LIVE REVIEW: Epica @ The Ritz, Manchester

EPICA have been a shining light in symphonic metal for a decade and a half now, and on this current UK tour in support of 2016’s The Holographic Principle and last year’s EP The Solace System, they bring along two of the current metal landscape’s most unique bands on a bill that seems even if unintentionally like it’s celebrating some of the strongest female figures in the genre.

OCEANS OF SLUMBER are a particularly interesting proposition. The introduction of vocalist Cammie Gilbert on their 2016 album Winter brought them a degree of critical acclaim and more importantly gave them a sound and identity that was wholly theirs. Last month, they released its follow-up The Banished Heart, and their short set tonight draws entirely from that record. They have every reason to be proud of such a labyrinthine record, but on the flipside, its increasingly dense and challenging structures makes it hard for these songs to immediately impact on an audience who aren’t familiar with them, and it’s a shame that songs like Winter’s Suffer the Last Bridge which are far more suited to the job don’t get a look-in. Cammie possesses an immensely soulful voice that is almost peerless in the metal sphere, but she has yet to truly step into her own as a performer, sometimes being lost amongst the cacophony of her band where on record she triumphantly soars through the same passages. When the music allows her to breathe though such as on closer No Color, No Light, she is breathtaking, and throughout the band are legitimately thunderous causing the room to shake as they’re shrouded in oppressive lighting. Their full potential as a live band is yet to be tapped, but OCEANS OF SLUMBER are still too damn talented to be anything but one of metal’s most exciting new names.

Rating: 7/10

MYRKUR on the other hand are a band for whom the reverse is true, having produced a pair of records that are indeed very good but are far exceeded by what they’re capable of in the live environment when on form. Last year’s Damnation slot might have been a comparatively flat showing, but tonight Amalie Brunn and her band are in simultaneously acerbic and alluring shape. The throbbing pulse of The Serpent is a suitably ritualistic opener, Brunn emerging in a long white flowing dress that paints her as a ghostly figure against the black hooded silhouettes of her bandmates. The mood is both entrancing and deeply threatening. It’s the textures created though that are especially beautiful, the fusion of Brunn’s ethereal voice that seems to provide a whole choir’s worth of depth with the glacial tremolo guitars. This may be black metal, but it feels out of time, as if this music has always existed on some primal, otherworldly level. Onde Børn, arguably the standout song from MYRKUR’s debut album M, sees this fusion executed seemingly effortlessly, and Elleskudt is an incredible show of vocal range. It’s not until twenty minutes into the set that Brunn offers a visceral black metal scream, and the wave of shock and awe it sends through the crowd is palpable. The ensuing Måneblôt is absolutely bloodcurdling, the intensity of the band coming to a head. MYRKUR’s definitive artistic statement is ahead of them, and they’ve undoubtedly won over some new fans tonight who will be there to greet it.

Rating: 8/10

EPICA though are just a band who want to put on a show and for their audience to have fun watching it. Their lyrics may deal with very elaborate and heavy topics like philosophy, entropy and quantum physics – something which they themselves poke fun at tonight at one point – but live it’s all about the joys of heavy metal. And as they open with the buoyant and explosive Edge of the Blade before segueing into the eternally wonderful Sensorium from their 2003 debut The Phantom Agony, it’s something at which they excel. EPICA’s music has always had a tad more bite than most of their symphonic metal peers, drawing more from progressive and melodic death metal than traditional power metal. Mark Jansen’s growls against the tidal wave of crunching guitars that make up the likes of The Essence of Silence is enough to send DELAIN or AMBERIAN DAWN running for cover. It’s something that makes Simone Simons’ vocal lines pop with even more gravitas, her frankly stunning voice able to turn operatic melodies into snappy pop hooks, perfectly encapsulated in songs like Unchain Utopia. The real showman in EPICA though is keyboardist Coen Janssen, a man who delights in doing all kinds of flying leaps and kicks while he’s not bogged down by a particularly technical part, and whose keyboard is set on wheels allowing him to speed around the stage as he pleases.

Things do sag a little in the middle, the eleven minute The Holographic Principle – A Profound Understanding of Reality really feeling its length and then being followed up by further new album deep cuts that don’t quite recapture the energy while recent smashes like Universal Death Squad or Victims of Contingency are conspicuous in their absence. A stunning rendition of Cry for the Moon picks things up superbly though, its refrain carrying so much drama and lending itself perfectly to crowd interaction which EPICA happily capitalise on. Beyond the Matrix in the encore actually brings out something you wouldn’t necessarily associate with a symphonic metal show, that being bounce. They leave having not necessarily played the show of their careers, but leaving their fans more than sated until next time.

Rating: 8/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Manchester from Sabrina Ramdoyal Photography here: