Half of what you think of an album is influenced by the expectations you had about it, and the means through which you get your hands on it. Kind of an obvious conclusion, but I thought it’d introduce my current opinions on Epica‘s The Classical Conspiracy pretty well.
A quick outlook on it could be: high expectations almost fulfilled. Epica‘s effort at Miskloc was certainly ambitious, following Therion‘s (check out the live they recorded there, atleast for the sake of comparison) and resulting in a very enjoyable experience. The performance is great, both from the band and orchestra, Simone sings flawlessly, the sound quality definitely lives up to the challenge of rendering the “metal band playing with an orchestra” cliché (cause that’s what it’s become, and I’m not at all saying that’s a bad trend) — but sometimes I’m left wondering, is there anything missing?..
Most certainly not. My own perplexity about it is quickly explained. When you hear a band like Epica (doesn’t the name already hint at something?..) plays live with an orchestra, and a pretty prestigious one, you can’t but get butterflies in your stomach at the idea of such a union coming to life. And when you add that the setlist is made up of two halves, one ranging from some well-known classical pieces to a couple of popular blockbuster movies’ tunes, and the other comprising basically all of the band’s greatest hits – then those butterflies start flying around frantically.
So, what’s the matter? What did keep me from instantly dubbing this as the “album of the year”, or something of the sorts? It’s how it lives up to the expectations in too much a regular way, I believe.
The classical setlist, all included in the first CD (’cause yes, it’s a double CD release, and we very much regret that no video recording was included), is executed to perfection. No flaws, anywhere. Credits definitely go to the orchestra, showing a great confidence in dealing with each and every piece. But where’s the metal? Ariën’s drumming is most active and does really add some kind of aggressiveness to the interpretation; so do the guitars, here and there. But it sounds like the band was too cautious not to turn the classical tracks into something “too metal”. They didn’t dare enough.
This first part of the setlist is mostly left up to the orchestra – which fortunately handles it perfectly, anyway. And there are some highlights. They obviously depend on everyone’s penchant for this or that composer/style/whatever, and being a great fan of epic music as I am, I couldn’t but love the renditions of Dies Irae, The Imperial March (from Star Wars) and the Pirates of the Caribbean Medley. Same goes for Unholy Trinity, the only Epica‘s own song included in the classical half of the set – and one of their most beautiful score-like songs, by the way (remember The Score?..).
The second part of the set is also astounding. They played some of their most acclaimed songs (and I won’t go through them, as it’d be pointless to just list my own favourites here), and the interpretation is again immaculate. But as they let the orchestra “take over” the classical set, so they sort of leave it a bit too much out of the business when it’s metal time. It’s like the orchestra doesn’t do much more than just accompanying Epica as they put out the same, usual great show. Nothing is added to it; no notable orchestrations, no daring straying from the “normal” way of playing their songs. A comparison with Metallica‘s stint with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra is almost automatic. And, as many critics as that gained, it still was an attempt by the orchestra to move on from a mere playing along the band almost shily staying in place, as it were. They did dare. Epica didn’t.
Yet, telling the truth, that secured them a neat performance, steady from start to finish (and it’s more than two hours of playing), and very hard to criticise. They chose to be careful and it paid off.
To wish they had made the classical setlist sound a bit more metal, and let the orchestra elaborate more on the classical background, is probably just to split hairs. As a matter of fact, the show was great and the record shows it greatly. Simone was probably right when she said, during the concert, that “this is how epica is supposed to sound like”; i.e., pretty much like usual.
THUS SPAKE THE CENNSOR: The Classical Conspiracy is a very epic Epica-like release. It does not bring their music to a new level, but they don’t need that at the moment anyway. Let’s rather hope the Epica+orchestra thing wasn’t just a.. one night stand, but a marriage that’ll stand the test of time. As of now, we’re left with 2+ hours of greatly composed, arranged (my doubts all concern this one aspect), and played music. Which is something we’re always better off with. 7/10
