11.08.2024 Epica

M'era Luna

Hildesheim (Germany)

(Canon PowerShot G7 X Mark II)

I was somehow surprised. After Lord Of The Lost the field in front of the stage emptied at first but even when the first sounds of Epicas intro “Alpha Anteludium” could be heard it was still really manageable what had gathered to watch one of the biggest bands in symphonic metal. Who already had seen at least once the Dutchman live knows that there from show point of view very much is offered. This time the stage was dominated by big wheels at the sides that were turning from again and again and two gigantic snakes that even spit fog and fire from time to time. Apropos fire: Of that there is always plenty of present at Epica, so today although the temperatures were not asking for that explicitly.
Oh, and there was also something from musically. Mainly the men around front woman Simone Simons were going through the last two albums “Omega” and “The Quantum Enigma” and picked the catchier songs of them. As much as I like these albums, they are extremely going into the progressive direction with very complex tracks that are unfortunately not very suitable for such a festival and also would not lead to a great atmosphere. But so, the mood got better from song to song just as the crowd continuously grew. On and on the guys were fooling around on stage whilst they were playing, with keyboarder Coen Janssen leading the way. May it be mutual playing of their instruments, grimacing or wildly swirling around the mobile keyboard. A little bit less compared to the other concerts that I had seen from Epica the grunts of guitarist Mark Jansen were called into action which was more than compensated by the superior voice of Simons. Also, bass player Rob van der Loo and the second guitarist Isaac Delahaye were on and on encouraging the audience to clap their hands or participate in a different way. The set reached its climax shortly before the end when initially the more quite classic “Cry For The Moon” was intonated and as an ending all people in the audience were following along at the obligatory “Consign To Oblivion” of their 2003 debut album “The Phantom Agony”.
I found this performance very successful and the other viewers that were standing in front of the stage together with me seemed also to have been very pleased. In each case, the atmosphere had been superb. The choice of songs was OK from my point of view, but I would have liked if there was also something like e.g. “Quietus” of “Consign To Oblivion” or “Martyr Of The Free World” of “Design Your Universe” in the set. Overall, a quite low number of songs as on the last albums there have been more longer songs. Therefore, I am quite curious in which the upcoming album will develop, which will be released soon. In each case they are already heavily working on it whilst they are touring around. For the live shows my wish would be that there are again songs that are less progressive and also shorter because the last two or I would even say three albums are only very limited usable for this.

Setlist:

• Alpha Anteludium
• Abyss Of Time – Countdown To Singularity
• The Essence Of Silence
• Victims Of Contingency
• Unchain Utopia
• The Skeleton Key
• Code Of Life
• Cry For The Moon
• Beyond The Matrix
• Consign To Oblivion

Weblinks:

	Epica Website of the Dutch band Epica.
	M'era Luna Homepage of the German festival M'era Luna at Hildesheim.

Map:

Pictures: