Epica - Design Your Universe (Album)
Epica’s latest release, Design Your Universe, is out now on Nuclear Blast. Unfortunately, they have once again cropped their promotional disks for journalists, and so I am left with an incomplete disk to review for you. Seriously, there’s being careful with artists’ material, and there’s being paranoid. Nuclear Blast certainly enjoy walking that borderline – I expect that have a footpath and tourist kiosk there now.
Be that as it may, Design Your Universe is a rather philosophical album dealing with concepts of quantum physics and telekinesis, amongst other things. On top of which, it’s bloody good. Epica are a symphonic metal band out from the Netherlands.
The band was founded by singer, songwriter and guitarist Mark Jansen after he was fired from another Dutch band, After Forever, in early 2002. The band name is inspired by metal band Kamelot’s album release of the same name in 2003. Epica released their debut studio album The Phantom Agony in 2003, and have since released a full studio album every two years, making Design Your Universe the fourth such work. They have toured Europe and North America a few times, but as far as I’m aware have yet to grace places outside these areas, such as Australia. Bring 'em on. The songs in Design Your Universe are of a wonderful complexity.
The song structuring and arrangements sound fantastic, and you can readily accept that songwriter Mark Jansen draws inspiration from epic film scores like Pirates of the Caribbean. There are plenty of rich orchestral arrangements woven through the heavy metal, and the layers of carefully composed audio reach out and wrap you in a dense blanket of sound. Seriously, it might sound lame, but try listening to Martyr of the Free World through some comfortable headphones in a pitch-black room – you can almost feel the textures of audio. It’s enough to send shivers up your spine.
The major song of the album, Kingdom of Heaven, runs a good thirteen-and-a-halfminutes in length, and is a huge long story subdivided into five different sections. Some good stuff here. The music is creative and invigorating, driven by the guitars, keyboards, and soprano Simone Simons’ powerful vocals. Mark also does some death-growl style vocals, giving the band more dynamic capabilities. The best comparison I can think of for Epica is with the more-famous symphonic group Nightwish.
While the approaches of both bands have certain similarities, Epica is at once both heavier, denser, and yet surprisingly brighter than their Finnish counterparts. The songs in the main are much more energetic. There is far less soft floating through verses and choruses. Instead there are repeated fast musical descents and spiralling crescendos, as well as frequent interludes. It is hard to pick which of the two are more melodious, yet it is easily apparent to me that Epica is by far more metal than it’s Finish counterpart. I will say that in Simone I have finally found a female band singer that impresses me on an equal level with Nightwish’s Anette Olzon. Respect.
Design Your Universe is one of the best albums I have picked up this year, all the more so because it was completely unexpected – I had never heard of Epica prior to this, and I suspect most Australians (excepting the die-hard power-metal fans) are probably the same. However, I suspect (read: hope) this will not be the case for long, as with talents like this, these guys are bound for a breakthrough sooner or later. Like them before they’re cool.
