Ranking the Studio Albums: Epica
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 15 พ.ย. 2020
- Join Pete Pardo & Chris Alo as they rank the albums of Dutch symphonic metal act Epica. #epica
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Simone Simons is just a geat female singer, she is born 1985 in Hoensbroek .Holland
it's i mile from here where I live, she came a lot in our local record store .
thanks for this great show Pete & Chris
Epica came to Guatemala about 10 years ago and it is the greatest concert I have ever been to. Simone was breathtaking, literally, not only because she is gorgeous, but her voice, oh my God her voice is unbelievable. Amazing music, just amazing, can't praise them enough. One of my favorite bands for sure. They just released a new single and video a couple of weeks ago. Thank you for doing this ranking 👍👍👍👍
This is so incredible that you both matched!
I absolutely love it when Chris Alo is on the show ! Killer guest - knowledgeable, insightful and hilarious!
For me it goes like:
1. Design Your Universe
2. The Divine Conspiracy
3. The Quantum Enigma
4. The Phantom Agony
5. Consign to Oblivion
6. Requiem for the Indifferent
7. The Holographic Principle
8. The Score
I heard of Epica before, but never gave them a listen. With this genre, the stuff I have heard sounds like death metal with an after thought of classical/operatic music just because we have a female lead vocalist. I listened to The Devine Conspiracy and Design Your Universe after watching the video. I am super impressed, the blending of metal, prog and classical is amazing. The melody is never lost, and the classical elements (while very pronounced at times) is so well done. Thanks Chis and Pete for talking about this cool band.
I have seen Epica many times over the years and their live shows are just absolutely amazing, they pack so much energy and power into all of the music. Simone Simmons has one of the greatest singing voices in the symphonic metal genre and Mark Janssen is an absolute beast. What an amazing band
1. Divine Conspiracy
2. Design Your Universe
3. Consign To Oblivion
4. The Phantom Agony
5. Requiem For The Indifferent
6. The Quantum Engima
7. The Holographic Principle
Mark and Floor are not related. Jansen is one of the most common names in The Netherlands and Belgium. Mark once had a thing going with Simone. Simone on the other hand married Oliver Palotai (Kamelot) in 2013. So, back to the music, shall we? 😉
Thanks, you are correct. For some reason I thought they might have been related,
Jansen = Jans son
@@sotdude7 Floor's sister, Irene, does sing professionally too, so maybe that's the confusion?
Thanks for this show, I really have enjoyed the music. Pete just caught up on some of your videos now I have four new bands (Nightwish, Kamelot, Seventh Wonder, Epica) to listen to and so far I dig em all, Thank you so much.
Great video. I guess I need to check out this band. Thanks for the introduction of yet another group!
Second never heard of them but I’ll check them out. That’s what I love about this channel. I find some great music I’ve never heard of
Chris is so entertaining doing these rankings. Nice to see some European Symphonic Metal in the mix.
Thank you!!
To paraphrase Forrest Gump, "Mark Jansen and Floor Jansen are no relation".
It's amazing that you guys had the same list because all of Epica's albums are awesome. I like Nightwish, but I like the diversity of Epica's music from Death Metal to Symphonic a lot more.
I don't like Nightwish at all (I can listen to them thought), but Epica is from another planet, but I freaking love them
Epic show guys, thanks!!
This channel is inspiring me to possibly start an album/ranking segment on my channel. But for now, here is my ranking in 2023:
1. Design Your Universe
2. The Holographic Principle
3. The Qunatem Enigma
4. The Devine Conspiracy
5. Requiem for The Indifferent
6. Omega
7. Cosign To Oblivion
8. The Phantom Agony
Absolutely adore this band!
Epica rocks it!! Thank you guys for ranking this band!! I appreciate it!!🎼🎤🎸🎵🥁
Their new album is set to be released on 26th of February 2021
Epica has some great lyrics:
"Be the Master of your own life
Stay in charge, maintain your duty
Dive into the Sea of pure Tranquility
We will be finally free"
Epica is my favorite and best symphonic metal band of all time in my opinion. And Simone 🔥🔥🔥😍😂 Nice video guys!
Chris Alo cool Holographic Principle shirt! Epica is a maelstrom! . Thunderous sound in your face! I do not compare to Nightwish because Epica is own kind of beast. Different strokes for different folks. I do not know how to rank them but The Quantum Enigma and Design Your Universe are maybe my two favorites. A band with great storylines in each albums. Great show! Chris is such a cool guy!
thanks for the kind words!! :)
When it comes to Mark Jansen not playing guitar on the studio album. He said some time ago that first of all the songwriting and lyrics absorb a lot of time and secondly he simply hates recording guitar parts in the studio. Besides that he said, Isaac can do a much better job at that and can do it quicker. So on The Holgraphic Principle album you only hear Isaac on guitar but also on Omega this is the case. Isaac doing all the guitar recordings. Mark is noted on Omega on the sleeve but you don't hear him play..Live on stage he is playing rhythm guitar though..
great rankings! Epica is often overlooked by metal fans, but it's just a great band. Awesome live band, and solid album after album.
The new single (Abyss of time) for their upcoming 2021 album is also very good. Looking forward to it!
Excellent band, I'm a big fan. Great video, good top 7...
They have 8 studio albums to date, but I have only three of Epica: all three were released in a row - The Divine Conspiracy (2007) Design Your Universe (2009) and Requiem For The Indifferent (2012)
Of these three albums, The Divine Conspiracy is my personal favorite album cover, and the 2nd favorite album cover is their 8th and last album Omega (2021).
Top Ten Songs:
1. Internal Warfare - Requiem For The Indifferent
2. Beyond Belief - The Divine Conspiracy
3. Design Your Universe - Design Your Universe
4. Indigo (Prologue) - The Divine Conspiracy
5. Sancta Terra - The Divine Conspiracy
6. Samadhi - Design Your Universe
7. Sensorium - The Phantom Agony
yes, it appears that this debut does have that low budget recording, but I don't know it hurts or helps this album, as a whole. Yet, in my opinion, that it actually helps this song: I like a surprise, and the surprise of this song is the low budget demo basic to it's recording ... it gives the song a rather rawness appeal than that well polished technique.
8. Never Enough - The Divine Conspiracy
9. Serenade Of Self Destruction - Requiem For The Indifferent
10. Avalanche - Requiem For The Indifferent
11. Karma - Requiem For The Indifferent
Requiem For The Indifferent is by far my personal favorite Epica album. It's my go to Epica album overall. The neoclassical female vocalist, & death metal male vocals - power, symphonic, progressive metal music I like. But the high screaming pitch vocals from the male singer, loses me.
I get it, and it works for them; but that element of their vocals, it just isn't for me. I like Century Child by Nightwish I think I like slightly more than Requiem For The Indifferent. Yet, I think you're correct overall, that Epica are better than Nightwish: I have only two studio cds from Nightwish.
Great video, and very interesting to see you both choose the same albums in the same order. This makes me want to try some of their later albums, I was a big fan of the first three albums and saw them on tour many times back then.My ranking based on that would be:
3. The Phantom Agony
2: The Score
1: Consign to Oblivion
Yeah, cant go wrong with any Epica album, Pete and Chris got their choices spot on.
Not forgetting that Simone also appears on Kamelot's live DVD One ColdWinters Night, which is when I first found out about her and then discovered that the band had been named after Kamelot's Epica album. Along with Floor Jansen she and Simone, for me, are the two best female vocalists around - there's lots of other really good ones, like Clementine Delauney of Visions of Atlantis, Sharon Den Adel of Within Temptation, Heidi Parviainen of Amberian Dawn/Dark Sarah, Anneke Van Giersbergen of The Gathering & various others - and if you get hold of a load of Ayreon releases he tends to feature a lot of great female vocalists - but for me Simone and Floor are the gold standard. Tarja is great but I can only listen to her in small doses, after a while it gets a bit too much.
As a further note, Simone is married to Kamelot's keyboardist, Oliver Pelotai, and they have a son, Vincent.
I’m looking forward to Epica’s new release!!🎼🎤🎸🎵🥁
Epica is fantastic. Kicks so hard. i love Epica!! And Omega (newest release) is in my opinion very high in the list...top 3 minimum!
I first saw Epica live at the Whiskey in Los Angeles on the Divine Conspiracy tour. I agree. It's their best ever!!!
I love Epica (Seen them three times, and they've always been amazing), but the only thing I learned from this video is that Pete loves redheads. 🤣
Check out Simone’s work with Ayreon as well, she’s outstanding on those albums!
Yahtzee! A complete match and that tells me that at least the top 2 albums need to be heard. Listening to A Divine Conspiracy while typing this and love the way it starts Thanks, Chris and Pete, for this SoT episode.
With all the beauty and the beast bands out there, Epica is definitely the best band in that category besides Nightwish. Here's my list:
1. Design Your Universe (Epic Masterwork and Best in this Category/TQE is also Flawed Masterwork)
2. The Quantum Enigma 3.The Holographic Principle ( Another Excellent album and they are on a roll)
4. The Divine Conspiracy (Great album and a step forward in progression)
5. The Phantom Agony (Solid Debut with a weak production but still good all around)
6. Requiem For The Indifferent (Good album with peaks and valleys)
7. Consign To Oblivion ( A little weak but still has good moments)
If all the other bands in Beauty and Beast category all disappear and only Epica and Nightwish are left for the next 30 years or more, I would be Happy.
Nightwish i think is not exactly Beauty and Beast since Marko does not do growls (well now he isnt even in the band anymore sadly). Their style is very different from Epica which draws more from death metal.
But i agree among the symphonic bands both are well above the rest. I don't know all the others, i like some Within Temptation for instance but i don't see them in the same league as the other 2.
My top picks
1. The Holographic Principle
Omega
2. Quantum Enigma b sides ep
3. Divine conspiracy
4. The solace system ep
5. Design your universe
6. The quantum enigma
7. Requiem for the indifferent
8. Consign to oblivion
9. The phantom agony
Great rankings, love Epica and Nightwish. I do like Nightwish more, but that's just me. Hope to see a rankings for Delain, Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil sometime in the future.
Love Epica ‘ Divine Conspiracy’!!🎼🎤🎸🎵🥁
OSCAR/ FELIX show !!! Love it
7. Design Your Universe
6. Requiem for the Indifferent
5. Consign to Oblivion
4. The Quantum Enigma
3. The Phantom Agony
2. The Holographic Principle
1. The Divine Conspiracy
I have been listening to this band for like 5 years now, and it's today i find out about the score
I like Nightwish allot but I agree with you guys, epica is so much better. Their music is heavier, more progressive and I love the death metal growls scattered throughout! And Simone Simmons is a metal goddess!
Take you 2 guys to Atlantic City with me. Seven 7️⃣straight bets on either RED or black ! 💰 💰 / that was cool !!
Epica is my favorite band, my ranking:
8 - Requiem for the Indifferent
7 - Consign to Oblivion
6 - The Holographic Principle
5 - The Quantum Enigma
4 - Omega
3 - The Phantom Agony
2 - The Divine Conspiracy
1 - Design Your Universe
I've only listened to their newest album Omega. If that's middle of the pack I can't wait to listen to the other albums.
Not a big fan of operatic vocalists in metal, but many years ago I was watching this Korean movie called "Fighter in the Wind" about a guy who spends his life fighting other people. And at one point you see this guy running through one scenery after the other, searching for worthy opponents to fight while this fast power metal score was playing, which was quite weird as the story took place around 1940, but nevertheless the music just fit the scene so damn nicely. The score was taken from Epicas' "Illusive consensus" (from the album The Phantom Agony), which is still my favorite song by them. Probably due to the context. The movie is damn good too.
Thank you. I have spoken.
Besides getting all of their albums I highly recommend getting their Retrospect album, 3 CD's and 2 DVD's... simply AMAZING. Hey Pete, how about a ranking of female fronted bands, there's some really really great ones and Simone alongside Ann Wilson of Heart, should be considered amongst the greatest vocalists of all time.
Retrospect!
Great point!! I couldn't tell you how many times I have watched the Retrospect Blu Ray! Same goes for the Nightwish live at Wacken Blu Ray too.
@@chrisalo2989 Oooh yeah! That is one Blu Ray that makes wish I could see Nightwish live. Must be an amazing experience.
Solid. I'd personally have ranked Phantom Agony and Consign to Oblivion near the top (for the quality of the melodies in the compositions, even if the production wasn't great), but I'm happy to see Divine Conspiracy up there.
I have never been so excited to check out a new band of your recommendation.
I am hypnotized by the red haired beauty Simone.........
I'm going in.
Pete thanks , another awesome album breakdown. Rob vanderloo and arien weesenbeck were in DELAIN before EPICA could you do a DELAIN album breakdown sometime. As always great job
Ariën van Weesenbeek and Isaac Delahaye were also in the band God Dethroned
Were they both in Mayan as well i know isaac was?
Chris is like me, when i love something, i LOVE it. Haha. I have multiple copies of numerous albums and movies. I've never heard Epica, but I've been told to check them out since I'm a big Kamelot fan. Where should i start, in their discography?
Why don’t you start with our #1 pick
and which epica albums a good to start off with i want an album that has a lot of death metal growls great show guys
Well, start with our #1 pick!
Nice job Chris and Pete, funny how your lists mirrored but I would wager if this show was done now 'Omega' would soar up the listing - it is that good. It is crazy how things work out as Epica seems to be following the trajectory After Forever should have taken had Sander Gommans not had his medical issue and the band stalled then dissolved. Floor Jansen then formed ReVamp as a solidly progressive metal band catering to her vocal stylings and allowing her to write the music exclusively. Seeing how these bands weave in and out of each others' histories is fascinating.
The top 4 albums are extremely extremely top quality, Rob Van Der Loo has a very good jazz fusion EP called Six Arms.
1) Consign to Oblivion
2) The Divine Conspiracy
3) Design Your Universe
4) The Phantom Agony
5) The Holographic Principle
6) Requiem for the Indifferent
7) The Quantum Enigma
8) The Score-An Epic Journey
"I don't have three copies of this though...." Ha!!
Don't forget Marks work with MaYaN awesome
The Score - An Epic Journey. Check this out of you're into epic soundtracks.
I got into Epica after seeing Amanda Somerville live and decided to check out groups she had worked with. I have not been disappointed.
Another group who are worth checking out are Beyond the Black, who I saw supporting Saxon. There is nothing wimpy about female rock vocalists- just listen to the early Heart albums..😉
Tremendous band
Now I wonder if they will rate Omega the same now it’s been released.
Hey guys would love to see you rank Within Temptation amazing band
So, now that Omega has arrived, how do you rank it in there? For me, Omega and DYU Gold Edition share the number 1.
haha Mark the brother of Floor that makes me smile, Jansen is together with de Jong the most common name in my country 😉 but great to see this episode about Epica.
My bad!
Chris Alo - I know you enjoy Nightwish and Epica. Both excellent bands. What is your take on Within Temptation and Lacuna Coil? Are you into them at all? Any reply would be most appreciated!
I dig both bands for sure!! Of the two, I think I follow Lacuna Coil more, I lost track of Within Temptation some. But Lacuna Coil have a a much bigger profile in the states.
Within Temptation's The Howling is ass kicking.
@@chrisalo2989 Thanks for the response Chris I appreciate it. On lacuna coil, do you feel they have improved over time much like Epica... do you prefer their latest material or do you prefer their older material !
@@jaysonraphaelmurdock8812 I agree Jayson. That is their best album. If you like that song, I suggest you investigate that album further. Also excellent albums: The unforgiving, Mother Earth and The Silent Force. But, my favorite album is The Heart of Everything - epic album !
@@jaysonraphaelmurdock8812 YES!!!!!!!!!!
Mark Jansen and Floor Jansen are not related. That's a misconception.
They aren’t related by blood, but they were once lovers - boyfriend and girlfriend - correct?
@@analogkid2869 I think Mark dated Simone, not sure about Floor.
@@relinquishh but he didn’t marry Simone? I thought mark and floor was a couple during the days of after forever?
@@analogkid2869 You may be right. I don't have all the facts on Mark's love life obviously 😄
@@analogkid2869 Pretty sure Floor used to date Sander another guy from After Forever , not Mark
pete and chris you guys are great guys and good friends can you pete rank the albums of amorphis
th-cam.com/video/EuaZATRiaOs/w-d-xo.html He did it with Nick Franco!
Agree with the No 1 but would have put Design Your Universe at 2. Is it time for a Within Temptation ranking video next?
How about an A7X albums ranking?
Do one for Evergrey gentlemen! I wanna hear your insights on this!
It's already been done.
Epica simone Simmons is a rock goddess and an angel love her voice my favourite album is Design your universe runner up the Devine conspiracy killer album’s
and i like epica cool band
Great show guys. Technical ecstasy was number 7 Chris, not 6, thats sabotage.
You are totally right! I cringed when I watched the video back last night. But you get the idea. In my opinion, Sabbath did 6 great records, but #7, not so much.
My old age is catching up to me!
Freakishly consistent band - not one bad record
I'm in agreement about Epica. Great stuff!
But I disagree about Tarja. He solo stuff is fantastic.
As for other female-fronted bands, I'll put in my two cents to hear you guys discuss Lacuna Coil one of these days.
It's the death growls that stop me from liking Epica.
Pete - Epica - one of your favorite bands of all time?
Simone has great photos on pinterest
Top 3
1. Design your Universe
2. The Divine Conspiracy
3. The Holographic Principal
is amorphis like epica
Not even close, good band though i think from finlan
Mark Jansen is not related to floor Jansen according to Wikipedia
I love epica,but yes nightwish is best with floor j.rp
Agree to disagree but I wholeheartedly think Epica is in a whole different category of music. I don't know why people compare Nightwish and Epica because they sound completely different but Epica has so much more in there music than Nightwish does to mean. I just hits different.
True List is (in my Opinion):
1.) RFTI
2.)HoloPrinciple
3.)Omega
4.)Divine Conspiracy
5.)DYU
6.)Quantum
7.)Phantom Agony
8.)Consign to Oblivion
Wow nobody ever picks RFTI as favorite
But more power to you for doing it
I guess this is an unpopular opinion, but I do think Epica kinda peaked with their first few records (The Phantom Agony wasn't always my favorite, but it is now. And funnily enough I used to not have much interest in Consign to Oblivion). The Divine Conspiracy could've outdone the first two, but the production on those first few Nuclear Blast releases wasn't the best. Requiem for the Indifferent is an album that to this day I've never been able to listen to all the way through. But with The Holographic Principle I think they released something that I enjoy as much as those first two records. The most common issue I have with some Epica (and Nightwish stuff, too), is that the grandeur sometimes feels unearned, and that the band is trying to cover up less than fantastic songwriting with the orchestration.
Chris probably has a few shirts.. the remastered face. The face with extra tracks..
Interesting placing Divine Conspiracy above Design Your Universe, I think most people like the later more partly because Isaac is a great improvement as lead guitarist, and brings so much more to the table.
I've listened up to Retrospect DVD so I don't know the latest 2 records yet, but I'd probably rank the first 5 this way:
1) DYU
2) TDC
3) TPA
4) CTO
5) RFTI, which is pretty good but not on the same level as the previous ones, the title long track is not as great as the others IMO
Album no. 6 from Sabbath is " Sabotage ". Seven is " Technical E ..."
Random stupid comment, but the odds you would have picked all 7 the same (ignoring musical taste) were about 26879:1
Chris got it - writing Epica off just because Simone is their lead singer is a grave mistake. Even more so as Simone's son, Vincent, is the ultimate metalhead (or close to it).
8. The Phantom Agony
7. Consign To Oblivion
6. The Divine Conspiracy
5. Requiem For The Indifferent
4. Omega
3. The Quantum Enigma
2. Design Your Universe
1. The Holographic Principle
Epica? I thought it said Erica, an excellent modern English rock band. Check them out.
First?
Just tried listening to some of Epica's stuff, for me it's just too too too much of everything.
I always appreciate any videos you guys put up, but I have to say that all of the female-fronted symphonic hard rock bands have always made me think of the boy/girl bands of the late 90's. They all sound kinda the same, they're all attractive people, the music is over-produced, etc. I get why people are into it, but I also get why people liked Spice Girls and NSYNC. Thanks for the video either way, though, guys!!!
Nothing to do with that here, the music is really good, not just the looks. The female is because the soprano voice fits the music, a guy could not fit there
I have literally never heard of these dudes. I still see no sign of Danger Danger - oh of course 80s glam metal and so regarded by PP as 'hair band' crap
I have never owned a Danger Danger album, so you probably won't see a ranking here. I did recently do shows on Cinderella, Ratt, Winger, Extreme, and Dokken...guess you didn't see those???? And, MANY people know Epica. There's plenty of great bands who have come out after the '80s. Give 'em a chance.
The way you dissed Nightwish, I know I can't trust anything you say about symphonic metal. Unsubscribed.
Card-carrying member,
The Nightwish Army