There are some types of music, sub-genres of metal in particular it seems, that either really turn people on or put them off completely. The highly bombastic and overblown metal on display here may indeed have a polarising effect on a lot of discerning metal fans. It’s no surprise that this is indeed epic, pompous and melodramatic, for this is the work of Epica main man Mark Jansen.
Apparently the effect he was going for with MaYan was `symphonic death metal opera’… and I think he may indeed have achieved that effect. Whether anyone else will get it, remains to be seen. This is quite a difficult beast to tackle, partly because there is so much to it.
Essentially what we have here is a more death metal version of Epica, minus Simone Simons. The distinctive, guttural roaring of Jensen himself is present, and is heard a lot more here than on Epica’s albums; it is nice to hear him really let loose with it for a change, rather than being limited to snappy choruses or brief interludes. What you might not have expected to hear was a lot of German Power Metal belter Henning Basse, whose powerful, soaring voice seems to be everywhere on the album, maybe even a little too much for my taste. I do love melodic metal and great singing, but somehow Basse’s vocals just seem to be absolutely everywhere, invading every crevice of the vast, expansive music. There are also very occasional female vocals from Italian singer Laura Macri, although these are mostly quite incidental, with the exception of `Insano’.
The individual musical elements of this project are, in themselves, commendable. Jansen clearly knows how to write some great, dark, brooding and very heavy death metal riffs and atmospheres, not to mention some brain-twisting progressive elements. The keyboards are highly involved (as they are in Epica), multi-layered and dramatic. All clean singers are clearly very talented and capable, with fantastic voices. Yet, put it all together and somehow it doesn’t work quite as well as it should. Whereas it mostly seems to work for Epica, here it often comes across as more self-indulgent and haphazard. Like Epica, the songs are lengthy, with many creative twists and turns, but all these different elements combined on `Antagonise’ just seem to be too much all at once, to me at least.
I really admire the creative concept, and the thinking outside of the box that has been applied here; but it just doesn’t work so well on record as it may have looked on paper. I can’t help wondering if there was a little more death metal, and slightly less of everything else, this could have been a really powerful, majestic album. Instead it comes across as rather confused, and washes over the listener rather than grabbing him or her by the shoulders and demanding attention.
(6.5/10 Jon Butlin)
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