Nuclear Blast
2012
1. Karma (Intro)
2. Monopoly On Truth
3. Storm The Sorrow
4. Delirium
5. Internal Warfare
6. Requiem For The Indifferent
7. Anima (Interlude)
8. Guilty Demeanor
9. Deep Water Horizon
10. Stay The Course
11. Deter The Tyrant
12. Avalanche
13. Serenade Of Self-Destruction
Requiem For The Indifferent has got to be one of my most anticipated albums of this year. Epica's last, Design Your Universe, has grown into a major favorite of mine and I do love symphonic metal when done right. Orchestration can really add a nice extra heaviness to metal when done right and I do love epic flair. Design Your Universe, to me, was just a perfect blend and a very intense album.
Well, I'll be blunt and tell you that Requiem For The Indifferent seems to shrug off the perfect formula on Design Your Universe and is a total miss. Epica are just frustrating here as they had such a great sound and this one does not capture the same formula at all. It isn't the first time I've felt this way about an Epica album as The Divine Conspiracy did nothing much for me, but following Design Your Universe this one becomes even more of a let down. I guess I should have had a bit of doubt somewhere in the back of my mind, but the last album was too exciting.
Requiem For The Indifferent can pretty well be summed up by the first track, Monopoly On Truth. From the start something seems amiss as the sound is not as heavily symphonic, the death vocals take over most of the track, and even Simone Simons doesn't sound very good. There's a certain element of discord in this track that just doesn't sit with me and there are times when I just wish Simone would be more operatic. To add to the problems is the fact that this track seems to lack any kind of real structure and meanders in a somewhat random fashion for 7 minutes without a good build or chorus. It almost seems as though this song is trying to be a bit progressive death or something and it falls flat for me. The only good moment comes in a few nice operatic moments from Simone, but there frankly aren't enough of them. I know as I write this that it is a lot of dissection of one track, but this song pretty much represents what gos wrong here. As a longer epic, symphonic track it isn't worthy of being Kingdom Of Heaven's bitch, which blended a perfect 3 way attack of death verses, choral sections, and operatics from Simone.
Moving on, the rest of the album pretty much follows suit. Storm The Sorrow kinda ends up being the highlight just because it seems like the most coherent, structured, and catchy song here. All in all, I'm not over the top on it and it could have used more of an orchestral backing, but it's a decent single and the best this album pulls off. Listening to this album over and over I just couldn't latch onto much here. The music isn't symphonic enough, the vocals don't go operatic enough, and this just doesn't give me my epic metal fix. Moreover, there really is a sound of discord on this album as Simone and the music tries to sound tortured and dark or something that I do not like one bit. Add in a ballad, Delirium, which sounds too much like a pop ballad disguised behind a thin veil of none too impressive symphonics/piano and you have a perfect recipe for disaster.
There's no way around this. Requiem For The Indifferent is just a total letdown and way below the standard this band is capable of. Maybe Mark Jansen's work with Mayan is spreading the songwriting a little thin or perhaps I just don't like the direction this band wants to head. Then again, maybe this band just didn't have a good songwriting session. Only time will tell on that one. What I can tell you is that this album isn't really worth your time in this writer's opinion. I tried and tried again to like it, but it didn't happen.
Highlights: Storm The Sorrow
Rating - 2.5/5
2. Monopoly On Truth
3. Storm The Sorrow
4. Delirium
5. Internal Warfare
6. Requiem For The Indifferent
7. Anima (Interlude)
8. Guilty Demeanor
9. Deep Water Horizon
10. Stay The Course
11. Deter The Tyrant
12. Avalanche
13. Serenade Of Self-Destruction
Requiem For The Indifferent has got to be one of my most anticipated albums of this year. Epica's last, Design Your Universe, has grown into a major favorite of mine and I do love symphonic metal when done right. Orchestration can really add a nice extra heaviness to metal when done right and I do love epic flair. Design Your Universe, to me, was just a perfect blend and a very intense album.
Well, I'll be blunt and tell you that Requiem For The Indifferent seems to shrug off the perfect formula on Design Your Universe and is a total miss. Epica are just frustrating here as they had such a great sound and this one does not capture the same formula at all. It isn't the first time I've felt this way about an Epica album as The Divine Conspiracy did nothing much for me, but following Design Your Universe this one becomes even more of a let down. I guess I should have had a bit of doubt somewhere in the back of my mind, but the last album was too exciting.
Requiem For The Indifferent can pretty well be summed up by the first track, Monopoly On Truth. From the start something seems amiss as the sound is not as heavily symphonic, the death vocals take over most of the track, and even Simone Simons doesn't sound very good. There's a certain element of discord in this track that just doesn't sit with me and there are times when I just wish Simone would be more operatic. To add to the problems is the fact that this track seems to lack any kind of real structure and meanders in a somewhat random fashion for 7 minutes without a good build or chorus. It almost seems as though this song is trying to be a bit progressive death or something and it falls flat for me. The only good moment comes in a few nice operatic moments from Simone, but there frankly aren't enough of them. I know as I write this that it is a lot of dissection of one track, but this song pretty much represents what gos wrong here. As a longer epic, symphonic track it isn't worthy of being Kingdom Of Heaven's bitch, which blended a perfect 3 way attack of death verses, choral sections, and operatics from Simone.
Moving on, the rest of the album pretty much follows suit. Storm The Sorrow kinda ends up being the highlight just because it seems like the most coherent, structured, and catchy song here. All in all, I'm not over the top on it and it could have used more of an orchestral backing, but it's a decent single and the best this album pulls off. Listening to this album over and over I just couldn't latch onto much here. The music isn't symphonic enough, the vocals don't go operatic enough, and this just doesn't give me my epic metal fix. Moreover, there really is a sound of discord on this album as Simone and the music tries to sound tortured and dark or something that I do not like one bit. Add in a ballad, Delirium, which sounds too much like a pop ballad disguised behind a thin veil of none too impressive symphonics/piano and you have a perfect recipe for disaster.
There's no way around this. Requiem For The Indifferent is just a total letdown and way below the standard this band is capable of. Maybe Mark Jansen's work with Mayan is spreading the songwriting a little thin or perhaps I just don't like the direction this band wants to head. Then again, maybe this band just didn't have a good songwriting session. Only time will tell on that one. What I can tell you is that this album isn't really worth your time in this writer's opinion. I tried and tried again to like it, but it didn't happen.
Highlights: Storm The Sorrow
Rating - 2.5/5
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