#peter barber

The Palace of Agamemnon

The Throne of Agamemnon

TITANOMACHY:

First of all, I had never heard of this word before (and had never spoken it out loud before until I was reading out the songlist to a friend of mine the other day and stumbled at the first hurdle, so to speak). It means "titan battle", and refers to the mythological 10-year war between the Titans and the Olympians.

Okay so I remembered that Poseidon is older than Zeus (if for no other reason than because of a fan comic by Neal Illustrator), but I had to double check Hades' "sibling position", and yeah he's the oldest.

Anyway, somehow I was not expecting Peter (Zeus) to immediately start singing in a lower vocal range than Luke Holt did as Epic!Zeus! (I know that Luke Holt isn't actually a bass, but still, damn.)

Speaking of Neal Illustrator, hey it's the animatic bit from the teaser trailer! Except it keeps going! And holy damn Neal freaking COOKED with this!

(Also I love the kinda 8-bit sound to the music here, definitely videogame vibes!)

I'm probably gonna talk about the animatics/animations more than the illustrations, but GODDAMN were there some killer illustrations in this! Like I wanna put some of them up on my bedroom wall, they're just so good!

"So blinded by the moon, we forget about the stars" is an absolutely fire lyric, and I can already predict Mortius going crazy about it!

SHADES:

Love this Underworld design by Liam Davidson!

Mircsy!!! Showing off with the angled shots and the freaking hands honestly /lh

(Also I love how all the other characters are like meant to at least look like their voice actors a little bit, but Hades is just straight up Casper) (And earrings exist in ancient Greek times, apparently (but honestly slay))

Camalemsy! I mostly know them from them being one of the ones who helped out Gwendy for official Epic livestream animation stuff. They're great at lighting I gotta say!

Snek!!! <3 (no clue what the snake's presence means or what it represents though)

Blue roses! I just googled them and apparently they can represent mystery, aspiration, and The Unattainable. That third one seems accurate for this context, but idk

I'm having the same kind of moment that I had when I listened to Mortius's Rediscovery EP, where the vocals are so darn good that I almost kinda forget who I'm listening to (but like in a nice way) (it's hard to explain)

El_Crafts! With the lighting flashes and the background quick changes!

Pomegranate tree! :D

El_Crafts gave "Hadesper" an eyebrow notch, lol, love that 👌

The piano instrumental at the end is so pretty! (Low-key Thunder Bringer ending vibes, just a teeny tiny bit). I'm assuming Casper did that too?

IN THE UNDERWORLD NOW:

Man I love this song - the fact that it's the shortest of the whole first act is a freaking crime!

I've heard of Minos before, assuming this is the same dude who became king and had the whole minotaur story business (I could be wrong, though), but I'm not familiar with the other two judges. Also if they're sons of Zeus, are they like gods or demigods or something?

"Assemble the judges, half of six" at first I was just like "man we're really reaching for a rhyme for River Styx, huh? But then I was like wait, this is the third song of act 1, which is six songs total, meaning we'r currently at the "half of six" point! Very clever honestly (ain't no way that's unintentional!)

JP Warner! He didn't just do the mixing and mastering for these songs, but also he voices one of the judges, Aeacus! :D (No clue how to pronounce that, lol rip)

The animation of some poor soul getting whacked off the ferry by the ferryman's oar is hilarious honestly. Absolutely be nice to Charon, don't get on his bad side!

Ximena! In full colour!

Also hello Minos with the bass vocals! According to the premiere chat, he hit a B1, which is a big deal for singers outside of the acapella world! (It's a big deal within acapella as well, but basses have slightly more representation in acapella than other styles of music)

CROSSROADS:

Seriously Ardenzia's illustrations are freaking GORGEOUS!! How freaking long did they take??

Also Teagan Earley My Beloved <3 <3 <3

LIVE-ACTION VISUALS! Did Casper ask Teagan to do a little video or did she just offer, because honestly it wouldn't surprise me if it was the latter. Queen! Love her!

Also Teagan is using pretty much her full range in this song and it's fantastic

Love how it says "PERSEPHONE & ????" at first in the lyrics as if it's not immediately obvious who it's gonna be (though I gotta say that the mixing and the harmony both really disguise his voice)

TEAGAN THAT HIGH NOTE!!!

When Persephone grabs Hades' hand, vines come and wrap around both their wrists, I guess as a symbol of their strong connection, but the vines have thorns, which I guess represents how them being together does kinda have some repercussions? Idk I'm speculating here.

As Hades' chariot is riding across/above the River Styx, Persephone reaches down and dips her hand into the water, and then splashes Hades with it. People in the premiere chat were like "ah! finally! Wet Hades!" (surely that was a deliberate inclusion, come on)

MY PERSEPHONE:

The intro lines were used in the release date trailer, but the animatic from that trailer is from a different part of the song!

(Also shoutout to Zionreverb for this art! The absolute love, yearning, and adoration captured in Hades' face (and entire body language) is just chefs kiss)

Pronouncing "fiery" as "feery" instead of "fire-y". Wonder if that's just an artistic/musical choice or what?

Hyacinthus! Achilles and Patroclus! (I think) Orpheus and Eurydice!

Hades going down on one knee AWWW

Seriously this whole song is so freaking beautiful and the depiction of Hades and Persephone's romance is super adorable!

Persephone's verse in this was written by Teagan herself! Casper said in the premiere chat that he wanted a woman's perspective for it, which like is obviously fair, and Teagan is definitely up for the task!

"Styx can offer you reflections, shadows still have arms to hold" these lyrics are brilliant honestly

Omg I just realized that in the illustration by Vannahbloom, there's a small patch of warm orange just underneath Persephone's foot, while the rest of the group is a cool blue! (Watching this in full-screen helps as well)

So I'm pretty sure what Persephone is saying is "just remember that I am a whole person [or goddess, I suppose], and I'm not just something pretty to look at or 'possess'. I would like to properly form a bond with you so long as you're willing to also properly form a bond with me in return."

GIGI! BELOVED! (And full colour once more!)

(Also the first few shots of Gigi's animatic low-key is in parallel with her end animatic for WYFILWMA in the Epic livestream imo)

And roses bloom where she steps! And then more of them all around! Not just blue roses, but also orange, pink, and red ones! (Also love the beat marking of the roses blooming on the stalactites in time with the piano)

Thought we were gonna get a Gigi 360 Spin Shot, but it was just a 180 shot. But we did get a kiss!

(And the way Casper-as-Hades says "Persephone" quietly at the end of the song just makes me like 🥺

THERE IS NO NAME:

Is the pronunciation of Demeter's name like a solid set-in-stone thing or is it a tomayto tomahto situation? Because like it's pronounced deh-MEE-ter here, but I always thought it was DEH-meh-ter. But then again, my idea of Hephaestus' name pronunciation was incorrect for years until I watched the Percy Jackson series and I was like "wait that's how it's pronounced?" So what do I know

This repeating piano melody is so eerie! Like it sounds like it's got a slight echo to it maybe? And the notes sound so "heavy", like someone is really hitting every single key. (I don't actually play piano, this is just my interpretation)

Who did the scream? Was that also Jen?

What are these whispers saying? The only word I can make out is "underworld"

"He defiled her! He stole her! He gave her no choice!" These are basically just spoken lines and yet it sounds completely different to Jen's regular speaking voice (especially as Jen is from England, but you can't hear any of her typical accent here!). Voice acting queen!

Gwendy! Full cooking as per usual!

Hey Zeus, back again!

Only now realized in the Smoolio illustration that Demeter's right arm appears to be freezing, or at least becoming extremely cold!

Does Zeus' belt thing have his face on the front of it? (Would be fully on-brand for Zeus ngl)

Love these Greek pottery illustrations!

"For half of the year, she would stride in the sun, but the rest of rotations would take place in un-derworldly conditions". Mid-sentence (mid-word) rhyme! Mortius loves those!

Finishing with Anniflamma!