EPICA — The Divine Conspiracy (review)

EPICA — The Divine Conspiracy album cover

Album · 2007 · Symphonic Metal

5/5 · 2010-12-12
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When it was released in 2007, Epica's The Divine Conspiracy was the album that I felt really gave the genre of symphonic metal a good kick up the backside. At a time where I was finding most of the symphonic metal bands I was hearing could be labelled as just another Nightwish clone here I found a band who were anything but. They weren't exactly new having already released two metal albums (as well as a classical album) but this was my introduction to their more progressively inclined and extreme symphonic metal sound. I think that it is essential for fans of the genre, and that it has the potential to make new fans of the genre for the people who never really ‘got it’ before.

The Divine Conspiracy is far more extreme than many symphonic metal albums, employing the use of both an operatic female singer (Simone Simons) and a death grunter (Mark Jansen). While other bands may employ this setup, Epica perfect it. Simone has a beautiful, strong voice which has an impressive range of tones, while Mark’s growl is stronger than those heard in some bands that employ growling as their only vocal type. The duo’s skills are perfected on The Obsessive Devotion, Menace of Vanity and Living a Lie in particular. The music behind them is much heavier than some heard within this genre, with riffs that would fit just as well within melodic death metal. In fact if the symphonic elements and Simone were removed, the remainder of what was left of The Divine Conspiracy would almost be a melodic death release, proof in my mind that the band are pushing the symphonic genre into more extreme territory.

The song writing here is very progressive, song structures more so than actual sound. A good portion of the songs clock in at over 5 minutes, with more only just under. Despite the long track times (particularly the closing title-track, 13 minutes 57 seconds long) there is never a time when an itch to hit the skip button takes hold, because not a single second of The Divine Conspiracy’s 75 minutes is boring, even the intro and interlude songs keep my attention fixed on this album. On the first listen by the time the interlude song (La’petach Chatat Rovetz) arrives you will already have heard that The Divine Conspiracy is no one trick pony. You will have already had the anthem that is The Obsessive Devotion and Menace of Vanity, the mostly classical Chasing the Dragon and the almost poppy Never Enough (don’t let the fact that Never Enough is a bit poppy put you off, yes it does sound like Epica tried to write a hit single, but it’s still awesome, still heavy, and fits in well with this album) that by the time the second section of songs comes around, you’ll know that you can expect the next proper song to take on any form, and by doing this Epica have created an album that will keep your attention from the word go.

It is a concept album, but I’ve found the actual sound of the music so involving that I haven’t even tried to interpret the story that is running all the way through, I’ve been too busy rocking out to this beauty, and no, I’m not talking about their frontlady. From what I can tell the story has something to do with religion (according to wikipedia the story is that God created all religions and that humanity is supposed to discovered that they are all one and the same), but if you’re like me, you won’t care what the band are singing about, because you'll be listening to it intently. This is possibly the strongest symphonic metal release since Nightwish put out Oceanborn almost a decade before, and perhaps goes one better.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)