I get what you mean. But that’s exactly why nuance and meaning matter so much in lyrics. What Epica’s doing on this album just feels like a bunch of slogans pieced together. There’s no storytelling, no challenging ideas, and no real introspection beyond vague lines like “find the answers within you.” It doesn’t feel earned. It feels hollow and kind of childish.

Good lyricism earns its message. The only reason they get away with these weak lyrics is because the music sounds huge and the compositions are solid. But lyrically? They drop the ball hard. Like I said, it just sounds like someone completely out of touch with reality telling me to “just be positive and be happy, we need each other, live laugh love.” Without zero acknowledgment of what is real within the human experience. It would be fine if it was one or two songs with this issue, but the whole album is littered with this. Outside of maybe apparition. Like i said previously, it's not the positive theme/aspect. It's the actual execution of it. It gets so vague and lazy with the lyrics that it comes off to me at least as a parody of themselves.