Epica
Design Your Universe

I make my debut on this site by writing about an album, “Design your Universe” by Epica, for which there is already a track by track review. I have decided, therefore, to provide a more cohesive discourse on this work, the fourth studio album for the Dutch band, particularly in relation to its direct predecessor “The Divine Conspiracy.”

The latter was a pleasant surprise for me compared to the two previous albums: I found a “thicker” and heavier sound, also thanks to the addition of a new drummer (Ariën van Weesenbeek, formerly of God Dethroned), much more aggressive and “unleashed” than the previous one, more space given to the guitars, despite the almost total absence of solos, good rhythmic articulation of the tracks (the best piece, from this point of view, “Fools of Damnation”), a definitely much better vocal performance than in the past (the growl, however, I think still remains at rather low levels!).

In “Design your Universe” Epica has chosen, rightly, in my opinion, to continue on the path taken, also benefiting from the contribution of the new guitarist Isaac Delahaye (also formerly of God Dethroned) who positively contributed to the development of the guitar lines, with the appearance of solos; Simone Simons's performance is likewise excellent, especially, in my opinion, in the sections in non-lyrical style (where, at times, it seems to me - but maybe it's just an impression - that the voice loses body and tends a bit towards strain). The first time I listened to the album I was, overall, very satisfied, and, I must say, I found some tracks almost exhilarating like “Martyr of the Free Word”, “Kingdom of Heaven” and “Semblance of Liberty”. Having said that, after repeated listens, my initial opinion has been refined and partly changed, leading me to the conclusion that “The Divine Conspiracy”, and not “Design your Universe”, is the best work Epica has produced so far.

First of all, there is, in my opinion, in “Design your Universe” a problem of overload: the choirs and the symphonic part, which are indispensable elements in this genre of music, are really too pompous and end up at some points even overshadowing Simone (see “Resign to Surrender”) and creating a certain sense of saturation. Secondly (and this is, in my opinion, the biggest flaw) the rhythm of the music overall seems to have become slower, less agile, as can be observed, for example, in tracks like “Unleashed”, “Our Destiny” or “Deconstruct”. Finally, the album is, in my opinion, less stylistically homogeneous than the previous one; not that a certain variety of tones is not appreciated, but I find that tracks like “Burn to a Cinder” or “White Waters”, while of good quality on their own, are not very consistent with the rest of the album (the same argument was valid in “The Divine Conspiracy” only for “Never Enough”).

In conclusion, I think that Epica should, for the future, continue the path taken towards a more aggressive and substantial sound, but trim down some of the different elements (the choirs and orchestrations, above all) and make the whole more compact and direct, better balancing the different components of their music, as they had started to do in my opinion convincingly with “The Divine Conspiracy”. Nonetheless, in today's symphonic metal landscape, full of not always successful proposals, a good quality album, worth listening to.