In other words, this is easily Epica's most ambitious album in five years, and while it definitely is worth your time if you're a fan of the band, or hell, even if you're not, I'm not quite sure it's their best. Not a bad one by any stretch - the instrumentation is epic and vibrant and probably the heaviest Epica has ever approached, and the performances are really something special on their own - but lyrically this album is approaching a very complicated subject and while I admire the ambition behind this, I'm not quite sure the band pulls it off. Well, a bit of a strange album, that's for damn sure. So I picked up the album and dug in deep - what did I find? Now, this isn't the first time that Epica has tackled the topic of quantum physics - or rather, the complete failure of certain parts of society to not recognize that brand of science and how they need to evolve, all framed as a philosophical argument in a romantic relationship - so I was definitely wondering how on earth they'd manage to pull this off twice.
![epica the quantum enigma album lyrics epica the quantum enigma album lyrics](http://myglobalmind.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/epica_thequantumenigma_cover.jpg)
That's not saying they don't have problems - I would be lying if I didn't say that Epica didn't get preachy every once and a while, and I still think as a band they haven't quite mastered a killer hook like their contemporaries Nightwish and Within Temptation have, but Mark Jensen and Simone Simons remain strong songwriters and performers, and they're only getting better.Īnd coming after their 2012 album Requiem For The Indifferent - an album demanding the audience engage in the world and be willing to work together to tackle world-shaking problems and not be divided and unwilling to compromise - I was very interested in their newest album, titled The Quantum Enigma. This was a band that routinely explored religion, politics, philosophy, and mortality, and once they had improved their production and picked a heavier guitar tone, I found myself really getting into the band. Epica was not only tackling big enough subject matter to match their massive orchestrations, but also was doing it with intellect, due consideration, and a lot of richly articulated nuance. And on top of not having a really immediacy to their hooks, I ignored this band for a long time.īut man, once I got past that first album and really started digging into their lyrics, colour me wrong about this band. Now for the longest time, I had had a hard time into Epica, mostly because I found the guitar tone chosen on those early albums a little flat and unflattering and Simone Simons to be a talented singer but not particularly engaging behind the microphone, at least early on. That's not saying I didn't notice bad lyrics or wasn't aware that some symphonic metal could get unbelievably silly or ridiculous, it's just that I didn't tend to mind as much as long as the instrumentation, production, and delivery were able to deliver that epic sweep on their own.Īnd if I was looking for a band to violently change my mind on this belief, that band would be Epica, an act that I can only describe as the thinking man's brand of symphonic metal.
![epica the quantum enigma album lyrics epica the quantum enigma album lyrics](https://i.redd.it/jb6zdqiap6381.jpg)
![epica the quantum enigma album lyrics epica the quantum enigma album lyrics](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/esBtoHStMjI/hqdefault.jpg)
![epica the quantum enigma album lyrics epica the quantum enigma album lyrics](http://www.jpc.de/image/w600/rear/0/0727361322229.jpg)
I've made the statement in the past that lyrics are often the least important thing in symphonic metal - or at least, for the longest time, they were for me.