SpecMusicMuse Review: Epica – The Divine Conspiracy

When Epica came out and said their new CD would be the heaviest yet, they weren’t joking. The music is much heavier than before, and the sound darker. Trust me, you haven’t heard organ music until you’ve heard it done with the Metal attitude. And its not just the music that’s heavier, but the lyrics, also, are harder hitting and more unapologetic.

Like all their CDs The Divine Conspiracy resembles a musical score for a blockbuster film. The thirteen songs are divided into an instrumental prologue (“Indigo”) and three acts. Act One contains the songs, “The Obsessive Devotion,” “Menace of Vanity,” “Chasing the Dragon,” and “Never Enough.” Act Two continues “The Embrace That Smothers” mini-concept of which parts four through six were in their 2003 CD, The Phantom Agony. The middle part is the heaviest part in the entire CD with “La’petach Chatat Rovetz (The Last Embrace),” “Death of a Dream (The Embrace That Smothers – Part VII),” “Living a Lie ( – Part VIII),” and “Fools of Damnation ( – Part IX).” The final act slows down a bit with “Beyond Belief,” “Safeguard to Paradise,” and “Sancta Terra,” then ending the CD with a 14-minute explosion of symphony and metal titled “The Divine Conspiracy.”

Moreso than in the last CD, the beauty of Simone’s voice enhances the music. Indeed, her voice can make the most mediocre songs sound like masterpieces, and the lyrics are of a quality to match her singing. As an example from “Chasing the Dragon”:

“Let my eyes take in,
The beauty that’s here,
That’s left on this earth,
My ears long to hear,
A melody.”

The philosophy behind The Divine Conspiracy is based off an interesting “what if” scenario. What if all the religions came from God? What if he gave pieces of the truth to each race and culture as a test to see what they would do with such truths? Would they learn from each other, or would some use (and possibly pervert) the knowledge for the sake of personal power over others? And how, after centuries (or even millenia) of distortions can people seperate truth from half-truth and find the knowledge God gave us? An interesting theory and perhaps closer to the truth than most people, regardless of each’s religious views, may be willing to admit.

The only way to know is to just keep searching, each in the ways we know how while acknowledging our similarities, and accepting our differences as a part of what makes humanity such a wondrous creation.

[Review first written in Sept. 2007, but never published until today]