After an intense 6-month voting campaign, Symphonic Metal titans EPICA are honored to announce that they’ve won the contest of Holland’s famous and most prestigious “Metropole Orkest”! Over 650 artists of all possible music genres competed, amongst them popular Dutch acts like WITHIN TEMPTATION, CARO EMERALD and KENSINGTONS, yet it was none other than our dearest Dutch Symphonic Metallers EPICA who pulled the longest straw!
After working with world’s top artists such as Ella Fitzgerald, Bono and Dizzy Gillespie, “The Metropole Orkest” is being considered the biggest professional pop and jazz orchestra in the world. Now remarkably, it’s up to our very own Symphonic Metal sextet EPICA to show what they’re made of and who will have the privilege to write and record an EPICA track together with this amazing orchestra.
By winning the “Metropole Orkest Contest”, EPICA has proven once again that they can righteously claim their place among Holland’s top music acts!
Recently, EPICA proudly announced their upcoming long-awaited EP, »The Solace System«! This record will include six brand-new numbers, which were written and recorded during the process of their latest album »The Holographic Principle«, which came out in late 2016 and charted worldwide. The EP release is due for September 1st, 2017 via Nuclear Blast.
With their latest masterpiece, EPICA set new standards. 2016’s “The Holographic Principle” is the most epochal, multi-layered, courageous and successful record of the band, reaching top 10 chart position entries in the German, Dutch and Swiss album charts. Accordingly, all the tracks written for the album process are high-quality, but not all songs have been put on the album. “This is only based on the fact that the record should not exceed 76 minutes,” explains Mark. Since the band didn’t like the idea of a double CD, they finally decided to release an EP with six brand-new numbers, which were created during the creative phase of “The Holographic Principle”.
Said and done. Now, EPICA proudly announce their upcoming long-awaited EP, “The Solace System”! It is scheduled to be released on September 1st, 2017 via Nuclear Blast.
Mark tells about the songs: “The listeners can expect a high-quality EP – with songs that are far too good to use them only as bonus tracks. We wanted to publish these songs together in a context. It is always hard to decide at the end of a recording process which songs will be on the album, because this means that you have to miss some songs with best quality, just because they do not fit quite well into the overall flow of the record or because there are other songs that are more suited to the lyrics”.
So much the better then that EPICA have chosen to publish those songs in an EP. Due to this EP, no one has to miss these damn strong songs that, just like the album, consist from a contrasting versatility, equally opulent, bombastic moments, as well as filigree emotionality!
This is proven in the new music video to the title track ‘The Solace System’, which you can see here:
“The Solace System” was recorded, mixed & mastered by team Joost van den Broek and Jacob Hansen. The video clip was produced by anime-master Davide Cilloni. The splendid artwork is once again by the hand of Stefan Heilemann.
Simone Simons (vocalist) comments on the EP: “During the early writing process of »The Holographic Principle« we found out that we were blessed with a huge amount of songs. The songs that didn’t fit on our album are now available for you on this special EP! I hope you guys will enjoy these songs as much as we do!”
And if that wasn’t enough, you’ll be also able to purchase the new EP “The Solace System” together with the CD of their recent studio album “The Holographic Principle” as a box set!
It will be called “The Holographic Principle – The Ultimate Edition”.
And there are some more good news! Nuclear Blast is going to re-release two ancient albums of EPICA, »Design Your Universe« and »The Devine Conspiracy«, on vinyl on August 18th. Each album is available in two different colours, the pre-order has already started last week.
METALHEADS FOREVER, one of the biggest metal entities out there (having today more than 96000 members), led by David Maloney, have posted online their May issue, featuring interviews with MEGADETH, DARK FORTRESS, EPICA, GOATWHORE, RAVEN + several album reviews, and many more!
To read all the interviews and the whole METALHEADS FOREVER May issue, go here: http://www.mhf-mag.com
Dutch Symphonic Metal giants EPICA are proud to announce the launch of their brand new live video ‘Dancing In A Hurricane’! The track has been taken from the band’s latest output “The Holographic Principle”, which was released via Nuclear Blast in September 2016 and charted worldwide. The video was captured during EPICA’s SOLD OUT show at The Zenith in Paris last February where the band closed their most successful European tour to date together with an excited legion of 5.000 fans! This live video perfectly mirrors the band’s craving for non-stop innovation and for continuously improving their live performance. ‘Dancing In A Hurricane, Live at The Zenith’ will show you how the live EPICA experience has reached new dimensions once again!
Coen Janssen comments on the video: “When you are in the midst of touring, you tend to forget how special it is and how privileged we are to be able to perform every night. The show in Zenith Paris is an absolute highlight in our career and therefore I am extra happy we decided to shoot some live-videos of this show. This first one, featuring one of my favourite songs on »The Holographic Principle« takes me back to this night instantly so I can relive the moment again and again. The video shows me in retrospect what an awesome tour this was!! Thank you all again for joining us that night and for making our days brighter all the time!! Enjoy!!!”
The video was captured and edited by the video production team “Panda Productions”. You can check out this stunning video here:
Dutch Symphonic Metal giants EPICA will return to North America this August and September for the North American leg of the ULTIMATE PRINCIPLE TOUR, the band’s biggest North American tour to date. The band will be joined on this tour by Italian Gothfathers Lacuna Coil, their friends in Finnish melodic death metal Insomnium and newcomers Elantris!
EPICA front woman Simone Simons and EPICA guitar player Isaac Delahaye comment: You asked for more, you’ll get more! After all the great reactions we got on our latest album The Holographic Principle and the amazing North American tour we’ve done end of last year, we’re really stoked to come back to your side of the planet so soon again. Bigger venues, bigger production, we’re ready to give you all we’ve got. Not to mention the absolutely killer bands we’re bringing over with us! I’m genuinely looking forward to play for you and to see you all rocking out with us. See you all soon!
The Ultimate Principle tour
EPICA w/ Lacuna Coil / Insomnium / Elantris
8-31-2017 Royale Boston, MA
9-1-2017 Metropolis Montreal, QC
9-2-2017 Imperial Theater Quebec City, QC
9-3-2017 Opera House Toronto, ON
9-5-2017 The Agora Theatre Cleveland, OH
9-6-2017 The Forge Joliet, IL
9-8-2017 Ogden Theatre Denver, CO
9-9-2017 The Complex Salt Lake City, UT
9-11-2017 The Showbox Seattle, WA
9-12-2017 The Hawthorne Theater Portland, OR
9-14-2017 The UC Theater Berkeley, CA
9-15-2017 The NOVO Los Angeles, CA
9-16-2017 The Observatory Santa Ana, CA
9-17-2017 Marquee Theatre Phoenix, AZ
9-19-2017 Alamo Music Hall San Antonio, TX
9-20-2017 Gas Monkey Live! Dallas, TX
9-21-2017 Warehouse Live Houston, TX
9-23-2017 Revolution Live Ft Lauderdale, FL
9-24-2017 The Plaza Live Orlando, FL
9-25-2017 Masquerade Atlanta, GA
9-27-2017 Ram’s Head Live! Baltimore, MD
9-28-2017 Trocadero Theatre Philadelphia, PA
9-29-2017 Playstation Theater New York, NY
VIP tickets for this tour including a meet & greet, photo opportunity with the band, exclusive merchandise + more are on sale now through http://www.epica.vip
General admission tickets will go on sale this Friday at 10 am local time.
Dutch symphonic metallers EPICA kicked off 2017 with their most successful European tour to date! Together with POWERWOLF and BEYOND THE BLACK, EPICA brought their brand new “The Holographic Principle” to thousands of fans every night and ended the tour with their biggest show so far: SOLD-OUT show at the Zenith in Paris where the band headlined in front of nearly 5.000 fans!
Coen Janssen commented the following on this successful tour: “We had the most amazing time on our “European Principle” run. Together with our new friends from POWERWOLF and BEYOND THE BLACK we played the biggest venues -in front of the craziest crowds- ever!! You gave all the energy you got every night and that radiated onto the band for sure! Fortunately we shot some very cool images of a few of those nights, crafted into another awesome after-movie for you and us to relive this EPIC tour!”
On this tour, the band was joined by the video production team “Panda Productions” who made a tour after-movie over multiple shows. You can now check out this stunning video from the band’s YouTube page:
Later this month, the band will hit the road again and will perform full headline shows in Russia, Scandinavia, Finland, Asia and Latin America. EPICA is touring all around the globe in support of their latest album “The Holographic Principle”, which was released last year and charted worldwide.
More tourdates of EPICA:
“The Russian Principle Tour”
24.02. RUS Moscow – Izvestiya Hall
25.02. RUS Ekaterinburg – Tele-Club
26.02. RUS St. Petersburg – Aurora
“The Nordic Principle Tour”
28.02. FIN Helsinki – Tavastia
01.03. S Stockholm – Debaser Strand
03.03. DK Copenhagen – Amager Bio
04.03. N Oslo – Vulkan Arena
05.03. S Malmö – KB
“The Asian Principle Tour”
04.04. J Osaka – Umeda Club Quattro
05.04. J Nagoya – Club Quattro
06.04. J Tokyo – Shibuya Club Quattro
08.04. TWN Taipei – The Wall
09.04. KOR Seoul – Rolling Hall
“The Latin American Principle Tour”
05.05. CR San Jose – Pepper’s Club
06.05. HN Tegucigalpa – Hotel Clarion
09.05 MEX Chihuahua – Expo Chihuahua
11.05. MEX Mexico City – Pepsi Centre
12.05. MEX San Louis Potosi – Cineteca Alameda
13.05. MEX Guadalajara – Teatro Diana
15.05. MEX Monterrey – Escena
17.05. CO Bucaramanga – Auditorio Luis A. Calvo
18.05. CO Medellin – Teatro Universidad de Medellin
19.05. CO Cali – Teatro Jorge Isaacs
21.05. CO Bogota – Royal Center
