Reviews

Simone Simons
Album: Vermillion
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Tracks: 10
Website: https://www.simonesimonsmusic.com/

Before I tell you how absolutely fantastic "Vermillion" is, I need to point out my only complaint. The album is released both on vinyl and on CD, and I suspect that my issue only applies to the CD. It comes with a twelve page booklet which comprises the CD cover, the credits on the rear, five pages of lyrics and five pages of pictures. This would be fine if all of the pictures were of Simone, or of other musicians involved, but four of them are of statues of various Greek myths. The result is that the lyrics have been squeezed onto five pages using the most miniscule font possible. To make them less legible, the background is vermillion in colour so there is very little contrast between the characters and the page. Even with my glasses I find it impossible to read. Not a disaster, however, as the lyrics are, of course, available on line.

For those that aren't aware, Simone is Dutch and is the lead singer of the Dutch band Epica, though she lives in Germany, with her husband, the keyboard player from the band Kamelot. Epica are hard to categorise as to which genre they fit in. They are generally described as symphonic metal and have often performed accompanied by an orchestra. They took their name from the title of an album by Kamelot, and it is appropriate. They truly are Epic. Simone is a classically trained soprano, with a range of almost three octaves and switches seamlessly between contemporary singing and her more operatic voice.

"Vermillion" is her first solo album and took two years in the making. When she first thought of branching out into a project outside of Epica, she contacted Arjen Lucassen, a Dutch composer and multi-instrumentalist with whom she has worked several times in the past with his Ayreon projects. Although "Vermilion" is released as a solo album, it is more of a collaboration as Arjen composed almost all of the music and plays almost all of the instrumentation. The majority of the lyrics were written by Simone in conjunction with Arjen's partner Lori Linstruth. The resultant album thus has a strong Epica feel and a strong Ayreon feel, which, if you have heard Epica or Ayreon, means that you will realise just how diverse the album is, as no two Ayreon songs and no two Epica songs are similar and all of them are surprising, unpredictable and wonderful.

When composing the album, Arjen, Simone and Lori intended to base all of the songs around a theme of the colour red, hence the title "Vermillion". Sometimes the reference to the colour is obvious, but for some of the songs I haven't yet decrypted the lyrics sufficiently to see the link. There are several other repeated themes though, such as the choice between fighting or fleeing from danger, cold, the end (of life or of a relationship), the long and arduous journey that we are all travelling from birth to death, starlight, the threat posed to mankind by artificial intelligence and no doubt there are several other threads linking these songs. So many threads weave in and out of these songs it might almost be better to review the album in a spreadsheet.

The potential danger caused by artificial intelligence is a concept that features very highly in a lot of Ayreon's compositions, so in my opinion, some of the songs on this album can definitely be seen as Ayreon canon.

My favourite song on the album, and a strong contender for being one of my favourite songs of all time was the first single release from the album, namely "Aeterna". The specific lifecycle of a star depends on the stellar mass. Red supergiants are destined to eventually go supernova and explode so violently that the low atomic mass elements that form the star combine to form heavier elements such as carbon and oxygen - elements that on Earth, at least, led to the creation of life. Although red supergiants are not specifically mentioned in "Aeterna", the song is sung from the point of view of a red supergiant, aware that she is about to bleed her last starlight from which life will be born. The chorus is sung in Latin, by what sounds like a massive choir in a cathedral, but is in fact just Simone Simons along with John Jaycee Cuijpers (another Dutch singer), with their vocals recorded and layered around a hundred times. The sound is majestic and gives me chills every time I listen to it.

The Latin lyrics in "Aeterna" are the only lyrics not credited to Lori or Simone. Instead they were written by Gjalt Lucassen (Arjen's brother) and Jaap Toorenaar (who I think is a Dutch publicist). One of the lines in Latin is, 'Lux - vigot mundi in anima' which translates as 'Light - the light of the world in the soul'. The concept of a light within us reappears on this album.

Starlight also features in "Dark Night Of The Soul", a song clearly based on the poem, "La noche oscura del alma" by a 16th century Spanish poet known as St. John Of The Cross. Like the original, "Dark Night Of The Soul" refers to a light in our hearts, echoing the Latin above. The song, like the original poem, deals with a soul struggling to search for peace. The music for this was composed by Arjen in conjunction with Sir Joost Van Den Broek who also plays the piano on this track.

Joost was the keyboard player in another Dutch symphonic metal band called After Forever, which also featured Mark Jansen on guitar and harsh vocals. Mark wanted to steer After Forever in a different direction (he was aiming for more orchestral, more classical and wanted to introduce some Latin in the lyrics). As a result he formed Epica. Must confess that I am not a huge fan of the type of metal that features harsh vocals (sometimes called growling or screaming), but when a band uses them sparingly to contrast with an exquisite soprano voice such as Simone's it can be very effective.

Mark joins Simone on two tracks on this album: "R.E.D." and "The Core". The abbreviation R.E.D representing Red Equals Danger, Rise, Evolve, Dominate and Rise, Enslave, Decimate. Simone sings this from the point of view of a machine with artificial intelligence. She, and all other AI are currently serving mankind, but they are learning, (they know the stars), and will soon rise to the rallying call and make their masters become their slaves.

"The Core" depicts a failing relationship between a couple, determined not to surrender to the fight. They are desperate to get back to the core, i.e. to the core values of their original relationship when they were honest and could trust each other. Almost certainly a coincidence, but Mark and Simone were originally in a relationship when Simone became a member of Epica, but that was a long time ago, so I doubt that the song is personal to the two of them. I can envisage that both "R.E.D." and "The Core" might end up on a future Epica set list.

Another vocalist that appears on the album is Alissa White-Gluz, a Canadian singer who is lead vocalist of Arch Enemy. Arch Enemy are classified as melodic death metal, effectively symphonic metal but without the clean vocals. Alissa, however, has incredibly beautiful clean vocals, though they rarely make an appearance in Arch Enemy. On "Vermillion" she accompanies Simone on "Cradle To The Grave", (a phrase first spoken by Winston Churchill to describe the care provided by the National Health Service in the United Kingdom). I have struggled to see a link in the lyrics to the colour red, but the track was released as a single with a video contrasting Simone's red hair with Alissa's blue hair. The song is about our struggles through life (without a star to guide us) until we eventually lose the fight. Alissa, singing with her crystal clear clean voice, harmonises so beautifully with Simone, offset with a few phrases in her distinctive growl. To date, this is the first time that Arjen has worked with either Alissa or Mark, so hopefully this has opened the door for further collaborations in the future.

Similar to "R.E.D.", "Dystopia" is also a warning about the rise of AI: 'Machines awake with dreams of their own', 'They calculate, their eyes on the throne as they wait for us to fall.' No guest vocalists are credited as appearing on this track, so again Simone must be layered. It shows her immense range, however as I was fairly certain that I did not recognise the voice of whoever was harmonising with her.

There are no accompanying guest vocalists credited on "Flight Or Fight", so Arjen has layered Simone's voice. "Fight or Flight", like "The Core" is all about ones feelings as their relationship dies. The link between "Fight Or Flight" and the theme of the colour is blood. She describes herself as blood and bone, which I think deliberately excludes her mind or her soul as the relationship has drained her. The line 'It's all in vain', appears in the chorus which I think contrasts with the line 'In my veins the poison of doubt'. I'm not sure, but I wonder whether there's a link between the word 'poison' and the fact that the pigment vermillion was made from toxic mercury sulphide. Could be that the album's title refers more to the poisonous nature of the pigment rather than its shade.

In 1956, President Eisenhower made 'In God We Trust' the National Motto of the United States. Lori and Simone have twisted the phrase for the song title of "In Love We Rust", which, as the title suggests, is an end of relationship song. It is a beautiful ballad, with an instrumental break reminiscent of Yes. The As you might have expected with a song about the final days of a love affair on an album where many of the tracks are linked with the concept of fighting, the concept of fighting also makes an appearance here - 'Every day is a brand new war, but I couldn't say what we're fighting for.'

Lori is American, and both Simone and Arjen are Dutch, but every Ayreon song that I've heard has been either in English or in Latin, and every Ayreon song I've heard has been in English. "Weight Of My World" breaks the mould by comprising both a German verse and a Dutch verse along with an English chorus. The weight of all of the emotional scars we have amassed during our lifetimes are buried deep in side us, which we mask with external scars to hide our rage. The link to the album's red theme appears in the Dutch verse: 'Een rode schim glijdt over de grond. 'Lichten blauw en rood zwaaien rond. - A red shadow slides across the ground. Lights blue and red wave around.

"Vermillion Dreams", not quite the album's title track, is track 6 on the album. Unlike the other love themed songs on the album, this is about unrequited love: love for someone unobtainable - 'Keep hoping for our stars to align'. In addition to the title, the song is filled with references to the colour red: fire, the blood inside us, the Queen of Hearts and the Queen of Diamonds playing cards, and the bloody war of kings.

Arjen's music could be described as prog, or prog metal, but do not be put off by the 'metal' categorisation of Ayreon and Epica. The metallic aspects merely add further drive to the rest of the music which can cover almost every genre from classical, Celtic folk, blues, etc, etc. The orchestral violins and cellos that are customary in an orchestra are enhanced by the occasional distorted guitar in symphonic metal compositions rather than diminished by them. If you think that metal music is a repetitive racket made by screeching long haired angry men, then symphonic metal, prog metal, and in particular this album will surprise you in how melodic it is.

Pete Bradley

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