With:	Mark Jansen
Conducted by:	Undercraft
Published:	01.04.2004
Band profile:	Epica
Album info:	The Phantom Agony

01. The Phantom Agony [single version]
02. Veniality
03. Façade Of Reality
04. Veniality [orchestral version]

01. Adyta "The Neverending Embrace" :
This is our intro of the CD, the lyrics are written by Simone. It's a prelude to the Embrace that Smothers part 4, 5 and 6. The main thought behind the Embrace that Smothers is that when mankind sees that there's just one god, all different religions melt together into one. All religious wars come to end end and so on. It's kind of an utopia but let's keep the faith!

02. Sensorium :
This is a philosophical song. Does chance exist, I don't think so. I don't belive in chance. But even without chance we can have our own free will. We are responsible for our acts, although nothing happens at chance.
It also deals about exploring minor parts in science instead of having a total overview. Creativity comes from the overlap between all sorts of knowledge and/or spirituality.

03. Cry for the Moon "The Embrace That Smothers - Part IV" :
This song deals about a priest who raped a child. When I wrote this lyric, this was a hot topic in the news. The basic idea behind the song is that also behind the doors of the church there are a lot of sick minds hidden. The basics of most religions are good but in this society there are a lot of sick people. With the phrase "In the garden of Eden, where the apple gets a youthful face" I try to say that Eva did eat the apple according to the bible story but this priest did also eat the apple by raping a young child. The worst thing is that often the church is afraid to loose their "good name" and so they pey the parents to keep it silent. This has to stop.

04. Feint :
This song deals about the murder on a dutch politician called "Pim Fortuyn". He was murdered because of his opinion. It's a highly poetic lyric.

05. Illusive Consensus :
Again a lyric which has been written by Simone, in short it's how love between two persons can die slowly and turn out into hate.

06. Facade of Reality "The Embrace That Smothers - Part V":
This song is dealing about the 11th of September NY, fundamentalism and religions. Power is the keyword, gaining power and use therefore religions. Especially in the middle east (arabic countries) religion is still very important in people's lifes. When people think it's good to die as martyr then the step is much smaller to offer your life for God. Others misuse this to gain more power.

07. Run for a Fall :
I've written this song after my departure from After Forever, I had to write down my frustrations. Fortunately nowadays the relationship between me and AF is good again J

08. Seif Al Din "The Embrace That Smothers - Part VI" :
This is the last song in the Embrace that Smothers cyclus. It's specified on fundamentalism again. Extremism is all kinds of ways is never good.

09. The Phantom Agony:
The last song on the album is dealing about dreams, sometimes it's hard to say if a memory is a dream or if it happened in real. Some people think we do live in our dreams and lifetime is a big Façade. With Lucid Dreaming you can get controll of your dreams and create a new world within the unknown.