With or without symphonic frills, EPICA don’t half-ass anything. Their ninth studio album in a career spanning more than two decades, “Aspiral,” feels as consistent with their bombastic symphonic metal as anything that came before, and – at this point, I feel confident saying – anything that they will release in the future. “Aspiral” came out on April 11th, 2025, via Nuclear Blast, and it’s surprisingly fresh and revitalizing.
Off the gate, “Aspiral” hits differently; there’s something in the way it was recorded and put together that makes it stand apart from the rest. It has incredibly frantic energy coursing through it as if it were mixed to sound like a live album. It’s sharp in sound yet still big in scope, with the instrumental side more in the forefront as the symphonic arrangements are kept to a minimum, thus leaving more space for the vocals to soar and the guitars and drums to make a bigger impact. Also, the backing choirs are only sporadically used so as to capitalize more on them when they do appear but, more importantly, to spotlight Simone Simons’ vocals, which may just be her best yet. But, by this point, EPICA know their core sound like the back of their hand and can play within its borders without ever losing their essence, and this album more than proves that they are one of the most consistent bands on the metal scene.
Because of its lively sound design, “Aspiral” seems like an easier album to digest, like EPICA somehow simplified their formula so as to let the actual melodies take the spotlight more than the backing arrangements. But that is not necessarily the case, as many of these songs still sound huge and cinematic, while the rest have an incredible urgency to them. This is evident from the opening track, “Cross the Divide,” which is not a short orchestral intro as per usual but a catchy, melodic, albeit a bit poppish, affair that has managed to subvert my expectations most wonderfully. The recently released “Fight to Survive (the Overview Effect)” works in a similar fashion as it is a more modern-sounding piece carried by Simone Simons’ soothing vocals, a rousing chorus, and fierce guitars that give way to a frenzied mid-section followed by a blistering solo moment. Stripped down EPICA still delivers big time because their music was always grounded in sleek vocal performances and well-crafted melodies.
The best thing about “Aspiral” is how multifaceted it actually is as the tracks present a new, updated version of their core symphonic sound. I have heard “Arcana” live when they debuted it during The Symphonic Synergy concert/livestream and I remember being really mesmerized by the way it theatrically ebbs-and-flows between darker sections enhanced by choirs and swelling orchestrations and Simone Simons’ gentle vocals that (I thought) it could have easily come from the writing sessions for “Omega.” Similarly, “Obsidian Heart” has fragility to it, which comes from the lyrics and delicate vocal delivery despite the soaring chorus and heavy instrumental side, showcasing more of EPICA’s darker musical side. On the other hand, the Dutch sextet has always been a metal band to the bone, and there are plenty of moments on this album that display their metal edge. The aforementioned “Obsidian Heart” is definitely one of them thanks to its effective riffs and irresistible grooves, but so is latter album track “Eye of the Storm” which boasts some fiercely rumbling guitars, Mark Jansen’s deep growls, and a powerful rhythm section not just to ground everything but to give it a bigger soundscape and make it feel as if EPICA is flirting with melodeath.
Then there are the three songs that continue the “A New Age Dawns” saga on this album – “Darkness Dies in Light,” “Metanoia,” and “The Grand Saga of Existence” – and which carry the classic EPICA sound of earlier albums like “Consign to Oblivion” or “Design Your Universe” complete with their trademark beauty-and-the-beast vocals, chants in Latin, larger-than-life orchestrations, massive choirs, operatic vocals, dense instrumentals, and some extreme metal elements. These three tracks really put the rest of the album into perspective as they showcase where they started from and how much EPICA’s sound matured with time. Conversely, both “T.I.M.E” (an abbreviation for “Transformation, Integration, Metamorphosis, and Evolution”) and “Apparition” are more in line with their current sound as the melodies and groves are the ones that move the songs along at brisk paces with the orchestrations and choirs acting like embellishments that add texture to the music. Closing this adventurous and exuberant album is the minimalistic title track, “Aspiral,” a ballad of sorts with a spoken-word part and lots of atmosphere that, unfortunately, doesn’t reach the emotional heights of something like “Rivers.”
All-in-all, “Aspiral” could very well be a late career highlight as well as a showcase of their best moments. It merges together different soundscapes as presented through individual songs, but overall it’s a very cohesive and well put together album. As I stated earlier, “Aspiral” hits differently by sounding more like a live album than an overly polished studio output as the music has an undercurrent of unrestrained vitality running through it, from the frenzied guitar sound to the way the vocals come across and how much better it sounds when played through the speakers as opposed to headphones (weird thing to write about EPICA but here we are). Nonetheless, if this is how EPICA is reinventing their sound, I’m all here for it.
Written by Andrea Crow
Tracklist
- Cross the Divide
- Arcana
- Darkness Dies in Light – A New Age Dawns Parts VII
- Obsidian Heart
- Fight to Survive – The Overview Effect
- Metanoia – A New Age Dawns Part VIII
- T.I.M.E.
- Apparition
- Eye of the Storm
- The Grand Saga of Existence – A New Age Dawns Part IX
- Aspiral
Lineup
- Simone Simons – Vocals
- Mark Jansen – Guitars, Vocals
- Isaac Delahaye – Guitars
- Rob van der Loo – Bass
- Coen Janssen – Keyboards
- Ariën van Weesenbeek – Drums, Vocals
Label
Nuclear Blast
