EPIC: The Thunder Saga - Jorge Rivera-Herrans (Music Review)
Also includes review of The Troy Saga and The Cyclops Saga
The fifth instalments of Jorge Rivera-Herran’s EPIC: The Musical, Epic: The Thunder Saga is the start of the second act. Just prior to The Thunder Saga’s release, Rivera-Herran revealed that he had not been paid any royalties for the first two instalments of the musicial, The Troy Saga and The Cyclops Saga. In a Taylor Swift-esque move, Rivera-Herran annouced that alongside the release of The Thunder Saga, he was also releasing new verisons of The Troy Saga and The Cyclops Saga which would contain new production and new cover art. So I’ve decided to cover all three new releases.
The Troy Saga
I like the new cover art. It’s a lot more detailed than the original cover art. I love that it sticks with the same colour palette but its so much more. The fire feels a lot more incorporated with the overall image too.
Onto the music. The soldiers in The Horse and the Infant sound a lot deeper. The overlapping melodies of Zeus and Odysseus are a lot easier to make out as well. The use of the chorus different is interesting. I think they’ll grow on me. I was worried about the ‘when does a man become a man’ refrain from the Chorus in Just a Man, particularly because it’s repeated throughout the entire first act. But it was made more epic (pun very much intended). I was kinda hoping that the Chorus would sound more like 600 men in Full Speed Ahead, but it didn’t really. Slightly disappointing there. But did like how clear the strings in particular sounded. There’s a new instrumental over the opening of Open Arms which definetly adds to the ambience of the environment that this song is set on - the Island of the Lotus Eaters. The Lotus Eaters also are alot easier to understand what they’re saying. I like the building suspense during the recounting between Odysseus and Athena in Warrior of the Mind. However, I think the echoes when Odysseus and Athena start to duet aren’t as good as the original.
The Cyclops Saga
I liked the old cover art better - Having the eye higher up kinda gave the cover art more foreboding.
I liked the increasing instrumentals as Polyphemus starts singing about killing Odysseus and his crew in Polyphemus. It’s very foreboding. I liked Poluphemus’ roar at the beginning of Survive. I really liked the the pared back instrumentals to make way for the vocals of Odysseus during the first chorus. Adds to the heroicness of his character. You can also very distinctly hear the differences in the soldiers just before they are killed by Polyphemus. Survive has always been one of the darker songs in the whole musical and I think these changes have made it even more so. I liked the distorted ‘Captain’ that gets clearer each time it is said at the beginning of Remember Them. You can also hear Polyphemus roar out in pain, making it very clear sonically when Odysseus and his crew stabs Polyphemus in the eye. I liked the build up of sonic tension when Polyphemus’ brothers arrive which disappears the second that Polyphemus said it’s ‘Nobody’. Also Athena sounds a lot more snappy with Odysseus. Odysseus is equally as snappy when Athena mentions ‘your dead friends can contest’ in My Goodbye. My Goodbye is probably my favourite song of the musical in general. The Chorus of ‘you’re just a man’ sounds so good. I’m glad that this song still remains my favourite.
The Thunder Saga
Suffering is the first time we’re introduced to Penelope. Although it’s definetly not Penelope as the actual Penelope is stuck on Ithaca. It’s revealed in Different Beast that Penelope is just a siren trying to get Odysseus into the ocean. There’s a lot of connecting themes between Different Beast and the Act I theme of ‘when does a man become a monster?’. I really liked how Scylla sounds normal in Scylla. It could have been really easy to make her sound as monstourus as Polyphemus. The fight between Eurylochus and Odysseus in Muntiny is great. It’s harsher than the one that Odysseus has with Athena in My Goodbye. There’s also a sonic connection to Luck Runs Out from the Ocean Saga where Eurylochus and Odysseus have a lesser fight. Thunder Bringer is the final song in The Thunder Saga featuring the return of Zeus for the first time since The Horse and the Infant.
Overall, I really think this is one of my favourite sagas. However, I think that it’s wrongly named. I think it should have been called The Monster Saga. It features both the sirens and Scylla, but it’s also about humans as monsters. We see Odysseus become a lot more brutal following the trip to the Underworld and he’s now a lot more ruthless. He doesn’t show the sirens mercy, and states that he won’t because of how his mercy towards Polyphemus put him and his crew in danger. We also have Odysseus’s crew commit mutiny, and they sing the line ‘when does a man become a monster?’ that we’ve seen all the way since Troy. I think Monster is more descriptive of this saga than Thunder. Either way, I really liked this saga. I can’t wait for the next one.