EPICA
“Omega”
Album Review by Piers Renfree

9/10

Founded in Reuver, Limburg in the Netherlands in 2002, Epica are a symphonic metal band with Gothic and Middle Eastern influences.

Currently, the band consists of Simone Simons (lead and backing vocals), Mark Jansen (grunts and rhythm guitar), Rob van der Loo (bass guitar),  Cohen Janssen (synths, grand piano, glockenspiel, tubular bells, cran casa, bongos, finger cymbals, tambourine, shaker, barchimes, orchestral snare toms, orchestral toms, choir arrangements, choir, samples and effects), Isaac Delahaye (lead and rhythm guitars, acoustic guitar, orchestral snare tom, orchestral toms), and Arién van Weesenbeek (drums, additional grunts, orchestral tom snare).

Omega is the band’s eighth album to date, following 2003’s “Phantom Agony”, “Consign To Oblivion” (2005), “Divine Conspiracy” (2007), “Design Your Universe” (2009), “Requiem For The Indifferent” (2012), “The Quantum Enigma” (2014) and “The Holographic Principle” (2016).

Epica have enlisted extra musicians to aid them with the making of this album – Jeroen Goosens (flute, pan flute, piccolo, clarinet, ney, bansuri, low whistle, tin whistle), Sandip Banerjee (Sitar, Santoor, Sarod, bansuri, didgeridoo, tabla, pakhwaz, mridangam, ghatam, tavil, ganjira, dafli, gang), Igor Horbus (orchestral snare drum, orchestral toms, gong, suspended cymbal, cymbal a due, congas), Marcelo Bovio (backing vocals), Linda Janssen (backing vocals), Zäher Zorgati – “Myrath” (Arabic vocals and translation), Paul Babikian (spoken word), Vicky Psarakis – “The Agonist” (spoken word), with Children’s Choir – Zangschool Brabant Talent and the City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra.

With such an army of musicians called up for an album, said album needs to be of top quality and “Omega” is certainly that.

The music is big, bold, powerful, epic and sweeping. The band utilise death metal blast beats alongside melody and harmonies.

Epica employ light and shade with their metal and Middle Eastern sounds to create a rich sound with a lot of depth. Simone Simons’ clean vocals soar like an eagle on the wind and they work well with Mark Jansen’s death metal grunts to help create the feel of light and dark.

The production is crisp and clear, no-one overshadows anyone else and fans will find plenty here to satisfy their taste buds. The gauntlet has been thrown down, with “Omega” a strong contender for Album Of The Year.

TRACKLIST

Alpha – Anteludium
Abyss Of Time – Countdown To Singularity
The Skeleton Key
Seal Of Solomon
Gaia
Code Of Life
Freedom – The Wolves Within
Kingdom Of Heaven Part III
Rivers
Synergize – Manic Manifest
Twilight Reverie – The Hypnagogic State
Omega – Sovereign Of The Sun Spheres

https://www.epica.nl/band
https://www.facebook.com/epica

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