We Will Take You With Us: 2 Meter Sessies

by

Epica

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I've listened to Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Within Temptation but none of the vocals or music has quite grabbed me as Epica now has. IT'S FANTASTIC!!!!!!!!

Simone's vocals are peculiar in a sense but absolutely gorgeous at the same time. Even the grunts, which i'm generally not a fan of, have something to them that just makes me want to go get more.

My personal favourites on this album would have to be the heart-stopping 'Sensorium', the beautiful 'Illusive consensus' and the headbanging 'Sief Al Dien'.

I highly recommend this album (as well as "Consign to Oblivion", Epica's other fantastic album, yes, FANTASTIC!!!!) to fans of bands such as Nightwish, After Forever etc. You won't regret it, this is no waste of money!!!

Recently, I have been in a live performance of Epica, following this album, "We Will Take You With Us". I have heard much of the band, and while I knew none of their songs, I was expecting a good heavy/gothic metal concert.

Music-wise, Epica was rather disappointing. The band lacked harmony between the instruments and vocals, as well as between instruments themselves. There were few solos, and the music felt uninspired. Simone's singing was good, but not great, and the songs themselves weren't exceptional, either. The ballads they played haven't been emotional. The black metal style male vocals simply did not make the songs any better, on the contrary. Of course there have been few good parts, but certainly they didn't live up to their reputation, in my opinion.

But that's the music side. It was disappointing at another level.

I was surprised at how much this band lacks any class. At first, the keyboard player went on the stage with a cigarette in his mouth. The other guitar player (not the one who does the male vocals) went on with a bottle of beer. I honestly think those could be better left behind prior to the show. The male vocalist was the worst- he didn't seem to stop swearing all night long- "Are you ready for another heavy metal f***er?","You are f****ng f****ng f****ng great!" and so on. They made a terrible choice of cover to perform-"Crystal" from the Black metal band "Death"(perfomed without Simone, obviously). And Simone... I was surprised at her, too. Although she disguised it, at least four times she made "the finger" toward the crowd- I imagine few noticed it, as she moved her hand a lot, but there could no mistake about it. I have no idea what driven her to do so. I guess she's just that kind of person. Perhaps she thinks it's amusing, I don't know. Before a ballad she asked the crowd to raise "a cigarette or a cell phone so I can see you".Hmmm...great. I certainly expected more class than this.

I will mention that the fans loved them, but in my eyes (and in the eyes of the two friends that have been with me)- they did so blindly. Outside was a stand of the store that markets their products here, along with many other metal merchandise. The guy who runs it seemed to share my opinion on them. When someone asked for their CD ("The Phantom Agony"), he told him "You shouldn't, it's just after-concert enthusiasm". When his assistant later said he should have brought more of their CDs and DVDs, the guy answered "with the way they behaved tonight, even what we brought was too many". He noted their "bloated Ego" and how they think too much of themselves more than once-probably something they did before the show. If you asked yourself why I've heard all that-I was looking all this time for a specific metal CD, left, and came back to find it when the crowd dispersed, right before the store manager wrapped it up.

I'm a big metal fan, and it isn't my first concert. I know a good band can give a great, satisfying concert, such as the last one I've been to-"Nightmare"(power metal) that have been huge.

But I warn any of you that are considering this band- "Epica" have NO class at all. The performance was not terrible, but the bad easily outwheighted the good. While this band chose a great name, there is better music than this, and there are a number of bands that play better metal, have more harmony and got good female vocals too.