The Divine Conspiracy
| The Divine Conspiracy | ||||
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| Studio album by Epica | ||||
| Released | 22 August 2007 (Japan) 28 August 2007 (USA) 7 September 2007 (Europe) 10 September 2007 (UK) |
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| Recorded | November 2006 - March 2007 | |||
| Studio | Gate Studio, Wolfsburg, Germany | |||
| Genre | Symphonic metal | |||
| Length | 75:36 | |||
| Label | Nuclear Blast | |||
| Producer | Sascha Paeth & Epica | |||
| Epica chronology | ||||
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| Singles from The Divine Conspiracy | ||||
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| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |    |
| About.com | |
The Divine Conspiracy is the third full-length studio album by Dutch symphonic metal band Epica as well as their first concept album. It was released on 7 September 2007 through Nuclear Blast in Europe. The concept that guides the songs is that God created many different religions for humanity to figure out and overcome them so as to discover that, in nature and essence, they were all in fact the same one (hence the name, "The Divine Conspiracy"). Aside from the concept of such a conspiracy, The Divine Conspiracy finalizes The Embrace That Smothers, which began in After Forever's Prison of Desire (Prologue and parts I-III) and continued in Epica's The Phantom Agony (parts IV-VI). In short, The Embrace That Smothers is a collection of 10 songs (Prologue and parts I-IX), which talks about the dangers of organized religion.
In The Divine Conspiracy, Mark Jansen gives some room for new themes in the lyrics, moving away from The Embrace That Smothers. For example, "Beyond Belief" centers around the dispute between science and religion, but at the same time it does not attack either side. The following track, "Safeguard to Paradise" deals with the methods of convincing suicide bombers, a sharp contrast to the slow and soft music. During an interview, vocalist Simone Simons commented that many of the major themes inspirations came from what she saw on the news, with predominance of the religious parts as on The Embrace That Smothers songs. Among other themes are the formation of a human being and sentiments towards others, as vanity on "Menace of Vanity" and obsession on "The Obsessive Devotion". "La‘petach Chatat Rovetz" ("לפתח חטאת רובץ") is an expression in Hebrew. It means that sin lurks and awaits for a chance to strike and affect. About the religions influenced parts, Simons commented:
"You can believe whatever you want to if it gives you strength, but you should not oblige others to believe the same thing and all the suicides commands, the honor killings, all that stuff, it gives me goose bumps even right now."
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Wikipedia