldn't detract very much from the listening experience. The interlude "The Price of Freedom" is pointless, it really doesn't contribute to the album's strengths at all, this is exactly what the skip button is invented for. Some bits of the album were used and repeated a bit too often for my liking e.g. the chorus of the title track, they still sounded great but upon hearing them several times within a short period of time can slightly lower your interest and listening pleasure.

If you are remotely a fan of the symphonic, thrash or death metal genres I would highly suggest this album. "Design Your Universe" provides a great variety and contrast of metal sub genres that are executed with such skill and class that it is nearly beyond comprehension what this group of musicians that have done considering they have only been active a relatively short period of 6 years. I can only imagine what great things Epica can and most likely will do in the future.

It would have a 100% if not for Obama and Bush talking through the interlude.

After their phenomenal debut, Epica released "Consign to Oblivion" which kept up the highest quality in symphonic metal while offering a darker, more gothic sound. With Divine Conspiracy they grew lighter again, catchier to the point of Andrew Lloyd Weber style rhymes and melodies. Now, with Design Your Universe, they return to the darkness and sharpen their sound for a more technical, powerful album. It's exactly what I love about Epica.

From the Prelude we can hear that Consign to Oblivion sound. Rather than the gloomy, sad openers of Phantom and Divine, this album opens, like Consign, with a light symphony version of the leitmotif that will resurface at the end of the disc. Then right of the bat we're treated to some of Epica's fastest, most complex music to date. Kingdom of Heaven clocks in at over 13 minutes and far surpasses the recent Nightwish or Opeth tracks of similar length in power, emotion, melody and complexity. It's followed by an average interlude of no particular value with political connotations the album doesn't need.

But then we're back to form with five wild tracks, including one of Epica's hardest and two soft melodic songs which retain the quality and musical wit of classical symphony. Then on its final track, the album hits it's highest note: The title track is just about the coolest thing this band has ever released. It's the culmination of every lyrical and melodic theme on the album, and the ultimate expression of the band's unique sound.
Every player and every singer is on top form here, the production is flawless but not soulless, the music is catchy but never hokey, melodic but hard as hell, wild but articulate and even restrained. It is Epica's most complex work to date, but every second of it is accessible, instantly appreciable. Highly recommended for any Epica fan, recommended too for new fans who can enjoy an all out master work on first listen.

Epica is a Dutch band which represents almost everything I dislike about modern metal music. Formed around 2003 when fairy metal bands like Nightwish, After Forever and Within Temptation were really starting to take off, they were born into a trendy sound, and have only grown worse with subsequent albums. Of course, this translates into a huge success within the confused, fairweather crop of Euro gothic metal fans who need the perfect soundtrack for their Harry Potter coloring books. Design Your Universe, the the band's 5th album, was a struggle to listen through.

Perhaps the biggest stumbling block here is that the band tries far too much. In addition to all the pompous symphonic elements on the album, they also incorporate 'extreme' metal in the form of guttural gothic male vocals (ala early Theater of Tragedy) and even some more blackish metal parts, as well as a mix of power and groove metal aspects which fail to 'round out' the album. Simone Simons is a practised singer (I thought her duet with Primal Fear's Ralf Scheepers was fairly catchy), but I find her very safe, operatic vocals to be a better match for the Little Mermaid III direct-to-video soundtrack, or perhaps an audition with American Idol, which she could probably win. Don't believe me? Listen to "Tides of Time". As if this weren't enough reasons to vomit, Design Your Universe is a concept album which spews forth all manner of politically correct nonsense, including an awful cliche'd sample of George Bush's 'no taxes'. Preachy much? The lyrics are fucking heinous, like the musings of some 8th grade hippie after reading some revisionist social studies textbook:

"Don't force me to believe
We're caught up in the greed
'Cause I just care for me
To break it, we'll need everyone
Think it through: unite is the only way"

Let's all hold hands together! Kum bay ah, my lord. Kum bay ah.

The real tragedy of this album is that certain individual parts of the band hold up well on their own. Guitarists Isaac Delahaye and Mark Jensen are both talented, at times explosive. Listen to tracks like "Martyr of the Free World" or "Semblance of Liberty" and you'll hear the potential these guys might have in a more straight-forward thrash/power metal band. Simons' voice isn't quite as operatic as Tarja Turunen (ex-Nightwish), but it could serve her well in a great many contexts (some of which I listed above). The production on the album is radio ready like most of the band's peers, and though they are aimless and generally go nowhere (like the endless bore "Kingdom of Heaven"), the symphonic parts will probably appeal to fans of other bands like Nightwish or later Rhapsody. The band also looks pretty in pictures!

"I will say what i think
I will do what i say
When liberty seems out of reach
We'll fight for our freedom of speech"

Epica is basically metal music for people who don't like real metal music; people who want a sampling of all its cheeses, like the girl standing outside the deli at your local supermarket with a tray of free goodies. It operates within a premise of safe ideology and good cheer, so you never have to feel guilty that it's challenging you when you listen to it in between watching your favorite programmes on the Lifetime network. If you exist in a world where Dragonforce, Nightwish and Dethklok remain supreme as the best bands you've ever discovered on Youtube (or from that cute girl in English class with the Jack Skellington t-shirt and pink and black-dyed extensions), then Epica will probably tickle you in all the right places. If you exist outside that world, we should grab a beer together and let the kids have fun on their rides.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com