Genre: Symphonic Metal
This is definitely not what most people think of when someone says "metal." Epica plays symphonic metal, where the guitar takes a backseat to the keyboards. Occasionally, the keyboards get replaced with an orchestra, because, even though orchestras aren't cheap, they...aren't cheap; keyboards kind of suck for getting the feel across since they just play samples. Epica chose the orchestra, so you know the production isn't going to suck.
Now, there are some bands that everyone you ask will either love or hate, such as Rush and pop singers. From what I've seen, Epica is one of them. It probably depends on if you care about the grandiose quality of their songs or not.
Epica also has two vocalists, not including the choirs. The lead vocalist that everyone cares about is Simone Simons. She definitely contributes to the love-or-hate appeal of Epica. The other, Mark Jansen, does harsh vocals (a.k.a. death grunts or whatever you want to call it) and rhythm guitar. Though his guitar is pretty good, his harsh vocals are questionable. Except when he rasps; his growls are bland but his rasps are very good at doing whatever rasps do.
The Divine Conspiracy is a sort of anti-religious concept album. (I believe the woman on the cover is Eve, holding the fruit of knowledge of good and evil.) It's not outright Satanic or anything, but it certainly isn't something that a religious organization would endorse with a four-meter pole. If you're religious, however, don't leave yet; there's some good melodies and possibly thought-provoking lyrics ahead. (Thinking is never a bad thing.)
Indigo (Prologue) - N/A
"Quaestio nostra est aeterna" ~ Our questioning is eternal
Intro track. For an intro track, this is very good, but I give it no rating because it might as well be embedded into the next song. Basically it's a bit of orchestrated rising tension with a choir singing a few Latin verses.
The Obsessive Devotion - 7/10
"I prefer to be unhappy with you / rather than being depressed WITHOUT YOU!"
Now we get to the "real" songs. This song is a decent taste of what the album has to offer, oscillating between Simone's singing, Jansen's grunts and screams, choirs singing passages in Latin, and this one ostinato/riff that shows up all the time, including the intro.
The main flaw I can see is that the chorus is a bit too long and too frequent, getting a bit annoying after you hear "Fortuna exprimatur" the third time or so. Speaking of that, there's also far too much Latin scattered through this song; by the time you hear "non mihi; non tibi; sed nobis" that will become apparent.
Menace of Vanity - 6/10
"I cannot know how you feel / when you don’t say anything"
I'm not so sure about this song. For one thing, Simone doesn't sing here, opting instead for a choir to perform all the clean vocals in this song. It's much more aggressive than The Obsessive Devotion. There's nothing bad about the song, it just happens to be a bit bland.
Chasing the Dragon - 9/10
Poison is slowly seeping through my veins / stealing the only dignity in me
This competes for the status of being the best song on The Divine Conspiracy. It starts out soft, armed with naught but acoustic guitar, Simone, and anti-drug appeals ("chasing the dragon" is smoking heroin or something like that.) It slowly builds up over time, throwing in drums, orchestra elements, electric guitars, and harsh vocals, in that order. The upshot is that the later repetitions of the chorus are absolutely epic. It eases up just a bit, then explodes and eases to a fade-out. The Latin has been reduced to tasteful levels compared to The Obsessive Devotion.
Never Enough - 5.5/10
"Never enough that I gave to you / All of the horror that you've put me through"
Blech, blatant radio single in between two awesome songs. As far as these sorts of songs go, this isn't bad, but that's not saying much. Nightwish's Amaranth is a much better pop-metal song. Next.
La'petach Chataz Rovetz (The Final Embrace) - 8/10
(instrumental)
It seems that my call for "next" not only sent me to the next song, but to the next segment of the album as well. It's a nice acoustic guitar-centered piece with an Arabic-sounding melody. It segues into..
Death of a Dream (The Embrace that Smothers - Part VII) - 8/10
"You created this world / where honesty is not allowed / You created this world / where ignorance is being taught"
...the heaviest song on the album, which is...lead by a female choir? Yes, and it's also a further continuation of a series that started on Jansen's old band and continued on Epica's debut album. The series' intent happens to intersect with the album's, so pay it no mind.
This has a whole lot of vigor, taking on a propellant--even jerky--feel. I've even seen another reviewer compare this to black metal. Simone takes a back seat, only singing the chorus and post-chorus. An interesting trait of this song is that it's sort of "tail-recursive:" it repeats the intro in the middle of the song. (D.C. al Fine, basically.)
Living a Lie (The Embrace that Smothers - Part VIII) - 8.5/10
"Don't believe what you see / Believe in me, in my reality / I am a man of God"
Yet again, Simone stays in the chorus. This is a good song that just meshes together really well, especially in the choir bridge ("Hu-man-po-wer-will-devour") and the spoken prayer right before. There's not much else to say.
Fools of Damnation (The Embrace that Smothers - Part IX) - 9/10
Fool, dance with me again / I am your destiny / Mark my words; don't you ever disagree
Either this or Chasing the Dragon is the best song here. It opens with some guy chanting in Arabic. Obviously, it has a few Arabic-sounding lines, especially in the beginning. The chorus is actually quite fantastic but doesn't overpower the verses. Then, a spoken word passage comes up, and the song goes into instrumental mode with ever-changing riffs. You also get to hear both Simone and Jansen shut up for a moment, which is nice if you can't stand either of the two. I can, though.
And thus concludes The Embrace that Smothers, I guess.
Beyond Belief - 6/10
"Wisdom, knowledge, science / Develops always, better, faster / This is the final end"
One of the weaker songs. It feels a bit poppy, though nowhere nearly as much as Never Enough. It also employs samples of news broadcasts, and I do not like such samples very much, but they're excusable if the rest of the song is good and they aren't overused. Though this one handles the latter well, the former isn't quite satisfied. This is not the final end, for we still have three more tracks.
Safeguard to Paradise - 7.5/10
"As long as we can say they can never take away / our freedom, the most precious thing we’ve ever had / The reward for all the blood we’ve ever shed"
I used to dislike this song, but I warmed up to it and saw that it's a nice little ballad-type song. It lacks as epic a climax as Chasing the Dragon, though It's also driven entirely by Simone's voice (revenge for the Embrace songs she hardly sang in!) and lacks pretty much any metal instrumentation.
Not much else to say. It's good, but not damned good.
Sancta Terra - 7/10
"A place I have searched a thousand times / to finally free myself"
This song has a pretty typical song structure, though it's not exactly poppy. It's solid, but nothing really stands out as exceptionally good. It's also devoid of harsh vocals.
The Divine Conspiracy - 8.5/10
"The Divine Conspiracy / opens up reality / Time is not the entity / like it claims to be"
This is the "huge epic song" that symphonic metal bands are all but obligated to produce. At nearly fourteen minutes long and nearly 20 megabytes in a VBR mp3 file, this is definitely huge. It's no more epic, however, than Chasing the Dragon and so the album sort of bungles its ending that way. The first part of the song is solid, with neither glaring flaw nor obvious strength. It then softens into a mild-mannered orchestra for a minute, then starts building up again until it exceeds its opening and becomes guitar-driven. Again. the climax is nowhere near as intense as that of Chasing the Dragon, but it's still decent.
We then fall back to mild orchestra and fade out. Finally. This is a really long album.
The Divine Conspiracy the album is overall good. I'd give it 8/10 overall since it has plenty of good moments and its weak spots aren't that bad.
