Epic Songs from Epica

Symphonic Metal Saved My Life -
Epic Songs from Epica

   Digging through my bookmarks and songlist histories, my Endless Search began without much documentation. My timeline is still a bit fuzzy so I try here at this point to concede a slight defeat by the "youtube gremlins". Once I rediscovered the songs from the previous post (The Attack of Velcra), I yearned to learn more,  knowing I had already a decent list, I went back to my earliest links to search deeper. I Found Deeper. The first song in my playlist at the time was Epica's Cry for the Moon (see review in the post The First Batch) and it convinced me to dive further into their catalog. What I discovered was simply amazing to me. It was simply a wondrous moment to hear these full-on orchestras with full classical choirs matched up with superb singing and songwriting all while being quite heavy and the furthest from the dirge of today's mainstream music. Each song painted a movie's worth of drama and excitement. I was beginning to come around to the realization that this thing called symphonic metal was the genre I've been waiting for.
  Come along with me on this Journey, my Epic Voyage, my Endless Search for music that lifts my spirit, that inspires my creative fire and simply moves me from deep within. Epica is one of those few bands which can do this and do it with meaning. There is a message here, it is intelligent and builds upon what used to be the norm - concept albums or even a consistent thread among an artists catalog as a whole. This is not for me to put into words it is for you to discover along on your own journey.
  I searched for deep. I Found Deep


Epica - Beyond Belief 2007 One of the most epic songs I know - without being overdrawn, or too ambitious, or so self indulgent which inevitably cuts down on re-listens, here the opposite occurs. It leads you in as a standard song but stops and shocks you consistently throughout as found in the first open, with the ultra high reach of Simone. As always the quiet moments are meant to be heard.
  This song about our time and uncertainty and the oncoming advances of technology takes us all too quickly away from that which is spiritual. Simple concept placed together in an epic package. The heavy breakdowns with the violin accent points and talk-overs cue you to know there is more going on than just the operatics. The heavy breakdown reminds me of a megadeth meets sabbath moment - but with a heavy groaning choir in the background - quite powerful. And its a perfect lead-in to the frantic unleashing of the powerful and meaningful - Final End.


Dance of Fate 2005 Before The Divine Conspiracy there was the 2005 release of Consign to Oblivion, which this incredibly dynamic and well written symphonic metal epic song hails from along with the eye-opening ballad "Solitary Ground" (see post The First Batch). In this song the marriage of a classical choir and double bass is a perfect match. Add the vocal acrobatics from Simone and it all works very well. The full choir sections are married to staccato stop beats and alternate with full-on speed metal drums. Adding more dynamics are the softer sections which give a lot more weight to the lyrics and urge you to listen in to the message.
   The brief break down is followed by an inspired section- complete with harpsicords and choir accents. Then the most convincing part for me comes in, a quiet and meaningful lyric then a powerful reprise of the chorus and the grand finale from the choir. The whole thing is quiet marvelous and an inspiring combination that completely convinced me I have been listening to the wrong music for years. I am finally home.



Sancta Terra
2007 One of the best aspects of a band like Epica is they aren't simply just putting pieces of this and that together and hope it all works. Epica is a complete package, from the meaning behind their name, to their conceptual releases, and topical content. This is the first song which opened my eyes to this concept. All of which means Epica is deep. There is more to explore lyrically. But being hi-brow or being artsy does not quantify great music so its not what attracted me to them- its just an added bonus. Here is simply another extraordinary example of what put Epica on the map in the genre. Symphonic passages of violins and choirs entwine within the dynamic performance of Simone. The quiet breakdown followed by a full on ripping metal passage with choir and double bass and the whole symphony flowing on top of the guitars creates a musical experience which far surpasses the status-quo of most bands. The exit with only the male choir echoing the lyrics add a distinct touch.
 
These 3 songs each are an epic journey. Stories within stories. They also symbolize my quest to find more epic moments, hidden perhaps from view for years or perhaps just on the horizon. I was seemingly uncovering treasures from a wide array of years, mostly from 2002 to 2007. I began to think I should go further back to understand this explosion of creativity. Who spawned it all? Was it just that after years of influence by Nightwish that their disciples were finally making great music? What time frame or more important, Where should I turn to next?

Next Blog: Setting Sails for Germany

Attack of Velcra

Attack of Velcra

 Industrial Metal / Rap Metal / Electronica

  Half Electronic, Half Heavy Metal, and Part Rap, with a female singer, from Finland. Not a combination that I would expect to greet with much success or passion. But I discovered differently. I had not known at the time I just discovering this band that I would eventually lean more towards symphonic metal but I also knew I hadn't heard anything like them - or at least if I had, it wasn't with good results. After bookmarking one of their breakthrough hits "Our will against their will" (previous post Finland P2) I clicked through just about anything I could find from them at the time and I did have mixed results. Once I figured I had narrowed it down to 2 or 3 songs I was happy - Very Happy actually.
   Looking closer at these 3 songs my leave you scratching your head a little. Wondering why you never heard of them but you may know Guano Apes (the band they are most compared to, unfortunately) or perhaps why they sound so polished on one song and so aggressive on another. I stopped all the question marks except this one, if any of these songs just randomly came on your player, wouldn't you turn it up and then say "I need some more of that!"

Links for Velcra for more info:
 Myspace : http://www.myspace.com/velcra
 Last.fm http://www.last.fm/music/Velcra
 Facebook Velcra Profile


Velcra - My Law 2005-Finland.  Still my favorite song from Velcra, My Law is from their second release "Consequences of Disobedience"  is as bombastic and full-on as any metal song and Jessi Fray really delivers her strong range in this song. I thought the song was pretty awesome then I saw the lyrics and it vaulted into my permanent top listing. The lyrics are very self-empowered. Take the good with the bad. Some of the lines I borrow for my own quotes they are so good such as "...all we need is already here, what it needs is for own eyes to see" and "..my criteria does not originate from the materia.." There is a live performance video here, it gets a little strange but the link above sounds best and a bonus of the frantic "War is Peace", a song I can easily say shows very early influence to today's hyper-kinetic electronica full of flash and speed - but from their debut "Between Force and Fate"


Velcra - Can't Stop Fighting  Finland 2005 Also from "Consequences of Disobedience". Once I began to understand this band, this one showed up on youtube and more of the same emotions came out - why haven't I heard them before!! Come to find out this song was a few compilation CDs and fans everywhere were going crazy to get a hold of it. This song, while still heavy does not focus so much on the rap-chants of My Law or Our Will - but relies heavily on the melodic vocals of Jessi Fry. The rhythms in the verses remind me of Infectious Grooves or perhaps Static-X matched with the heavy breakdown in the chorus creates a great rift between the 2 sections. Dynamics are good.


Velcra - Memory Loss 2005 Finland: A great example of what this band is really capable of- powerful Crossover Metal with a sound unlinke anything you listen to now. Here her vocal is so strong and relentless you forget shes a pretty petite Finnish girl. The breakdown towards the end shows there is alot of promise to what they can produce. Overlapping keyboards add a hint to what Velcra would eventually morph into - a mostly electronic band. We will get to that later in this search - trust me.

Next: Very Epic songs from Epica

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.