Acts: Epica (support: Celtica Pipes Rock)
Date: Saturday, 13 July 2024
Location: Opatija / Ljetna pozornica / Croatia
This year is getting more and more insane when it comes to clashing concert events. One of the July Saturdays — specifically the one that was almost Friday the 13th, 13 July 2024 — served up yet another such dilemma. Bruce Dickinson in Zagreb (RockLine concert review HERE), Epica in Opatija. Same day. Can it get any worse than that? An older gentleman whose home sits roughly 40 minutes by car from the Croatian Kvarner (30 of those minutes eaten up by the thrilling, adrenaline-fuelled rollercoaster that is the Ilirska Bistrica regional road) goes for the less energy-intensive of the two — the easier option. It comes with age. Trust me.
Epica in Opatija in mid-July. A rare live appearance from this supremely talented and respected Dutch symphonic metal outfit — one that had spent the first half of the year playing just a handful of shows across the Atlantic, and in May had played their first and only European date of the year (in the Netherlands) before heading to Opatija. So this visit could easily be read as something of a ‘mini exclusive’, which…
…the band’s fans were not about to pass up. Once again, the late afternoon hours in town brought a solid crop of black-clad figures slowly gravitating toward the Ljetna pozornica venue. That said, the pre-show frenzy was nowhere near what it had been two years ago, when fans of cranked-up distortion flooded this little resort town in full blitzkrieg fashion. That was before the Sabaton show (RockLine concert review HERE).
The event gained extra appeal from the choice of support act! Ireland’s Celtica Pipes Rock are no novices on the scene. They’ve got a handful of albums under their belt and deal in their own brand of folk metal built heavily around bagpipes — which blazing, energetic guitar work and cannon-fire drumming throw into sharp sonic contrast. The mix of Celtic musical tradition, symphonic elements, a whiff of Gothic atmosphere, and full-throttle metal foundations delivered an overflowing dose of raw energy to the venue, and through their infectious musicality and rhythmic punch, won the crowd over immediately. The quartet needs no bassist. To date they’ve released five studio albums (most recently “Celtic Spirits” in 2021) and two live albums. On top of flawless execution and tight interplay, both pipers fired up the crowd with a slew of dance steps and spins — the kind that go hand in hand with music cut in the traditional Celtic mold! Celtica Pipes Rock proved in their time-limited slot that this is a world-class live outfit that absolutely needs to be caught on one of their own headline shows. A band that metalheads and their grandmothers will both happily listen to without a second thought.
Epica took the stage at half past nine in the evening! Around 1,500 people were waiting for them — a solid number given the time of year and the many events competing for attention at the same time. The die-hards made their devotion clear right from the off, as the stage — an imposing structure dominated by two giant cobra statues with glowing eyes — was bathed in blue while the taped intro played.
In just under two hours the sextet delivered exactly what’s expected of them — what they’re famous for. An energetic, fiery, powerful performance of razor-sharp tightness, precision, and sound. Their unique brand of symphonic metal, musically loaded with bombast and epic grandeur on one side, moments of brutal excess and Gothic theatricality on the other — all of it balancing into a light-and-dark original. Through a perfectly crafted setlist that touched on every corner of the band’s journey across more than two decades of work.
Theatre they have in abundance. All eyes were first and foremost on the phenomenal soprano Simone Simons, without whom Epica would simply be unthinkable. She topped an already brilliant mood with a stunning performance, vivid addresses to the crowd between songs, and remarkable stage mobility — roaming across different sections of the stage throughout the show and constantly ‘visiting’ her bandmates. The crowd-stoking with no end in sight is also very much the domain of keyboardist Coen Janssen. When he’s not behind his keyboards on the massive platform at the back of the stage — mounted on wheels, so Coen occasionally rolls around on them like a six-year-old in a shopping trolley — he grabs his keytar, slings it over his shoulder with its iconic curved shape, and heads down to the front of the stage to fan the theatrical flames himself. The cherry on top is the enormous projection screen at the back and the pyrotechnic salvos that don’t let up until the very end.
In a sense, Epica managed fairly early on to stake out and fill that corner of the genre niche that Nightwish drifted away from with their later albums — especially after Tarja’s departure. Unlike their genre peers, who tend toward increasingly complex arrangements these days, Epica still hit decidedly harder expressive notes, keeping more directness and punch in their sound. Two guitars lay the foundation for that, as does the constant interplay between the operatic (female) vocal and the growling of rhythm guitarist and bandleader Mark Jansen. That gives the band a darker edge, even as the arrangements of their anthemic chorus hooks more often than not go for the pompous and the epic!
Before you could even turn around, the band was already bearing down on the final crescendo of this excellent concert spectacle. Cry for the Moon from the debut “The Phantom Agony” (2003)! The crowd erupts again! A great chunk of the audience knows every word, breathing as one with the band. The feeling is genuinely beautiful and emotionally charged! Then the superb Beyond the Matrix, from the band’s more recent era, and finally the grand finale with the — quietly anticipated — title track from the second studio album “Consign to Oblivion” (2005), which sends the crowd absolutely wild, pushing them to their absolute peak right at the close of this truly bombastic show, packed with high-octane, blazing stage-and-performance energy. From first to last second, Epica once again proved themselves an impenetrable live fortress that always delivers its very best — and remains one of the essential names in their genre.
Author: Edita Klemen & Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik & Edita Klemen
Epica setlist:
1. Alpha – Anteludium (taped intro)
2. Abyss of Time – Countdown to Singularity
3. The Essence of Silence
4. Sensorium
5. Unleashed
6. Victims of Contingency
7. The Final Lullaby
8. Storm the Sorrow
9. The Obsessive Devotion
10. The Skeleton Key
11. Code of Life
12. Unchain Utopia
13. Cry for the Moon
14. Beyond the Matrix
15. Consign to Oblivion
