Epica - The Divine Conspiracy 2007

Genre: Symphonic/Gothic Metal
Format: Flac + cue + log
Released: 2007
Label: Nuclear Blast

01. Indigo - Prologue

02. The Obsessive Devotion

03. Menace of Vanity

04. Chasing the Dragon

05. Never Enough

06. La‘petach Chatat Rovetz - The Final Embrace

07. Death of a Dream - The Embrace that Smothers Part VII

08. Living a Lie - The Embrace that Smothers Part VIII

09. Fools of Damnation - The Embrace that Smothers Part IX

10. Holy Man (Glenn Hughes Remix)

11. Beyond Belief

12. Safeguard to Paradise

13. Sancta Terra

14. The Divine Conspiracy

In a year that saw new releases by Within Temptation and Nightwish, I was rather surprised to find that Epica's new offering turned out to be my favorite female-fronted symphonic metal release of 2007. The Divine Conspiracy is far from perfect — in fact, it has some glaring problems — but when it hits the mark, it really hits the mark. If you've heard anything in this general stylistic niche, you generally know what to expect: zero subtlety, tons of bombast, lots of catchy vocal melodies and grandiose keyboards mixed in with the chugging guitars. There are a few reasons The Divine Conspiracy rises above the rest of the pack. For one thing, Epica have gotten heavier, and at this point they're much heavier than any of their better-known peers, especially in the drumming and male vocal departments. For another, Simone Simons is at the absolute top of her game, possessing maybe the best voice in this niche now that Tarja Turunen is out of the picture.

The first five songs on this album, not including two brief instrumental introductions, are almost entirely the reason that I hold it in such high esteem. There's Simons' beautiful voice, yes, but there are also some pleasant surprises. Mark Jansen's vocals vacillate between black metal howls and death metal growls, and he is surprisingly effective at both in this context (though his death growls, which are kind of in the Mikael Åkerfeldt/Dan Swanö mold, probably wouldn't cut it in a straight-up DM band). Coen Janssen's keyboards are ridiculous and over-the-top as per the norm in this genre, but the sounds he uses are fantastic — I actually wondered if there was a real orchestra performing on this album, and when I saw them live I was pleasantly surprised to see that no, all those extremely real-sounding string sections, choruses and more are all coming from the synths. Most importantly, the compositions meld black metal brutality and symph-metal bombast (and Simons' angelic voice) seamlessly, more so than any other similar band that's tried to be this heavy.

These five songs are all almost beyond reproach in my book, with the exception of the fact that some of them are unnecessarily long by two minutes or more. This turns out to be my main criticism of the album as a whole: it's just too damn lengthy. The second half of the album tails off badly in terms of quality, to the point that "Sancta Terra" is the only song out of the last six that I listen to. It's not that these songs are actively bad, rather that they lack the hooks, melodies and memorable symphonic arrangements of the first five songs, and become just so much bombastic sonic wallpaper. Even the title track, which at 14 minutes closes out the album, is disappointing; for a closing epic I expected it to be one of the best pieces on the album, but no such luck. It starts off with suitable pomposity, all movie soundtrack drama and widescreen grandeur, but it soon loses the plot, failing to present enough ideas to justify its enormous duration.

While the same could be said of this album as a whole, the six songs that I do like are easily good enough to ensure that I think good things when I listen to this record. All the usual caveats for this kind of music apply: you absolutely have to be in the mood for extreme bombast, while at the same time accepting that a band that gives so much air time to a soprano vocalist just isn't going to be as metal as your favorite tech-death group. Still, as far as these things go, The Divine Conspiracy is one of the best albums of its kind, despite its many weaknesses, and it's certainly a massive step up from Epica's previous albums, which never really made much of an impression on me.