Dutch symphonic metal band Epica are currently on a worldwide tour after the release of one the best metal albums of all time, their new album, ‘The Divine Conspiracy’. It’s been a tough road for Epica, no matter what they have tried they have always been compared to higher selling symphonic metal bands such as Nightwish and Lacuna Coil, but now the symphonic metal world is hailing ‘The Divine Conspiracy’ as the ultimate album that outshines anything Nightwish has even attempted.

Although he was a hard man to track down I finally got to ask Epica’s main scream/growl-vocalist, Mark Jansen, what he wanted fans to know about ‘The Divine Conspiracy’ before they heard it, ‘It’s a concept album about misunderstanding and misinterpretation of religions, God or a higher spirit released many religions upon mankind as a test to see what would happen, would humanity be able to find out that all religions lead to the same source or would they fail and keep on fighting each other.’

Of course the first thing any listener will notice is that Epica have got a lot heavier on this album and Mark heartedly agrees, ‘That’s definitely the case. Lots of people expected us to develop into the mainstream direction but we had to follow our heart and make exactly the music we like the most, we all have our roots in the death metal so it’s obvious that an album becomes more heavy as a result.’

Despite ‘The Divine Conspiracy’ being such a fine album, behind closed doors Epica have had a lot to deal with apart from recording an album. Firstly, their record label collapsed leaving them without a home but in a twist of fate they found themselves being signed by Nuclear Blast, one of the biggest labels worldwide. Then of course there was the persistent rumors that with Tarja Turunen leaving Nightwish, Epica’s soprano-vocalist Simone Simons would leave Epica to join Nightwish, and while this had the metal world talking Mark denies it ever got to Simone, ‘She stayed very calm and her reaction was always that she’s very happy to be in Epica and that is what she wants. To sing her own songs and own lyrics. But of course it was also a compliment for her that her name was mentioned so often.’

And while ‘The Divine Conspiracy’ is a group effort it would be negligent for me not to mention that it is Simons’s vocals that make this album something else, that fact wasn’t lost on the rest of the band, ‘Simone did a very good job. We did a pre production on vocals already so Simone could focus 100% on the singing itself during the recordings. Previous times we changed some vocal lines during the recording sessions but that’s not ideal to put the best emotion in a line, as she didn’t get used to the new lines yet. In ballad like songs you can hear best what Simone can do with her voice.’

So where to now for Epica? Unfortunately Mark says they are no plans for them to tour Australia, it’s not the band’s choice it’s ‘just one of things’. But they can rest on the knowledge they have produced a great album, an album that finally defines who Epica are, ‘I think we have found our style now indeed but I must say that I still love our debut album a lot as well. We keep on playing many songs from the first album as well live.’

So at least it seems Epica have created an album that will allow them to stand on their own two feet and not be continuously likened to others, although Mark says comparisons don’t annoy the band as much as people would like to think, ‘It’s possible to compare every band in the world so it doesn’t frustrate me. Upcoming bands will always be compared with the most successful bands up to date.’

And although a lot of metal fans still turn there back on symphonic metal, Mark leaves with me with why he believes ‘The Divine Conspiracy’ will appeal to fans of all different kinds of metal, ‘We make use of a lot of metal styles and combine them into the Epica style. You can hear influences from the Black and death metal but also symphonic and progressive metal and of course also some gothic metal’.

Let’s hope that those metal fans do chose to listen to ‘The Divine Conspiracy’ because they are missing out on a brilliant album if they don’t.

Dave Griffiths

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