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Given that Epica is at their best when shooting for total sensory overload, the guitar-led verse of “Beyond the Matrix” sounds like an audial loading screen for the bombastic chorus instead of an integral part of the song, and it’s easy to forget that guitars are actually involved when said chorus occurs. The primary focus of Epica’s compositions is Simons’s voice, the secondary focus is symphonic keyboard embellishments, and guitars occupy tertiary territory. The Holographic Principle is one of the least guitar-driven metal records I’ve heard in my entire life. “A Phantasmic Parade” is concise, catchy, and builds its chorus hook around the operatic vocals, a successful and memorable use of Epica’s favorite embellishment. Vocalist Simone Simons puts on a gorgeous performance in “Once upon a Nightmare” that carries the song, elevating what would be average lactose-laden balladry into a quality tune. The quasi-Eastern flair of “Dancing in a Hurricane” reminds of Blind Guardian (“Wheel of Time”) and Wintersun ( Time I), and while it’s more in line with blockbuster soundtracks than metal it’s a good piece of music nonetheless.
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The energetic “Edge of the Blade” is meticulously crafted to keep the listener engaged and entertained, and succeeds at both handily. “Universal Death Squad” and its Terminator-inspired lyrics make for a good cheeseball arena metal tune with solid hooks and satisfying climaxes in just the right places. So, take Nightwish’s general sound, mix it with Dimmu Borgir’s Abrahadbra for more symphonic and metallic cheese, and throw in a few more “progressive” elements (read: longer songs with more detailed midsections and/or extended introductions that stick to the general verse-chorus-verse format), and you’ve got a good idea of what to expect in sound here.Ĭontinuing what must look like a dauntless effort to torpedo my metal cred, I’ll say that I enjoy what Epica is doing here. While I could argue that The Holographic Principle might not actually be real according to its own logic because neither I nor Epica themselves can demonstrate that Epica even has hands, I won’t because I’ve somehow not been fired for gross insubordination yet. It’s also given us a record based around wondering whether our world is actually just an elaborate VR simulation in the form of Epica’s The Holographic Principle. It gave us The Matrix a good action flick. It’s given us proof positive that if your philosophy abandons Aristotle and Aquinas, it’s going to be terrible.
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Somehow this line of thought is still taken seriously, and it’s given us plenty. The cultish devotion to contemplating endless variations of Descartes’s “evil demon” question mixed with Hume’s ridiculous skepticism has led some philosophers to seriously contemplate if saying “I have hands” is a valid assertion because we can’t definitively prove that we’re not just brains in vats (BIVs) imagining the whole world, our hands included.