The First Batch

The First Batch

Epica, After Forever and Octavia Sperati- Open My Eyes 

    This is the first group of 3 from artists I would come to absolutely love. I was finding a lot of interesting bands to my liking but these were among the best of what I remember bookmarking and taking note of. Among the many subdivisions of metal the smaller genres of Symphonic Metal and Gothic Metal live side-by-side. I had not found much Gothic Metal as of yet which I fell in love with except Silentium, so I was plenty surprised to find Octavia Sperati, a mostly Female band from Norway that is part Doom Metal and Gothic Metal. They are really talented songwriters and their music is moody as much as it is melodic. More of them to follow...
   I was also surprised to find as part of the Symphonic Metal side there is a trend called Beauty and Beast which refers to bands which combine the singing style of Death Metal (or more appropriately Melodic Death Metal) growls and the sometimes Operatic voice of a female singer. The growl style is very much part of the Metal scene overseas and some of us in the US aren't quite used to it but it is effective in certain songs to give the heavier sections more meaning and a break from all the vocal gymnastics in the female vocals.



Epica - Cry for the Moon  Symphonic Metal: Beauty and The Beast: Netherlands 2003 - After finding the song and video for Solitary Ground, I found this absolute gem of a recording and performance. Its from their debut CD in 2003 after guitarist Mark Jensen leaves After Forever to form Epica. This version is a live performance from "We Will Take You With Us" in which they perform songs with full orchestration and choirs, in studio and filmed live. It is quite remarkable in this format and an awesome introduction to this genre. A near perfect vocal from the beautiful Simone Simons and the ebbing, flowing tide the song takes into the more Metal sequences, with full violins on top almost exemplifies what this genre should sound like.
    Do not allow the growl sections through you off since this song is truly epic and could fit into any epic adventure/action flick. It truly takes you there. I also love seeing the choir singers and the symphony members performing this song - it is obvious they take it seriously and an epic performance is the results.


After Forever - Energize me
Symphonic Metal - Progressive Metal - Netherlands- 2007 - Welcome to my world - that's all I can say with my first link to the landmark band, After Forever. Energize Me is perhaps their most commercial offering from their self-titled mind-blowing swan song release from 2007. After touring for the CD they disbanded after a break in 2009 and side projects had began but this band has an amazing catalog and an incredible 15 year run as major pioneers in the world of Symphonic Metal, potentially dethroning the classical inspired reigning metal band, Nightwish (Finland)
  At first impression, the catchy melody hides the vocal dynamics of the highly impressive talent of singer Floor Jansen, but as the song continues to gain strength, her vocal strength becomes more apparent. The key changes and building crescendos raise along with the difficulty. The mostly heavy based riffs are overlapped with strings and vocal padding. To compare this, at this current point, here in the beginning with the most unlikely song from their last release to one of the most a-typical songs from Epica's debut - is unintentional but noteworthy since I will be sharing more from both bands here since they are both so important to me.



Octavia Sperati - Moonlit  Doom Metal- Gothic Metal; Norway 2007. One of my favorite finds is this little known band from Norway. They are for the most part an all-female Doom Metal band with a touch of Gothic Metal for a darker influence. The singer, Silje Wergeland has since moved on, though to front the legendary alt-gothic-ambient metal (the metal term here is used loosely) band The Gathering. With all that aside, the music of Octavia Sperati has 3 main elements, haunting and enchanting melodies sung by Silje, bass lines that rival most Black Sabbath influenced bands, and plenty of atmosphere. After discovering this song, it found a permanent spot in my playlists and on my personal pages. The entry below is my own personal comment I left on the video...
  "...by the chord that hits at :27 I figured out I really liked this song. somewhere around the first verse, :56 the song become one of my favorites, at 1:24 I fell in love with it and by 3:07 I was blown away to pieces, forever...."

Somewhere at this point I began to feel I was onto something. Made me look back at my first few links to go deeper and found I have struck Gold...

Next Blog - Velcra Kicks my Ass.