Dutch symphonic metal band EPICA recently released their new record “The Holographic Principle”, via Nuclear Blast, which entered #22 on world sales charts! The band is pleased to present their new lyric video for the track ‘Ascension – Dream State Armageddon’. The footage for this video was shot at Epic Metal Fest Holland by Panda Productions.
Mark Jansen explains why they have chosen this song: “One of our heaviest songs on the new album: ‘Ascension’! A song that works very well live on stage. Therefore we have picked this song to be our next project. I hope you’ll enjoy this one! We have just kicked off our North American tour and we will play quite some songs of our new well received album »The Holographic Principle« on this tour as well!”
Dutch symphonic metal band EPICA recently released their new record “The Holographic Principle” and is proud to announce several chart entries worldwide:
# 4 Netherlands
# 8 Switzerland
# 8 Norway
# 9 Germany
# 11 Czech Republic
# 12 Belgium
# 14 Sweden (rock)
# 20 Japan (international)
# 21 Austria
# 22 France
# 25 Canada
# 26 Finland
# 26 Italy
# 27 Hungary
# 32 Spain
# 46 United Kingdom
# 46 Australia
# 69 Poland
USA:
# 139 USA (Top 200 Billboard)
# 50 USA (current releases)
Mark Jansen comments: “Despite the fact that I’m not that much of a chart fetishist, I am very proud that we have reached such high positions all over the world!!! In basically all countries we have made a big step forward. Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts, for all the support and loyalty we receive from you. Now it’s time to hit the road again and party!”
EPICA live:
15.10. BR Sao Paulo – Epic Metal Fest Brazil “The North American Principle Tour”
w/ FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, ARKONA, THE AGONIST
04.11. CDN Quebec City, QC – Imperial Theater**
05.11. CDN Montreal, QC – Corona**
06.11. CDN Toronto, ON – Phoenix Concert Hall**
08.11. USA Chicago, IL – Concord Music Hall
09.11. USA Minneapolis, MN – Cabooze
11.11. CDN Saskatoon, SK – Amsterdam Event Center
12.11. CDN Calgary, AB – Marquee
13.11. CDN Edmonton, AB – The Ranch
15.11. CDN Vancouver, BC – Vogue Theatre
16.11. USA Seattle, WA – Studio 7
18.11. USA San Francisco, CA – Social Hall
19.11. USA Los Angeles, CA – The Regent
20.11. USA Las Vegas, NV – Vinyl At Hard Rock Hotel
22.11. USA Denver, CO – Summit Music Hall
23.11. USA Lawrence, KS – Granada Theater
25.11. USA Dallas, TX – Gas Monkey Live
26.11. USA Austin, TX – Empire Control Room
28.11. USA St Petersburg, FL – State Theater
2911. USA Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
01.12. USA Baltimore, MD – Soundstage
02.12. USA New York, NY – Webster Hall
03.12. USA Worcester, MA – Palladium ** with XANDRIA replacing ARKONA
w/ POWERWOLF + BEYOND THE BLACK
12.01. D Wiesbaden – Schlachthof
13.01. D Cologne – Palladium
14.01. D Ludwigsburg – MHP Arena
16.01. CH Geneve – Salle Des Fetes De Thonex
17.01. CH Zurich – Volkshaus
18.01. I Milan – Live Club
20.01. D Munich – Tonhalle
21.01. A Vienna – Gasometer
22.01. H Budapest – Barba Negra
24.01. PL Warsaw – Progresja
25.01. D Berlin – Huxley’s
27.01. D Oberhausen – Turbinenhalle
28.01. CZ Prague – Forum Karlin
29.01. D Hannover – Capitol
31.01. D Hamburg – Mehr! Theater
01.02. B Brussels – Ancienne Belgique
03.02. UK London – o2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire
04.02. F Paris – Le Zénith
“The Nordic And Russian Principle Tour”
24.02. RUS Moscow – Bud Arena
25.02. RUS Ekaterinburg – Tele-Club
26.02. RUS St. Petersburg – Aurora
28.02. FIN Helsinki – Tavastia
w/ SKÁLMÖLD
01.03. S Stockholm – Debaser Strand
03.03. DK Copenhagen – Amager Bio
04.03. N Oslo – Vulkan Arena
05.03. S Malmö – KB
Masterminds and epic creators of the symphonic metal scene, EPICA, have worked hard to pump the blood in the heart of metal music once more and are set to see the release of their newest album on September 30th. “The Holographic Principle” is another epical masterpiece from the band, which is a crossover between symphonic, progressive, power and thrash metal, as well as modern production meets old school elements.
The band will also hit the road and skies to support this album with a huge tour around the world. I recently had a chance to have an interview with guitar player and growl screamer, Mark Jansen, where we could talk about EPICA, “The Holographic Principle”, science fiction movies and much more. You can check out what he had to say on the audio player below, along with a few excerpts:
“The Holographic Principle” will be the band’s seventh studio album, which will be released via Nuclear Blast. But how is Mark feeling about the forthcoming album release?:
“I’m really excited and I cannot wait any more, because it was already finished by the end of May and then you have to do all the promo activities and also the video clip shoots and the label needs time for the preparation of the album.
And now finally we’re almost there, it’s just a matter of two weeks now, so getting really excited.”
EPICA‘s new album won’t only be a sacred number in their brilliant discography, but a record “bigger” and more complex than previous ones. I asked Mark about the difficulties during writing and producing this album, he answered:
“I must say everything went extremely smooth, so we had no real big things. The only thing that happened was basically in the end of the recordings when we were going to mix the album, we sent all the material to our mixer Jacob Hansen and we already prepared him that it would be quite some work, because we recorded so many instruments. Some songs were about a thousand tracks for just one song. So, we wrote him be prepared and start in time as it’s going to be a lot of work and he got the material and he was instantly sick one week! (laughs)
So, we were all the time on schedule, then maybe he got a very big shock when he received all that material and then he thought ‘shit I cannot handle this, I’m sick!’ But after one week he was recovered and he started to work and basically we managed to finish the album in time. We had some listening sessions that were not with the full album, but I think everything happens for a reason and the album turned out with different songs than we initially thought. So we are happy now with the songs we have on the album, this is the way it’s meant to be I think.”
Just like any other great album, this one is also accompanied with wonderful artwork, full of eye catching details and regarding that, Mark stated:
“It’s Stefan Heilemann, it’s a guy that we work already with for four albums now and he’s always amazing us with his work. He gets the lyrics upfront with a brief description of what the lyrics are about and then he starts working. With The Quantum Enigma already he came up with great artwork, this time with The Holographic Principle it took him a bit longer because he was looking how to start. But once he was on the right track, he started working for one week nonstop and presented us with this great piece of art.
You can find many nice little details and that’s the good thing about covers, when there are some details that you only notice when you look long enough at it and there’s a few of them on this cover as well.”
EPICA‘s tour for supporting “The Holographic Principle” will start soon and it is going to be a big tour around the world. From Brazil to the UK and from New York to their homeland, the Netherlands they are going to travel far and beyond to celebrate another year of being together. The journey will be long and probably with some difficulties which obviously won’t be unfamiliar to the band, but I asked Mark about it and he answered: “It’s sometimes hard, but it’s the way you look at it – there’s hard things with every job in life and easy things. The hardest thing for being on the road is the flights, because that’s very tiring and you have to go through security every time and it’s a hassle, it’s a pain in the ass, it’s stressy. It’s also boring because you have to wait often very long. But the good side of touring is that you get to see so many places in the world, you meet many different people, you play live shows, that’s last but not least.
That’s what makes it worth it, when you play the music in front of your fans and you see the happiness on their faces – that makes up for all the troubles facing travelling.”
EPICA‘s new masterpiece “The Holographic Principle” will be available in stores in about three weeks’ time. In anticipation of this album, a new music video for ‘Edge Of The Blade’ has been launched today!
Commented Coen Janssen (synths, piano): “Finally another video! We are very happy with the way it turned out! It gives a glimpse on what to expect from our upcoming live shows, so watch it a few times because I’m expecting to see you sing along with it soon!”
The Dutch symphonic metal stars EPICA are ready to release the third studio trailer for their upcoming masterpiece The Holographic Principle. This new clip shows the band during their drum and vocal recordings and once again gives a detailed look behind the scenes:
“Only one month to go until the release!!!,” the band states. “Here is the 3rd part of the EPICA documentary. Dealing about the acoustic sessions, artwork and the concept behind The Holographic Principle! I hope you’ll enjoy watching it as much as we did by making the album.”
In case you missed the first two trailers, you can watch them here:
EPICA talk about the songwriting process: https://youtu.be/LSlEVPjG7rg
The band shows the different instruments they worked with: https://youtu.be/HzqHyRu1oSc
EPICA‘s new masterpiece The Holographic Principle will be released via Nuclear Blast on September 30th and this is the tracklist:
01. Eidola
02. Edge Of The Blade
03. A Phantasmic Parade
04. Universal Death Squad
05. Divide And Conquer
06. Beyond The Matrix
07. Once Upon A Nightmare
08. The Cosmic Algorithm
09. Ascension – Dream State Armageddon
10. Dancing In A Hurricane
11. Tear Down Your Walls
12. The Holographic Principle – A Profound Understanding Of Reality
Instrumental CD
01. Eidola
02. Edge Of The Blade
03. A Phantasmic Parade
04. Universal Death Squad
05. Divide And Conquer
06. Beyond The Matrix
07. Once Upon A Nightmare
08. The Cosmic Algorithm
09. Ascension – Dream State Armageddon
10. Dancing In A Hurricane
11. Tear Down Your Walls
12. The Holographic Principle – A Profound Understanding Of Reality
Don’t miss EPICA on tour!
Confirmed dates for The North American Principle Tour with FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE, ARKONA, and THE AGONIST are:
11/04/2016 Imperial Theater – Quebec City, QC **
11/05/2016 Corona – Montreal, QC **
11/06/2016 Phoenix Concert Hall – Toronto, ON **
11/08/2016 Concord Music Hall – Chicago, IL
11/09/2016 Cabooze – Minneapolis, MN
11/11/2016 Amsterdam Event Center – Saskatoon, SK
11/12/2016 Marquee – Calgary, AB
11/13/2016 The Ranch – Edmonton, AB
11/15/2016 Vogue Theatre – Vancouver, BC
11/16/2016 Studio 7 – Seattle, WA
11/18/2016 Social Hall – San Francisco, CA
11/19/2016 The Regent – Los Angeles, CA
11/20/2016 Vinyl at Hard Rock Hotel – Las Vegas, NV
11/22/2016 Summit Music Hall – Denver, CO
11/23/2016 Granada Theater – Lawrence, KS
11/25/2016 Gas Monkey Live – Dallas, TX
11/26/2016 Empire Control Room – Austin, TX
11/28/2016 State Theater – St Petersburg, FL
11/29/2016 Masquerade – Atlanta, GA
12/01/2016 Soundstage – Baltimore, MD
12/02/2016 Webster Hall – New York, NY
12/03/2016 Palladium – Worcester, MA
** with XANDRIA replacing ARKONA
VIP/Meet and Greet Bundles and upgrades are now on sale via SOUNDRINK. They will include the follow:
• Ticket to the show
• Meet & Greet plus photo opportunity with all the band members
• Separate signing cards of all band 6 band members
• Laminate + Lanyard
• Limited edition 7-inch vinyl with an exclusive (previously unreleased) song
• Exclusive VIP only tour shirt
• Early venue access
• Digital download of The Holographic Principle on release date
Holland’s greatest symphonic metal band, EPICA, have finally put the last touches on their new upcoming studio album entitled The Holographic Principle. Once again it’ll be released worldwide via Nuclear Blast Records. The album was produced with Joost van der Broek at Sandlane Recording Facilities. Mixing was handled by Jacob Hansen (VOLBEAT, DESTRUCTION). The cover artwork was created by Stefan Heilemann (http://www.heilemania.de).
The band commented: “Our highly anticipated seventh studio album is a fact. The Holographic Principle feels to us like a true treasure, created by us all with blood, sweat and tears of joy. In the past year we have worked very hard to write and record this special album. We are all very eager to share it with you! Join us on our new musical journey.”
To celebrate the release of EPICA’s brand-new record fittingly, the band will be playing on their own Epic Metal Fest at the 013 in Tilburg, NL on Saturday, October 1st. They invited KATATONIA, their label mates FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE and (also landsmen) TEXTURES to take part in this special event. Additionally, STREAM OF PASSION, THE AGONIST, MAYAN, MYRATH, EVIL INVADERS and last but not least OFF THE CROSS will be attending EPICA’s release show. On Saturday 15th October the Brazilian edition of Epic Metal Fest will take place in Sao Paulo. PARADISE LOST, FINNTROLL, XANDRIA and THE OCEAN will join EPICA for this first edition.
Dutch symphonic metal stars EPICA have released the lyric video for their first single entitled ‘Universal Death Squad’. The song comes from the upcoming album “The Holographic Principle” and is an impressive first demonstration of what fans can expect from EPICA‘s sound in the year 2016. Watch the clip here:
“The first song we unleash upon you is “Universal Death Squad”,” states guitarist and vocalist Mark Jansen. “This track is representative for “The Holographic Principle”, as it’s a heavy and melodic album. The lyrics are dealing about advanced robotic legions with a self-determination to kill. We have chosen for a different kind of lyric-video concept in which EPICA plays the track in a rehearsal room. The song is very much fun to play and I expect this one will do very well on stage. Hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we did creating it!”
In other news EPICA released their second album trailer. In this new clip, the band shows its work and experimentation with many new instruments and how it affected the depth and diversity of their new sound:
EPICA‘s new masterpiece »The Holographic Principle« will be released via Nuclear Blast on September 30th, but you can already pre-order your version here and choose from the different available formats – including many special bonus features for fans:
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