Belgian symphonic death metal band MAYAN used to boast two members of EPICA. While guitarist Mark Jansen is still firmly in place, guitarist IsaacDelahaye has left the group.
“We all enjoy being part of this awesome band but we also realise that each band member has a busy career next to it...” commented Mayan. “We all agreed to respect that from each other when we started this adventure. Isaac has decided to not take part in Maya anymore. You can read his statement below:”
“I recently decided to leave Mayan, because I want to concentrate on other things. For Quarterpast I got asked to join as a session musician, and I’ve gladly helped them out. Now I feel it’s time to pass this on to someone else. It was absolutely awesome to be part of this, to help build up this band, and I wanna thank the fans, the band & everyone involved for the good times. Now all Mayan has to do, is finish that new album so I have some decent stuff to listen to!”
Mayan went on to add, “We hugely thank Isaac for his amazing contributions, the funny moments and dedication. Possibly we’ll share the stage again in the future. We’re already working with a very likely replacement for the job, soon more news on that. For now we stay focussed on mixing the upcoming album. We can’t wait to share it with you!”
According to Nuclear Blast Records, This past March, female-fronted Dutch symphonic metal band EPICA celebrated their 10th Anniversary with a spectacular “One Night Only” sold-out concert at the Klokgebouw in Eindhoven, The Netherlands with five thousand fans in attendance. Named Retrospect, it’s EPICA’s self-professed “longest & biggest show ever.” Accompanied by the 70-piece Extended Reményi Ede Chamber Orchestra and the Miskolc National Theatre Choir, ten high definition cameras captured this very special show while EPICA played an unforgettable three hour, career-spanning set featuring both newer songs and never-performed tracks.
“Unleashed”, the first clip taken from Retrospect, is now available for viewing on YouTube:
EPICA’s guitar player Isaac Delahaye comments:
“We hope you enjoy watching this first Retrospect song. ‘Unleashed’ is just a killer live track, and it contains all the EPICA elements you’re looking for. I still enjoy playing it night after night, and it keeps my headbanging skills sharp!”
The pyro-filled & lightshow-studded evening also included special guest appearances by fellow Dutch metal frontwoman, the venerable Floor Jansen (NIGHTWISH, REVAMP) and EPICA founding drummer Jeroen Simons, founding guitarist Ad Sluijter, and founding bassist Yves Huts performing on the band’s breakthrough single ‘Quietus’ from the band’s 2005 album Consign To Oblivion.
In addition to the collection of EPICA of hits from their entire catalog, the Retrospect DVD also features instrumental covers of classics by Italian Baroque composer Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and the Oscar-winning film composer John Williams.
This live 2-DVD/3-CD retrospective – which includes a 48-page booklet, exclusive interviews with all EPICA band members, and behind-the-scenes footage from the show – will be released in North America on November 26th.
The track listing for Retrospect is:
01 – Introspect
02 – Monopoly On Truth
03 – Sensorium
04 – Unleashed
05 – Martyr Of The Free Word
06 – Chasing The Dragon
07 – Presto
08 – Never Enough
09 – Stabat Mater Dolorosa
10 – Twin Flames
11 – Serenade Of Self-Destruction
12 – Orchestral Medley
13 – The Divine Conspiracy ~Anniversary Edition~
14 – Delirium
15 – Blank Infinity
16 – The Obsessive Devotion
17 – Retrospect
18 – Battle Of The Heroes & Imperial March
19 – Quietus
20 – The Phantom Agony
21 – Cry For The Moon
22 – Sancta Terra
23 – Design Your Universe
24 – Storm The Sorrow
25 – Consign To Oblivion
26 – Outrospect
EPICA’s 2012 studio album, Requiem For The Indifferent, debuted at #104 on the American Billboard Top 200 Albums chart and can be purchased online from the Nuclear Blast Webshop.
Source: Bravewords.com
Dutch symphonic rockers EPICA have checked in with the following update:
“Upcoming week we will spend some days in the studio again to work on the new album. The 20 songs are a mix between the good old days and the album Design Your Universe. It will be hard to make the final selection for the album as we love all those tracks! We’ll keep you posted.”
On Wednesday, October 2nd at 11:26pm, Epica vocalist Simone Simons delivered Vincent G. Palotai safely into the world.
Simone: “Both Vincent and me are doing great. He is a perfect little man. Thank you for all the love and well wishes you have sent us. It is absolutely heartwarming! Love from the Palotais.”
Vincent is the first child for Simone and KAMELOT keyboardist Oliver Palotai.
According to Nuclear Blast, Dutch symphonic metal band EPICA has announced the first two movie theater premieres of Retrospect. During these premieres a number of band members will join their fans with the first exclusive viewing of Retrospect.
The first premiere will be held on Wednesday 6th November at the Mathäser Multiplex Kino in Munich, Germany. The second premiere will take place a day later – on Thursday 7th November – in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, at Service Bioscoop Zien. Tickets for the Dutch premiere are on sale now through: http://www.zienbioscopen.nl/getInfo.asp?1000000769
EPICA celebrated their 10th anniversary with a one-night-only event, dubbed »Retrospect«. The band was accompanied by the seventy piece Extended Reményi Ede Chamber Orchestra and the Miskolc National Theatre Choir, playing an unforgettable 3-hours best-of set.
According to respected Dutch newspaper the Volkskrant “The band wrote a chapter of Dutch metal history” this evening. Rock Tribune (Belgium) thought it was “an unforgettable show”.
Ten high definition cameras captured this very special sold-out show while EPICA played in front of nearly five thousand ecstatic fans in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. In addition to a collection of the band’s biggest hits from across the spectrum of their entire catalog, this once-in-a-lifetime spectacular also features the live debut of ‘Twin Flames’ and the previously unreleased ‘Retrospect’, covers of classics by Vivaldi, Pergolesi, and Oscar-winning film composer John Williams, two guest collaborations with the venerable Floor Jansen (Nightwish, ReVamp), and a very special performance of their breakthrough single, ‘Quietus’, with founding members Jeroen Simons, Ad Sluijter, and Yves Huts.
On the 8th of November Nuclear Blast will release »Retrospect« as a deluxe hardcover book with 48 pages. Both as a 2DVD/3CD and 2Blu-ray/3CD version.
Retrospect features this massive performance in its entirety, as well as exclusive interviews with all band members and behind-the-scenes footage from the show.
According to Nuclear Blast, This past March, female-fronted Dutch symphonic metal band EPICA celebrated their 10th Anniversary with a spectacular “One Night Only” sold-out concert at the Klokgebouw in Eindhoven, The Netherlands with five thousand fans in attendance. Named Retrospect, it’s EPICA’s self-professed “longest & biggest show ever.” Dutch newspaper The Volkskrant summed up the evening by stating: “The band wrote a chapter of Dutch metal history.”
Accompanied by the 70-piece Extended Reményi Ede Chamber Orchestra and the Miskolc National Theatre Choir, ten high definition cameras captured this very special show while EPICA played an unforgettable three hour, career-spanning set featuring both newer songs and never-performed tracks. The evening also included special guest appearances by fellow Dutch metal frontwoman, the venerable Floor Jansen (NIGHTWISH, REVAMP) and EPICA founding drummer Jeroen Simons, founding guitarist Ad Sluijter, and founding bassist Yves Huts performing on the band’s breakthrough single ‘Quietus’ from the band’s 2005 album Consign To Oblivion.
In addition to the collection of EPICA of hits from their entire catalog, the Retrospect DVD also features instrumental covers of classics by Italian Baroque composer Antonio Lucio Vivaldi, Italian composer Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, and the Oscar-winning film composer John Williams.
This live 2-DVD/3-CD retrospective – which includes a 48-page booklet, exclusive interviews with all EPICA band members, and behind-the-scenes footage from the show – will be released in North America on November 12th.
The track listing for Retrospect is:
01 – Introspect
02 – Monopoly On Truth
03 – Sensorium
04 – Unleashed
05 – Martyr Of The Free Word
06 – Chasing The Dragon
07 – Presto
08 – Never Enough
09 – Stabat Mater Dolorosa
10 – Twin Flames
11 – Serenade Of Self-Destruction
12 – Orchestral Medley
13 – The Divine Conspiracy ~Anniversary Edition~
14 – Delirium
15 – Blank Infinity
16 – The Obsessive Devotion
17 – Retrospect
18 – Battle Of The Heroes & Imperial March
19 – Quietus
20 – The Phantom Agony
21 – Cry For The Moon
22 – Sancta Terra
23 – Design Your Universe
24 – Storm The Sorrow
25 – Consign To Oblivion
26 – Outrospect
EPICA’s 2012 studio album, Requiem For The Indifferent, debuted at #104 on the American Billboard Top 200 Albums chart and can be purchased online from the Nuclear Blast Webshop.
EPICA‘s Simone Simons (vocals), Mark Jansen (guitars/vocals) and Coen Janssen (keyboards) will be participating in the rock opera video game Karmaflow. Check out the introductory video clip below:
The band is asking the fans to support the project; pre-order for both the game and the soundtrack is available at Indiegogo.com.
Epica recently checked in with the following news:
“Our show at Graspop on June 30th marked the end of the Requiem For The Indifferent touring cycle. We would like to thank all our loyal fans who have, once again, carried Epica to the next level. Our world-tour promoting Requiem For The Indifferent has given us a ton of wonderful new memories. We played a lot of new places like Australia, China, Taiwan, Indonesia, Belarus and Dubai and welcomed new fans at every one of the 100+ shows of this world-tour. A new milestone for us was reached during Retrospect, the celebration of our 10th anniversary! We will never forget being on stage with this huge orchestra and choir in front of the 4,500 fans from all over the world.
“As you know we will take a step back from playing live shows for the upcoming months since Simone and Oliver and Coen and Linda are expecting children. During this period we will be finalizing our live CD, BluRay/DVD, Retrospect, which will be released in the autumn of this year. Besides that we are in the pre-production phase of the 6th Epica studio album which we will start to record at the end of this summer and which will be released in spring 2014. We can’t wait to share the Retrospect show and our new music with you all and we hope to see you on the road in 2014!!”
This week Wikimetal presents an interview with Epica’s Simone Simons, during which she talks about her career, the band’s last CD Requiem For The Indifferent, and their upcoming sixth album.
Simons also spoke about her main influences and her future plans to record a solo album.
THE ROCK ALCHEMIST – Italian Rock Band from Turin with a strong sonic identity that blends modern rock with progressive, hard, alternative, and pop elements!
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
