15-05-2008 Epica

Supports: The Name; Venue: Bibelot, Dordrecht (Germany)
By: Elvira Visser

This evening was supposed to have taken place earlier, but Simone Simons from Epica got ill and they decided to postpone their performance to tonight. Sadly the planned support act had to cancel and theNAME is replacing them.

TheNAME is an upcoming band from The Netherlands and have played with many bands like Xandria and Krypteria. They have a rocky sound with clearly some influences from metal, for example when hearing the drums. On their website they say that they have some pop influences as well and those are very noticeable. It is also what I do not like about the band. Well, not really the pop influences because that gives the music a fresh sound, compared to other (gothic) female fronted bands. It is the sound of Hadassa’s (singer) voice. To me it sometimes sounds like Britney Spears in her early years. Personally I do not think this mixes well with metal music and sadly she was off key at many parts. Musically it is better, and that showed during their acoustic songs. Some good guitar work there, sadly she began to sing again. Their show is energetic and that kept me from walking away.

Finally it was time for Epica and the fans had waited a long time for this gig to take place. No wonder they got a big applause when entering the stage. It was also Epica’s first Dutch tour after their American tour and you could see that they looked forward to play here tonight. No wonder the venue was sold out. The intro was “Indigo” from their latest album “The Divine Conspiracy”. They played a varied set list and when playing the known songs the audience was cheering. Coen Janssen took the time to say that they were happy that Simone could join them on stage again, on which Simone replied that she had missed the band as well. This made the crowd cheer again and kept cheering until the end of the show. They played a couple of songs from their album “The Phantom Agony”, no wonder because the next day they had their fifthth anniversary of this album. From the start on this gig was quite metal, great to see the guys headbanging, hear Mark Jansen grunt and see Coen building his own party behind the keyboard. There was energy coming off the stage and made the audience get wild. Some guys in the middle of the crowd decided to build a pit. Although the surrounding people were not too happy about that, it proved people had a great time. As well as the many hands reaching up with the metal sign. Simone decided it was time for the ladies in the venue to make a little dance and shake their hips on “Fools of Damnation”. And she was not only asking, she danced herself, much after the guys liking. We could not leave with Mark introducing their new drummer Ariën van Weesenbeek (ex-God Dethroned, ex-Imperia)and ask for a drum solo. And he gave away one hell of a solo. Drumming on a double bass already makes it impressive but this guy kept on going and going. With a sold out venue Epica delivered a very good gig.