THE PHANTOM AGONY

20 years ago, a new album came out like a bomb and revolutionized the musical world in the classico-opera hard-rock space; EPICA with a mezzo-soprano Simone was hitting the molehill; prog one day, prog always to deflower a new concept, not only prog metal, EPICA. I had to talk about it since it's a major album in terms of innovation.

1. 'Adyta (The Neverending Embrace)' for the intro as it should be, sinister atmosphere, choirs, limit of an almost Gregorian chant, latent that's enough for me as an intro to imagine. 2. 'Sensorium' for the hit, if possible, to show the soul of the band, yes, needless to say, it's so visible, their 1st was the best by far; lots of Nightwish in it though. 3.' Cry for the Moon (The Embrace That Smothers, Part IV)' for the characteristic sound between metal, sympho and classic rock opera, a style apart; lack of solos but classic cinematic atmospheres before their time, the drums being there for something! the least, even if I got used to it, this growl voice, good Nightwish did the same so why not, but still Simone is more than enough for me; in the absence of solo you will have an acceleration of the air, style apart 4. 'Feint' the melting headline; when Enigma and Era transform and give birth with a crescendical air of beauty, Simone shows that her voice is enough for this title, and that the solo is not essential 5. 'Illusive Consensus' with a nagging intro, the DVD showed Amanda's help with vocals and the presence of a classic space with violins which potentiated the hollywood-opera rock metal side; a little guitar solo here anyway 6. 'Façade of Reality (The Embrace That Smothers, Part V)' for one of the 2 river titles, it's fast at the start, the real or synthetic violins accompany a fight of voices, romantico-ethereo-aperitif or opera I no longer know; Mark's growling voice passes almost like a letter here, Simone rises to angel level with her voice; in the absence of a guitar solo, you are entitled to a classico-romantic-cinematic break before your time, beautiful! Simone shows her talent as a mezzo-soprano and breaks down the boundaries between classical and heavy-rock, as if the Rondo Venezualo merged with Apocalyptica 7. 'Run for a Fall' for the romantic ballad from start to finish, Amanda and Simone show that you can sing well before being beautiful, the archetype also of the metalhead who only saw women as backing vocalists before, do not forget. 8. 'Seif al Din (The Embrace That Smothers, Part VI)' on the oriental texture, between howls of Mark I'm struggling and the high but beautiful voice of Simone and a cinematic voiceover or otherwise; we feel the simplistic but catchy development; we take advantage of the string chamber, we would find the second growl almost soft, as soft as that look from Simone at the end of the clip; hey what no I did not fall in love! 9. 'The Phantom Agony' for the track on the album, everything is there to make it perfect; the rhythm, the choirs, look at the clip of the dvd (seen a few times), we feel that the group is having fun surfing between the hollywood of a Rhapsody, the bombast of an Ayreon and the mastery of an Epica .

Well, a bombshell album, one of those that revolutionizes the progressive sound and that allows a musical opening, that's also the goal of loving a genre that is evolving, hence this babbling.