Epica

Originally calling themselves Sahara Dust, Holland’s Epica formed in early 2003 when After Permanently guitarist Mark Jansen made a decision to break from the group he previously helped within order to start out an operatic metal project most his own. After drafting teenaged mezzo-soprano Simone Simons, guitarist Advertisement Sluijter, keyboardist Coen Janssen, bassist Yves Huts, and drummer Jeroen Simons, Epica inserted Wolfsburg, Germany’s Gate Studio room using a classically educated choir and string section to lay out their ambitious debut, The Phantom Agony. Released by Transmitting Records in past due 2003, the record spawned several singles. The band’s early achievement paved just how for 2005’s sophomore LP, Consign to Oblivion, which also charted well in holland. A proceed to steel powerhouse Nuclear Blast as well as the addition of Ariën truck Weesenbeek on drums was accompanied by Epica’s initial conceptual record, The Divine Conspiracy, released in 2007. It charted across European countries, as do 2009’s Style Your Universe, which equaled their finest Dutch chart displaying at amount eight; Style Your World also featured a fresh member, with Isaac Delahaye overtaking guitar responsibilities. Epica’s fifth studio room recording, Requiem for the Indifferent, made an appearance in 2012. It had been the first ever to chart within the U.K. and U.S., and another lineup change found Huts providing method to Rob vehicle der Loo on bass. The music group famous its tenth wedding anniversary in March 2013 with a particular display in Eindhoven, entitled and later on released as Retrospect, which actually featured former users Sluijter, Simons, and Huts. Only a 12 months later, the music group released The Quantum Enigma, its 1st studio recording with Rob vehicle der Loo. Epica’s following full-length outing, 2016’s Holographic Theory, was explained by Simons within an interview with Spark Television as their “most ambitious providing up to now.”