PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Tonight was to be a special show from Epica – the launch party for their new album, The Quantum Enigma. As with their other album launch gigs and special shows, this saw fans travelling from all over the world.
Support came from Finnish band, Insomnium, a band who have toured with Epica in the past. They’re a melodic death metal band, and like Epica, have a new album, so unsurprisingly tonight’s set was based around the new album. By the time they came on stage the venue was pretty much full so they had a large crowd to play to, and they took the opportunity to put in a very impressive performance that really went down very well with the fans. A great start to the night.
Insomnium setlist:
The Primeval Dark
While We Sleep
Revelation
Through the Shadows
Down With the Sun
Ephemeral
Unsung
The Promethean Song
Epica came on stage and showed right from the start that although this may have been the first gig they’ve played in over six months, they were out to impress, and they certainly did both visually and musically. Towering jets of flames in the first song seared the eyeballs of fans anywhere near the stage, and that was just the start of the pyrotechnics – we also got explosions, jets of sparks and more flames – lots of flames.
You’d never know from watching the band on stage that they hadn’t played a gig in months – they were so well rehearsed that things were absolutely perfect all the way through with not a note out of place.
The new songs in particular were sounding superb live, and the new approach the band took in the recording process clearly paid off (check out our interview with Mark Jansen to see what I mean – http://planetmosh.com/mark-jansen-epica-mayan-interview-april-2014/ ).
Tonight’s set was to contain the entire new album as well as some old favourites, and while they kicked off playing the new album in order, they chose not to do the obvious approach of playing the entire album and then doing the old songs, but instead slotted some of the older songs in between the new material.
For the final song before the encore, Daniel de Jongh from Textures joined the band on stage.
Watching the band on stage what struck me (apart from how polished their performances were) was just how much fun the band members all looked to be having. The band members were all laughing and joking with each other and the big smiles showed how much fun they were having – this is a band that is clearly happiest on stage.
An absolutely superb performance and one that made the trip from the UK totally worthwhile.
Epica Setlist:
Originem
The Second Stone
The Essence of Silence
Victims of Contingency
Sense Without Sanity – The Impervious Code –
Unchain Utopia
The Obsessive Devotion
Blank Infinity
Unleashed
Storm the Sorrow
The Fifth Guardian – Interlude –
Chemical Insomnia
Reverence – Living in the Heart –
Omen – The Ghoulish Malady
Canvas of Life
Natural Corruption
Kingdom of Heaven
The Quantum Enigma – Kingdom of Heaven part II
Encore:
Cry for the Moon
