Halloween was more than just the holiday for fans of Epic: The Musical. At 12:00 a.m., the Vengeance Saga aired and fans could join in a listening party to be the first to hear the new songs written by Jorge Rivera-Herrans.
Epic: The Musical is based on the Greek epic poem The Odyssey. The Odyssey is the story of how the king of Ithaca, Odysseus, led 600 men into battle for the Trojan war. They were the ones in the Trojan horse. Odysseus and his men spent 10 years at sea just for the war and another 10 years trying to get back home after being continuously set off course. They fight a cyclops, a god, a sorceress, souls of the dead, sirens, and a hydra before all 600 men are dead, and Odysseus gets trapped on Calypso’s island for seven years. After seven years, Hermes, Odysseus’ great grandfather, tells Odysseus he can leave and make it back home to his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, who he hasn’t seen in 20 years. All he had to do not was open the wind bag with Poseidon’s storm trapped inside.
Odysseus got home only to be stopped by Poseidon right on the shore of his home land. He uses the wind bag he was told not to open as a jetpack then takes Poseidon’s trident and lets loose all his anger on the god who kept him from his home. Once he is finally able to get on his island, he pretends to be an old man to get into his place and kill off the suitors, 108 men, who were trying to get with his wife. After killing the suitors, he takes his place as king of Ithaca again.
Jesse Mann from Dead Talk News says, “Odysseus and Athena, as stated before, have the guitar and the piano respectively. Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, has a violin for her instrument. All of the gods have their own instruments, such as Poseidon having trumpets/brass instruments while Hermes has a harp. This also aids in distinguishing who is singing or who is present at any given moment.”
In Epic every character has a respective instrument. Penelope’s instrument is a viola. In ‘Suffering,’ Rivera-Herrans signals that the woman singing is a siren and not Penelope by the absence of the viola.
“I haven’t heard much of the soundtrack for the musical, but from what I have heard it was a spectacular listen. The vocals are perfect in my ears and so are the instrumentals. They both coexist perfectly, linking up to a ‘T’ when many songs that come out don’t flow perfectly at all. For being a musical without a film, it is definitely worth a listen when someone has the time!” spoke Senior Alex Tatroe.
The Vengeance Saga was the top album in Itunes and had over two million listens on spotify in less than 12 hours. Epic: The Musical has already joined the most beloved musicals even though it is only a concept album and unfinished with the final saga, the Ithaca Saga, on its way. Even with no official release date, fans wait eagerly for the day the Ithaca Saga drops.
