The Divine Conspiracy - Epica

Epica's most recent album is their best by a narrow margin, and comes about as close to perfection as this band could ever hope to achieve, considering its fairly limited scope. Everything here is taken to a further extreme than before, which is ultimately beneficial: the rock instruments are heavier, male and female vocals alternate more than ever, and the orchestration is often dark and ominous as well as light and majestic. 'The Obsessive Devotion' progresses nicely from its orchestral beginnings to a memorable main orchestral melody backed up by the rock instruments, and 'Menace of Vanity' is a rare occasion of the guitars being shifted to the forefront, ...  Read the complete review