Metal Shock Finland (World Assault )

Jimmy Kay and Perrin Wolfson from Canada’s The Metal Voice recently interviewed Epica‘s Lead singer Simone Simons. She talks about the band celebrating their 20 year anniversary with the release of “Live At Paradiso” (Sept 2) as well as re-issues their first three (“The Phantom Agony”, “Consign To Oblivion” and “The Score”), albums and  the Livestream show on  September 3, 2022.

In the chat Simmons also gives a quick update on the band’s upcoming studio album and talks about her favorite movies.

Tell us why the “Live At Paradiso” is being released now as it was recorded back in 2006
“It was buried very very deep in a lot of paperwork and we had to figure all of that out so after digging our way through the paperwork and legal stuff we got our hands on this recording. Back in the day when we recorded the  DVD we also had the book which oh I should have mentioned. But the show was never released and of course time went by. We had a switch of record companies and we’ve been just so super super busy that we kind of  lost track and weren’t in the mood to dig through all the paperwork that was necessary in order to retrieve it. Also the footage itself was never finalized, so it was basically lying in a box somewhere in the attic and waiting to be used. We actually did have to process the whole footage that we had in order to make it uh you know watchable.  It’s vintage Epica, it’s a little treasure. We always do our very best to wrap it extra nicely with the artwork and everything.  We are trying to draw the people into the Epica universe and in the background you see the artwork of all the other albums integrated into it to make it a nice little Epic package.”

Tell us about the upcoming live stream event on Sept 3 and the setlist
“The Setlist is a little bit of a mixture, yeah definitely we have of course the latest album Omega which we never gotten  a real chance to promote due to the pandemic but of course we are going to go through all the years of all the albums. So definitely some rare tracks and some visually  pleasing  guest appearances.  I guess yeah, it’s going to be an epic show. The Livestream show is with a live crowd, it’s an actual show and around 3 000 people will be there and it’s sold out but you can also watch the Livestream.” 

Tell us if you have any new music coming or a new album in the works
“We have new music that will be released later this year and it’s not your typical Epica album. It’s something we’ve never done before, so definitely  worth the anticipation . It will be released I think in early winter or something like that, let’s say early winter(2022). If it comes earlier than that it’s always better. We’re working on the artwork at the moment, we have the  singles ready, I already shot a video for one of the songs so yeah it’s some new music. It’s a busy year for Epica. We’ve been busy during the pandemic with non-touring things and working behind the scenes on this. We like to call it  the Secret Project. We have an online fan community which is called ‘Epic Universe’ and there we have been already spoiling a little bit of what the secret project is about so if people are curious they’re welcome to join Epic Universe.  On the Epic Universe the fan club we’ve been posing a little bit behind the scenes things and you can hear like choir bits and pieces and orchestration. 

When asked is there are still comparisons between Epica and Nightwish today
“For people that are not familiar with metal music they are often compared to each other and there are definitely some similarities. I think Epica is, Epic Metal or I would call it Cinematic Metal. It’s very different to Nightwish because Nightwish also changed their style a little bit their style on the last two albums. Epica has also been working since day one on our own unique style and with each new band member that came, a new songwriter also contributed to the sound of Epica. So we have we have basically five songwriters within the band  that creates Epica.”

Epica live stream event
https://www.epica.nl/news/2022-07-epica-to-stream-their-sold-out-20th-anniversary-live-show