This is by far my favorite Epica release from start to finish. 70+ minutes of beautifully orchestrated symphonic metal. Simone Simons sounds intriguing like a beautiful songbird that she is. The music is wholly original and riffs just kick ass. The keys brighten the music up from being dark to celestial if that! The changes throughout songs makes it ever-most endearing. They totally killed it on here! The tempos are slow pretty much and the lead guitar is angry and fierce. That is, when it shows up in it's presence allure. The backup vocals are also intriguing. There is nothing on here that I would say for the band to change.

Simone is at her best on here and she just sounds utterly beautify. I love it! The hoarse vocals are on here too, but not too much. They balance it out quite well. Definitely everyone on here that did the songwriting knew that this was to be their most epic release ever! I'm glad too that the album is long. It shows that they put a lot of work into making this utterly spellbinding. Simone sounds like her best ever that she has performed ever. A lot of the songs have brief introductions before they really set in. The guitars are heavy but well rounded. They have what it takes on here to make a beautiful release!

I'm applauded that they didn't get higher ratings I mean mine is the highest rating I could possibly give. But I'm backing it up with what I've heard from the album making an educated review of their music on here. The production quality and mixing was just extravagant. So you don't have to worry about making a mistake sound-wise for this one. Sure the symphonic stuff can be irritating at times but they didn't overload you with that symphonic stuff. They balanced it out entirely. And the hoarse vocals as well. Simone is at her best here and I think everything that's on here musically is ABSOLUTE PERFECTION.

I listened to this on Spotify before I thought about buying the album. I ordered the CD pretty much right away because I was in awe to what I heard. So yes, it is a part of me now. Some people have doused this release as something that's just somewhat mediocre and boring. I thought that it was the best release of theirs that I ever heard. I'd say that 'The Quantum Enigma', 'The Holographic Principle' and 'The Solace System' (2014, 2015 & 2017 respectively) were all really good, but this one is definitely I think their strong ever that I've heard to date. Long live Epica in their wonderful metal music and let them live it on with this one as their ultimate gem!

Rating: 10 (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Death8699
03/28/2021 10:37