While waiting for the next album due out in early 2021, 'Epica' released in early September a sequel to 'The Quantum Enigma' which dates from 2014, their last album 'The Hollographic Principle' is already 4 years old. This 44-minute album (not bad for an album that must make fans wait until the next one !) is divided into two parts, first of all unreleased tracks that have not found their place in 'The Quantum Enigma' (and yet, they all had their place) and then acoustic covers of 2 compositions from this album and 2 other tracks from the original opus which means that if we count the 6 tracks that were on the EP 'The Solace System' in 2017 plus various other releases 'Epica vs. Attack on Titan Songs' from 2018 and the symphonic album 'The Score 2.0: An Epic Journey' from 2017 and the deluxe version of 'Design Your Universe' to celebrate the 10 years of the original album, Dutch fans have not been forgotten since 2014.
'Memento' opens the album in a grand style that we are used to hearing with 'Epica', the vocals and the sound power being impressive, the melodic lines always being very accessible with that little oriental side and the vocal duo 'Simone Simons' / 'Mark Jansen' being always as enjoyable between beauty and the beast, then the mid-tempo 'In All Consience' continues in this powerful symphonic metal with a new heady melody which is closer to the style 'Epica' from the late 2000s immortalized in the beautiful 'Retrospect', certainly a of my favorite live shows from the 2010s in this style. With 'Dreamscape', we have the break power ballad just well placed between two powerful titles with the joy of listening to the ever so harmonious singing of 'Simone Simons' with choirs which overlap remarkably causing the characteristic little thrill in the passages powerful, then the very good 'Banish Your Illusion' with its oriental intonations is taken from the original album which is available on Spotify and the electric part ends with 'Mirage of Verity', completely original, offering us a first part powerful with an unstoppable melody which never leaves you then, a very beautiful symphonic break which prepares a majestic and imposing finale. As for the acoustic part, it takes the ballad 'Canvas of Life' already known then the two new titles 'In All Consience' and 'Dreamscape', which allow to have much peaceful versions of the originals, far from the power metal, and finally 'Natural Corruption' which with its accompaniment on the accordion and with a remarkable vocal performance of 'Simone Simons' is a real happiness.
In summary, even if this album only includes 4 new unreleased tracks, the Dutch of 'Epica' offer us the length of a standard album with a lot of other groups and this' B-Sides' completes the 'The Quantum Enigma' album in a very nice way with titles that would have largely had their place in the original version... | |
