I have a soft spot for Epica. They were one of the first bands – back in 2003 when I just entered Secondary School – that I really admired for using death metal vocals. Sure, I’d listened to some black metal – but I tend to drift from the vocals and beautify the music inplace – that’s what listening to Classical music all the time does to you. One day, I was on the internet and managed to hear “Cry for the Moon” by accident. I craved for this artist and had to find out who it was. Epica. I was at that moment a long standing fan.
When Design Your Universe was announced I was nervous. I loved The Divine Conspiracy and I struggled to see which direction Epica would take – their last few albums had seen Epica develop dramatically to a creative peak with the 14 minute epic title track – The Divine Conspiracy.
When Samadhi played, I knew it was Epica. Only Epica could use chants in this way...and whilst I stared at the cover art on my computer screen (full screen, that way I could admire it properly) I was filled with glee. Resign to Surrender starts with huge bombast – epic choir, backing strings, and much less Simone-focused vocal approach. I was worried this wouldn’t work, but I found that it was still very much Epica in sound, and just took a little bit of adjusting to.
I’d hate to say, but I think Unleashed is one of the weakest songs on the album. Not because it’s commercial – I loved Never Enough and that sounded like Evanescence with an injection of testosterone – it just never really appealed as much as the rest of the album...it seemed like a lazy song that focused on Simone purely to be accessible as opposed to being structured around Epica...but, hey, a band has to make money when it’s such a huge part of their lives.
The album has an extremely positive view I’d say though. As opposed to most death-influenced symphonic metal bands the lyrics aren’t just about pointing out flaws or constructing an argument – they point out points of progression towards a solution as well. And though a lot of the arguments result into Quantum Mysticism (which for anyone who is interested, has resulted in many interesting essays and experiments into quantum dualism/dualistic theories). I’ve always considered Epica to be more positive to delivering negative messages...like 80’s synthpop/new wave used to.
The 3 highlights for myself have to be Kingdom of Heaven, Design Your Universe (for once, the title track is not the longest song on the album), and Deconstruct. I know that many who read Deconstruct as a favourite must think I’m crazy – this is true, but it’s not why I chose it. Deconstruct is just a well crafted song that is fun to listen to. Something that is very often neglected in an album...luckily Epica created a varied album where most of the latter half actually flows together seamlessly.
Kingdom of Heaven will always be what draws most people’s attention though. This song is incredibly written, and unlike many songs of its length, it doesn’t sound like several songs with recurring themes glued together – it’s one cohesive song that’s not only brutal (which has had several fans ruling the band a sell out of the trends of music...erm...lol?) but also incredibly beautiful. Moreover, lyrics like “Misled by science, Our wake up call, Conditioning cannot fool us 'till the end” and “Scorn shall be directed at the genius, Represses subtle theories of the light, to the questions of life” show something rare; a band attacking theology and science at once. (Of course, I’m aware of the deeper purposes of this song).
Overall this album is beautiful, blinding, and surpasses all of Epica’s previous work (but TDC still remains my favourite, and always will probably) in terms of technicality, originality, and lyrically.
9/10
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