Já está á venda o 5º Album de originais dos EPICA - "Requiem for the Indifferent".
O Album contem 13 faixas entre as quais as 2 já conhecidas: "Monopoly on Truth" e "Storm The Sorrow", segue alinhamento completo de todas as faixas do ALBUM:
1 - Karma
2 - Monopoly on Truth
3 - Storm the Sorrow
4 - Delirium
5 - Internal Warfare
6 - Requiem for the Indifferent
7 - Anima
8 - Guilty Demeanor
9 - Deep Water Horizon
10 - Stay the Course
11 - Deter the Tyrant
12 - Avalanche
13 - Serenade of Self-Destruction
A revista Espanhola Disturbia deu na sua Review a nota excelente de 4,5 numa escala de 0 a 5. Podes ver parte aqui do seu artigo :
" El fin de semana pasado tuvimos el placer de recibir el nuevo trabajo de la mega-banda EPICA, nos referimos a “Requiem For The Indifferent”, el cual vendría a ser el quinto larga duración en su haber.
Antes de ello, el mes de enero conseguimos una entrevista con el tecladista de la banda “Coen Janssen” (el cual pueden disfrutar en este LINK) y nos dejo con la miel en los labios, pues nos reveló el concepto apocalíptico de este trabajo y desde ahí nos creó una terrible ansiedad por escuchar Requiem For The Indifferent.
Ahora ya en nuestras manos, podemos dar fé de ello, un exquisito trabajo que solo estos maestros del metal sinfónico podrían ofrecernos. Los pasajes por el progressive metal, son una constante en este álbum. Lleno de épicas orquestaciones, significativas líricas, poderosos riffs alternandos con interludios cinemáticos, la voz angelical de Simone Simons, en fin podemos seguir enumerando más detalles, con tales talentos reunidos para lograr esta producción.
Requiem For The Indifferent es la prueba de que este sexteto está en constante búsqueda de renovación.
El título del álbum se refiere al final de una era. La humanidad no puede continuar clavando su cabeza en la arena con todas las cosas que están ocurriendo alrededor de nosotros: las tensiones entre diferentes religiones y culturas, guerras, desastres naturales, una enorme crisis financiera. Cuando estemos todos conectados; el universo, la tierra, la naturaleza, los animales y los seres humanos, este período en el tiempo será el preludio para el final, de quienes no quieren entenderlo aún, o sólo no quieren verlo. Un réquiem para la indiferencia, pero también una posibilidad para un nuevo principio con grandes nuevas oportunidades".
A Revista Metalholic dá a nota 8 numa escala de 0 a 10. Aproveitamos para deixar excertos da rubrica por eles publicada :
" Epica proves to be one of the best theme composers with this album again; it’s just a feast. The form of the music is not always European; the mystical atmosphere of the Eastern world also plays a role in some parts. The layout of songs, where to boil up, where to calm down, or where to get into a new variation, are all adjusted perfectly. Maybe that’s the reason why almost every second of the album is delightful.
Isaac Delahaye creates some amazing guitar work on Requiem for the Indifferent and the rhythm section of bassist Yves Huts and drummer Ariën van Weesenbeek have the dynamic ability to swing from understated to bombastic without losing anything. Female vocals are often a make-or-break aspect of modern power metal and symphonic metal bands and Simone Simons puts in yet another jaw-dropping performance. She is definitely a serious talent. Unlike other divas, Simone is able to wander between poppy sounding smooth vocals and operatics, delivering her parts with a sincerity and force that few other singers can muster. Mark Jansen’s beastly grunts sound phenomenal while tempos shift between the cinematic texture of the orchestra and unadulterated metal punctuation.
" I was eagerly waiting to hear the “title” track of the album, “Requiem for the Indifferent”. This is one of the best tracks Epica have produced in their musical history, starting from the ethnic style intro with some classical eastern vocals and instruments used, to the unique fantasy-like lyrics. The guitars were panned to perfection. At 5:50 into the song most will jizz in their pants, some genius musicianship on display with no distortion, calmness personified, and then the transition to growls and distortion. Though the song may have been stretched a little longer than it should have been and Coen Janssen’s keyboards were overshadowed by the guitars in many parts, one cannot deny the fact that the song lived up to its expectation.
Coming to two heavier songs in the list – “Internal Warfare” and “Guilty Demeanor”: “Internal Warfare” has a fast paced intro. The delivery of the lyrics is dark and the chorus is certainly different from the other songs. The alternate picking and growls pick up the tempo for a short burst of time. This track has a more aggressive guitar and keyboard solo. “Guilty Demeanor” on the other hand is the first song of the album that I can tag as boring. It has a heavy intro but loses the spark somewhere in between. Though it is a short song, it doesn’t live up to the standards created by its predecessors.
“Deep Water Horizon” falls a little weak in the arrangement after a certain point in the song, with too many things being tried at the same time. “Stay The Course” on the other side, is an average track with a few notable points like the fast paced riff with high pitched growls and two parts of the song where Simone again shows what her voice can do with nothing but just a keyboard track in the backing. Both are comparatively brighter songs in the album.
“Deter The Tyrant” and “Avalanche”, are both very interesting compositions. While the intro to “Deter the Tyrant” reminds one of John Petrucci’s intro in the song, “Glasgow Kiss” (not a copy, but almost similar tempo and arpeggios), the song itself is very catchy. The growls with a sort of Arabian influenced riff in the background add a uniqueness to the song. “Avalanche” has a more ambient feel to it. The lines, ”Feels like living a dream, from which I cannot wake – Voices leaving me astray“ are repeated throughout the song. The sadness here is heartfelt. The growls pick up the tempo but returns to normal tempo during the clean vocals. Use of tapping for the first time in the album on the guitars, and the Morse code message was perfectly executed.
The album ends with the track, “Serenade of Self-Destruction”. Another classic piano intro, the song soon picks up pace with a lot of blast-beats going on in the background. Except for these two factors, the song is rather boring, and too long, stretching to 9:53. They try to convince the listener of their extreme existentialism in any way they can but at the same time they deliver sickly sweet melodies vocally (and sometimes on the guitar, or in the orchestra)".
No site Sonic Cathedral.com pode ler-se a opinião do novo album - 9.0 de 10
Upon the release of Epica’s Requiem for the Indifferent, I’ve seen a wide array of opinions that ranged from negative to positive. On Epica’s own Facebook page, the wide spectrum of opinions for this particular album was evident by many people who either felt that this newest Epica album superseded their previous releases, or by people who felt that the new Epica album was disgraceful. When I first listened to the album myself, I felt extremely ambivalent about it because the album initially felt like it was missing a vital element that aided in creating the rich tapestry of sound that differentiated Epica’s albums from other symphonic metal releases; their cerebral lyrics, cinematic sound, and Simon Simone’s beautiful singing voice has always placed them in the ranks of Nightwish, Within Temptation, and After Forever in my mind.
Unlike some of their previous albums that had instant appeal. Requiem for the Indifferent requires patience. Fortunately, this patience is not labored patience, since every listen produced higher appreciation for the artistic maturity of this specific album. Many fans have already seen their hopes become dashed by their first listen because the album feels very experimental. Certainly, Epica wisely chose to reshape their sound to some extent because subsequent albums of every band, if they are to continue to carry a fresh sound, require maturation to some degree. Formerly, I felt like Requiem for the Indifferent, was an insipid release and a great downward plummet from their high point: Design Your Own Universe, that masterfully portrayed the philosophical concept of relativism in musical language.
In the core of Requiem for the Indifferent, there lies vast meaning underneath a pulsing wave of seemingly detached musical rhythms. Part of the genius of this album lies with how effectively it implores people to carefully consider the disillusioning reality of our world fraught with genocides, environmental disasters, questionable media messages. Oftentimes, metal music is poorly represented as a genre that forces listeners to forego their intellectual senses, whereas Epica’s music and many other examples of fine metal music require the full use of our minds to understand the emotional or philosophical depth contained within the music and lyrics.
Within these tracks specifically, Epica has adeptly created metal music that deserves far more serious attention:
* Storm the Sorrow: Everything within this song deals with the human psyche and the simultaneous war within us that reflects the chaos that we grimly discern in our everyday lives. At the beginning of the song, the haunting voices of the choir, along with a crushing drum beat, paints the conflict occurring between other humans in the external world. In the internal world, our interior self, reflected by Simone Simon’s anxious voice, is grappling with its own existential warfare with either its own mortality or the unassailable sorrow brought about by the tragedies experienced in this life. The song is essentially an earnest attempt to find solace within ourselves, or some semblance of confidence that allows us to deal directly with the disenchanting chaos in this world. Normally, I don’t particularly like Mark Jansen’s growling, but the growling within this song perfectly captures the internal struggle with our cynical attitude towards life, and the confidence that is much needed for our emotional preservation.
*Deep Water Horizon: This song enchanting and it begins with the soothing sound of an acoustic guitar that conjures the woeful scene of an ecological disaster that has occurred within the ocean. Once Simone Simons’s voice quietly enters the music, you feel yourself lulled into a contemplative mindset as you think of the pollution that is rapidly contaminating the environmental features of the world. Simone Simon’s voice seems to drift through the song and it carries deep sadness about the lamentable state of our world. Fascinatingly, Simone Simon’s ailing voice, along with the rich support of sound, helps carry our disillusionment through the wrecked state of our world, and prudently reminds us that we urgently need to use all the powers at our expense to reverse the apocalypse that we’re consigning ourselves to. This song lies at the heart of an album that carries an aura of great indifference, which this song clearly displays as something that will prove powerless in our attempts to salvage our planet and even our own humanity.
Nearly every song within this appears to actively reverse our apathetic mood that renders us powerless in the face of alarming displays of violence that overfill our senses. Oftentimes, music represents a form of escapism. Some bad forms of music leave us with nothing edifying. Requiem for the Indifferent, instead urges us to meditate on the state of the world, and it forces us into a refocused mindset that feels increasingly prepared to actively pursue ways to reverse this course towards our own demise. In "Stay the Course," Mark’s growling grows in intensity, as if to resemble our stiff resilience that will be needed if we wish to lead a purposeful life that is mindful of ways to keep our lives sinking away into the morass of sorrow that overwhelms us in "Storm the Sorrow."
Sometimes, Mark’s growling appears as an unwanted distraction from those mesmerizing moments when Simone Simons sings in many of Epica’s albums. This has progressively become a grievance of mine that has survived nearly all of Epica’s albums that contain his growling. Strangely, his growls actually are quite effective in songs like "Chasing the Dragon," or "Cry to the Moon." Other times, his growling is grossly misused just to fill a requirement. Also, the choirs also feel overused at some intervals in their other album which curiously suffer from the same problem. Within this album, I actually felt that these problems were slightly rectified, compared to earlier albums, as the music itself does not become too overwrought, which is another flaw with Epica’s music that sometimes occurs. Requiem for the Indifferent reflects a positive transition for the band that is slowly moving away from generic trappings. Many of Epica’s signature elements feel driven with increased purpose. There are a few moments where Mark’s growling becomes tiring, or the epic choirs become redundant, but these problems have decreased with this album, making for a far more mature sound. Occasionally, there are moments when I would have loved for Mark’s growling to be taken away entirely, except I’ve weirdly grown accustomed to hearing his growling within their music. With this album, it does not become too bothersome, and actually enhances the tension that is essential to the conflicted mood of this album. One of the best tracks on the album, Internal Warfare, provides us with this intensified tension which showcases an awesome guitar solo, along with an electrifying keyboard solo as well.
Bear in mind, this album requires time because it is one of those albums that slowly grows on you, and leaves you with an increasing desire to replay favorite tracks countless times. Part of the maturity with this album lies with its lack of a commercialized sound, and surplus of complex songs that defy the stereotypes of metal music. Moreover, Simone Simon impressively shows off her wider vocal range, putting the naysayers that believe her range is limited to shame. Of all Epica’s albums, Simone Simon’s voice reaches its peak in this album in terms of sophistication. Perhaps, my feelings for this album will continue to change, as the deeper meaning unravels itself over time. Sometimes, certain elements become distractingly overused, but for the most part, the album is truly a gem that demonstrates that Epica knows how to produce an album that dumbfounds its listeners
9.0 / 10
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