Reviews

...On Unwritten Pages Part 1: Noah Mr. Epe blends his love for concept albums, sci-fi themes, and a broad range of musical interests into an elaborate two-disc prog rock musical. The story is sci-fi interesting, and you can find a capsule version in the sidebar to the right. However, the music is far more interesting. Epe's overall construct is well-developed classic prog, mostly rock with some heavier elements and some clever ethnic nuances. The elements of arrangements and instruments move over a twisting, sometimes uneven and unexpected, path. On Deimos' Theme, In the Name of Ishmael, and several others this seems like organized 'stream-of-conciousness' composing on Epe's side. But the result is simply the natural prog inventiveness that pushes us to exercise our imagination, along with the composer. The appropriately named song Unexpected Twists and Turns probably encapsulates the broad character of Unwritten Pages Part 1: Noah. This piece is a suspiciously simple song, but turns on the angles of the vocal arrangements for its intrigue. However, much of this work turns on those vocal arrangements only to tell the story through the characters. In this sense, the music is merely a vehicle for the singers/players in the story, and the story itself. Still it congeals into wonderful whole, except when things get a little quirky...
www.dangerdog.com/2010-music-reviews/unwritten-pages-part-1-noah-review.php

In what might be the most adventurous debut effort to date Unwritten Pages leader and main man Fredric Epe has given us a progressive metal treat with his epic 2 disc concept work titled Pt.1 Noah. His love of sci-fi and well crafted music blend together to create a most tantalizing tale that may enter through the ears but will challenge many more of your senses than just what you hear. The world that he has concocted musically paints a vivid picture inside your head of the horrific future depicted in his story. This is one you will slap the headphones on for and lay back, close the eyes and watch the movie that unfolds within your mind. Enlisting some of progressive metals most dynamic performers to bring his concept to reality, Epe is aided by the likes of Damian Wilson (Ayreon, Threshold), Davy Mickers (Ayreon, Stream of Passion), Karl Groom (Threshold, Shadowland) and Alejandro Millan (Stream of Passion) among others, it is little wonder that this work ranks with and is compared to that of Arjen Lucassen. Epe has the same eye and ear for detail and it shows in the masterful work that he has given to us. Be prepared to get lost in his world as Fredric's ambitious effort will engulf you for the duration and leave you hoping that Pt. 2 is not far behind.
www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=10066

Conclusion. With "Part I: Noah", Unwritten Pages have launched their initial effort with a fairly ambitious rock opera. And while not quite the finished article, this is a rather enjoyable effort. If science fiction-based concepts and progressive metal sounds like a good mix to you, this is a double CD that just might be of interest, especially if you are the type of person who will listen to the music with the CD booklet in hand, following the lyrics and the story explored with close attention.
www.progressor.net/review/unwritten_pages_2010.html

It would be a mistake to put this project in the Prog Metal category although there are many moments where the guitars and double kick drum dominate the proceedings. Still equal time is given to softer, at times even ambient moments where the emotional quotient of the story is developed not only lyrically but musically. These compositions feature lyrics that propel the sci-fi story through its stages. On that score they feature multiple vocalists each taking a part of that story. Sometimes the vocals are delivered over piano and keyboard washes, other times it’s a full on assault, and that can happen within the same song. Given that many of these pieces are well over the six-minute length it’s easy to hear many musical changeups. Each features a musical theme that ties to the story and one of my favorites is “Royalty & Conspiracies” [6:31] that starts as you might expect with a sort of royal procession all richly orchestrated with keyboards and crunchy guitar chords. The song is a belter and yet opens up from time to time with some piercing synthesizer accents. There is always something more for the ear as each second passes. The other thing that hooked me is the use of heavy bottom end synth sounds or equally deep sonorous cello sounds that crop up from time to time. It gives the disc a real solid foundation and creates an overall oppressive tone for the story line and nicely plays off the higher pitched string sounds.
www.jerrylucky.com/reviews%20u-z_018.htm

Interview with Fred
www.jerrylucky.com/interviews_035.htm

Interview with Fred
www.therocktologist.com/interview_epe.html

from The Netherlands, apparently started out by chance, with a science fiction story that started developing a life of its own and sent creative trio Frederic Epe, Michel Epe and Glenn out on a quest to craft a rock opera suitable for it. From 2005 and onwards the album slowly took shape amidst a continuous struggle to finance it and follow the whims of the muses guiding the creators, with notable musicians such as Karl Groom and Damian Wilson adding their input as the project evolved. In 2010 what one might assume is the partial end result came in the shape of the double album "Part I: Noah", subsequently picked up and released by the US label Progrock Records. With "Part I: Noah", Unwritten Pages have launched their initial effort with a fairly ambitious rock opera. And while not quite the finished article, this is a rather enjoyable effort. If science fiction-based concepts and progressive metal sounds like a good mix to you, this is a double CD that just might be of interest, especially if you are the type of person who will listen to the music with the CD booklet in hand, following the lyrics and the story explored with close attention.
www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=414361

The reason for my rant is the mere fact that it feels so refreshing to actually hear a great Progressive Metal concept album that doesn't rely on the well-established clichés of the past/present and manages to move things forward. This is exactly what Frederic Epe and his backing musicians manage to achieve on Noah! This entire album is filled with music that will hijack your mind from the first time you'll hear it and will continue to grow until you'll master this 80+ minute beast. This is at least what happened to me; I started off listening to Noah with the bare minimum expectations imaginable but was met with such a versatile album that I just couldn't get it out of my head for weeks and felt like refreshing that memory every now and then in the process! There is really no reason for me to go into detail about the individual tracks since Noah should only be heard in its entirety. This might actually be considered somewhat of a drawback due to the album's hefty length that reaches just above the regular size of one CD. Once an artist/band releases this much material, the results are bound to vary in quality. Hopefully, the individual moments are developed just enough to hold all the pieces of the puzzle together and thus create quite a solid and fluent piece of music.
www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=414528

Interview with Fred
blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=497604153&blogId=540513312

...The conception of Frederic Epe, a vocalist and instrumentalist of seemingly boundless imagination, who has been able to group together some of the finest musicians working in Europe’s progressive rock scene to create debut album Noah, he has been living and breathing this project for the last 5 years, and true to progressive form, the album is dense, challenging and carries a tense conceptual sci-fi narrative. Set in a futuristic dystopia, the story is told across two CDs of progressive music rich in genre change-ups and textural interplay. Though the album appears lengthy, the consideration given to the pacing of the narrative storytelling is clear and so the album is necessarily extended. This isn’t an attempt at anything commercial; instead, in the purest form, Noah intends to immerse the listener in its storyline. While the album jumps between rock, flamenco, metal, acoustic, lightning guitar solos, and time signature change-ups with aplomb, the impressive thing about Noah is its use of ambient music to control the pace of the eclectic music on offer. Heavily influenced by 80s computer games, and by later horror game soundtracks such as Akira Yamaoka’s incredible work on the highly successful Silent Hill series, the haunting ambience that permeates many of the tracks, and which provides necessary interludes throught the album, helps create the retro-spook atmosphere intended. This is prog music written for fans of the Alien films. This is prog music for geeks. And it’s awesome...
www.spotisfaction.com/?p=913039171

A story told with the intent of being presented musically as a masterpiece, Unwritten Pages is without a doubt a strong album with many, many good points. Progressive metal with a unique sound and a rather curious concept (it basically tells a sci-fi story about the colonization of Mars and the apparent to-be relationship between a boy and a girl amidst it all.) With a wealth of inspirational input from the large crew behind the album, many, many things have come together to form what can only be intoned as an ear-pleasing cacophony of sounds. "In The Name of Ishmael," (this one in particular tells an interesting side of the tale.) "Royalty & Conspiracies" and "These Haunted Days" are my favorites, but it is hard to really call them that, in any case. The experience is only complete if you listen through and absorb the entire story the way it was meant to be heard; as a whole. Overall I think this album deserves quite high a score. It sounds really nice all the way through, it tells a story of interest (obviously made with devotion and love) and the songs as individual tracks have enough to offer that you can either shift through the ones you like or just add the album to a shuffle list. The production is excellent, rendering nothing seemingly out of place or forgotten and the many different instruments used are all played excellently. Below is a link to the website and I beckon that you go check it out if you are into progressive metal at all - you do not wish to be without this album if you are.
metal-revolution.com/plugins/content/content.php?content.3256

Concept album written by Frederic Epe, who on this project shares vocals, guitars, keyboards and percussion with a host of names from the world of prog rock/metal, and it encompasses a broad range of styles. Opening in a melodic commercial rock fashion, the album soon takes in mainstream metal (there are a few Iron Maiden moments), Latin and classical/score metal. Some of the quieter electronic moments mix prog and ambient, the solo piano parts mix classical and 80s rock, so yes it is a real mix. Wherever it goes, there are the prog metal bones to return to, some blistering guitars, solid rhythms, some strong vocals too. It’s hard to pick out a highlight, the whole thing flows so smoothly.
www.hotdigits.co.uk/cgi-bin/diary2/journal?user=jason