Well I guess it takes time to design a universe (it did on Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy) and it’s a bit of an epic task. Epica certainly go about it in an epic way too with an album that I can only describe as a whopping great big listen. Not only is there so much going on in the album it also has a larger than life running time cramming every second of disc space available with music. You really do have to dedicate a fair amount of time to this album as it’s not going to simply unfold on a first spin and give you readily accessible listening pleasure, in fact I think I am going to have to spend a lot more time than I have available review wise to truly get to grips with this but as it is an album that strikes as completely worth going back to this is not something I am going to moan about. I do think if I had actually caught the recently released ‘Classical Conspiracy’ live double album it would have been a case on overdosing on Dutch delight, so in a way I’m glad I missed that one, although it has to be said that I am intrigued at listening to the group have a crack at Verdi, Prokofiev, Grieg and Dvorak.
Last studio album ‘The Divine Conspiracy’ was conceptual based around the dispute between science and religion and the new one expands upon these themes. Apparently the title deals with new breakthroughs in quantum physics, so to say that this could be looked upon as music for geeks is perhaps harsh but a fair critique.
‘Samadhi (Prelude)’ is a pure bombastic opener of symphonic excess and it sounds pretty damn good, actually reminding a bit of Bach as well as many a Hollywood blockbuster with huge male and female choral vocals literally overflowing from the speakers. Whoosh, we are straight into ‘Resign to Surrender (A New Age Dawns, Part IV)’ a track every bit as epic as its title suggests. It’s Mark Jansen who gets the first gruff vocals and we are kept on tenterhooks before Simone makes her entrance. It’s well worth the wait as her voice is gloriously uplifting and with the chorals also flowing through the track there is hardly a second to snatch a breath. Then you have a spoken word part in true theatrical overload, raging guitar solos and pretty much everything you can think of bar someone playing along on the kitchen sink.
I have to wonder exactly what the budget was on this album, it really surpasses pretty much anything of this scope we have heard in the past and this is still on the first main song (I will spare a track by track dissection as the review would run into thousands of words). This probably goes beyond the scope we have seen in the past by Nightwish and Therion et al and it strikes that Epica are raising the bar here. Sure there are simpler songs such as the more ballad driven ‘Unleashed’ where we are left to concentrate on Simone’s soaring vocals but on the whole this is a case of sensory overload in every respect. I should also mention that it is not all Andrew Lloyd Webber although parts are perhaps reminiscent. There are plenty of galloping rhythms and full blooded rampaging metal parts to keep heads banging and feet tapping and kicking a groove into the carpet.
An MP3 of this just does not do it justice and having bought nice digipacks of all the other Epica albums this is certainly going on my shopping list so I am putting my money where my mouth is saying that if you are an Epica fan you are not going to be disappointed splashing your cash on this. Add to everything else going on here a guest vocal appearance by Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica on ‘White Waters’ and you really do have a grand design in every sense.
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