Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Location: Ljubljana / Cvetličarna MediaPark / Slovenia
Concert date: 03/31/2011
Attendance: 400
Ticket price: €25.00
On the last day of March this year, Slovenian metal promoter Sindian Underground wrapped up a rich run of metal gigs, stretching from the end of September last year all the way to April this year at Ljubljana’s Cvetličarna, by inviting Dutch symphonic power metal outfit Epica over.
The band, who were also getting their first-ever chance to play in Slovenia, showed up as a sextet with the current lineup: Simone Simons (vocals), Mark Jansen (guitar, vocals), Isaac Delahaye (guitar, backing vocals), Yves Huts (bass), Coen Janssen (keyboards) and Ariën van Weesenbeek (drums). Epica are hugely popular with fans of heavy music these days! The band enjoys incredible support around the world, which has thrown the doors wide open for a full-on promotion of their latest studio album “Design Your Universe” (2009), which they’ve been pushing on stages around the globe for a year and a half without a break. The Slovenian date is part of the second leg of the European tour. The first leg happened last spring, when the band came closest to the Slovenian border with a show near Treviso, Italy.
The gig also made room for some much-needed promotion of local bands, whose main link to Epica is that they’re fronted by female vocals. The first support act on stage was local band Aperion, whom the RockLine crew unfortunately had to overlook and miss this time, since we were doing an interview with Epica guitarist Mark Jansen during their set. Aperion are one of the few bands in Slovenia that can boast a clearly defined vision and goals. This year, after long polishing, which is just proof of the band’s perfectionism, they finally released their excellent studio debut “Art Of Hybris” in German-speaking countries too, which means Aperion are seriously knocking on the door of the international scene.
The second band to warm up the crowd, Maribor’s Infidia, made good use of the time they had to promote their studio debut “Reflections” (2009). They’re one of the few bands, if not the only one, in Slovenia that cultivates that typical, predictable symphonic gothic power metal character, and you don’t exactly bump into them on every corner of the Slovenian gig scene. That’s why it mattered all the more that they got to add the role of Epica’s support act to their résumé, since it strengthens their image, pedigree and character, which we hope foreign labels in particular will notice in the future. The band closed a compact, nice and polished set with solid sound with a fun Spice Girls cover, Viva Forever.
The main guests of the night were greeted by a smaller turnout this time. There were about 350 people in the hall, packed tight against the stage, of course. In other words, the most hot-blooded and diehard Epica fans. The Dutch weren’t bothered, discouraged or thrown off by the weaker attendance. After the intro heralding the album “Design Your Universe”, they hit hard with the catchy, punchy Resign To Surrender and set about teasing the hall and getting everyone jumping.
The band is superbly tight. No slip-ups, and they play with cocky confidence. Isaac Delahaye’s arrival has freshened up the crew, especially thanks to the new character of the soloing and the shaping of the guitar transitions and ornaments. Epica, famed as a hugely bold culmination of symphonic-orchestral rhetoric infused with the fury of thrashing metal “shredding”, proved on stage that they have the full pedigree of one of the most prominent acts shaping the very top of this branch of metal in the world right now. They had a rough stretch for a while, since Simone was in mortal danger from a severe illness caused by a multidrug-resistant strain, but she happily slipped out of death’s claws. A superb mezzo-soprano, she took the stage with exceptional charisma and a compact, confident performance. The combination of Mark’s growls and Simone’s angelic singing is one of Epica’s trademarks, and in the band’s stage theater it didn’t let us down this time either.
For all the orthodox energy of the band’s stage presence, the excellent playing and a generally tight performance that won the crowd over instantly, one thing stuck out a bit: a sense of routine, and the feeling that the band was a touch reserved and had basically come to Ljubljana just for the promised paycheck.
Remark aside, in an hour and 25 minutes Epica more than delighted their loyal followers with a vivid selection spanning a cross-section of five studio releases. They took the show to its peak right at the start, when they surprised everyone with Sensorium from the studio debut “The Phantom Agony” (2003).
photos: Aleš Podbrežnik
Setlist
EPICA: 1. Samadhi 2. Resign to Surrender 3. Sensorium 4. Quietus 5. Unleashed 6. Martyr of the Free Word 7. The Obsessive Devotion 8. The Imperial March (cover) 9. Tides of Time 10. Blank Infinity 11. Seif al Din 12. Consign to Oblivion —encore— 13. Sancta Terra 14. Cry for the Moon 15. The Phantom Agony INFIDIA: 1. Intro 2. Heart Of Stone 3. One Step From Hell 4. Salvation 5. Soulburn 6. 13 7. Vision 8. Viva Forever APERION: 1. The Concept 2. Light 3. U 4. Maya 5. Shine 6. Hotmk 7. Black Flies 8. Outro – Sadame
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