Epica
Consign To Oblivion

After the tremendous success of the first album "The Phantom Agony," Epica releases, two years later, a new masterpiece of neoclassical symphonic metal: firstly, there is a definite improvement in Simons' voice, who masterfully interprets some of the best songs ever written by Mark (including the After Forever period)… But let's start immediately with the introduction, entrusted, as in the previous CD, to an entirely symphonic piece: "Hunab K'u", truly convincing and more exciting than the first track of 'The Phantom Agony'.

The first real track is "Dance of Fate" a piece with power rhythms and sung excellently by Simons (although, let's face it, it's incomparable to Tarja Turunen and Floor Janses!): the piece is really convincing, but not on par with Sensorium (sorry for the frequent comparisons between the two albums, but I consider one a continuation of the other). The CD continues really well with "the Last Crusade/new age dawns pt. I)": the melody is truly engaging, and the lyrics, indeed about the crusades and the Church's attempts to incite the faithful to holy war, hit the mark with the listener, who remains (in my opinion) moved by the imposing orchestrations (but even this track, when compared to "Cry for the moon", has little hope); it continues with what I consider their best ballad: "Solitary Ground", also chosen as the first single of the CD; Simons' voice becomes sweeter as she sings the story of street musicians (much more beautiful musically and stylistically than the TPA ballad, Feint). This song too passes very pleasantly, serving as a cushion separating the first part of the CD from the second, introduced by "Black Infinity" which presents itself as a pleasant and smooth song, not at the level of Illusive Consensuns from TPA, but still orchestrated just right and well interpreted by the Dutch mezzo-soprano (who, incidentally, is really not bad physically).

And here we take a very slight step back with the subsequent "Force Of The Shore" which, although interpreted by a very respectable growler such as Mark, never takes off to surprise the listener (except for a very well-managed symphonic interlude). Then it's time for "Quietus", introduced by a truly exceptional medieval motif: more generally, an excellent song. "Mother Of Light" is powerful and fast enough, especially in the chorus where Simone Simons is accompanied by Mark's growl; while the following "Trois Vierges" is understated and incomparable to Solitary Ground for smoothness and "rhythm" (however, note the duet of Simons with Kamelot's singer Roy Khan = excellent couple). The following "Another Me (in Lack'ech)" is a somewhat different song that nevertheless convincingly enough (many don't like it, I personally find it among the best of the entire lot) with a really catchy chorus.

A separate paragraph to talk about the last track (similar in epicness and orchestrations to 'The Phantom Agony'); a piece of almost 10 minutes in which growl, orchestra, and Simone take center stage: to close an album like this, it was necessary to find a long and epic song (let's say more majestic) to close a chapter in a grand manner: Epica did it again! I must admit that the track 'The Phantom Agony' is markedly better, but nevertheless, this last track leaves a mark on an overall very good CD, a worthy rival to the first album.