Music

Music: Simone Simons

A killer duo collaborating on a killer track, and an Epic video. Enjoy Alissa White-Gluz guesting on Simone's album Vermillion. \m/

Geoff Anderson

29 Nov 2025 — 2 min read

Alissa & Simone

TL;DR:

Some great music, a collab by two kick-ass women of metal, and a rant about buying music.

Main Event - Simone Simons

I "discovered' Simone Simons as the front-woman of th3 European metal band "Epica" a Dutch symphonic metal band. The song that captured me was "Never Enough" (srsly, worth the listen) and I was hooked. That led me to buy a bunch of their albums, and to follow them on the socials[1].

My tastes evolved, but several Epica tracks remained in heavy rotation on my playlist to life[2], and I nod my head to it every time it comes up.

This morning, I was watching a short by the incomparable Alissa White-Gluz, the (until recently) front-woman of Arch Enemy, and one of the things she was proud of was the release of the video collaboration she did with Simone Simons.

Whoa, there's a collab? The song is Cradle to Grave, and it is just ... for want of a better word, EPIC.

I listened to it a couple of times, and I checked out a couple of tracks off the album "Vermillion", and damn, it is good.

Added it to my iTunes library, but I wanted to buy a copy, and that gets me to the "rant" of this post...

Buying music from Europe

As I enjoy the tactile experience of removing a platter of vinyl from a sleeve, placing it on a turntable, adjusting the speed to be exactly 33 & 1/3 RPM, and dropping a needle, I went to the web store for Simone Simons. The vinyl was like 24 euros. Fine.

But, when I got to the check out, there is this handy note that informs me that the de minimis exemption on imports was halted on August 29, 2025, and that not only would I have to pay the estimated import duties, but I would likely see an additiona amount due, and that if I failed to pay that, I wouldn't be able to recoup that cost should the album be returned.

Oh, and shipping with estimated duty was almost as much as the cost of the disc.

Ok, I can buy it from Apple Music.

Damn, do they make it hard. It is trivial to add the album to my library, but I wanted to buy it to slide some simoleons into Ms. Simons' pocket. I right click, find the "View in the Music Store" option (buried in the menu), and FINALLY I was able to buy the full album for $10.99.

That was way too much work, but I do want to support the artist, and I know that just streaming without buying a copy is really not going to pay the rent.

Anyhow, enjoy this track!