When it got announced many months ago, my mind got twisted over. We have been waiting patiently for five whole years and our Dutch friends have performed successfully giving us a taste of what’s coming in 21 February of 2021. The streaming releases of ”Abyss of Time” and ”Freedom” showed us many things, which I will analyse in the paragraphs below.
First is first…2020 was a depressing and terrible year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which affected in every way the life of every single human being. But no matter the danger, the Epica guys did their very best to produce a new album, surely using every security procedure available and as things move to the release date, they keep the hype at extreme levels. They could say ”we made a lot of successful albums and money, so we stop moving forward” but they didn’t. They proved their loyalty to their fans!
Now, I’ll talk a little about their new singles you can find on Youtube and Spotify. First, the ‘‘Abyss Of Time”. If it ain’t broken don’t fix it…right? The song is beautifully structured, like every thing Epica create. It has anthem like drum rhythm, the sweet voice of Simone encouraging us to fight our fears and be the masters of our lives and of course…the epic growl vocals of Mark and Isaac, which both have more duration of their appearance in the song comparing to any other Epica previous studio albums. Just pure magic!
Then we have ”Freedom(The Wolves Within)” single. It’s based on an ancient Chinese proverb, which speaks about our mind which consists of two wolves, the good and the evil one and their unstoppable feud to conquer your soul. The meaning is very deep in this song. Other than that, the structure of the song is typical Epica and the crazy growls of Mark stand out as always but again, for extended periods of time.
Finishing this article, I wish the very best to the whole Epica crew and if nothing else, a real happy new year to everybody out there. Stay home, stay safe…people and metal maniacs!
