The layered orchestration and keyboards propelling us forward across the universe in search of answers to The Cosmic Algorithm, as the tune hurtles to it’s inevitable end. Melodramatic choir, heavy riffs and driven drums crash in, with Simone adding gloss to Mark’s hard edged vocals. Haunting Celtic violins bring an ease to the aggression as we wander Once Upon A Nightmare, accompanied by Simone’s voice and Coen’s piano, the orchestra and choir falling into line with the guitars and drums treading respectfully across the musical battlefield intensifying to a rousing dramatic end. Simone’s vocals and Isaac’s keyboards lifting the track beyond the onslaught.Ī few retreating survivors fire back in the distance as orchestral swathes mix with piano before they are scattered to Divide and Conquer, Mark’s barked ululations at his marauding horde, directing their onslaught to demoralise the enemy, with the engaging Simone encouraging a memorable chorus at his side.Įxalting vocals precede celebratory instruments, orchestrated as they march Beyond the Matrix, Simone conducting the guitar verses, Mark gutterally picking off survivors on the wasted battlefield and guitars herald their affirmation to a rousing choral end. Red rimmed eyes seeking foes and victims as they reap bodies like sheaves of bloodstained stalks of grain. Plucked strings are crushed by the guitars as they issue in A Phantasmic Parade, and the war machines unleash a hail of deadly notes and choral choruses to assault your senses.Ī brief lull, then charging through the settling dust and smoke come the Universal Death Squad, screaming their war chants and brandishing weapons, lusting for blood and souls. There is a middling slow of pace before the growling hits with the guitars and you are hurtled into the maelstrom of battle again. A small niggle soon forgotten as you are then carried along at a crashing pace with only the soothing vocals from Simone to give respite, before they reach for the stratosphere. I would have liked for it to merge into Edge of the Blade, as I find the suddeness of the starting riff jars slightly with the preceding track. Heat and sweat mingle as they haul huge war machines of mass destruction toward the enemy. Armoured elephants in gleaming gold cresting the horizon as thousands of battle hardened, marching infantry hammer the road before them, their feet smashing into the dust.
It could have soundtracked the film ‘300’, conjuring scenes of a huge procession. The album opens with the miniature epic Eidolawhich is far too short for me, but a great introduction. The thundering rolls of Ariën van Weesenbeek’s drums combining with Rob Van Der Loos’ bass foundations on which the arrangements are built.
This is loud, heavy and bombastic music, with Gregorian and choral style chanting and the screaming guitar solos from Isaac Delahaye cutting a swathe through the cinematically orchestral embellishments of Coen Janssen’s keyboards. Guitarist Mark Jansen’s sonorous growls contrast like Beauty and the Beast, sometimes for me a little intrusive as I’m not a big fan of this sort of vocalisation. Hailing from the Netherlands and formed in 2002, “ The Holographic Principle” is their seventh studio album, which they say is their heaviest to date.Īs is often the case, prerequisite for the majority of these bands is a powerful/operatically voiced frontswoman and EPICA tick the box well and truly with the beautiful, flame haired Simone Simons. So it is very easy for a few to slip under the radar, for me one of those has been EPICA, (which they define as Excellence. Very popular and with some exceptional exponents, among them Nightwish, Within Temptation and Stream of Passion to name a few.
There are some excellent bands producing Symphonic Metal.
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