The Embrace That Smothers
The Embrace That Smothers is a collection of songs written by composer Mark Jansen alongside band members Simone Simons, Ad Sluijter, Coen Janssen, and Yves Huts. They deal with the dangers involved in an organized religion, and therefore contain IDeaS that some may consider "anti-religious". In addition to this underlying theme, these songs are distinguished by the inclusion of both English and Latin lyrics.
The first four songs that comprise this collection were released in After Forever's 2000 album Prison of Desire. Mark Jansen, composer of The Embrace That Smothers, would release one more album with After Forever (Decipher), but it did not contain any further songs from The Embrace That Smothers. Following his departure from After Forever in 2002, Jansen formed a band of his own called Sahara Dust, later renamed to Epica. Jansen continued The Embrace That Smothers in Epica's 2003 debut album, The Phantom Agony, which contains the following three parts. After success with The Phantom Agony, Epica released two more albums, neither of which continued The Embrace That Smothers, although their second album (Consign to Oblivion) contained another four-part series called A New Age Dawns. It wasn't until the 2007 release of The Divine Conspiracy that Jansen continued and finalized The Embrace That Smothers with the final three parts.
Songs of The Embrace That Smothers
While some of the songs of The Embrace That Smothers apply to religion in general, there are a few that are somewhat direct in terms of which religion it is referring to, for example "Follow in the Cry" and "Cry for the Moon".
Songs marked with a (*) are performed by After Forever, all other songs performed by Epica.
- Mea Culpa - Prologue *
- Leaden Legacy - Part I*
- Follow in the Cry - Part II*
- Yield to Temptation - Part III*
- Cry for the Moon - Part IV
- Façade of Reality - Part V
- Seif al Din - Part VI
- Death of a Dream - Part VII
- Living a Lie - Part VIII
- Fools of Damnation - IX
Other Songs
There are two songs in Epica's repertoire that reference an 'embrace' in their titles: 'Adyta - The Neverending Embrace,' (The Phantom Agony) and 'La‘petach Chatat Rovetz - The Last Embrace.' (The Divine Conspiracy) Despite the allusion to an embrace, which could possibly be a reference to The Embrace That Smothers, neither song is recognized as part of The Embrace That Smothers. 'La‘petach Chatat Rovetz - The Last Embrace,' is, however, used as an introduction to part 7 of The Embrace That Smothers, 'Death of a Dream.'
References
After Forever
Prison of Desire