Score: An Epic Journey [Import]

Epica | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 11, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Transmission
• ASIN: B000B8WEB4
• Also Available in: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,345 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #14 in Music > Imports > Hard Rock & Metal
  • #85 in Music > Imports > Rock

Track Listings

1. Vengeance Is Mine

2. Unholy Trinity

3. The Valley

4. Caught in a Web

5. Insomnia

6. Under the Aegis

7. Trois Vierges [Solo Version]

8. Mystica

9. Valley of Sins

10. Empty Gaze

11. The Alleged Paradigm

12. Supremacy

13. Beyond the Depth

14. Epitome

15. Inevitable Embrace

16. Angel of Death

17. The Ultimate Return

18. Trois Vierges (Reprise)

19. Solitary Ground [Single Version]

20. Quietus [Score Version]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Music is great - Copy Protection is Annoying!!, December 10, 2006

By 

Lisa Hoffman "Woman, Witch, Wife, Mommy" (QLD, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Score: An Epic Journey (Audio CD)

This CD is a little different from other albums that Epica has put out, but it is a good listen in its own right. I actually quite enjoy this CD, and I would have rated it much higher EXCEPT I found after purchasing that it is Copy Controlled and cannot be ripped onto the computer (which I use as my stereo) and you cannot make a copy of this CD (I like to copy my music to protect the original CD from my own clumsiness). I always prefer to purchase an album for my CD library, and that way I have the lovely artwork and the nice jewel case. Burning a spare copy is important, however, as I like to protect my purchases and ensure that the item I buy stays as new as possible for as long as possible, especially when it's a relatively expensive import CD. I would have thought twice about purchasing this CD if I had known that it is "Copy Controlled", and I just wanted to warn other potential buyers out there of this irksome little feature.

Music = thumbs up
Copy Protection = thumbs waaaay down

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art has no limits, August 30, 2006

By 

Francisco J. Piña "Adeptus" (Calama, Chile) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Score: An Epic Journey (Audio CD)

If you listen to classical compositions like Wagner's "Der Fliegende Holländer", Stravinski's "Firebird Suite", or Tchaikowsky's "1812", you'll find great orchestations with an epic feeling, and there was no movies or video games as we know them by then. they are just what they are, the vision of an artist expressed with sounds. And that's exactly what this disc is all about: The vision of Mark Jansen and his fellow musicians, expressed in a new, different way.

This work is something completely different from their previous works, and as such, it can't be watched with the same glasses. This is more in the lines of Midnight Syndicate's Dungeons & Dragons RPG Soundtrack, with synthesized orchestrations and an epic, adventurous feeling in it. As the disc title says, it's an epic journey through the vast empire of the imagination, with the score as your guide. Pieces like "Unholy Trinity" and "The Valley" bring to your mind images of inmense battlefields an heroic acts of brave warriors, while others like "Empty Gaze" and "The Alleged Paradigm" take you to the deepest of the heroes' hearts, feeling their fear, their sorrows, and their desire to put an end to it.

Yes, it's true, it's completely different from "The Phantom Agony" or "Consign to Oblivion", but that doesn't mean it's bad, does it? Each artist has a need to express his feelings and ideas, and it's up to him to choose his means to do that.

A piece of advice for everyone: When writing a review, about anything, judge it by itself, not by comparing apples with oranges.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Epica's perfect fusion of classical and metal, October 25, 2011

By 

Margaret H. McDonald (Portland, OR, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Score: An Epic Journey (Audio CD)

I'm an aficionado of both classical music and symphonic metal, and Epica is my favorite band because of their seamless blend of both. This early album is a superb introduction to Epica's operatic style. The musicians are all classically trained...and it shows. As the album is a movie score, instrumental tracks dominate (unlike their other albums), but mezzo-soprano Simone Simons lends her exquisite vocals to a few tracks. Epica demonstrates its mastery of the grand orchestral sound and wonderful weighty chorales (often with Latin lyrics) where symphonic metal shines, and Simons' luminous voice enriches this "epic" feeling rather than detracting from it. (I find the pop-star voices of some other bands in the genre end up being at odds with an otherwise lush, complex sound.) This album can be difficult to find inexpensively in the States, so when it's available, grab it and enjoy being transported to a rich sonic landscape by the foremost creative force in symphonic metal.